35 miles of hiking • 6500' elevation gain • 3 nights
All summer Bucket and I shared vague talk of going to the Sawtooths or White Cloud mountains of Idaho as our 'big backpacking trip' of the summer. 4 days before our departure date I stumbled onto the summitpost page for the Kootenay Rockwall Trail. I showed Bucket a picture and she said it looked great.. the pressure was now on to figure out a smorgasbord of trip logistics: permits, trail info/mileages, lodging, and weather.
Permits ended up being easy to get for this--though permit availability on the Saturday we started dictated we begin our trip going North to South even though most go S to N. Going South saves the 'best' scenery for last keeps you from doing a trudging uphill on your first day from the car so it has its merits. The National Parks in Canada are somewhat ridiculous. While paying $9.80 per person, per night to camp along the trail, we were also paying $19.75/day for our car to be Parked at the trailhead. Fairly steep in my opinion but getting the annual pass didn't help us at all either. The trail is not a loop so either 13km of road walking, two vehicles, a shuttle, or hitch-hiking is required. You only camp in designated spots that you have the permit for. All camps have leveled tent pads, a privy (or two), cooking area with benches/tables, and a set of metal bear-boxes which are set on a nice concrete slab.
Day 1 - Saturday Sept 1st
Left Bonner's Ferry around 8-9am that morning. By the time we took care of things in Radium Hot Springs (Just outside Kootenay Park) it was 3pm when we parked at Floe Lake Trailhead then tried for 20 minutes to hitchhike north on Hwy 93. No luck...plenty of empty cars passed though. We walked back to the car thinking we'd have have to drive to the North Trailhead (Marble Canyon) and worry about getting back to the car when we finished (we really didn't want to do that!). Anyways there were some day hikers who had returned to their vehicles so we solicited a single guy and managed to finagle a ride. People have a real difficult time telling you NO when they have to look at you.
Left Marble Canyon TH at 4:45 or so with 16.2km of trail to get to Helmet Falls Campground. This was a lot of miles, late in the day, with full packs..we had hoped to get crackin around 2pm..The weather was overcast and had been spitting bits of drizzle. Well we quickly encountered lots of wet brush lining the trail, a theme we became intimately familiar with in 2009 on the North Boundary Trail by Mt. Robson. Then the rain started.. and it slowly got dark. we made it to camp around 7:30 or so, completely drenched. Bucket's ancient PreCip rain coat performed as you'd expect--like wearing a nylon windbreaker. My core was dry with my newer shell jacket. Some sweet souls from Alberta had a fire going which helped her warm up and there was a 'ranger's cabin' with a covered porch we huddled under to cook dinner. The rain stopped in the night and the moon was out briefly.
Day 2 - Sunday Sept 2
Awoke to overcast sky. Donned rain gear and rain pants to deal with wet brush. Slow to leave camp. Dread to put on wet trail runners. We see Helmet Falls, which cascades maybe 1000ft off a glacier above the rockwall. A mile from camp we climb to our first pass, Rock Pass..where there is a few inches of snow everywhere on the alpine flowers and larch trees. The rest of this day managed to stay dry. Windy, Cloudy at times, clear at others. We got some great views and mostly stayed high on the trail. Had a nice break to dry the tent and eat lunch. Got to Tumbling Creek Camp which has a beautiful view of the Tumbling Glacier from the cooking and eating area. We managed another dry night with the moon out even.
Day 3 - Monday Sept 3rd
We awoke to more clouds and within an hour of hiking--more rain. This was bitter to me. Our last full day on the trail and we've yet to get any blue-sky big views. This day would have us going over Tumbling and Numa Pass, the high point of the trip. It was suppose to be the scenic day that we come down to majestic Floe Lake. We made it over Tumbling Pass and into Numa Camp and ate a bit. We were soaked, again. The rain was intermittent. We didn't see a lot of people but all we saw seemed 'fine' with the rain like it is normal. But almost every single person we talked with was from Calgary or Edmonton.. a few hour drive away. As Oregonians we have a real problem hiking in the rain in August and September--in fact year around I simply do not hike in the rain. Ever. Snow a plenty, yes. Caught in rain freak incident, yes, but actively going on a hike when rain is predicted-nope. Anyways opted to continue on instead of bailing out (could have done this)..decided it would shortchange ourselves by quitting, even though we both were not having fun-we just didn't want to deal with the hassle of being in a tourist town spending money. So on we went, the rain eventually stopped but it stayed heavy overcast. Slight distant views from Numa Pass, and then some visibility down into Floe Lake with the big limestone rockwall behind it. Lots of Western Pasque Flowers. We descended to Floe Lake Camp.
Camp was fine--I don't think we even cooked dinner, nope, we didn't. I went to sleep at 7pm or something ridiculous, in a pretty bad mood, but not a total meltdown of negativity.
Day 4 - Tues Sept. 4
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY Awake to mostly clear skis. Moon was out in the night. Having gone to sleep so early I awake before first light in order to capture the photographic magnificence of this most wonderful location. There is just 2 or 3 other groups at this very large campground. We make breakfast alone in the cook area as the sun illuminates the barren rock. It is a cold morning but at least it is sunny. We spend a little while, me getting to revel in photographic bliss, before we pack camp and hike back to the car.
The hike out is downhill nearly without pause. We go through an old burn area (2003) and see the most fireweed I've ever seen. We're treated to the best clear sky Canadian Rocky Mountain views we've seen yet. We get to our car, find a mouse has gotten into a large rubbermaid bin and chewed a few items--the hassle and nerve! I drink a beer.
We go into Radium Hotsprings around 2pm and get a Motel (plug for the Crescent Inn Motel -- very nice!!!). We do some grocery shopping and errands for the next leg of our trip which we wills tart the next day (Mt. Assiniboine). Then we visit the hotsprings proper and soak for about 2-3 hours before having a nice dinner at a traditional German restaurant. Gear up then at the motel before bed. Now thats the way to spend a day.
