A forested walk to a pretty backcountry campground.
Day 1 Mt Norquay Parking Lot to Mystic Valley CG, 19 km, 446 m elevation gain, 214 m elevation loss, 4 hrs 35 min.
The trail starts by following a service road past some of the chair lifts at Mt Norquay ski hill. Since this is a traditional access to multiple backcountry trails the ski hill has to let hikers pass. They got a little passive aggressive by limiting public parking to the very far end of the parking lot. A stellar backcountry adventure will begin and end with a walk across a gravel parking lot.
I understand that Parks Canada needs to make people aware that the Bison are free and roaming in Banff NP. But the valley they were released in is 65 km from Mt Norquay over two mountain passes. No bison have yet been tracked outside their home valley as of 2022. The Bison Blog hosted by Parks Canada which included news and updates on the bison herd has not been updated since 2022. The Cascade Valley where Block Lake Jnc and Flint’s Park Campgrounds are located are in the zone earmarked for the bison to range into within 5 years of their release.
Looking at the reintroduction area there was a small chance that we could have met the bison heard. There is though no update from Parks Canada for the last couple of years of how far the bison have ranged so hard to say what the chance was. While we passed by two areas marked for drift fencing, meant to discourage the bison from entering the yellow area, we did not see any fencing. It is impossible to know what the present state of the bison reintroduction project is and what is the chance of encountering the bison outside of the green Free Roaming Core. The public component of the project seems to be somewhat neglected. Still it would have been epic to see the bison roaming in the mountains.
For the majority of the first day the trail does not do justice to its surroundings. The trail is a wide old fire road which makes for easy walking plus also the opportunity to walk 2×2. The luxury of walking 2×2 is that it easier to have a conversation as when hiking single file talking really involves a lot of yelling. While the trail takes us into a lovely valley with a strong creek flowing through and soaring alpine peaks we spent most of our time hiking under the thick canopy of the montane forest, lodgepole pine and white spruce. A secondary benefit of the of the trail being an old road is that we made very good time.
There is a small campground on this stretch of trail Mt Cockcomb. It is just 10 km from the parking lot. would make a great spot for those getting a late start on the day. There were people in the campground as we roared by.
We charged into camp at 5:30 pm just a little over 4 1/2 hours since we left the car. Today was really a day for getting into the backcountry. While there were no significant wildlife sightings there were people on the trail. We passed two hikers finishing their trip on the Sawback, we were passed by two trial runners and we had a wedding back at the beginning. Unfortunately there was very little else that was memorable about this section of trail and to think we have to hike it one more time to get back to the car. The wonderful aspect of the trail is where it has taken us. The campground is in a beautiful setting and tomorrow will start with a visit to an pristine alpine lake followed soon after by a trip over a high alpine pass.
We barely saw them but there was a French couple in camp who had nabbed the best spot. They were not overly chatty but were on Day 2 of their trip starting at Moose Meadows.
I was buddying up and sharing a tent with Micah for the trip. Our tent on this trip my Zpack Duplex tent which we have been sharing together on many trips starting with our GR20 trip in 2018. The Flex Kit allows the tent to be set up freestanding and without the use of hiking poles. We really did not need the Flex Kit on this trip as all the campgrounds were sheltered with a soft tent pads. I actually just like how easy it is to set up the tent with the Flex Kit. It just removes a bit of hassle and on just a 6 day trip I did not mind the weight. The Flex Kit really shines when hiking solo and in the desert where it is hard to find a sheltered campsite and the stability of the Flex Kit really shines.
It had been a pretty easy day, if any day carrying a 45 lb backpack can be called easy. But we all headed to bed around 9 pm. The plan for tomorrow was to get up at 6ish and head to Mystic Lake for breakfast. It was my idea to eat breakfast at the lake it was an easy sell as it was less than a 15 minute hike. Micah and I had done the same thing on our Assinboine trip back in 2019 with Volcano while staying at Marvel Lake CG and had appreciated the extra time spent at a gorgeous backcountry lake.
Day 2 Sawback 2.0 – Banff NP 2024