Preamble:
In the autumn of 2011, Doug and I walked a big figure of eight loop through the mountainous Canadian backcountry bordering the US Pasayten Wilderness. It was a grand week long walk, mostly in the alpine, joining up a few different hiking trails and scrambling to the summits of several peaks. I had fond memories of the trip and reasoned that if the north side of the border made good walking, the large tract on the south (US) side that is all designated wilderness would be just as good. So, we made plans for a big loop walk starting and ending at the Chewuch Trailhead west of Loomis.
Our initial plan had been to walk in an anti-clockwise direction, beginning the trip with a long climb up Windy Peak and walking out down the Chewuch River valley. As luck, or bumbling idiocy would have it, we could not find the start of the Windy Creek trail and ended up walking our loop clockwise which, considering the weight of our packs at the beginning of the trip, made way more sense.
Day One: Chewuch Trailhead to Four Point Creek
Getting deep into the Pasayten Wilderness requires a long walk up any one of several river valleys. Like most climbers, I used to think of these approaches as something to be endured before getting to the main event, but in my dotage, I've come to enjoy every minute I spend outdoors, even "long walks to nowhere."
Our topographic map shows the Windy Creek trail branching off the Cathedral Driveway trail on the west side of Windy Creek, so, appropriately enough - but ignoring a newly installed sign pointing straight uphill from the trailhead - we followed the Cathedral Driveway trail down hill through dusty burnt forest for about a kilometre looking for the junction. Despite walking back and forth a few times, we could find no sign of any trail. As we did not seem to have a compelling reason for tackling our loop counter-clockwise, we decided to head up the Chewuch Valley and walk our route clockwise.
Over the first four kilometres, the trail actually loses about 300 metres of elevation although it does not feel like that much. Most of the way is through burnt pine forest which has it's own dusty beauty. We met a few women hikers where the trail joins the Chewuch River and exchanged pleasantries before continuing on.
Our plan was to walk up Fire Creek trail and along the base of Coleman Ridge to camp near Remmel Mountain on our first day but this also did not work out quite as planned. About a kilometre past Pocket Lake, where there is no lake but a dusty campsite in the trees, we looked about for the Fire Creek trail. We found the old shelter, now collapsed, marked on the map, and managed to get on the foot pad of the Fire Creek trail but the trail itself is essentially impassable now as it is covered with huge burnt down trees from wildfires.
So, second change of plan in as many hours and we continue walking up the Chewuch Valley. And that is pretty much our first day, walking up the Chewuch River Valley. It is a mix of burnt trees and untouched forest and there are a lot of good campsites along the way, nestled in trees beside the Chewuch River. It's a hot walk, forecast to be well into the 30's down in the Okanagan Valley, and the heat has brought out virulent packs of biting flies.
Eventually, after a solid day of walking we reach the Four Point Creek trail which heads west to Four Point Lake and Remmel Mountain. We briefly consider humping our packs up 500 metres to camp near Four Point Lake - perhaps the bugs would be less intense - but decide we are too weary and while carrying the packs up would not be too bad, bringing them back down the next day risks blowing out old knees. Instead, we settle into a small camp right beside the Chewuch River where we can dip our hot bodies into the cool water.
Day Two: Mount Remmel
Who knew, we certainly didn't, that there is a trail up Mount Remmel which was constructed to service the old fire lookout active in the mid-1900's. The fire lookout is no more, destroyed around the year I was born, presumably by lightening strikes.
The trail really is quite amazing as it switchbacks up a slope of large jumbled boulders, some of which are the size of small cars and which must have been moved aside by hand. After climbing up in forest and passing the turn-off to Four Point Lake, the track traverses out into meadow near a small waterfall on Four Point Creek and then switchbacks up to an upper basin where a huge basin filled with talus comprises Remmel Mountain. At this point, looking at the kilometres of boulders that would need to be navigated to the summit, we felt a little depressed. Until, Doug noticed a cairn and a trail. The trail is not marked on the topographic map but it seemed inconceivable it went anywhere but the summit so we followed it.
We switch-backed up onto a ridge covered with pretty larch trees and meadow with views to Ampitheatre Mountain and Cathedral Peak, and then, up many well graded switchbacks to the top of Remmel Mountain. The view is, of course, fabulous, and on these kinds of trips it's always interesting to sit on a mountain top and trace out the route you will follow over the coming days. The compass was handy for identifying peaks and we could see as far north as the peaks we had climbed on the Big Sky trip in 2011.
On the way down, we side-tripped to Four Point Lake where the mosquitoes and biting flies were worse than lower down in the valley thus reinforcing our decision to camp low. After descending 1,000 metres to camp we seemed to be unable to be fussed packing up and moving camp, so we stayed a second night camped by the creek.
Around 8.00 pm when we had finally been driven into the tent by biting insects, a big electrical storm came through. For almost two hours, there were terrifying claps of thunder and bolts of lightening. Having been caught out in the bush in no less than three fires started by lightening strikes - one of which necessitated a helicopter rescue - the nearby strikes on tinder dry forests were a bit confronting. It was a relief when, about 10.00 pm, the night finally fell silent.
Day Three: Ampitheater Mountain and Upper Cathedral Lake
The trail up towards Remmel Lake is through a huge patch of burned forest, but it was a cooler day and did not feel unduly hot. After a few kilometres, the Chewuch River forks, with the northerly branch becoming Cathedral Creek and the westerly branch, Remmel Creek. There is one small campsite beside the Chewuch River fork but that is the only campsite along this section.
Part way up Remmel Creek, the westerly trail is marked "unmaintained" and is covered with pick-up sticks, and we followed track #565 which climbs up into alpine meadows north of Remmel Lake. This is beautiful country, rolling open meadows, and broken granite peaks.
We branched off trail #565 and took a side track that led us to the base of Ampitheater Mountain. Here we stashed our overnight packs and walked up to the top of Ampitheater Mountain. A horse track leads up the drainage on the south side of the mountain to the col at the head of the upper valley and then travels along to Peak 8252. We however, walked straight up easy west facing meadow to the south ridge and along to the top. Cathedral Peak, while not as high as Remmel Mountain, is the most spectacular in the group and we were hoping to climb it the next day from Upper Cathedral Lake.
Back at the packs, we had to put rain jackets on as it was starting to drizzle, and then we contoured around Ampitheater Mountain following the trail to the beautiful Upper Cathedral Lake. There are lots of good campsites around the lake, but, as usual, we were fussy and spent an hour looking for the perfect spot, eventually, finding a lovely little meadow camp away from old horse poop and over looking the lake. With the cooler weather, the flies had disappeared but, sadly, the mosquito population had correspondingly increased.
Day Four: Tungsten Creek and Wolframite Mountain
It rained from early to mid-morning, which, now that we live in Australia and are allergic to water falling from the sky, meant we hung around in the tent until the rain was down to drizzle. Then we packed up and regretfully decided against trying Cathedral Peak in not so good weather and walked along the boundary trail to Apex Pass. We walked through Cathedral Pass and then followed the long curving ridge to the pretty meadows of Apex Pass.
Whenever we looked back over our shoulders we would have this great view onto the big rock towers on Cathedral Peak. The Boundary trail from Cathedral Peak east is just delightful walking. Mostly right around treeline, it contours along these border peaks crossing over grassy passes and by tiny lakes.
Mid-afternoon, we came to a little pass at the head of Tungsten Creek, a good jumping off point for Wolframite Mountain. We found a little campsite just below the trail, beside the creek and with good views down the valley from an expansive kitchen boulder and put the tent up. As would become a repeatable pattern for the next few days, we spread all our wet gear out to dry while we had a cup of tea, and then madly stuffed it into the tent minutes later as our tea went cold and our gear got wet in the regular afternoon/evening storms.
The rain persisted for an hour, so we reclined in the tent until it stopped and then walked easily to the top of Wolframite Mountain. We were now far enough north to easily recognise our route from 2011 even if we couldn't remember the mountain names.
After dinner, a cold front came through with heavy rain and hail for a few hours. We had rigged up our exceedingly unsatisfactory Integral Designs tent with a silt-tarp verandah which was working far better than the custom vestibule in this unsettled weather.
Day Five: Scheelite Pass and Haig Mountain
Early on next morning we passed by the old tungsten mine site under Wolframite Mountain. There are a couple of small cabins and a bigger log building among the mining remnants. It was really pleasant walking on to Scheelite Pass and then we climbed a little bit to cross over a pass near Bauerman Ridge. More pleasant walking until we climbed up to another pass on the south ridge of Bauerman Ridge where we had lunch looking over Teapot Dome.
The track then contours around the south side of Haig Mountain through open larch forest and pretty alpine meadow. We found a good campsite in meadow below Haig Mountain at around 7,500 feet. The afternoon ritual of laying out wet gear, making tea, rain, followed by stuffing everything in the tent followed the now familiar pattern.
We walked up Haig Mountain, an easy meadow ramble, before dinner but the wall of approaching rain clouds did not encourage a long stay on top.
Day Six: Horseshoe Basin, Arnold Peak, Sunny Pass, Horseshoe Mountain
This was perhaps our best day of walking as we followed the lay of the land around mountain sides to austere Loudon Lake. Dropping our packs at Horseshoe Pass we walked up Arnold Peak and looked north again into the now familiar peaks of Canada. We could see almost our entire route from Remmel Mountain, past Cathedral Peak, over to Sunny Pass and onto what would be our last mountain of the trip, Windy Peak.
After lunch, we walked on to Sunny Pass, where it was not sunny but it certainly was a great campsite at about 2200 metres with views to the east and west from the pass. We set up our last camp of the trip and while Doug enjoyed the ambience, wrapped in a sleeping bag (it was cold!), I walked up Horseshoe Mountain to my penultimate blustery summit.
Day Seven: Windy Peak
Our last day and we were a little concerned about the condition of the trail between us and Windy Peak. We knew the Windy Peak trail had been cleared, but were not sure about the stretch between Sunny Pass and Windy Peak nor the Windy Creek trail which we had failed to find. The forest between Sunny Pass and Windy Peak was burnt in the big 2001 forest fires.
We had no problem following the track up onto the north ridge of Windy Peak although there was some blow down to climb over. Once in the alpine again on the Windy Peak trail it was, well, windy. We scurried up the peak on a good track and had one last long look over this beautiful wild country and then walked down to follow cairns descending the ridge above Windy Creek.
The Windy Creek trail had been cleared and slightly rerouted near the bottom and it was easy to follow although the landscape looks a bit beaten up now with all the trees burnt. The final one kilometre of trail now crosses Windy Creek and heads down a sandy ridge emerging right at our parked minivan and we wondered how we had managed to miss the trail.
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