Evan Hunter's Round The World Diary

Thursday, June 09, 2005

The Bald Hills

After breakfast this morning, I packed some gear for a day hike up into the bald hils, including my new mountaineering axe.
I walked up the road a short way, trying to find a good spot to hitch from, or to flag the bus. I soon found that most of the very light traffic was going to the lake, as expected. Unfortunately, most of it was elderly retirees, or RV's (motorhomes), both of which rarely pick up hitchikers. There were also quite a few two seater pickups, which were full, so wouldn't be picking me up.
After about 1 hour, two young women from the Netherlands who were going to university in Canada stopped. On the way, we saw a black bear in a clearing. Medicine lake was quite pretty, and was about 5m from full at this time of year. (Because of it's underground drainage, and snowmelt inflow, it fills in summer, and empties in winter).
When we arrived at Maligne (prounounced Mah-leen) lake, I set off up the road for the Bald Hills trailhead. Crossing the Maligne river, the views of the lake were very pretty. There were many big fish swimming below the bridge.
The trail is an old fire road. I followed it up the gently sloping grade through the forest. After a while, I came to a shortcut foot track, which I took. It led virtually straight up the hill, so was shorter, but steeper, and covered in tree roots.
After about 1 hour, I reached the horse hitching post. From here, I walked a short way over to the closest hill on a foot track. As I neared the hill, I could see there was a patch of snow on the steep closest face. I climbed up this on steps already formed in the snow, and walked across to the far side of the wide ridgeline. The view to the northwest was excellent. A river valley, with the river far below me, and jagged snowcapped mountains surrounding it. I ate lunch here, and then decided to explore the ridgeline a little more, to get a full 360 degree view. After walking two hills along the range, I found a summit with views of Maligne Lake, and the awesome mountains in every direction. From there, I had a good view of a jagged looking peak which was joined to the south end of the Bald Hills. It looked fairly easy to reach the summit, by scrambling up a scree slope, and over some boulders. I decided to have a go at climbing it, but only had 30-45 minutes to reach the top if I wanted to be back before 4:30 or 5:00.

To reach the peak, I had to walk around the top of a curving cirque/ridge/saddle. The ground was just shale gravel, and dird, with only a few lichens. As I was running short on time, I jogged the parts that were downhill or flat. I was working hard, climbing the scree, partly due to the altitude ~2500m. Then I came to the boulders, which were fairly easy to clambor over. The last 10m were the hardest, as they were the steepest, and there was a patch of deep soft snow which was very hard to climb up, where my mountaineering axe came in handy.
The views from the summit were not a lot different to the Bald Hill I'd been at, but I was quite a bit higher. The summit was over 2600m - 1km above the lake.
It was 2:45, so I had to hurry if I wanted to be back before 4:30 or 5:00.
Going back down was a fair bit faster. Again I jogged where it was safe and easy. To try to save time, I tried to bypass the summits of the bald hills on the way back, but it may not have been any faster, as I was often contouring across steep slopes, or crossing snow. There were more meadows on the lake side of the hills as well, so I had to try to avoid stepping on plants too much. I jogged here as well when possible (and when I was feeling up to it - I was getting tired).
Eventually I reached the top of the track again, and started down it. There were few places I could go fast on the shortcut track since it was steep and rooty. Soon I reached the fire road, where I was able to jog a bit till I was too tired. Near the trail end, I passed some others, then met the two Dutch girls who'd given me a lift. They were going to do another walk - to some small lakes.
I walked back to the carpark, arriving at 4:40, and found that the last shuttle bus leftat 5:00, so I got a ticket, as the traffic was light for hitching, and there weren't many cars left in the parking lots.
On the way back to the hostel, we saw what looked like a grizzly bear, then just a minute later, a black bear just 4m from the road edge.

Arriving back at the hostel, I found there was a young Japanese woman staying there. Just after arriving, a traffic jam formed out the front of the hostel where a coyote was walking by. Two more people turned up later, since the main Jasper hostel was full.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Skyline Trail Day - Maligne Lake to Snowbowl

The weather didn't look promising this morning for hiking. I packed, organising my gear for hiking, then, after breakfast, I got a ride into town with a young woman who was staying at the hostel. I booked two nights on the Skyline trail, then bought some food, after an early lunch.
I got on the 12:30 shuttle to Maligne Lake ($14), whic was filled with retiree's, and a few japanese tourists. The bus driver and the information centre officer said I was the first one to attempt the trail this season, and that "The Notch" may be snowbound.
We saw another black bear on the way, and at the lake, I packed the food I{d bought, and filled my water bladder.
The track started fairly flat, in the forest. Very soon it passed two small lakes, which were quite picturesque.
Staying in forest fo quite some time, I reached Evyln Creek campground. It was next to the cree, and was damp and muddy, with no views as it was still in the trees.
The climb started in earnest after this, but was not too bad due to many switchbacks. After a while, I came to the Little Shovel campground, which was similar to the previous one, but on a steep creek.
Finally I reached the treeline, and had some views of the hills to the south, including the Bald Hills. Still climbing, I started passing the first alpine flowers, then I came to the first snow bank. Here I put on my gaiters and got out my axe.
There were several snow patches on the track as I traversed the flower spangled Little Shovel Pass. The snow was quite soft, and on one patch, my foot got trapped in the deep snow, and took quite some effort to free it.
On the north side of the pass, there was a steep riverbank. Near here, I saw some "Watermellon Snow" (quite red & it causes illness) which the parks officer had told me about.
After the river, the pass opened onto a big valley covered partly in meadow, and partly in trees. Rocky and snowy mountains surrounded the valley - "The Snowbowl". It was very pretty.
A short time later, I came to a grove of trees where the campground was. It was pretty muddy, as it had been sprinkling rain on and off all day.
The views over the valley from the cooking/eating tables were very picturesque. I've discovered however that cooking dinner in the rain or even where it is wet in Canada is not much fun, as you don't have the option of cooking or eating in your tent (because of bears you need to do it at least 100m away). I'm not sure what you would do in a torrential downpour, or in a blizzard. It wouldn't be fun.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Skyline Trail Day 2 - Snowbowl to Lake Tekarra

It was sprinkling rain when I woke, but had stopped by the time I had breakfast. I packed and started walking.
As I came out of the trees surrounding the campsite, I gained a view of the whole of the Snowbowl, which I hadn't seen before. It was a huge alpine meadow, speckled with flowers, and ringed by snowy peaks. On the far side was Big Shovel pass, wher I had to get to.
I crossed several creeks, and small snow banks as I crossed the meadow. The track on this section, between the Big and Little Shovel passes was soft dirt, which appeared to have been ploughed - from the ice expanding in the dirt below the surface. There were also many drain pipes washed out by the spring melt.
The sun was peeking through patches of blue sky above, but I could see bad weather everywhere else.
Climbing up to Big Shovel Pass, there was a large snowbank over the braided trail. I walked on the snow for several hundred metres before the trail reappeared on the other end, near the summit of the pass. Near the summit of the pass, I saw a Porcupine - it looked rather rediculous as it waddled away from me into some low bushes, with a skirt of big quills sticking up from its rear. As I crested the pass, I saw "The Notch" for the first time, and the barren scree covered valley between the Big Shovel pass, and it.
I followed the trail, as it contoured around the valley, below the ridge, and soon came to the turnoff for the "Watchtower Col". I dropped my pack and walked the short distance up to the Col. The view from there was spectacular, with several peaks topped with rocky towers, and snow, flanking the Watchtower Valley. I didn't spend very long at the Col as it was windy and cold.
Returning to the trail, I soon came to the Curator Valley Turnoff, which was right at the base of the climb to "The Notch".
I could see that there was a big cornice hanging off the lip of the Notch, but that if I was to stay high to the right, I wouldn't have to cross too much snow, and I would avoid going in the danger area under the cornice. There were some marmots wandering around some boulders below Curator Lake, two of which were wrestling rather comically.
Curator Lake was about 1/3 frozen over. The track became steep as it ascended to the Notch. Soon I came to the snow bank. I started kicking steps diagonally up the slope. It was slow going, as the snow was also fairly hard, requiring several kicks to create a decent step. I used my mountaineering axe for support and safety. At one point I found that I was about 10m above where there was a small snowfree section of trail, and I had to traverse a little loose scree, which was actually more difficult than the snow slope. I appeared to be the first person to have gone over the notch, (at least for a while), but I could see two sets of animal tracks in the snow that had been there before me.
On the way up to the Notch, the dark clouds, which had been surrounding my patch of blue sky, finally gained the upper hand, and moved in, obscuring the top of a nearby mountain, and whilst I was climbing to the snowfield on the Notch, it started snowing/hailing tiny ice particles.
Nearing the summit of the pass, I angled more toward the centre, as the side was very steep now. Finally I reached the top of the Notch, and was back on rocky scree. The views were excellent, but the book I had suggested that the views from the ridge on the north side of the notch were even better. I climbed up the short distance to the ridgeline, and was overwhelmed by the awesome panoramic view. Snow capped mountains, jagged and rocky were everywhere. I could see Mt Edith Cavel, covered by glaciers, but it and a few other of the tallest mountains had their summits hidden by the clouds.
I ate my lunch on the ridge, and although it was cold from the wind, it was not raining or snowing, anbd the skies had cleared a bit overhead.
The ridge connected to the summit of a mountain not far away, and I decided to climb up to it, which just involved walking over rocky scree.
Returning to the main track, I followed it along a desolate ridge, covered in very fine scree, for quite some way. I could see the Icefields Parkway road far, far below, and the valley of the five lakes. The track passed over several snowbanks, as it swapped to the right hand side of the ridge. Ahead, I could see Mount Tekarra, a huge vertical sided rocky pillar, and, zig-zagging down into the valley below, the trail.
Descending into the valley, alpine plants reappeared, and there were several sections with fairly large snowbanks on the track. At one of these snowbanks, I at first missed where the track was, as I thought there was a switchback,. where the track in fact went straight.
Eventually, I reached the valley floor, where the track followed the creek, and crossed it several times. The snow was mostly gone down in the valley floor. As I reached the valley floor, however, the rain started again. This time it was fairly hard, and didn't let up after a few minutes. After walking for quite a while in the rain, and getting a bit wet, I eventually came to Tekarra Lake, but the campsite was another 1km on, at the lake outlet, in the thicker forest. Mount Tekarra had dissappeared in the rain cloud.
Finally I reached Lake Tekarra Campsite. It was still raining as I set up my tent, but easing. By the time I took my food down to the cooking area, it had virtually stopped, and during dinner, the sun even came out briefly. I couldn't really sit down for dinner though, as everything was covered in water, and the ground was quite muddy.
As I was going to sleep after hanging my food, I thought it sounded like it was snowing on my tent.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Skyline Trail Day 3 - Lake Tekarra to Jasper

Getting up this morning, I found that it had indeed snowed a little during the night - no wonder it felt pretty cold. Higher up, it appeared to have snowed quite a lot, although as I was inside the couds, there was virtually no views. I briefly saw the resplendant Colin Range, with sheer rock faces highlighted by the fresh snow.
After breakfast, and packing, I set off into the cloud. I crossed the creek again, then started climbing/contouring the ridge on the far side. The track wound around the contours of the ridge, through alpine herb fields, with visibility of only a couple of hundred metres. After following the track for a bit over an, crossing several small snow fields, I arrived at the end of the real Skyline trail - the Signal Mountain Fire road. I sat down for a short break, wondering if I should walk to the former site of the fire lookout tower, 1km away, but decided against it, as I still couldn't see anything in the distance due to the cloud.
I started walking down the fire road. It went 8.5km through thick forest to Maligne Canyon, and was known for it's bears, so I made sure to call out, whistle, and ring my bear bell. About halfway down, I was calling out to bears, and got a response - some mountain bikers coming up the road. It was a pretty boring 2 hour walk down the road to the trailhead.
Finally reaching the trailhead, I chatted to a Newfoundlander there, whilst I cleaned up, and re-arranged my gear so I could hitch back to town. I figured it would probably be better for hitching near the Maligne Canyon carpark, so walked the 800m there.
I soon found that the traffic was not good for hitching - as it was still early in the day, most traffic was heading to the lake, so the traffic in the direction I wanted was extremely light, and was often RV's or old folks or full two seater pickups.
After about 45 minutes of trying, I decided to go to the shop/resaurant at Maligne Canyon and ask about busses, and eat some lunch. They didn't sell tickets for the shuttle bus, and there were no other busses. The restaurant pricese were pretty steep, so I had my hiking lunch. I then decided to start walking back to town whilst trying to hitch. To my surprise, I only got about 300m down the road before two young canadian guys stopped. They dropped me off at the highway, as they were going east, and Jasper was west.
I though about hitching again, but decided to walk, so I crossed the highway and found a path in the trees, between the highway and the railway.
It took about an hour to walk into town, where I went to the information office, and gave them a trail report. Then I collected my surplus gear, got some food, used the internet, and bought some groceries.
At 6:15, I caught the last shuttle bus to the hostel, where I checked in for two nights.
I met a woman who was cycling solo across Canada whilst I was attempting to do my laundry (check in was so slow that I couldn't buy powder). After this, I went to bed fairly early.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Jasper

Today, I had a fairly leisurly breakfast, then cleaned my gear and did my laundry, as I had nothing clean to wear.
I caught the shuttle bus into town in mid morning where I used the internet, burned my photos to CD, bought groceries and some lunch.
I spent the rest of the afternoon using the net again, finding out about getting to Mount Robson, eating, wandering around town, and writing my diary.
The weather alternated between sprinkling rain, overcast, and cloudy with some sun. It was quite cold due to the weather system that had dumped the snow yesterday.
I had been thinking of seeing a movie, but the location of the Jasper hostel pretty much forces you to stay in at night, unless you are prepared to walk 8km (partly uphill),or pay $15 for a cab - neither of which I felt like doing.
Late in the day, I realised that my diary was missing. I figured I'd left it at the internet cafe where I'd been transfering it to my website. Unfortunately the internet place was now closed.
I went back to the hostel on the last shuttle bus (6:15), cooked dinner, and had another fairly early night

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