Willmore hike report

[Treefarmer]

We are back. Saw no wildlife larger than birds and squirrels. Lots of moose sign. Lots of bear scat. One bear track between the Indian/Mountain junction and Rock Lake, bunch of wolf tracks on Berland River, Indian and Mountain trail. (or someone has a St. Bernard in the back country). Whitetail and mule deer track. No mountain sheep/goats. Poor weather. First 4 days totally overcast, with some rain every day. Almost constantly soggy from brushing sopping wet willows. My nephew (17, going into grade 12) took to this like a duck to water. He was hurting, more than I was, I think, but was upbeat, helpful in camp, patient on the trail when I was puffing up grade. (I could hold my own on the level...)

And we were not exactly on the beaten path for this. Our route included Mumm, Harvey, Carson trails, a climb up from the Carson side of Bury Ridge, (The 1990 map lies: There is no trail running the crest.) Bushwhacking descent down a tributary of Thoreau creek.

Mumm is an easy ascent, but going down the north side is wet: 35 stream crossings, 10 or so sections where the creek IS the trail for substantial sections (50 feet or so) And I didn't count the places where there was 2-3 inches of water on the trail. No decent camping until you get to the valley floor. Good camping at the junction with the Harvey trail, better camping if you cross the creek and go down another half kilometer. Harvey itself has little camping on it, unless you are into the 'whittle a space under a fir' type of camping. Where it's flat, it's covered in willow.

The 1990 trail map shows the Carson Pass trail on the left -- south east -- side facing upstream. It's on the northwest. Cross, then head upstream. About 50 meters upstream there is a grassy strip running between the woods and the willows. Follow uphill. There are a couple game trails before the main trail. We camped early on the NW side of the creek as we were soaked from the willows and more rain that felt like wannabee snow was falling.

I remembered the Carson pass climb as tougher than it was. 2.5 hours to the top.

Adjacent to Carson pass to the west is a scree slope of fairly stable rock. We did the 700 foot climb in another hour. From the top the view is impressive. However the ridge line is more or less a knife edge (Ok, a blunt axe...) with very steep scree on one side, and steep rock or scree on the other. There was a thunderbumper over the north Berland. We chickened out and descended to the saddle between Bury and Mt. Lout, then down the valley toward Thoreau. The map lies here too. There is a horse trail only for about the bottom mile. The mile above that is well used game trails that fragment in open meadows. Above that it was crash through 3 to 6 foot willows or spruce.

We camped that night at the the steam engine on Thoreau creek. Next morning we did Thoreau pass in an hour. 25 minutes from camp, the trail passes close to the stream, with a steep climb of a low spur just after it. This is the last access to water. The top of this spur is reasonable camping.

Top of Thoreau gives you reasonable access (easier than scree...) to both Bury Ridge, and an unnamed ridge to the west. Will take some bush whacking, but this is probably the easiest way to get into the high country along our route.

Trail is in good condition. It's one of the main connecting links between Mountain trail and the Berland River trail.

Berland River Trail is also on the wrong side on the 1990 map, but the crossing is obvious. Trail stays well away from the river. Camping on the Berland River trail is absent, unless you leave the trail and follow one of the side streams into the trees. We found a 3 tent sized camp near the junction with Indian Trail that was only about 100 yards off the trail.

Indian trail is pretty, in good shape, but camping is difficult. We'd done all the interesting stuff, and were making good time, so we had a 'trail of tears' day and did the rest of the route out (39 k) on Thursday.

I had my dog Radar, (ears...) with us. He was great: Would stay 50 to 100 feet ahead of us, and would wait if we were out of sight, and come back if we were taking too long. Never trained him for this. At home he's quick to bark at squirrels, ravens. Out there he never said a word.

We carried walking sticks -- those adjustable ski pole things. These were useful both on the scree climbs, and in bushwhacking for balance, and for stream crossings. Recommended.

Radar carried his own food in a 'Cesar Milan' backpack from Canadian tire. The pack had a tear by the end of day 3, and wouldn't stay on when Radar jumped down off of something. Not recommended. I've been looking for a good pack since I got back. Want one with a separate 'saddle' and pannier.

I packed 2 pounds dry weight of food per day. This is generous. Bit too much lunch.

I had both the 1990 Willmore map. More recent ones are low on detail. I also had the 1:50000 NTS maps. They don't have a lot of the trails that the Willmore map does, and some of the trails they show are fictional.

I carried an In-Reach locator. This also allows short (160 character) messages both ways. Only way my wife would let us go, but if you are in the woods much the $70/year may be worth it. May be able to rent at MEC.

[Grizzly Adams]

the steam engine on Thoreau creek.

That thing is amazing, you have any pictures ? Was raining like Hell when we were there and I didn't get any. Someone should actually rescue it and put it in a museum, still in good condition considering it's age, my conclusion being not so much acidic air pollution from the oil and gas industry out there.


Grizz

[alpineguy]

Sounds like and adventure......and a lot more outdoors than most of the threads on this General Discussion lol.

Thanks for posting

[NCC]

Thanks for posting, I would also like to see some pics of the steam engine if you have any.

[Treefarmer]

I didn't take pics of the steam engine. It's actually a steam tractor.

There are better examples at Reynolds. I think it's remote location at the place of use (more or less) is a cool aspect of it. I've visited there several times over the last 20 years. It's not deteriorating. Let it lie.

[Treefarmer]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

the steam engine on Thoreau creek.

Was raining like Hell when we were there and I didn't get any. Someone should actually rescue it and put it in a museum, still in good condition considering it's age, my conclusion being not so much acidic air pollution from the oil and gas industry out there.


Grizz

No pics, sorry.

Rain: Never really rained hard, but the first 4 days were overcast with showers -- enough to keep all of the willows saturated most of the time. We put on raingear when it was cold and actually raining, or when we had miles of willows to crash through. Rest of the time shorts and quick-dry T shirt, and just accepted being soaked a lot of the time. Backpacking is hard enough work, that we weren't often cold.


Condition: Consider how long a tin can takes to rust away if it's not buried in wet earth. This thing is constructed of *really* heavy steel. Unless you had actual acid rain, I don't think it would matter. That said, the prevailing wind is from the northwest, and there isn't a lot of industry of any kind that way.

[artie]

so would you do it again?

[drake]

great report...thanks

[creeky]

Originally Posted by drake

great report...thanks

x2

[Treefarmer]

Originally Posted by artie

so would you do it again?

This is my third time doing variations of this. Mumm, Harvey, Carson has been the same for each. All have done Pope Thoreau in one variation or another.

The best ones have included either crossing or some combination of crossing and ridge running Persimmon Range. I *think* you can do the ridge from jack knife to Eagle's nest, but that's a 31 km run. I know of at least two places to get down on the Mountain Trail side, and one on the Indian Trail side, but it's no place to be during a week that we had thunder every single day. 31 k on scree and rocky sod is a long day.

My problem is finding people to go with. My wife doesn't do this sort of thing, and I'm no fan of doing this sort of thing solo.

[spellswrong]

Hey maybe you could help me. Do you know how long it takes to hike from rock lake staging area to sheep creek? What kind of a hike is it? Thanks for the help.

[Albertadiver]

Missed this trip report. VERY COOL!

willmore is on my bucket list for sure.