Neil
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What a day! For a super abridged version go to the bottom of this post.
If this report was to have sub-title it would be : The Day That Kept on Giving.
I first got the idea of doing the entire McIntyre Range as a day hike while perusing the map figuring out how I’d do my remaining peaks. Then, when I stumbled on a thread about the Wright Slide I was hooked on the idea of combining the slide with the traverse.
We met Doug (Hillman1) at S. Meadows road at 6:00 and when we signed out at 6:15, there were already 3 parties ahead of us. On the trail to the Dam our headlamps quickly became superfluous as the day dawned crisp and clear, the mountains etched sharply against the deep blue sky. Our first objective was the Kagel LT which I think we missed.
7:00 We crossed Marcy Brook at the next LT and bushwhacked back down to Wright Brook through fairly open forest. We found the remains of what was obviously a bear’s booty and rooted through it for valuables but no luck. Once at Wright Brook I realised I didn’t know whether to follow the right or left bank. The mental coin toss said left and this was a good choice as we were on an old but well defined trail, a little boggy but easy to cruise on. Before long we came upon a tributary coming in from the SW. You could easily get caught dozing here and think this tributary was the main brook when you hit it but you have to cross it, towards the right. Otherwise, you’ll be off to perdition. After the crossing we were no longer on the old trail and as Doug pointed out NOW it was a bushwhack. The main direction is always due west so we basically just made sure we followed our shadows once the sun was on us.
At one point the stream bed becomes wide and flat, we stepped onto it into brilliant sunshine and an open view to the east. The steam rose thickly off of us. We ascended the stream bed when we could, leaving it to skirt some impassable sections but always coming back to it. The bushwhacking was fairly thick and a little strenuous as the grade steepened but our forward rate of progress was good. After a while I thought the going might be easier if we cut away at a 90 deg. angle to the right away from the creek. Don’t do this! We went straight up a tiny rubbly drainage that petered out after about 100 feet of ascension. We turned west and found ourselves in VERY thick bush. Snow fence stuff. We thrashed around big time working hard for every foot of progress. It was at this point that we experienced our first moments of doubt. I mean what’s a bushwhack without that feeling of, ‘’maybe we’re totally lost out here’’. We hadn’t caught so much of a glimpse of the mountain, we kept wondering if we had followed the wrong creek and Doc McPeak’s story about the 6-timer getting lost kept echoing in my head. We began to fantasize how nice it would be to just pop out onto the slide.
So we angled back down to the creek, checked the time, noticed we were still going west and decided we were on the right track and considering the 30 minutes wasted bush thrashing decided we should be within 15 min. of the mythical cairn I’d read about.
A little further up Dominic and I clambered up the South bank at a spot where it was particularly high and I cried out, `` I can see the summit!’’ 10 seconds later Dominic: ‘’I can see the slide’’ And then Doug: There’s the cairn!! Oh baby, 3 happier guys didn’t exist on the planet (unless they were on Basin) at that moment in time. Now totally galvanized, we took off up the drainage, narrow and rocky, dry this day. Then Doug remembered we had no water left so down we went (only a min.) and rested as we pumped. From there it was maybe a 10 min climb to where we broke out onto the slide and got hit by the sun’s full blast. The valley below was a kaleidoscope of reds, greens and yellows on this cloudless, windless, fall morn. Total time to the slide from the (wrong) lean-to, including the detour bushwhack was 2 and a half hours. So maybe figure on 2 hours if all goes perfectly well. (Does it ever?)
I would rate the slide as moderate in difficulty but don’t take this as gospel. My memory says it was a little steeper than E. Dix but 100% for sure easier than Colden’s 1992(?) slide. Its not a very long slide and soon enough we were near the top and had to cross a band of cripplebush. We split up and took 3 different routes and at the summit each of us felt we had taken the toughest route possible so be prepared for that 10 minutes of rough going. About a third of the way from the bottom I found a torn and mis-shapen small piece of heavy metal that we figured must be from the plane crash. Later I’ll post a pic of it and see what the experts say.
Now that this first crux was out of the way I took in the views as Dominic and Doug went to look unsuccessfully for the wrecked plane. It was a little strange to be on a busy summit after the first part of our day. Algonquin and the trail thereto was like a happening or a pilgrimage or something. Soaking up the summit sun Doug observed that the hum of conversation was like being at a cocktail party. Reluctantly, we peeled our carcasses off the summit after a good hour’s rest and said our goodbyes. Poor Doug went directly back to the Loj because he had to go to work.
Dominic and I cruised over to Iroquois and I think the best place to hang out yesterday would have been on Boundary Peak off the trail. I put on some bush proof clothing, hot and sweaty but protective and we dropped down to Shepherd’s tooth, or whatever you want to call it. The bush en route got very thick and heavy but right after the tooth if you descend its west ie. Wallface side there’s a herd trail of sorts that leads all the way down the mountain veering east to a chimney avoiding the cliffs. From Iroquois to the Marshall-Iroquois pass we took about an hour. That herd trail made all the difference. Note that I’m using the term in a rather loose sense – some people might want protective eye wear in there. A big plus, there was water on the route and by now we were dry.
It was 3:00 pm and dark and gloomy in Marshall’s shadow. We did Marshall and I don’t have much to say about this one other than the view off to the South is very fine. Our Marshall RT took 1 ½ hours (much better than allocating a whole day!) and now all we had left was the long hike out. The hiking trail down off of Marshall as it nears the Indian Pass trail junction is as nice as any I’ve ever hiked on. You’re on the side of a deep gorge with the creek far below. The pools were covered with multi-coloured leaves swirling in the current. Once down on the IP trail we had 5 miles to go and it was now 5:30. Eventually, it was pitch dark and with the fatigue and only having the little circle of light to follow I kept hallucinating that we were walking in place like on a treadmill. It was great to see the lights across Heart Lake and even better to see the car.
A quick note on night hiking: I’ve alwats done it with a super bright halogen headlamp running off a 4.5V flat battery but on this trip used a triple LED to save weight. I’m going back to the bulky unit because the LEDs didn’t project. They just gave us an anemic little circle of light at our feet. Had there been any ambiguities to the trail I would have felt quite insecure. As it was the IP trail’s a well maintained highway and the circle of light was infinitely better than nothing at all.
Abridged Trip Report
Wright:
Kagel lean-to. Cross Marcy Brook. Short downstream jaunt to Wright Brook.
Ascend left hand bank, keep alert for tributary entering left.
Follow main brook staying close, use creek bed when able.
After about 2 hours from LT watch for small cairn on right. Follow drainage up.
When slide is visible to your right make a b-line for it.
Short cripplebush bushwhack at top.
Iroquois-Marshall Bushwhack
Follow cairns towards tooth. Heavy bushwhacking to tooth. Descend west (Wallface) side of tooth. Pick up embryonic herd path and follow it. It skirts the cliffs veering left as you descend and goes down a chimney (not very steep). Go right at the main trail to find the herd trail up Marshall.
If this report was to have sub-title it would be : The Day That Kept on Giving.
I first got the idea of doing the entire McIntyre Range as a day hike while perusing the map figuring out how I’d do my remaining peaks. Then, when I stumbled on a thread about the Wright Slide I was hooked on the idea of combining the slide with the traverse.
We met Doug (Hillman1) at S. Meadows road at 6:00 and when we signed out at 6:15, there were already 3 parties ahead of us. On the trail to the Dam our headlamps quickly became superfluous as the day dawned crisp and clear, the mountains etched sharply against the deep blue sky. Our first objective was the Kagel LT which I think we missed.
7:00 We crossed Marcy Brook at the next LT and bushwhacked back down to Wright Brook through fairly open forest. We found the remains of what was obviously a bear’s booty and rooted through it for valuables but no luck. Once at Wright Brook I realised I didn’t know whether to follow the right or left bank. The mental coin toss said left and this was a good choice as we were on an old but well defined trail, a little boggy but easy to cruise on. Before long we came upon a tributary coming in from the SW. You could easily get caught dozing here and think this tributary was the main brook when you hit it but you have to cross it, towards the right. Otherwise, you’ll be off to perdition. After the crossing we were no longer on the old trail and as Doug pointed out NOW it was a bushwhack. The main direction is always due west so we basically just made sure we followed our shadows once the sun was on us.
At one point the stream bed becomes wide and flat, we stepped onto it into brilliant sunshine and an open view to the east. The steam rose thickly off of us. We ascended the stream bed when we could, leaving it to skirt some impassable sections but always coming back to it. The bushwhacking was fairly thick and a little strenuous as the grade steepened but our forward rate of progress was good. After a while I thought the going might be easier if we cut away at a 90 deg. angle to the right away from the creek. Don’t do this! We went straight up a tiny rubbly drainage that petered out after about 100 feet of ascension. We turned west and found ourselves in VERY thick bush. Snow fence stuff. We thrashed around big time working hard for every foot of progress. It was at this point that we experienced our first moments of doubt. I mean what’s a bushwhack without that feeling of, ‘’maybe we’re totally lost out here’’. We hadn’t caught so much of a glimpse of the mountain, we kept wondering if we had followed the wrong creek and Doc McPeak’s story about the 6-timer getting lost kept echoing in my head. We began to fantasize how nice it would be to just pop out onto the slide.
So we angled back down to the creek, checked the time, noticed we were still going west and decided we were on the right track and considering the 30 minutes wasted bush thrashing decided we should be within 15 min. of the mythical cairn I’d read about.
A little further up Dominic and I clambered up the South bank at a spot where it was particularly high and I cried out, `` I can see the summit!’’ 10 seconds later Dominic: ‘’I can see the slide’’ And then Doug: There’s the cairn!! Oh baby, 3 happier guys didn’t exist on the planet (unless they were on Basin) at that moment in time. Now totally galvanized, we took off up the drainage, narrow and rocky, dry this day. Then Doug remembered we had no water left so down we went (only a min.) and rested as we pumped. From there it was maybe a 10 min climb to where we broke out onto the slide and got hit by the sun’s full blast. The valley below was a kaleidoscope of reds, greens and yellows on this cloudless, windless, fall morn. Total time to the slide from the (wrong) lean-to, including the detour bushwhack was 2 and a half hours. So maybe figure on 2 hours if all goes perfectly well. (Does it ever?)
I would rate the slide as moderate in difficulty but don’t take this as gospel. My memory says it was a little steeper than E. Dix but 100% for sure easier than Colden’s 1992(?) slide. Its not a very long slide and soon enough we were near the top and had to cross a band of cripplebush. We split up and took 3 different routes and at the summit each of us felt we had taken the toughest route possible so be prepared for that 10 minutes of rough going. About a third of the way from the bottom I found a torn and mis-shapen small piece of heavy metal that we figured must be from the plane crash. Later I’ll post a pic of it and see what the experts say.
Now that this first crux was out of the way I took in the views as Dominic and Doug went to look unsuccessfully for the wrecked plane. It was a little strange to be on a busy summit after the first part of our day. Algonquin and the trail thereto was like a happening or a pilgrimage or something. Soaking up the summit sun Doug observed that the hum of conversation was like being at a cocktail party. Reluctantly, we peeled our carcasses off the summit after a good hour’s rest and said our goodbyes. Poor Doug went directly back to the Loj because he had to go to work.
Dominic and I cruised over to Iroquois and I think the best place to hang out yesterday would have been on Boundary Peak off the trail. I put on some bush proof clothing, hot and sweaty but protective and we dropped down to Shepherd’s tooth, or whatever you want to call it. The bush en route got very thick and heavy but right after the tooth if you descend its west ie. Wallface side there’s a herd trail of sorts that leads all the way down the mountain veering east to a chimney avoiding the cliffs. From Iroquois to the Marshall-Iroquois pass we took about an hour. That herd trail made all the difference. Note that I’m using the term in a rather loose sense – some people might want protective eye wear in there. A big plus, there was water on the route and by now we were dry.
It was 3:00 pm and dark and gloomy in Marshall’s shadow. We did Marshall and I don’t have much to say about this one other than the view off to the South is very fine. Our Marshall RT took 1 ½ hours (much better than allocating a whole day!) and now all we had left was the long hike out. The hiking trail down off of Marshall as it nears the Indian Pass trail junction is as nice as any I’ve ever hiked on. You’re on the side of a deep gorge with the creek far below. The pools were covered with multi-coloured leaves swirling in the current. Once down on the IP trail we had 5 miles to go and it was now 5:30. Eventually, it was pitch dark and with the fatigue and only having the little circle of light to follow I kept hallucinating that we were walking in place like on a treadmill. It was great to see the lights across Heart Lake and even better to see the car.
A quick note on night hiking: I’ve alwats done it with a super bright halogen headlamp running off a 4.5V flat battery but on this trip used a triple LED to save weight. I’m going back to the bulky unit because the LEDs didn’t project. They just gave us an anemic little circle of light at our feet. Had there been any ambiguities to the trail I would have felt quite insecure. As it was the IP trail’s a well maintained highway and the circle of light was infinitely better than nothing at all.
Abridged Trip Report
Wright:
Kagel lean-to. Cross Marcy Brook. Short downstream jaunt to Wright Brook.
Ascend left hand bank, keep alert for tributary entering left.
Follow main brook staying close, use creek bed when able.
After about 2 hours from LT watch for small cairn on right. Follow drainage up.
When slide is visible to your right make a b-line for it.
Short cripplebush bushwhack at top.
Iroquois-Marshall Bushwhack
Follow cairns towards tooth. Heavy bushwhacking to tooth. Descend west (Wallface) side of tooth. Pick up embryonic herd path and follow it. It skirts the cliffs veering left as you descend and goes down a chimney (not very steep). Go right at the main trail to find the herd trail up Marshall.
