FORBIDDEN PLATEAU – KWAI LAKE

This adventure was a bit spontaneous. My husband sent me a link to an article about Kwai Lake, and the pictures were so stunning that I knew we needed to go there. One week later we (my husband, 9-year-old twins, and I) were on our way to Kwai Lake through some of the most stunning scenery I have ever had the privilege of hiking through.

Kwai Lake is one of many lakes on Forbidden Plateau in Strathcona Park. There are few different trailheads, but we started from the Paradise Meadows Trailhead, which is located at the parking lot of the Mount Washington Nordic ski area.

There are multiple trails in this area with varying degrees of difficulty, but the trail to Kwai lake is NOT for the faint of heart. The trail is a loop that goes through sub-alpine forest and meadows. The map suggests that it is a 7.5 km (4.7 mile) trail, but we accidentally added the Paradise Meadows Loop to our journey—which was stunning and well worth it, but it did add about another 2 kms (1.2 miles) onto our hike (not a small thing when you’ve got heavy packs on).

Forbidden Plateau is magnificent in it’s beauty, and I feel at a loss to describe it. I just kept stopping to take it all in.

The trail, in many places, runs alongside lakes with water that is glassy in its stillness—just inviting you to swim (some of the lakes you can swim in, and some of them you can’t. Kwai Lake is one of the ones you can’t), but it was cold, so there was zero swimming for me!

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Other sections of the trail meandered through sub-alpine forest, meadow, and marshes (luckily there are boardwalks over the marshy areas). I felt like I’d been immersed in Mother Nature’s finest work.

And then we arrived at Kwai Lake—my mind was blown! And the crazy thing is that another hiker told me that Circlet Lake, which is several kilometres further along, is evening more magnificent.

One of the things that really struck me on the hike was the silence. We do most of our backpacking and hiking by the ocean, where the surf ensures that there is never silence. I LOVE the sound of moving water, but this silence was refreshing. And besides, there were plenty of streams and rain to provide me with the sound of water I crave!

Oh yes the rain!

And so we come to the less than happy part of our trip. The weather was almost perfect for our hike in—sunny, but not too hot—but as evening drew near, the sky clouded over and the temperature dropped significantly.

During the night, it started to rain, and when I climbed out of my tent in the morning, we were completely enshrouded in mist. The icefields normally visible across Kwai Lake were completely obliterated by the fog. It rained for that entire day, and the air was frigid. I will admit that the combination of the cold and the damp was pretty miserable.

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But my kids are troopers, and we put on our rain gear and played a modified version of hide-and-seek (one that is both friendly to the environment and low on risk of someone getting lost—we were in the backcountry). And then, they played in the tent for a few hours with nothing more than some paper and a pencil. When the rain slackened in the afternoon, we ventured out and played some backpacking bocce.

In the evening it started to warm up, and then the mosquitoes were back.

Did I mention the mosquitoes?

They were relentless. They were just little, and they weren’t really biting, but they constantly swarmed around our heads! Being from Victoria, where we really don’t have many mosquitoes—and the ones we do have are pretty slow and dopey—it was a little hard to get used to.

I had such an amazing time on this adventure that I’m already planning my next visit—although I am going to dig out the mosquito netting we were given as wedding gift thirteen years ago and have never had the occasion to use.

Romance Novel Inspiration

And, of course, there is the little matter of what this trip has inspired in my writing. Sitting under a tarp, swatting mosquitoes, I outlined an upcoming book that is tentatively called Nurturing Natalie. It’s going to be one of the first books in my new series: West Coast Romance Exes. The story isn’t going to take place at Kwai Lake or even on Forbidden Plateau, but the beauty inspired my outlining.

So where will you find this amazing place? If you’ve read Saving Shelby, then you’ve met Jade. She will appear in a few other stories too, but she is also getting her own story (West Coast Romance Book 5, I believe), and I had the inspiration for the Meet Cute while on this hike. Jade’s story is definitely going to begin on Forbidden Plateau!

Just to make everything more perfect. I had my own Night in Shining Armour romantic moment on this adventure. On our hike back, we got separated as a family, and one twin and I ended up on the significantly longer trail. When my husband, who was supposed to be behind us on the trail, arrived at the parking lot, and we weren’t there, he came back at a run to rescue us 😍.

We were fine and not in need of rescue, but it was still over the top romantic—sigh!

Before I sign off, I would just like to offer this fun fact, for anyone who was wondering: plateau does NOT mean flat—it just means that it’s flatter than the surrounding mountains!!! Imagine my surprise when we hit the first hill 🤣.

Have fun, stay safe, wander at will, and keep your sense of humour!

This adventure took place 10-12 July 2020