The trip got off to a late start with Jenn working until midnight the night before. Construction on the highway set us back a bit further to the point we were probably close to two hours later than I had hoped when we set off from the trail head. That may have started us off on the wrong foot but the weather kept us there. And what horrible weather befouled our trip? Cold and rain? I wish. Unrelenting sunshine and sauna like heat. The temperature hovered just below 30C and the sky didn't contain a single cloud for the duration of our little stroll.
Our goal for the first day was to make it from the Mosquito Creek trail head parking lot on the Icefield Parkway to camp at Devon Lakes by taking a shortcut through Quartzite Col. The hike starts off simple enough along the well tread Mosquito Creek trail but the adventure begins right as the first major tributary joins with the creek. While the trail crosses a simple double log bridge over the tributary, our path was along the shore of the creek through the brush.
The bushwhacking started out easy. We found a faint game trail that managed to get us a good way. But things quickly began to deteriorate from there. With the sun directly overhead and absolutely no wind the forest quickly became a sauna. Without a true trail we had to choose between more open terrain with total sun exposure or some of the nastiest bushwhacking I've had to battle through.
The sun was wearing us down and Jenn took a tumble into the creek while trying to cross early on. A couple more crossings and I mistook a landmark and a cairn for the beginning of the ascent which led us into some impassably thick underbrush. Fortunately we figured out I'd made a mistake relatively quickly and were able to force our way through the brush back down to the creek and resumed our trek to the correct turn off.
The beginning of the ascent to the col began in a dry creek bed. We thought we had hit pay dirt with the creek bed cutting through the brush up to the slope. However it didn't take long for that dry creek bed to become a damp creek bed and then a full fledged creek so we were forced to forge our way through the brush again.
The day was full of mixed blessings. The dense brush gave us a little shade but made bushwhacking that much harder. Then we broke out of the brush as we ascended above the treeline and the going got a lot easier but the unrelenting sun resumed draining us.
Jenn's spirits waned as the col came into view but we slogged on. We took a break in the high meadow just before the last ascent to the col. It was the last soft ground and water we would see for hours. The ascent to the col was one of the most painful I've endured. The consistency of the rock changed constantly. From huge boulders to thin scree and everything in between. Sapped by the heat and weighed down under our packs we each took a couple tumbles. One fall on my part came very close to be being nasty if my trekking pole hadn't wedged between rocks and broken my fall but bruised me real good.
It was nearly 6 in the evening by the time we reached the col. At this point I had given up any hope of reaching Devon lakes that night and was growing increasing concerned with reaching soft ground and a water source before dark. We reached the intimidating lip of the col and reached Jenn's limit. Nearly 11 hours of walking in that heat and slogging up close to 2500 feet in elevation gain had put her near the edge and the precipitous drop over the other side was more than she could take. I left her to collect herself while I scouted ahead from a route down.
I was sure I had found a route down but Jenn wasn't sure it wouldn't end in a cliff. I was confident their was a route down and it was just a matter of finding it. We debated returning the way we came and hoping to make the high mountain meadow before dark to camp for the night. We also knew that would mean some unfavourable bushwhacking the next day while we attempted to retrace our steps back to the car. While the valley on the other side of the col was nearly devoid of any vegetation taller than either of us and finding the official trail across it would consist of talking through bush no higher than our knees.
With some trepidation we decided to continue and descend into the unknown. I found a route trying to descend as quickly as possible while not approaching any possible ledges too quickly. The only things we had going for us at that point was good scree for descending. But even that proved a challenge as at times it was so thin a slide would just keep going and trying to stop it as you approached a ledge was at times a challenge.
The scree and dirt quickly because talus slopes and then a field of boulders. We could see our campsite from the top and watched as the shadow of the mountain slowly covered it. The last few hundred meters across the rock field were perhaps the scariest as jello legs and a tired mind could have easily led to a stumble that could have twisted an ankle or broken a bone.
We trudged on and made camp around 7:30. Just in time to set up the tent, cook dinner and pass out as the sun went down. Despite it's improvised nature, that camp was a great site. Immediately next to a clear running creek on soft mossy ground. The biggest downside was the lack of anything tall enough to hang our food off of.
The extreme heat of the first day, combined with a couple minor mis-steps resulted in us consuming a lot more food than I had planned and put out of range of Mount Willingdon as was the plan for the second day. Even if we had the strength to move camp to Devon Lakes and summit Willingdon, we were on pace to exhaust our food supply a day early.
It wasn't a tough decision to remove the summit from our itinerary. We made our way to Fish Lakes campground instead a day early. It would have been a long day without the heat beating down on us. By the time we made it to Fish Lakes and shade we were both beat. Fortunately we had the campground to ourselves so we were able to get the one campsite that was almost level. If you like deer you want to stay in this campground. They were constantly wandering through the sites and we could hear them walking around us all night. In every other way, the Fisk Lakes campground is a terrible campground though. Extremely hard pads that all slope to one side or another. The outhouse was more unpleasant than usual. And there was no readily available water source unless you wanted to pull from the lake. The other options meant trekking around the lake to find inflow or marching a half kilometer through shrubs to another creek that the horse trail crosses a couple kilometers upstream. Make sure you treat that water before drinking.
The last day was a long painful day back to the car but we made it. By the end we both collapsed into the car, cranked the a/c and made for the nearest gas station for some cold beverages and some junk food.
In the end I underestimated how much food we would consume during the day while hiking. Had we taken a fourth day and summited Mount Willingdon we probably wouldn't have needed 50% more food for during the day and breakfasts. We had almost the perfect portions of freeze dried dinners and fuel though.
Extreme heat turned out to be more of a killer than any other weather I've backpacked in before. I've hiked in similar conditions but when combined with the weight of a full pack it proved to be too much. Had we been prepared with the perfect quantities of provisions, I think we still would have found ourselves unable to complete the summit.
The missteps we took on our first day killed any chance of the summit. If we had been at the trail head at the planned time some of the really difficult portions of the hike that we struggled though in the hottest part of the day would have been covered an hour or two earlier when the temperatures were a little lower. Same if we hadn't taken the wrong route or had troubles as a couple difficult sections. A few hours difference could have meant making it all the way to the Devon Lakes on day one.
I will try for the summit again in the future. Next time I will have more food on hand and hope for cooler weather. Quartizite Col is a viable route in but under unfavourable conditions it's challenging in its own right.
