Two summers ago, I met a trail crew employee who had been with Jasper National Park for twenty years and asked where his favourite place is. He named the Ancient Wall


The Ancient Wall

and McLaren Pass area, so ever since I have been wanting to go there. This August it happened. Six Ramblers


The Crew: Jim, Christine, Carmie, Dee & Nancy

spent nine days backpacking into Blue Creek (along the Ancient Wall) and back out over McLaren Pass. We started from near Rock Lake, about two and a half hours from Jasper, at the staging area for horse trips into the Willmore Wilderness, which lies on the north boundary of Jasper. The weather could have been more cooperative; the first two days were fine though, and also the two days that mattered most. These were day five, when we day-tripped to Azure Lake near Hardscrabble Pass, and day seven, when we hiked over McLaren Pass, our high point, from where we got a blue-sky view of Mt. Robson along with the beautiful alpine meadows of the pass. Even if the weather had been different, there would not have been a lot of lying around on this trip; we had a lot of kilometers to cover – nearly 150 in nine days. Our first two days were a little smoky from all the B.C. forest fires. The good news was that once the weather turned, the smoke problem ended. (Always look on the bright side, right?) This trip was all on JNP trails, well defined but with mileage markers that had us shaking our heads sometimes. Late on day two, when we were laden down like tired, clumsy beasts of burden, if the signposting was right we must have been travelling six kilometers an hour --- believe me, this was NOT accurate! The biggest nuisance on the trip was that that the suspension bridge was out over Blue Creek at the Upper Blue Campsite. After you leave the North Boundary Trail on day three, there are trails both on the north and the south sides of Blue Creek for about nine kilometers. Upper Blue Campsite is on the south side, where the easier trail is, but the trail towards the head of the valley continues only on the north side. A solo camper (Doug from Medicine Hat) on our second night told us he would not ford Blue Creek there, because it was over knee deep, fast flowing and just above a canyon. So we changed our route to travel on the north side all the way. This resulted in our longest days being made a few kilometers longer than planned. Perhaps if it had not been for the rain the creek would have been lower – we looked at it when we got there, but really, we had already walked over 20 k that day, and if we crossed to the campsite, we’d then have to cross back in the morning, when the rain might have raised water levels even higher. In gloomy silence we walked another three kilometers to the Ancient Wall horse camp, despite some concern that it might be occupied. But no worries – Blue Creek clearly isn’t heavily used. We saw no one after leaving Welbourne (second night) until we met a group of five young men from Minneapolis on McLaren Pass, five days later. Jasper has a lot of trees; we spent a lot of time in them. This is not a trip for the claustrophobic. But starting before the Ancient Wall Horse Camp, the valley opened up and eventually we saw mountain caribou – two singles and a group of four. That was a thrill. Dee was our eagle eye – she spotted moose, deer and caribou, and claimed that her hope on this trip was to see a bear; the rest of us claimed that our hopes were NOT to see a bear. Five against one -- majority ruled, thank goodness. We all carried bear spray and did a fair bit of yelling for bear in heavy willow but hardly even saw any sign for the whole trip. We were in the valley bottoms and there were beautiful avalanche slopes on either side, so maybe that’s where the good bear grub was. We did however see an amazing number of antlers lying around – moose, caribou, elk.


Antlers

Antlers Again

They were everywhere in Blue Creek – antlers and monkshood in bloom.


Monkshood

I foolishly revealed that monkshood was a deadly poison and then had one more thing to worry about. (I had neglected the coordinator’s responsibility to arrange for sun, hadn’t I? – Just how ticked off were people getting??)The main difference between the horse camps and the people camps (other than horse apples) seemed to be that horse camps don’t have bear poles. Rick was our hero at the horse camp and got out there to set things up both nights. He is also the group photographer, and got some great photos of the Ancient Wall and of snow on the peaks after a couple of wet nights.


Snow On the Ancient Wall

(I hope we can figure out how to get some of his pictures on here.) The toilet facilities were basic everywhere - a log nailed between two trees with a hole underneath at the hiker camps. At the horse camp there was a ‘Sheila Copps’ – one of those turquoise plastic things with no roof and half sides. In the rain, the plastic causes users to get much wetter than would happen with the log. Walking without a heavy backpack on day five, when we went to Azure Lake from Caribou Inn Camp, felt wonderful – that was the closest thing we had to a rest day for the week. One thing I still can’t believe; we all missed the view of the Natural Arch, which is between the horse camp and Caribou Inn, the only place we spent two consecutive nights, and the longest distance from the trailhead. The guidebooks say that this arch is one of the highlights of the valley, and we just walked right by it. Going both ways. Go figure. But the red mountains and the sun and shadow on the Ancient Wall were lovely.


Red Mountains

Several times conversation turned to what we’d do if it were possible to avoid the four-day walk each way to and from Caribou Inn. It would be wonderful to have a week to spend near the top of the valley to wander the ridges with just daypacks. On day seven, the only day with significant elevation gain, we enjoyed sunshine in beautiful meadows, full of flowers and running water. We lounged around on McLaren Pass


On McLaren Pass - Mt Robson In Background

drying tents and resting feet. Then off downward to the Little Heaven hiker’s camp, a place named for a huge meadow that must be heaven indeed for horses en route to Glacier Pass and the Willmore. The water supply here did not inspire confidence, since the horse trail walked right through it. We were extra careful to treat every drop. We’d been treating all water anyway –but usually the camps were beside fast flowing streams, much more appealing than this mud hole. It would have been great to stay here for a couple of day hikes up onto the Starlight Range. Sigh, we had no food, time or energy left. But this camp is only two days walk from the trailhead, and would be a reasonable objective for a weeklong trip with more day hiking and less slogging with packs. In the morning we were surprised by the heavy frost on the Little Heaven meadow


Frost At Little Heaven Camp

but water bottles had not frozen as hard as they had one night in the valley. By now packs were considerably lighter but all were counting the few remaining items of food that had to be stretched for two more days. Day eight saw us head downward, back in the trees to the Snake Indian River Valley where we rejoined the NBT and eventually found ourselves back at Willow, for our last night out. There we shared the site and visited with a couple who live in France. Rain began just after we got the tents up and shortened the evening. For awhile, we took turns reading aloud to each other from The Ascent of RumDoodle – an excellent book for this trip.


Story Time At Willow Creek Camp

Selecting a read-aloud book(s) to carry is a good plan for another trip. And a flower book, and possibly a bird book, although we hardly saw any birds.

Fording Rock Creek on the ninth day was a treat.

Stream Crossing

The icy water on the feet was appreciated much more than it had been on day one. Unfortunately, for some reason we all felt that we should be just about at the cars right after the crossing, so the next few kilometers seemed interminable – with everyone eager to take the boots off for the last time. We finally made it. There was a pump at the parking area so we could get a bit cleaned up, change and head into Jasper for a quick dinner before hitting the road. Most of us were on the road by 7:30 pm and home before midnight, all very glad not to have to get up Monday morning. Approximate mileages:Rock Lake trailhead to Willow Creek Campsite 14 kWillow Creek to Welbourne Campsite 13 kWelbourne to Ancient Wall Horse Camp 24.5 kAncient Wall to Caribou Inn Campsite 12 kDayhike to Azure Lake round trip approx +20 kCaribou Inn to Ancient Wall Horse Camp 12 kAncient Wall to Little Heaven Campsite 21.5 k and +500m. elevation gain Little Heaven Campsite to Willow Creek 17.5 kWillow Creek Campsite to trailhead 14 kDistances are taken from Don Beers book, Jasper-Robson: A Taste of Heaven. We used this and the latest edition of Patton & Robinson’s Canadian Rockies Trail Guide.

It would be a good idea to check with the wardens directly rather than relying on the Trail Booking Office in Jasper about conditions. I went in to the trail office before leaving Jasper at the beginning of the trip to ask if there were any changes to the trail that I should know about. They said no. At the end, I went back to tell them that the bridge was out at Upper Blue, and they kept asking if I was sure it was out. I was a bit ticked. The signpost says the campsite is 400 m away, and a good trail goes to the river from the sign and dead ends. There was no trail up or downstream from that spot, and nothing visible when you look up and down stream; what would anyone assume??? The nicest thing about our group was the conversation – lots of interesting discussions from people who read books and mostly retain a sense of humour in all weather conditions. Participants were Christine, Dee, Jim, Nancy, Rick and Carmie, C/S