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Overnight temperatures were mild (a balmy 2C). After a chat with Phil in the morning, I walked along the caribou Creek trail up to the lake. It's a beauty with milky green water and a very respectable mountain backdrop. The trail thinned a little along the lake as I made it to the other end, crossed 2 of the inlet creeks to try a little fishing. In about half an hour I had landed 2 rainbows (I released the smaller one). The limit on introduced fish species is 2 while the native Dolly Vardens (bull trout) are catch and release. While I was fishing, it began to snow and temporarily blanketed the higher ground above me. It melted quickly in the pursuing rain. The trout was excellent (cooked in aluminum foil). The weather threatened to improve so I did some laundry. Wave after wave of rain, even hail, returned and the 4:00 p.m. temperature read 7C on the Warden's cabin thermometer. It was a real cool 2 hours I spent on the cabin porch with its splendid views over the Ancient Wall that was often covered in cloud that afternoon.

Once you have caught and eaten fish, a quality of the hunter-gatherer is aroused, so I don't know if I had to fulfill more of my original instincts or if I felt moving was better than sitting still (even risking get wet), but I put on a wet pair of socks (3 pairs were already wet) and put on my soggy boots. I headed off into the light rain after 5:00 p.m. in the now 6C temperature to go fishing and hopefully catch some dinner. Initially I had some discouraging luck fishing. I released a small one form Caribou Creek but the rain stopped and the sun came out. Then it really was fantastic. I reached the lake and decided to fish a nearby small inlet that required fording the Caribou Creek outlet in my underwear. So I found myself fishing the lake (unsuccessfully) in my underwear (no pictures). Disappointed, I headed down the creek path back to the campsite, fully clothed and still a fishing rod in my hand. I spotted a flat section of water and a somewhat unlikely pool. First cast and I brought in dinner, a 2 pound Rainbow. I don't think I returned to the camp till 8:30 p.m., so it was a scramble to make dinner, get the camp ready for the night, let the cat out and fall to sleep.

Frost once again this morning and not a very promising sky. I woke up frequently in the early hours of the morning because I was cold. So I took a leisurely start to the day. Strong, fresh coffee was followed by a hot shave. I put on the soggy boots on with rain pants and headed down the valley to try out the fishing in the pools of Blue Creek itself. I pushed and shoved my way through willow bushes before I determined that I should have stayed on the main path to the pools. The weather steadily improved.

I caught four Rainbow in about an hour, though three of them were small. The largest was about 1 1/2 pounds. Unfortunately, it began to bleed quite badly when I was removing the hook with pliers. Apparently, the survival rate is very poor for heavily bleeding fish so I kept it for lunch. So far I have only caught rainbow in this area; it would appear that the alien (introduced to North America) fish have marginalized the Dollys.

The sunshine continued to persist allowing me to pursue domestic duties and a relaxing afternoon with the butterflies. As the campsite is on the edge of a lodgepole forest, but wildflowers predominate in the actual camp, attracting dozens of butterflies at any given moment. I saw a couple of them still fluttering yesterday evening at 10:00p.m. and cool temperatures. I've tried (successfully) to focus on fishing here as I can climb up valleys and ridges anywhere, though tomorrow I'll walk up to the Natural Arch which is also visible from the trail. I walked up and along almost all of Caribou Creek seeking fishing pools. Surprisingly, there are not that many on each side of the creek. I fished all on the north side for 2 rainbows (small). The pool that I had caught diner on the first cast last night yielded nothing. Whilst the fishing has been very good, it has been challenging and is certainly not a slam-dunk. Other people have been ecstatic about it while others have been so-so. However, the weather was brilliant sunny (13C). Nice views of the Ancient Wall from the creek as well as from the Warden's cabin. I'm hoping to catch the sunset.

The drinking water here at Blue Creek has been exceptional. Many of the other creeks also have exceptional water but here it seems a cut above the rest. It's too bad that so many hikers treat their water and lose the incredible pure taste. So far, I've never contracted Giardia (the main fear) in the Canadian Rockies, though I do travel with 2 grams of Tiniba/Tinidazole tablets for treatment. Authorities make Giardia out to be a terrible lurking bubonic plague that infest water that looks pure but is not, but at its worst, symptoms of Giardia include nausea, upper intestinal pain and explosive diarrhea.

Last night's fantastic sunset on the Ancient Wall was witnessed in the 4C temperatures. Today started fresh (frozen water-bottle) with blue skies. It was moving day so I packed up and after an easy 3 km down the valley, I hung the food up and left my pack behind and bush-wacked for about an hour, finally reaching steep flowered meadows providing great views looking down Blue Creek and onto Caribou Lake and its surroundings. The Natural Arch is a huge arch presumably carved by the creek that asses thorough it. I was lucky to get there early, before the coach tours arrived. Actually, other than Phil the Warden, I haven't seen anyone else in Blue Creek. I returned to my pack and continued on my way, stopping at an attractive set of pools that yielded two small Rainbows. At one point, I took off all my clothes to retrieve a snagged lure (no pictures either).

I reached Topaz campsite by lunch under threatening skies. It began to rain, so rather than fording the creek and bush-wacking to Topaz Lake, I strolled down the main trail hoping for some promising fishing. I reached the Warden's cabin 2.5 km along and its really wide open views of the jagged Ancient Wall. The campsites have been without impressive vies (stuck in the trees) while the cabins and horse camps (and their need for grazing areas) offer wide open views. I kept a close eye on the creek but decided to try upstream from the campsite. I thrashed through more willow bushes, found few pools, caught one small Rainbow, snagged and lost a lure, then called it quits. I grabbed an early dinner to allow time to visit Topaz Lake in the evening. With skies ever threatening and tired legs, I decided to rest and perhaps catch another sunset if it cleared. The visible sunset was early due to clouds, around 8:45 p.m. but it is still light till 10:00p.m. I took a 4 km return walk to gain a clear view of the Ancient Wall. My boots are warm and dry (they feel like slippers), though the tent vestibule zipper has been out-of-service for 3 or 4 days now. I try to position the door away from possible rain. Today was a great relief on the food side. As I have 3 dyas of food at Little Heaven and one more night before I reach the food cache, it is easy to visualize whether there is enough grub. Today I couldn't even finish lunch so it went into tonight's dinner. The food seems to have worked out with pepperonni finally finished off yesterday on Day 9 (its currency had greatly diminished now that I was eating fish) and the cheese and green beans are still traveling well. The tortilla (2 or 3 left) are just now showing signs of wear. It feels much warmer this evening (the 4km walk helped) and there are still mosquitoes about. The life of a mosquito seems pretty haphazard as they fly about, then suddenly a rare meal appears out of nowhere, but it's this giant ogre that can practically blow your wings off. That same ogre has declared his personal space to be a "no fly" zone with orders to smack on sight.

The usual below zero night and I woke up to clear skies. After a brisk fording of Blue Creek, I headed u through forest and found a lightly traveled trail on the north side of Topaz Creek to Lake Topaz. The lake is magnificent with milky green water and I was greeted by a loon on arrival. Though it has less impressive mountains than Caribou Lake, I felt its overall impression was better. I fell on and off a seldom-used trail for 3km to the other end of the lake. Lakeside, I followed cougar tracks, however, I've been surprised by the paucity of tracks and game in this valley compared to others. While I fished, I also enjoyed good views of the Ancient Wall. The fishing proved difficult; 1 Rainbow (kept) and a second managed to shake the lure off in a spectacular leap just in front of me. Some of the rainbows have put on great aerobatics routines, but generally they lack the vigor of the bull trout. The day clouded, then threatened as I headed back down to Topaz campsite.

I started a fire (I did not have a stove) to cook the fish on the grill and boiled up water for a good wash. I broke camp at just before 5:00 p.m. and strolled 4 km downstream to the finest of the campsites; Ancient Wall horse campsite. The camp sits below the impressive saw-tooth range along blue Creek. There are certainly plenty of tasks throughout the day and routines are now well established but by day's end, the staff seems to be tired out. They say it feels great to lay down for a few minutes. Typically, the Blue creek campsites and other "real" wilderness sites have firewood others have left under a tree to ensure that fire can be easily started even on a rainy day. Etiquette requires replenishing at least what you have used. What is so unusual about the valley is the virtual lack of people; it feels strange to wander about all day, along wonderful lakes and not see a soul. I suppose in a few days when I leave the trail, seeing people all the time will seem strange.

A night with above freezing temperatures brought on a foggy morning. Oh-oh, the last time this happened it turned out pretty wet and cold. Crack-on! It was warm enough, around 5C, first thing to allow for mosquito smacking at the fire while sipping on fresh coffee. I broke camp in an hour and headed down a fast trail through the last of the Blue Creek dry meadows, passed the canyons and to forest, descending in all for almost 2 hours before the up junction to McLaren's Pass. From there it was stiff uphill some 5 or 600 metres of elevation gain and good views from almost the start. At one point, the terrain narrowed into a steep narrow valley with rock on the other side of the creek and a mixture of grass and rock on the north side. When I came around one corner, I caught a bull caribou off-guard some 60 metres above me. He pranced up the steep hills as if it was level and we both headed in the same direction for a short while though he went up much higher. He had huge rack, much larger than those that adorn the Topaz Lake Warden's cabin. He was dark chocolate brown in colour with a white tail. Reaching the flowered meadows of the pass, views opened up over the Snake Indian river and as far west as Mount Robson with only little cloud. The wind came up and I looked around to see the view of Robson wouldn't get better by climbing a hill behind the Ancient Wall, so I opted to have some lunch and continue on, after a wee wander through the dry meadows. The descent down, sharp at first, then a gradual trail without views (in forest) was in very good shape but seemed too long (my first +20km day). I reached the familiar setting of Little Heaven, a pleasant spot.

On arrival, I noticed that my food cache had been tampered with. Now that was a pleasant surprise. A horse group left me with 1/4 of a bottle of real wine! So tonight as maitre d'hote, I will be able to offer wine from nos caves. No mind that it Californian! I've put up the tent without the fly but flies encircle it. It's nice to sit or lie down and not have to worry about flies. They come in all shapes and sizes; mozzies, deer flies, black flies, horseflies, real tiny ones, real tiny ones with extra long wings that look like long dresses, cool red flies and tiger stripped ones. They all seem less interested in my companionship (I'm not much of a conversationalist when there are no other people) but all seem to have the same objective; to bite me. In the beautiful sunshine there is some blessing to the wind as it blows the bugs off. I cannot decide, no, I can decide. You hear or notice the sound of bugs more than any other sound. Other sounds include the wind, water (creeks), rain falling, fire crackling, Glenn clapping his hand to kill bugs (though he prefers the one-handed grab them out of the air routine), thunder, squirrels, my own footsteps, creaking of the trees, creaking of my pack (or is it my back) and birds.

The note with the wine read: "Aug 15/2000 hello Glenn! We had some wine leftover, and thought you'd maybe like some. It's quite good. Salut! Simon + the Towney IV gang". Simon was right. It was quite good. Kendall Jackson Zindafel 1996 Vintner's Reserve was tasty, very fruity, like a jam but not sweet. Delicious. It was a nice meal with some leftover trout. The food cache also seemed quite heavy on the "snacks" compared to the previous days so I'll be munching those banana chips and candied peanuts like there is no tomorrow until they run out. It's a good thing that the food cache was still in place because I was carrying mostly Ziploc bags.

The morning after the big booze up with 1/4 bottle of red wine. I wake up with a headache. I take an Ibuprofen and it goes away. It's not freezing first thing in the morning but it has been a cool night. It's overcast with blackish hue on the horizon. I took my time in the morning and was out by 9:00a.m. (I got up at 7:45). The pack is heavier with more food and the empty wine bottle. I figure the outfitters leave 1/4 bottles behind so backpackers can lug out the empties. It was the heaviest bottle I have ever lifted or carried for 3 days. Ha ha ha.

I marched down through the meadows towards the gap in the hills, following Mowitch creek which continued into an almost canyon with large wash-out soil banks on alternating sides forcing the trail to cross over and over again. Eventually, I put my sandals on for the third and forth crossings. I reached rock creek with its similar terrain though wider and the forested Rock creek campsite (seldom used) shortly thereafter. I heated up lunch (leftovers again?) then continued up the easy incline, past the Warden's cabin (thermometer indicated 16C at mid-day), over the park boundary ("No Firearms" sign) into Willmore Wilderness. The valley continued to widen and I thrashed through willows until I reached a campsite. I'm situated at the base of Eagle's Nest Pass. I had expected train after train of horses. Still haven't seen anyone yet. It's been 6 days since I saw Phil the Warden. Where is everyone? I haven't started to talk to myself but wonder what will happen in the human world. Will I talk to everyone I see? When I need to pee, will I just suddenly stop and pee in the next bush?

Today warrants special mention because of the arrival of new spices; the Nasi Goreng mix (stored in the food cache). And the green beans and cheddar cheese still march on! The campsite itself has a real horse smell. Perhaps there are ghosts of horses past but more likely it is the smell of manure in the small corral. I walked along Rock Creek trail for a short distance; it doesn't seem to get a huge amount of traffic (horses only it seems). The camp seems to specialize in the red flies that move so fast. They can suddenly be hovering then moving from side to side in front of your nose and if you go to swat them, the only thing you hit is your nose. I wonder if the Dalai Lama would swat mosquitoes. If asked, I'm sure he'd laugh and say they are only mosquitoes trying to bite you. Of course you swat them. I've also developed real skills on this trip. If asked about my strengths at a job interview, I could respond "I'm good at killing mosquitoes". Not to belabour the point, but the bugs are not horrific as I rarely put repellant on. The Starlight Ridge is on the western side of Rock Creek; there is a fantastic 10 mile ridge walk possible in good weather and with another day (in my 2 weeks, I cant do everything).

I could be in some steak diner in Hinton this evening, but instead I'm here by the Wildhay river (still a creek at this point). I began with a cool-ish morning and was all set to hit the road at 7:30 a.m. when drizzle, then rain came in so I waited in the ten for an hour. Blue skies appeared so I hit the trail, the real trail very quickly on. It's not the little one I wandered on last night but something a 4WD would enjoy. I walked up about 100 metres through a gap in the mountains and some interesting rock walls, formations then headed down into the beautiful Wildhay valley. It took less than 2 hours from creek to creek despite the slick mud. Showers moved in over the Persimmon range. And as I scurried down the valley with my rain coat on, I stopped at the Alberta Forest Patrol hut,. Hoping for a porch to stand on/under, the door was unlocked. Anyone is free to stay in the 4 bunk hut that includes a wood stove, Coleman stove, table chairs as long as it is left clean. There is even a free food shelf that others have left behind and a sign saying "help yourself if you need it" and I did. I grabbed a can of, yes, green beans and also of mushrooms. A couple of noodle soups, a soup mix and I was a happy camper. It later threatened but never rained the remainder of the day as I enjoyed noodle soup with canned vegies for lunch (they were more interesting than the rice and lentils at the time). Suddenly I started to meet people coming up the trail; it is Saturday on a main access trail. Views of the charming valley disappeared and the wide trail kept in the trees. The trail is good enough for an american President's motorcade to drive down. Even the Pope-mobile could navigate the trail, though some work might be required to the suspension if he wanted a smooth ride. It did turn muddy in places and I could understand how horrible the trail might be after plenty of rain (more suitable to mud wresting than hiking).

I found a horse campsite (no one else around) and took my last Willmore back-country bucket shower for a while and ate all the new food. I couldn't eat anymore.

Frozen water again in the washbasin. Frosty! I broke camp, forded the Wildhay Creek and it took about 15 minutes to feel my toes again. It was a quick walk uphill for the most part to parking lot. The beat-up old Honda had difficulty in starting, but soon thereafter I was on the asphalt trail wondering why I was driving away from the mountains.

GRUB: Food is important especially on a long trip. The key criteria for purchasing were weight, simplicity, relative ease of preparation and cost. I bought everything in a small town supermarket. Breakfasts worked will; granola and milk has a lot of energy (I used high caloric harvest Crunch) and fresh coffee is tough to beat. Bring real good coffee if you drink the stuff. Lunches were leftovers from the previous evening usually cold, sometimes hot. They were supplement with snacks and tortilla and cheese. It worked will with no complaints from the client. Dinners were better than expected but they lacked variety. The pasta went too quickly. Other possibilities would have been nice. A commercial dehydrated meal would have been good as a handy extra. I had no extra food allowance if held up for any reason towards the end of the trip. A real change of pace and extras in the food cache might have been excellent. Variety is important.

HYGIENE: I've always been used to getting grubby while hiking and sometimes a bucket bath out of cooking pots every 3 or 4 days. With fires to heat water and the portable washbasin (and water holder) made by Ortlieb, everything has improved. On longer trips you need to clean your clothes in either cold water or hot water with an optional pinch of bio-soap (never poured anywhere near the creeks). Every 2 days, I had a beautiful bucket bath. I must have been the cleanest guy around. Come to think of it, I was the only person around. But it is nice to stay relatively clean.

THE PACE: was good. It was not an endurance test. There still wasn't a huge amount of physical relaxation time because there are an amazing number of chores to be done by one person. My longest day was 23 km and that was plenty long. The fishing was a nice bonus. It got me out along creeks and lakes, where I wouldn't normally go and it was something different than walking. The fish were delicious though I wouldn't want to eat trout for too long. The fishing was good but required perseverance. The long nose pliers that I brought were indispensable.

FOOTWARE: this is another key item. My (leather with good ankle support) boots are very comfortable. The super light sandals worked well (many big name sandals are too heavy). However, when it was wet, my feet were wet. More waterproofing (I had already done 3 layers), bring waterproofing along, wear rain paints even in heavy dew, gaitors, waterproof socks, Gore-tex (warm) boots are some possible solutions.

CLIMATE: I really missed the mark on temperatures. I know this has been a cool summer, but the temperatures were more like I would expect in mid-September. It froze often. Warmer clothes and a warmer sleeping bag would have done it.

SAFETY: Driving to the trails is more dangerous than backpacking. I had a couple of close calls on Alberta's secondary highways on the way to the mountains. Some drivers are not very aware of other vehicles. Drive defensively especially near intersections and passing zones! As for bears, they are more afraid of me than I am of them. They don't like to be startled so I usually make a noise before walking around blind corners. They have excellent hearing and sense of smell but poor eyesight.

IF YOU GO: permits are required for overnight stays in Jasper National Park. No bookings are required for Willmore Wilderness Park. Access was via Rock Lake that is about 75 km north-west of Hinton, Alberta on the NE edge of Jasper National Park. Cost were minimal; my food cost less than $100cdn and permits (incl. fishing) would run you $44 for a back-country camping pass (good in all the Western National Parks) and a $13 Nat. Parks fishing license. That is less than $10 cdn/day. I used large-scale maps 1:250,000 and a 1:300,000 though 1:50,000 are available (a good one for blue Creek exists) and they were very adequate. "The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide" by Patton&Robinson is a very good resource and has information on Blue Creek and virtually all of the trails in the Western Mountain National Parks

return to Jasper part I

Ray's Web Page (Excellent website. Don't miss the Willmore Wilderness Slide Show.)

Jasper-Parks Canada Website

Explore Jasper Website

Suggested Equipment List and Food Ideas

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