Howse Pass Trail
On our way back from our 5-day trip to the Castleguard Meadows in September, there was one stop along the road back to Banff I felt like I couldn’t pass: The Howse Pass Lookout. I had just completed the excellent book Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West by Canadian author D’Arcy Jenish about the life of the most ambitious explorer and fur trader of all, David Thompson. He was, in June 1807, the first European to cross the Great Divide to the west side of the Canadian Rockies. The path he found, Howse Pass, had been used by the Indigenous people for hundreds of years as a passage towards the Alberta plains where bison was abundant. I walked to the signs at the lookout point and was immediately in awe, standing in front of such an important place in Canada’s History. Although the pass can’t be seen from the lookout, looking at the map helped spot Mount David Thompson deep into the valley.
I knew the trail leading to the pass had been decommissioned a long time ago. When I expressed my desire to hike this trail one day, Andrea looked at me and said something like: “Well you can go by yourself if you want”. How could I blamed her when we just stepped out of the Alexandra River trail not even an hour ago!!
Little did I knew at the time that I would be hiking this trail a month later! An unexpected business trip to Yellowknife gave me an opportunity to spend a few days in Alberta on my way back home. Having only a couple of days to organize a 3-day trip, the low elevation Howse Pass made sense as an early winter had already dumped lots of snow at higher elevation. Finding information on this trail was even harder than the Alexandra River trail. Luckily for me, the Howse Pass Trail is part of the Great Divide Trail and, I was able to easily contact Dan Durston, a fellow Canadian who hiked (along with his wife Tara) the entire Great Divide Trail in a “yo-yo” way, meaning back and forth for an astonishing 2300km across the Canadian Rockies! [Click here to access his blog, and click here to watch the amazing videos of his time on the GDT]
Reading his guide on the GDT on his blog, I came across this:
“ The absolute worst part of the GDT is probably the Howse valley with it’s infinite deadfall. There is 5-10km of trail here that is truly terrible, but thankfully there is an excellent and spectacular alternate route on the floodplain. This floodplain alternate has been added to the GPS track for 2018 and I beg you to take it. ” (Source: https://intocascadia.com/great-divide-trail/)
Of course, me being me, I had to choose the worst section of this already hard 1130km trail as my next destination. I was wondering how bad could it really be and Dan was really helpful answering my questions and even sent me the GPS track of the floodplain alternate route for me to use. It was a new route that had been created for this GDT section and I was pretty excited to give it a try. My plan was to walk as far as possible on the first day, ideally not too far from Howse Pass. I would make it to the top of the Pass early on the second day and walk back as far as possible, leaving me with an easy third day to walk out. The distance to Howse Pass from the trailhead is around 30 km, for a planned total of 60-ish km in three days.
I was on the late-night flight from Yellowknife to Calgary and after picking up my rental car, I drove right away to Canmore and slept for a few hours on the back seat of the Toyota Camry (never again) in a place where overnight parking is tolerated for all the #VanLife adepts. I woke up early and drove for 2 hours to the trailhead near Saskatchewan River Crossing, stopping multiple times along the way to enjoy the golden hour!
The Mistaya Canyon parking lot – where the trailhead is located – was closed for construction. I had to park further down the road, leaving me with a steady uphill kilometer to begin with! Nothing better to warm up my legs and to make sure my new backpack was adjusted properly.
As expected, there was snow on the trail as the first 6 kilometers were in the forest. Banff had received a 30cm snow dump a few days earlier. I was confident that the river valley would be clear based on the recent sunny weather. The path was still easy to follow and except for a few icy sections, it wasn’t hard at all to navigate. Nonetheless, the trail conditions would mainly dictate how far I could go on this first day as the weather didn’t seemed to be a concern for now.
With both feet already wet, I reached the opening on the trail near the confluence of the North Saskatchewan River and the Howse River. At this point, I only had a few kilometers left before walking next to Howse River for the rest of the trip. The fall colors in a coniferous environment are quite different than what we see in Eastern Canada, with the ground turning gold with shades of orange and yellow because of the late season dryness. The surrounding peaks partially covered with snow made up for a beautiful scenery.
I walked the last curvy section before the trail opened up on the majestic Howse River and its dozens intertwining channels. WOW!
I must’ve starred at the valley for 15 minutes.
At this point, there was a fork on the trail with an arrow made out of rocks pointing left into the forest. Following the GPS track, the way to go was indeed on the left. Going right meant crossing all the channels multiple times. Getting my feet soaked wasn’t part of the plans today nor was the time-consuming “socks-off-crossing-socks-on” process every 5 minutes. So left I went, following the Howse River closely, giving me access to the purest water to re-hydrate.
The trail kept disappearing… and when I least expected it, I was back on it again.
The trail went back into the forest and soon it was like walking on the Alexandra River trail again. Brutal. Deadfall all over the place. Not a big surprise as I knew what this trail was all about. But it was worst than I thought. The amount of branches still on the fallen trees were making this quite painful.
My progress was slowed down by this previous section. I had enough of this mess and I took the decision to leave the forest and walked on the river flats from this point on. This section of the river had only one main trunk and no channels.
The clock was ticking and I soon realized I overlooked one important detail while planning this trip. While I confirmed beforehand that the twilight would end at around 7:00PM at this time of the year, I forgot to take into consideration that being so low in a valley would make the sun disappear even earlier behind the mountains. It was now 5:00PM and I was already loosing daylight.
I had two choices: keep pushing towards the Pass while staying on the flats or start finding a decent place to pitch my tarp for the night. I chose the latter simply because chasing the last area flooded with sunlight meant walking another 3-km past Mount David Thompson. The area at the base of Mount Outram was exposed but I was able to set up my tarp with a flat side against the wind. I decided to leave the tent back home this time to enjoy the stars and get a more “up-close and personal” connection with nature.
After camp was setup, I had dinner near the river with the sound of the wind as a background music. The sky was clear and the night was promising. It was a very serene evening. I wrapped my Ursack around a solid trunk and the only thing left for me that night was to enjoy the sunset, walk around with my camera and relax under my shelter near a tiny campfire.
The moon was bright that night and I was able to finally get a decent picture of the stars. Night-time photography is hard, but when you have all night, what’s the rush? I tried my luck for a while and finally retreated in my bivy bag.
The wind woke me up in the middle of the night. My tarp was flapping wildly. My bivy bag kept me protected from the wind and I slept well. I woke up at around 7:00AM. The wind was now blowing hard. Just walking towards my food bag required efforts. It was coming from the direction I was supposed to follow that day. I could see huge sand blasts flying in the air from the river flats. I juggled with what to do next while having breakfast under the tarp. An hour later, the wind was still relentless. I packed up and tried making my way in the right direction and it became obvious it was not a great idea. I couldn’t walk and breathing and perilous with the wind against my face. With no second thoughts, I turned around… but at least it was sunny!
Morning has to be my favorite part of the day in the mountains. The golden hour, the pink and orange colors on the horizon, the shadows on the ground… they all made me forget I wouldn’t reach Howse Pass this time. But I learn from every adventures. And making right decisions is a skill I value a lot. Walking in cold winds with wet feet could turn any backpacking trip into a disaster in no time. And this backpacking trip had always been about the journey and not the destination.
Now that I was walking back to the trailhead, I knew my way and decided to skip the brutal forest section and walk entirely on the river flats. The scenery was incredible and knowing that the water levels were low, I was down for a few crossings. Not following a trail is really fun and exciting. I came across so many different animal tracks. The wolf tracks were the most impressive by their size.
The wind never stopped blowing the entire morning. I was continually crossing river channels. Some were flowing faster than others but they were all somewhat easy to tackle. Earlier in the season, one would be foolish to attempt this route and the forest would become the mandatory suffering of the Howse River Trail/GDT.
Walking here was definitely more enjoyable. That eternal desire of solitude I am looking for in the backcountry was gladly found.
If it wasn’t for the history books, nothing would indicate that I was walking on an important trading route of the past. Every spring, the river erases every single footprint left behind on the floodplain, just as if Mother Nature was leaving a blank canvas for us to draw our own itinerary on. And at this very moment, it was my turn to do so.
While walking along the river, I came across a well used trail with lots of horse tracks. It was quite hard not to think of David Thompson and his horse party who, in May 1807, had to wait a few weeks for the snow to melt before attempting to reach Howse Pass a month later in June. No doubt that horses made fording the glacial river easier. I decided to follow the trail to see where it would bring me.
Surprise… I was back at the fork on the trail! Who ever placed the arrow must’ve been traveling earlier in the season because to me, using the horse trail made way more sense. Looking back at it, taking the trail to the right would’ve probably put me way closer to the pass the day before. I’ll know for next time!
Just before walking back into the forest for the last few kilometers, I noticed a big black bear footprint. It wasn’t there when I walked through this area 24 hours ago. “Poor guy” I told myself… there was not much food left around, the ground being dry and partially covered with snow in this area. I turned my music on on my phone and sang along to make sure that Yogi wouldn’t find a dirty hiker mouthwatering before his hibernation.
The Mistaya Canyons were interesting to discover now that the time was on my side.
Tired, I drove back as the sun was starting to set. And so did my hiking season in the Rockies for 2018. If the Howse Pass Trail was my last hike of the year, it would surely end up an incredible season the right way. As I walked my last kilometer earlier in day, I reflected on 2018 and felt extremely lucky to have been able to come here half a dozen times over the last few months. These mountains are my happy place. My daily life in the city is overwhelming at times and puts a real mental strain on me, so my trips into the wilderness are therapeutic in a sense. I suffered from depression in the past and it is primordial for me to take care of my myself, to go to places where I can shut my brain off and go back to simple things. Doing so allows me to reach my inner balance. I will keep walking in the mountains. I can’t envision my future without them. Travelling so much between the biggest city and the biggest mountains in the country lately had led me to ask myself… where do I really belong?
[Note: When I wrote this post a few years back, I had no idea I would eventually move to Calgary. I did like I always did in my life and seized an opportunity to improve my situation. Up to this day I’ve been on so many adventures in the Rockies but this one on the Howse River Trail remains very close to my heart. It was my first solo overnight in the real wilderness. I was smiling the entire time, I was happy, scared and excited. I got hooked on solo hiking because of this adventure. Follow your dreams and they will lead you to incredible places!]