Hey Packrafters - here's a trip report: Summer 2021 South Boundary Trail
< Day 14: we're down to two Wonderbars, one Mars bar, one foul Pomegranate gel, and a 12km grind to the road.
Some of you may recall a FB post on Packraft Canada with Bridget and I seeking a third and/or fourth for our trip - and... no takers. I can now say this was foreshadowing.
Quick bit about us before I get too far along: We’re backcountry vets with plenty of multi-day, multi-sport trips under our belts. Bridget has been running rivers in packrafts for about a decade and I’m newer to the sport – but have made up for lost time. We both have SWR and FA training. And, best of all, we both really like to carry heavy things over long distances.
We ran a very similar trip to this in 2020 on the BC / AB border and other than running out of food – were successful.
This year's South Boundary Trail via Packraft was inspired by Rachel and her crew who ticked off the North Boundary trail in summer of 2020 and posted on Alpacka's website. https://www.alpackaraft.com/blog/packrafting-jaspers-north-boundary. Not being familiar with AB rivers, we started looking a little closer at Jasper and Banff National Parks and then I stumbled across a great online video of two hardshell paddlers dropping in on the Brazeau River - that sealed the deal - trip planning started in earnest. Disclaimer: Bridget was wrapping up her Masters in Education this summer so most of the trip logistics fell to me by default - and I'm more or less a lay-about so it worked out.
I spent a bit of time reaching out to Rachel and the hard-shell paddlers and we did get connected with two legit Jasper Locals (Thanks Rogier and Ray!) who provided us with two gold nuggets of beta: the horse trail take out on the Brazeau and where to take out on the Rocky River to skip on the worst of the Rocky River Valley Burn.
I won't bore you too much - but the information for the SBT is a bit smattered: old guide books, old forums and some modern YouTubers updating sections on their channels. We went into it thinking there had been very little paddled, only to learn all three rivers are represented in an out of print Alberta Whitewater Paddling Guidebook. We also learned Parks Canada has abandoned the trail all points north from Cardinal Pass Access (Medicine Tent). This becomes important later on.
Here was the general plan:
Park at Nigel Creek and hike until we can put in the Brazeau River. Paddle the Brazeau until we have to take out to get back on the South Boundary Trail proper.
From Brazeau River take out we'd hike to the Medicine Tent Horse camp where we planned to put into the Medicine Tent River.
Paddle the Medicine Tent to the Rocky River and either paddle the length of the Rocky to the highway (depending on the gnar and our stoke) or take out at the Jacque Creek and hike to Jacques Lake and out to the highway
Give or take we planned to be out for about 10 days and cover somewhere around 180 (+/) kilometres. We packed one day of extra food and fuel as back-up.
Here's the highlights...
July 29-30-31 was packing, driving and all that jazz. We're stoked our food weight was 22 lbs for 11ish days. For you weight weenies out there, that's 1 lb per person per day. We make our own breakfast mix and dehydrate our own suppers. Lunches and snack food are tortillas/pitas, bars, cheese, jerky etc. And Bridget makes super energy balls that are the backbone of our eating when on the move.
And now for out not so stoke. Bridget's loaded pack was north of 60lbs and mine was north of 70lbs on day one. If anyone wants that break-down reach out. The places where we can loose weight are: #1 our bellies, #2 our sleep system (quilt?), #3 expedition weight drysuits (we both have four-ply gortex suits that work for our home rivers) and #5 lighter PFDs (we both have class V). Otherwise it is what it is as far as I can tell. I don't think the hyperlight backpacks fare very well when you get past 60lbs so we use our ski touring packs.
SECTION ONE
August 1-4 Brazeau River to take out before Southesk. About 60k. Five Stars.
Note for paddlers: we portaged two canyons on this section.
^ Beauty hiking on day one.
^That's a big pack, sure wish we could put in NOW
^The creeks and leaks that can be called the headwater of the Brazeau River
^ Put in at Four Points. Not recommended in August. Lots of dragging and bum schooching. Repair day is in our future. We were the talk of the campground with lots of people wondering what our plans are.
^ Easy float on flat water to our first night's camp.
^ Morning day two. Bugs went from an annoyance to non existent as the trip progressed.
^ Day two paddling. This would be a good put in in August.
^ Day two some class II and maybe a bit of class three.
^ Brazeau River Campground. Last time we'd share a site for while (one other couple).
^ If we had time, a paddle down the Brazeau river from the lake. Would have been sweet - looked fun.
^ No need for words on this one - it was classic Rockies postcards for the entire run of the Brazeau.
^ We took out to hike around canyon #1 and head to camp # 3 (Arete Horsecamp)
^ Bum Schooching Repairs
^ Never get tired of venison chili
^ The magic system right there: Yellow Crocks + Jetboil + insulated fair shares + 500ml nalgens for hot drinks (they double for water when hiking)
^ Day four
^ Critters.
^ Still pretty smokey - and still very pretty.
^ We lucked out and found the outfitter trail that crosses the river. Yard sale and we're packing for the hike to Southesk.
^ Sigh. Let the hiking begin.
^ Southesk Campsite. Don't let the lack of crowds fool you - this campsite has it all. High winds, no potable water and surrounded by sweet sweet swamps.
SECTION TWO
August 5 to 9. Southesk Campsite to Rocky River put in. Negative Five Stars. 50k of hiking.
Note for paddlers: Don't do what we did.
^ Leaving Southesk
^ Crossing the Southesk River. Engineering marvel by the Flying Trail Crew.
^ Does this pack make me look fat?
^ Confirmed. There's no foot bridge. Warden humour is my guess.
^ Crossing a tributary of the Cairn River
^ Insert clever caption here.
Ugh. More hiking.
^ Lesson learned: bring rain pants when hiking in the Rockies
B's eye protection in fine form.
^ Ugh.
^ Cairn Pass Site - cool sheds and shared the site with some hikers who came in via Cardinal Pass
^ Day 7 and the hike up to the elevation high point: Southesk Pass. Windy and dry. Thankfully.
^ Lunch above 2000m
^ Willow as far as your legs can take you. We're trying to figure out how to fit a horse on a packraft.
Same day and the low point of the trip. This is the Medicine Tent Warden Cabin / route to the Horse camp... which crosses the very very very shallow Medicine Tent River. Crushed to learn we have to hike another 20K at least. Bridget dries my tears and we shoulder our packs and carry on.
^ More hiking. Some great old signage still hanging around. Trail from Medicine Tent to Rocky Forks Horse Camp starts to get rustic... and unmaintained.
^ a foreshadow of the Rocky Forks Horse Camp.
^ August 8th. Hiking with all available layers. Hot lunch improves the mood.
The trail quickly send my mood south.
^ Bridget - as usual = full stoke.
We're heading the right way at least.
The Blair Witch Project Film Location AKA Rocky Forks Camp. Tied in first place with Southesk for the site with the least or the most depending on what you're looking for.
^ Softened and ready for my pedi
The forest took this sign and my guess is the privy too.
SECTION Three
August 9 to 11 Rocky River Put in to Take out near Jacques Creek
Note for paddlers: Do This River - remote, beautiful and chill.
^ I am looking GREAT! Ready for MORE hiking. Leaving camp and heading to the Rocky - we hope!
^ Apparently this part of the trail had been closed in the past because of an aggressive griz.
^ There it is! The Rocky River! Finally! This section was littered with wood so we skipped it and put in below the falls.
^ Ready to paddle!
^ There he is - haven't seen that guy in like 60k
^ This section is classic class II with the biggest hazard being wood in the corners.
^ Days 9 and 10 were spent on this gravel bar. Weather was great, no bugs. We chilled, read and stretched. We figured at this point we had two days to get off the river to the highway so we rationed our extra food a bit
^ Day 11 is bobbing down the Rocky on a sunny day without a care in the world. Blissful.
^ One of Bridget's favourite things
Alpacka Postcard?
^ Walking around wood.
^ Camp night 11 - not much room.
Bridget looking at tomorrow's plan.
SECTION FOUR
August 12 to 14 Rocky River to Maligne Lake Road (22ish k)
Note for paddlers: Don't do what we did.
^ So innocent. So ignorant. This is 8:00 AM August 12. What we don't know is we're about to hit peak temperature for our trip - mid burn and mid day the temps were over 35C.
^ and this is 8:01 AM August 12
^ and this is 8:01:01 AM August 12
^ Yup - those pecker pole pines are about 8' tall and about 2" in diameter. Spacing is about what you would consider a wall. Solid. Dense doesn't do it justice. The ground was a fiction and we only used it to crawl on - if we were on our feet, we were in the air on old burnt blow-down. The trail showed itself on the rare occasion - just to heckle us really.
^ can you see her? She's in there - looking for another snack.
^ The faintest crack in the Steadfast 100% Bridget Stoke. Snack is not helping.
^ This forest even eats young whitetail bucks. He should have brought snacks.
^ I'm still happy at mid day snack time.
^ Does Bridget look ok here? That smile is a little forced if you ask me. I'm happy because we appear to have covered about 1500 m in four hours.
Just going to rest here for a bit.
^ This is just before heat stroke took me out for about two hours. Bridget saved the day by dropping her stuff with me and hiking to water. I was a heat stroke poster child: deep shivers, vomit, strength loss and my head in a vice. I climbed into a sleeping bag to try and warm up and Bridget came back with many litres of water. I drank, rested, re-grouped and we carried on to Jacques Creek.
^ Look the Stoke is back at 11:00 PM! We're fed and watered here and very ready for bed. Day 12 tally: Hiked 8:00 AM to 10:30 PM and covered 3.8 KM. 14.5 hours of travel. That's .262 KM per hour. No more burns. Ever.
^ Day 13 and we're splitting the already split breakfasts. Our last dinner was night 12. Packs are considerably lighter.
Basically camped on a spring - spongy, but the water was close.
^ We're mostly following a trail now and are pretty friggin stoked about that.
^ We're heading to the sweet low spot on the horizon. That's Jacques Lake. We follow Jacques Creek for most of the way.
^ The last sad tortilla and some moldy cheese. Classic end of trip snack.
^ Few more shenanigans to wade through until we get to Jacques Lake
Wilderness Route: trails and facilities are not maintained beyond this point. Man they should have had that sign at Medicine Tent!
^ Jacques Lake !
^ A kind couple gave us a boil-in-the-bag meal the night before so the situation wasn't totally western. But here we are: 12k to go and 100% fueled by sugar.
^ Day 14!
^ My kids think I should always wear my pants like this.
^ That's that - Maligne Lake Parking Lot! August 14th
^ No thanks to this guy - we did get a ride to Jasper and then another from Jasper to Nigel Pass Trailhead.
^ Certainly this fine lady is why they stopped.
^ Beer! Burgers! Onion Rings!
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