Fire and rain in the Canadian Rockies.
I would like to acknowledge that this hike past through the ancestral and traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples. The Blackfoot Confederacy, Tsuut’ina, Stoney (Ĩyãħé) Nakoda, Cree, Ktunaxa, and Métis who have called the Rocky Mountains home since time immemorial. I acknowledge the many Indigenous Peoples in Canada whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations and I am grateful to be a visitor in these lands.
In the winter of 2023/24 Micah and I talked and decided that the only way to ensure we hiked together during the summer of 2024 was to plan and book a trip. Making a commitment to hike together. I found a trail description and watched some videos on a long hike in Jasper that sounded interesting, the Jasper South Boundary Trail. I sent the pdf of the trail description to Micah along with a couple of other options. Micah chose the Jasper South Boundary Trail (JSBT) pointing out the highlighted passage below.
I extended the trip by bypassing the typical ending at Nigel pass to continue down the Great Divide Trail over Cataract Pass, then over Pinto and Owen Passes ending at the Owen Creek Trailhead on Hwy 11. A huge challenge in completing the JSBT is the logistics. The trail used to start up at Maligne Lake and then essentially follow the boundary of Jasper National Park first down the east side then along the south side ending at ending at Nigel Creek Trailhead. A bridge on the northern end of the trail shortly after leaving Maligne Lake was destroyed many years ago and Parks Canada has declined to replace it making it necessary to find a new access on the northern end. Now the JSBT is accessed over Cardinal Pass (Rocky Pass) which is accessible via Forestry Trunk 742 which is hours from anywhere.
The hike is a point to point. It is about a 3 hour drive from one trailhead to the other. I really did not want to hike for 11 days and then have to drive for 3 hours back to the beginning to get the car just to retrace our drive to get back to where we had been to then start the drive home. I watched the youtube video by “JJ in the Mountains” on his hike on the JSBT and I learned that they booked a shuttle from Sundog Tours of Jasper. I contacted Sundog in February and booked a shuttle for six from our ending point at Owen Creek Trailhead on Hwy 11 up to our starting point at Cardinal Pass (Rocky Pass).
One of the best resources to get started is the guide produced by Parks Canada.
Since navigation was suppose to be challenging on the JSBT I purchased a Garmin Etrex SE as a back up to the Gaia app on my phone. The Etrex SE is a GPS only device and much more rugged than a phone and operated by buttons meaning it works if you are wearing gloves or in the rain.
I also learned how to locate myself on a map using the GPS coordinates provided by the Etrex so that if we did get off trail and somehow all our phones became inoperable I could navigate using the Etrex and maps, waterproof of course. In the guide for the JSBT Parks Canada has listed the GPS coordinates, in UTM format, for each of the campsites. I put the coordinates of the campsites into both my phone and my Garmin Etrex SE so that if the trail did become hard to follow we would always know where our next goal was.
Above I wrote that the shuttle was booked for six. Originally the trip was just to be Micah and myself. After initial planning I decided to invite Bent a trail friend. I had met Bent back when I hike Section E of the Great Divide Trail back in 2021 and we had spent all of 2 days together on trail. But we had gotten along very well and had stayed in touch. Bent thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2022 and chronicled the entire trip on video available on his youtube site Willy Maykit. The following summer in 2023 Bent invited me to hike with him as he thru hiked the Colorado Trail. I was very interested but had plans for the summer that nullified any chances of doing a long distance hike. So with the JSBT well into the planning stages I thought, without asking Micah, that I would invite Bent to join us on the hike. Bent was immediately interested. Upon being informed that Bent had joined the hike Micah expressed that they did not know this was a group hike and promptly invited their partner Anfin and Jordan a fellow physics nerd who like Micah is working on their Doctorate in Physics (apparently its a big deal according to Micah, I’m an engineer and remain unconvinced). So our group became five. I asked around at school and a few people expressed interest in joining part of the trip. In the end Ken a teacher I have done a few trips with and his brother Neil planned to join us at Nigel Pass for the last third of the trip.
The next phase of trip planning was the preparation of food. I prepare and dryabout half the meals I eat on a trip and make Logan Bread for breakfast (125 g) and snacks (50 g).
A few days before the trip Sundog Tours contacted me to inform me that there was a small fire in the north end of Jasper National Park and they were just confirming that this would not impact our trip. Most of our trip was in the south end of the park so I thanked them for the heads up and assured them we would be fine.
For this trip Bent, Micah, Anfin and Jordan all had to fly in. I went to the airport to pick up Bent who then stayed in our camping trailer, complete with air conditioning, which is parked in our driveway. The evening before we left everyone including Ken and Neil came over and we sorted out a food resupply that Ken and Neil could bring to lighten our load a little. Everyone went home at about 8 pm and we all tired to relax before the big adventure the next day. Departure time was set for 8 am. This was July 22nd, 2024.
My wake up screen at 6:15 am July 23nd!
My sounds on my phone turn off at 10 pm every night. I did turn out the lights shortly after 10 pm and had a great nights sleep. Upon waking in the morning when I grabbed my phone it lit up light a Christmas tree with numerous texts and emails (had someone called it would have rang through). Apparently the small fire that Sundog had informed of had swelled over the last 24 hours and was now threatening the town site of Jasper. Consequently Parks Canada had closed the park effectively cancelling our trip. Ken, Brent and Micah had all tried to alert me of the situation but with my phone on Do Not Disturb I was never alerted to their messages. Micah spent most the night trying to figure out what we could do. After responding to the texts and emails and confirming we were not going anywhere fast I made myself and Bent a hearty breakfast and then got around to putting a plan together. I felt pretty relaxed but there was a little pressure as Micah, Bent, Anfin and Jordan had all flown in and I did feel some responsibility to ensure that they had a worthwhile trip.
I knew to find a last minute hike I would have to think outside the popular trails. My first thought was that we could hike Section B of the Great Divide Trail. This would require no campsite bookings just a bit of logistics planning as it is a point to point hike starting in Coleman, Alberta and ending at Upper Kananaskis Lake. I remembered watching another “JJ in the Mountains” video on the Pipestone/Dolomite Pass Circuit in the north end of Banff NP. It made for a nice 5 day trip of which Micah and I had both done what would be Days 1 and 2 but that left a lot of new territory. I managed to get the first campsite at Mosquito Creek CG a mere 5 km walk from the trial head for that day. We would not have to leave the house until 2 pm so I had time to make a plan for the second half of the stay. I managed to put together a hike around the Sawback Loop, almost identical to the hike I had just finished. While this was not ideal for me it was a 6 day hike that fit in nicely with our available time frame. I was quite pleased with myself as we had two trips with 11 days of hiking matching our original plan. The only difference was that we would come home for one night in the middle.
Siffleur River Campground is a primitive campsite with no official tent pads or food storage but it does have an outhouse and an tree fort! I learned, again from JJ in the Mountains, that you need to book Siffleur River as you would any other campsite on Parks Canada Reservations page.
The Confluence Campground is an unofficial random campsite. You need to get a permit for any random camping. I have done this before when hiking Section D on the Great Divide Trail. I made a mistake on this trip and forgot to call for a permit although as things played out we did not end up doing any random camping.
As we gathered at my place to review our plans I had the video by “JJ in the Mountains” playing as it was really our only source of information. With the route loaded into my phone this was not the most prepared for hike I had been but I was pretty confident that we would be able to solve any obstacle that we came across. At 1 pm we left for our drive to Mosquito Creek Trailhead with just one more stop which was to get a bike.
What We Learned:
- group hiking can produce unexpected challenges
- need to produce a gear list of required gear for all participants
- If the group splits up on the trail hikers must wait at any intersection to regroup to ensure everyone goes the same way.
- prior to the hike it should be determined that if the group splits at predetermined time intervals the front hikers must stop and wait for the group to reform
- should review the plan for the day before leaving camp
- mosquitos suck
- plastic bags in wet shoes make for great camp shoes while keeping the feet dry
- my poncho with homemade dynema sleeves rocks!
Day 1 Mosquito Creek TH to Mosquito Creek CG
Day 2 Mosquito Creek CG to Fish Lakes CG
Day 3 Fish Lakes CG to Siffleur River CG
Day 4 Siffleur River CG to Helen Lake TH