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.
Big Sky Views on the Big Sky Walk
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.
Start of Chewuch Valley Trail
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."
Bridge near Chewuch Creek
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.
The long walk
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.
Collapsed cabin
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.
Side Creek
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.
Food hanging Four Point Creek
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.
Trail to Mount Remmel
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.
Near the base of Mount Remmel
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.
Mount Remmel summit
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.
Four Point Lake
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.
Views along the trail
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.
Summit views
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.
Cathedral Peak
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.
Cathedral Lake and Peak
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.
Trail near Cathedral Peak
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.
Looking back at Cathedral Peak
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.
Summit views when the rain clears
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.
Camp
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.
Stormy weather over Canada
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.
Old Tungsten Mine Building
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.
Meadow rambling
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.
Maps and Summits, my two favorite things
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.
Near Loudon Lake
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.
The Mountains and Lakes of Pasayaten
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.
Burnt timber around Windy Peak
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.
Last summit, Windy Peak
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.
Wolframite Mountain
