Section B – 195km / 121mi, Alternates: Coral Pass – This section begins in Crowsnest Pass near the quaint towns of Coleman and Blairmore, proceeding north to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis, Alberta. This is one of the longer stretches in between resupply points. Except for a small portion in the north, random camping is allowed throughout. 2022 marked the grand opening of the High Rock Trail, the new official route of the GDT. As such, this part of the trail is in excellent condition. The High Rock Trail follows the east side of the mountains, running parallel to a popular ATV road. Vehicles and active forestry operations may be encountered in some parts.
The route goes over Tornado Saddle and Fording River Pass, the 2 most challenging points of this section. At the end is a roughly 18 mile dirt road walk, the longest on the GDT. There’s an option to skip some of the road walking by taking the Coral Pass alternate, which not many do as it involves a difficult river crossing and adds time/distance to an already long stretch. There’s almost no cell service along the way. The GDTA manages resupply lockers at the end at Elk Pass trailhead, to allow resupply boxes to be deposited and stored for hikers. Coming into Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, random camping is no longer permitted, but there are plenty of commercial options, including a full-service campground with showers, store, and snacks at Boulton Creek.
Thursday, July 11th, 2024, 1130-1630
Coleman\Atlas ATV staging area to Window Mountain Lake Camp, mm 108.5
10.5 miles, Gain: 3050′, Loss: 2500′, elevation 6540′
I don’t often wish I had more time in town but I did this morning. I hoped to catch up on the blog but time just slipped away from me. I spent forever just getting the Barnaby ridge post done. We all had chores still to get done in the morning too. Woody and I took a bunch of extras to the PO to mail to Golden. We’d get there in about 12 days according to our plan. We had to push back our meeting time with Chantel the shuttle driver since we were all running late. Alex really had trouble getting a hitch from Fernie, so it was good we delayed anyway. I guess hitching in Canada isn’t always as easy as I had it.
Five of us met up for our yellow-blazing shuttle ride…our original group from Waterton. I didn’t mind skipping the road walk with the others. It was only for 6.5 miles and just mostly highway and dirt road. Let it be known, Vince and Georgie did slack-pack the road walk the day before, wanting to connect footsteps. The rest of us just didn’t care.
Yellow blazing can be a slippery slope because it can also lead to blue-blazing. As soon as we arrived at the trailhead, everyone but me and Alex decided to just continue up the dirt road. I’d read a lot about the new High Rock Trail that had just been purpose built for the GDT, so I wasn’t about to bypass it for a dusty hot dirt road. We had to go up in elevation quite a bit to get to our campsite anyways. I’m sure we did a lot more ups and downs on the windy trail but it went along the shoulder of the high mountains and was just stunning. I later learned that it took the volunteers over 8 years to build 50 kms, so I was glad to honor their efforts in hiking it in its entirety.
We caught up to Ricky-Bobby and Helena just as we started. We had to go through a river valley and then a few clear cut areas but soon we were cruising above the tree line, taking in the alpine views. We had incredible sights of the Crowsnest and 7 Sisters Mountains across the valley. They stood as sentinels, marking our progress north. By the end of the day, we’d reached a junction leading to the lake and began a very steep ascent of the moraine that held the lake. Our reward for this final big exertion was a beautiful alpine lake, complete with a pit toilet, food lockers, and lovely campsites.
And we had a really special treat: Vince and Woody dragged up bratwurst and tortillas to roast on the fire! There were enough for everyone (all 8 of us) to have 2 each. They tasted so good, but I was still tempted to cook one of my dinners. I refrained, deciding to dedicate my extra food to my lunches instead. Before dinner, Woody and I did a walk around the lake, which was very nice. Then later as Michelle was putting her food in a locker, she saw a grizzly near the edge of the lake outlet. Maybe we walked right by it earlier. At least I remembered to take my bear spray with me.
Just before everyone retired, I heard a high pitched whine start to ramp up. I asked the others if they heard it too. I’d experienced the sound before in the Everglades. It was the collective hum of millions of mosquitoes winding up for the night, and yet they weren’t really bothering us. There were the occasional few, but not a swarm, as indicated by the hum in the air. It was weird. It seemed like a precursor to mosquitoes to come. They just hadn’t started biting yet.