Southern Rockies Exploration Week - 2020 Edition

[Red90]

Trip Report...

Sunday, August 23 we meet at the Horseshoe Rapids Recreation Site just south of Kootenay National Park around 20 km down Settlers Road.  We have three 90s, all with 200TDIs.  Myself, headdamage and DBrands.

Camp 1 - Horseshoe Rapids RS by ALRE Club, on Flickr

[Red90]

Day 1:

We head north with a plan to drive as far as the roads allow.  This takes us to the Marvel Pass Trailhead, which is the shortest route into the Assiniboine area. The road is in pretty good shape despite a sign at the beginning stating it is closed due to a washout.  There were half a dozen cars parked at the end, all with chicken wire enclosing the undersides.  Some lovely views of the divide.

Enjoying the view at the Marvel Pass Trailhead by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Enjoying the view at the Marvel Pass Trailhead by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3109 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Our next objective is to try and get across Miller Pass to the south. It was a road through many years back and I had read an ATV trip report from 2009, so it seems worth a try.  We first head up the Cross River.  There is a road on both sides and the maps all show the southern one as the main route.  We head down there and find a missing bridge at the first creek. We cross and continue along and at the next one, it is clear that they do not want us going this way.  It is strange that there were no signs.

IMG_3124 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

We turn around and head back and get on the northern road, which takes us through and we quickly get to the top of Miller Pass. We find the trail at the top of the pass and have a look.  There are fresh ATV tracks and fresh clearing, so that is encouraging and we head down. After around 2 km, we meet some side trails and the fresh tracks and fresh clearing disappear.  We are definitively on the right route, so we decide to give it our best effort.  The bush is pretty thick and we are stopping every few minutes to cut the bigger stuff.  We've decided that next time we need a trail clearing passenger.....  While using my Jedi mind powers to navigate along, I spot a washout to the left and decide to stop and look.  I almost had a heart attack when I saw I had stopped on the edge of a three foot vertical drop.  I've sure I would have put it on its side.

Start of Miller Pass Trail by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3129 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Needs a little clearing by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Red90 was within inches of driving off of this when he stopped. by ALRE Club, on Flickr

We clear the bush around the washout and continue on. A short while later we run into a creek crossing that requires digging out of the exit.  DBrands and I decide to walk 200 meters to the next crossing and look at it before deciding to push through.  It looks okay, so we head back and cross after a bit of digging.  We arrive at the next crossing and after I have another look and am about to drive across, I hear "you may want to look at this".  50 meters further on, the slope has slid and there is a 30 meter section with a walking path of flat ground left. We can't see a safe way to pass, so turn around and head back to start the long (65 km) drive around to the other end. We setup camp #2 at the Palliser-Albert Recreation site at the junction of those two rivers.  This puts us 12 km due south of where we ran out of trail. Many scratches and few small dents. I pulled off a flare, broke my snorkel top and a mirror, but not serious issues.

And it keeps going.... by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Camp 2 - Palliser/Albert RS by ALRE Club, on Flickr

[binch]

hhahahhahah   so what's the story to the spruce tree in the engine bay  ???

[Red90]

Day 2:

We head north up the Albert River FSR to have a look for the southern end of the Miller Pass Trail, just to see how far we had been to the end.  A little ways in we find a washed out bridge.  They have simply floated it on concrete blocks with nothing to stop the ends from washing away. Quality engineering.

Washed out bridge on Albert River FSR by ALRE Club, on Flickr

We find the trail end around 2.5 km from where we turned around and it is clear it has not been traveled on in years. We turn around and head towards our next objective.  This is an unnamed pass to the south at the head of Schofield Creek, so I will call it Schofield Pass.  For this pass, there are forestry roads coming up to both sides, with a clear, but short gap in the current roads.  The original road looks to have been deactivated.  From a review of the aerial photos, there is a clear track just on the west side of the pass and we had that set as the route to try.  We arrive and find fresh tracks and head the short distance to a fresh cut block.  I'm sure this is the right way, but the tracks are vague and I always hate driving through these due to the chances of staking.  We walk the path and find the other road around 200 meters away.  We clear a track and walk the trucks through.

IMG_3187 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

We get to the other side and head off down the road. Just as headdamage says on the radio "this looks like a good road", I drive up to the first creek with not only a missing bridge, but a lot of piled rubble quite clearly put there to stop traffic.  We look at it and decide the only way would mean we would need to rely on the winches for the first part of the climb and I was not overly enthusiastic about that option.  After some debate, we decided to search out another route.

IMG_3193 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3194 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

We head back and drive up the road on the west side of the valley. It does not go through, but it gives us a great view of the east side.  There are three roads.  The lower looks to have been filled in.  The middle looks like it might go through and the upper looks to have a gap.  We drive over and the lower (which is the original road) has been filled with logs.  We park at the middle and decide to split up.  DBrands heads up the middle road and headdamage to the top.  The middle road was first a steep road where they put in very deep drainage ditches every 50 meters.  At the top of this road, DBrands finds a trail that he follows.  All the while, headdamage is high above on the high trail and can clearly see all of the trails, so gives us all a play by play on the radio.  After getting through, DBrands heads down the road a bit to make sure it continues.  Once we get the all clear we follow him through and head out down south.

With all of the extra travel, DBrands is concerned about having enough fuel to make it to Fort Steele.  We decide that headdamage and I will find a camp and he will head off to Canal Flats for a refill.  We part ways at Whiteswan Lake and head down the White-Lussier FSR to the turn off to the Ram Creek Warmsprings.  headamage spotted a good camp spot a few km back on the Lussier River and we setup camp.  DBrands shows up half an hour later and we enjoy a nice evening around the fire.

Camp 3 - Lussier River by ALRE Club, on Flickr

[Red90]

hhahahhahah   so what's the story to the spruce tree in the engine bay  ???

David caught it somewhere on the return trip back up to Miller Pass.  It went in between the steering damper and the front cross member, past the power steering pump, through the intercooler hoses, beside the heater ending at the bonnet....  All with no damage!!!!

[Red90]

Day 3:

First thing we head into the Ram Creek Warmsprings.  You used to be able to drive through to the springs, but at some point (2014?) they have closed access within the boundaries of the ecological reserve to motorized users. We drove in from the east.  The road was fine, albeit a bit rough through the center section. The road ends 650 meters from the springs.  Strangely, they did not simply add barriers, but completely filled the road bed for the entire 650 meter to the springs!

A short walk brought us to these nice springs.  They were just the right temperature to let you stay in all day.  Being there in the morning, before the sun hit, worked out really well.

IMG_3206 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

After a nice soak, we headed back and continued south and retraced our steps from last year.  This includes a 7 km long off road section to join the forestry roads across a pass separating the Nicole Creek and Wildhorse River Valleys.  Our first goal was to find the Wildhorse Warmsprings.  We had tried to locate them last year, but had incorrect information.  After some research, I had found that last year we camped 200 meters from the springs without knowing....

We arrived at last year's camp and I went ahead to see if a driving trail went through to the springs.  We found and followed it.  It is quite a rough trail and I would suggest walking instead!

Wildhorse Warm Springs by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3214 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

After having a lunch break, we headed back out to the road.  On the way, headdamage had his steering wheel move 90 degrees and stay there.  We spent an hour looking over his truck and we are still not sure what happened. Another mystery for the ages.

Just south there is a house next to a bridge with a "bridge closed" sign only on the "bush" side and not the "civilization" side.  The deck was in bad shape, but there seemed to be two at the right spacing that were safe....

VERY sketchy bridge south of Wildhorse Warm Springs by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Despite the poorly maintained bridge, the rest of the road has clearly been maintained since last year.  We continued the long drive to Fort Steele and then across to the Bull River FSR.  We then headed back north and setup camp at the Summer Lake Recreation Site. This 105 km drive put us 7 km from the Wildhorse Springs.

IMG_3233 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3241 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

[binch]

hhahahhahah   so what's the story to the spruce tree in the engine bay  ???

David caught it somewhere on the return trip back up to Miller Pass.  It went in between the steering damper and the front cross member, past the power steering pump, through the intercooler hoses, beside the heater ending at the bonnet....  All with no damage!!!!

Oh, now there's a serious case of Horse Shoes!!!!!

[Trevor]

Great write-up John, sounds like you guys had an excellent trip! Very good to hear!

[Red90]

Great write-up John, sounds like you guys had an excellent trip! Very good to hear!

Two more days left!!!  Got stopped writing by a desire to get up at 3 am and go hiking by the boss.

[Red90]

Day 4:

Today's goal was to get over the Koko Claims / Crossing Creek trail from west to east.  We ran the trail in the other direction last year. After another long stretch of forestry road, we arrived at a trail sign that was a bit south of where we came out last year.  Apparently there is a short section of off road track that we did not try.  We headed up and found a rough section with a climb up a boulder sized marble hill.  Once past this section, there is a stretch of road before the climb to the summit.  On this side, there are two steep hill with loose dirt and rocks. It was only about half an hour to get to the summit, so this is much easier than the other direction.

Koko Claims / Crossing Creel Trail Summit by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Koko Claims / Crossing Creel Trail Summit Cabin by ALRE Club, on Flickr

The run down the very rough eastern side took around an hour and we headed into Elkford for refueling.  After leaving Elkford, we decided to go down the Sulfur Springs FSR instead of the highway.  We were greeted with a sign saying the road was closed due to a washout.  Headdamage was in the lead and took that as a challenge.  We found the washout close to the southern end and they were not kidding.

IMG_3253 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Washout on Sulfur Springs FSR by ALRE Club, on Flickr

A route was spotted that crossed the river and back over and we went out to try it out and were back on the road a short while later.  We then headed towards Northfork pass in search of a campsite.  We did not find anything perfect and settled on a large flat area near the bottom of the trail.

IMG_3259 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3258 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

[Red90]

Day 5:

We decided to call this our last day and stayed later than normal waiting for the sun to dry the tents. We headed up Northfork Pass and made it to the top in half an hour.  The ledges at the top of the Alberta side seem to be a bit more beaten up than in the past. Within an hour of starting the day we were back to the road in Alberta and heading out.  We passed a group of Jeeps and a group of Land Cruisers on the road that were heading up the pass.

We headed out to highway 22 and home.

Rocks at top of Northfork Pass Trail by ALRE Club, on Flickr

Rocks at top of Northfork Pass Trail by ALRE Club, on Flickr

IMG_3264 by ALRE Club, on Flickr

[Matt H]

Looks like it was a very fun trip! 👍🏻