David, Gail and Alistair (Coordinator and scribe) left Calgary at 6:00 on Saturday morning and drove to Lake Louise. We met Jim at the gas station at about 8:00 then drove north up the Jasper Highway arriving at the Nigel Pass trailhead at about 9:40. The day was overcast with a few rain showers. We unloaded the gear. Gail and Dave stayed at the trailhead while Jim and I drove our vehicles to the Icefields Centre where we got our camping permit then on north to the Poboktan Creek trailhead. We left my car there and drove the 45km back to the Nigel Pass trailhead in Jim’s truck. Jim was on a business trip so it took a while for him to get all his stuff together so it was 11:40 before we started hiking.

The cloud was down over some of the peaks but it was a pleasant cool temperature for backpacking. We had lunch with views of Parkers Ridge then continued up to Nigel Pass where we had another break. On the way we met the 5 day trippers we’d seen earlier. The cloud was just touching the tops and the wind was a bit stronger but the views were still good. It was about 2:30 pm when we crossed the now shallow infant Brazeau River on rocks and followed the trail up the other side. Good views back to Cataract Pass and ahead down the valley. As we headed down the trail we saw the river cascading down the rocks to the flatter parts of the valley below. It started to snow but it did not settle and the day remained fairly bright. We had another stop after crossing a bridge to the west side of the Brazeau valley. I was wearing shorts and was getting a bit cool by the end of our break. We soon passed the campsite 3 of us had used on a 3 day ski trip in February 2003 then hiked on to the Four Point Campground by about 5:30 pm. The weather had cleared and it was a fine sunny evening. We cooked supper on a picnic table and I supplied Pumpkin Pie for dessert for all of us. We hung the food using the buckets on the wires provided. Dave, Gail and I were in our tents and Jim was in his hammock by 9pm.

Sunday dawned clear with a temperature of about 2C. Dave, Gail and I went to the warden’s cabin (these cabins are always put in the place with the best view in the area) then we all set off at 9:45. After an initial steep climb we were soon into the long upper valley of Four Point Creek – the sun was shining and we had good views back into the White Goat Wilderness. Ahead the alpine of Jonas Pass and to our left a few small glaciers.

Backpack over Jonas Pass: at rest on approach

Ramblers approach Jonas Pass

Jim, Alistair,David at Jonas Pass

We had lunch just before the pass then hiked on over to the Jonas Creek valley. The trail descends a short way into this valley before climbing at a generally easy grade up to 2450 metre (8040 feet) high Jonas Shoulder. More good views of the surrounding peaks and across to the west side of the Jasper highway.


Gail and Alistair admire theview from Jonas Shoulder in October 2004

View north from Jonas Shoulder in October 2004

It was now 4 pm. I reckoned we had time to leave our packs and hike the kilometre along the ridge to a 2660 metre high point to the SE. Jim decided to head straight for the Jonas Cutoff campground so as to have time to make a minor repair to his hammock. Dave, Gail and I hiked along the easy ridge to the 2660 metre top. It was cool and windy here but we had a good all round view – ENE to Brazeau Lake, NE to the 3000 metre peak, Bob, Arnold and I climbed on the Nigel Pass to Jasper ski traverse in March 2000, NNW to 3300 metre high Poboktan Mountain, etc. etc! We returned to our packs by 5:20 pm. There was snow on the north side of the pass so the trail was not visible. We followed Jim,’s steps much of the way down a steep slope to a cairn marking the trail then on down the snowy trail to the campsite, arriving at about 6:30 pm.

The weather seemed to be clouding in, Jim already had his hammock up. The rest of us put up tents after clearing the inch of snow off the tent pads then we got supper cooking at a very sturdy picnic table. Jim had dehydrated ground turkey, Gail and I had fresh turkey, sprouts, stuffing and cranberry sauce. The second Co-op brand pumpkin pie had survived the journey very well and we all enjoyed a quarter of the pie with whipping cream. 2 guys arrived at the campsite soon after we did. They were on the 10th day of a 12 day trip along the whole South Boundary Trail. We were the first people they’d seen for 9 days.

On Monday we all slept in – everyone expecting to be last up. It was a cloudy morning – temperature around 0C. We had breakfast and were on our way by 10:15. Today would be the longest hike of the 3 days but with the least elevation gain. We just had to follow the trail down the Poboktan Creek valley. The ground was frozen in places which meant the trail was a bit less muddy than it might have been. I often looked back to Jonas shoulder and remembered the fine ski descent I’d done from there in November 1990. Jim started complaining about having to carry out his 2 desserts as he’d had some of my pie. No problem, we can have them for lunch, Gail said! We stopped for lunch after viewing the waterfalls by another warden’s cabin and enjoyed the jello puddings with some dried fruit added. We admired more fine waterfalls a bit further down the trail then had a final major stop at the campground 7km from the highway. The trail down the valley is long but one generally has some views of the surrounding peaks. We reached my car a few minutes before 6pm just as it was starting to rain. We all then returned to the Nigel Pass trailhead. Jim then went on his way to Jasper while the rest of us returned to Calgary by 10:15 pm after a stop at Wendy’s in Canmore.

This was the 2nd time I’d done this backpack. The other time was with Jim Wilson, Bill Pippy and Dale on a trip coordinated by Dick Jull for the August long weekend of 1982. The weather was not as good as this year’s trip. In 1982 there were 10 of us signed up for a trip to Castleguard Meadows for that weekend. However on the Saturday morning at Saskatchewan crossing in the rain, 6 decided to go car camping instead and 4 of us decided on the Nigel Pass Poboktan Creek trip as an alternative to the original plan.

Trip statistics according to guidebook, trail signs and Alistair’s elevation calculations:

Day 1: 14 km distance, 1500’ up, 1600’ down:Day 2: 19km distance, 2000’ up, 1800’ down. Day 3: 21km distance, 500’ up. 2600’ down. Jim’s GPS gave distances as 15.4km, 18.8 km and 24.8km for the 3 days. Jim will likely add some photos to this report.
Update May 2020: Digitized slides added by David.