Mount Jimmy Simpson, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada (8-6-18)

Days 1-3 of Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon, Northwest Territories & Alaska!

Lupe stood out on the flat, cracked mud of a small clearing.  Bright green shoots were poking up around the edges.  Bushes or stunted deep green conifers surrounded most of the area.  The Carolina Dog gazed up at SPHP with a puzzled expression.  A fabulous morning in the Canadian Rockies!  Everything had been going great.  What was the holdup?

Lupe wasn’t the only one puzzled.  The path simply ended here.  No sign of any trail.  SPHP had been certain there would be one.  A year ago, on the way back from Bow Glacier Falls, a hiker had told SPHP there was a side trail to Mount Jimmy Simpson (9,731 ft.) from this area.  The hiker had said the trail left the Bow Glacier Falls Trail from the forested ridge providing the first close up view of the falls.  A search of that ridge had revealed nothing.  Lupe had gone on, giving up on the idea, but SPHP had vowed she would return some day better prepared.

So here she was!  Back again, a year later.  Supposedly better prepared, but apparently not well enough.  As SPHP studied the topo map with the GPS track on it, a sickening realization sunk in.  Overly confident, SPHP hadn’t printed out enough of the surrounding territory to be able to tell exactly where Lupe was supposed to leave the Bow Glacier Falls trail.  The falls weren’t shown.

Should have paid more attention to the terrain to the W on the way up.  Most of it was out of sight now.  Heh.  It didn’t seem right.  SPHP hated to say it, much less do it.  Probably a complete waste of valuable time, but the possibility needed to be checked out.

Guess we better go back, Looper!  Don’t think we did, but we might have already missed the turn to Mount Jimmy Simpson.  Let’s go back down for a quick reconnaissance.  We can come back up and search around some more, if we don’t see anything promising below the stairs.

Made you wonder.  Was this just the first big fiasco of many more to come?  On August 4th, two days ago, Lupe had finally left home to start this grandest of all her Summer of 2018 Dingo Vacations.  Six solid weeks of epic adventures ahead!  Well, maybe.  The plan was ultimately to take the new all season road to Tuktoyaktuk.  The Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood was going all the way to the Arctic Ocean!  Yet, even though this Dingo Vacation had launched 4 days late, SPHP hadn’t managed to get Lupe on the road until afternoon.

Even then, SPHP had forgotten something.  Coats!  No joke.  That was the sad state of preparation for this incredible journey.  Loopster had been forced to return home so SPHP could retrieve coats.  Seemed like a detail that shouldn’t have managed to slip by on a long anticipated trip to the Arctic.  Lupe had finally hit the road for good at 2:09 PM (8-4-18, 86°F).

Since then, at least until now, things had gone well.  The G6 had purred W on I-90 through Wyoming.  By sundown on the 4th, Lupe was beyond Billings only a few miles S of Lavina, Montana.  The next morning she’d enjoyed a scenic drive up the Musselshell River valley, revisited King’s Hill (8,008 ft.) in the Little Belt Mountains, and stopped by for a drink out of Issac Walton Spring at Al Buck Memorial Park.

By mid-afternoon on the 5th, Lupe had breezed through customs into Canada.  She made it to Banff in the Canadian Rockies in time for her traditional evening Pretty Puppy Parade up and down both sides of Banff Avenue.  And as light faded from the sky, she’d strolled the path along the Bow River clear down to Bow River Falls and back.

This morning had started out well, too.  Up at dawn, Lupe and SPHP had been treated to the super scenic drive W from Banff on Hwy 1, then N along Icefields Parkway Hwy 93 all the way to breakfast at the picnic ground along the E shore of Bow Lake.  Along the N shore, the red roof of Simpson’s Num-Ti-Jah Lodge had been in view.

Towering beyond both Bow Lake and the lodge was Lupe’s peakbagging goal for the day – Mount Jimmy Simpson (9,731 ft.).  Oh, yeah!  The views were going to be stupendous from up there!

The trail, or route, or whatever it was to Mount Jimmy Simpson was an off-shoot from the trail to Bow Glacier Glacier Falls, and the trail to Bow Glacier Falls started from the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge.  That much was for absolute certain.  Lupe had been all the way to the falls twice before.  The trek to Bow Glacier Falls is one of the easiest, most scenic half-day hikes in the entire Canadian Rockies.

So as soon as breakfast was over, SPHP had driven over to the trailhead parking lot by the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge.  (8:27 AM, 47°F)  Of course, the first thing to do, even before setting off on the trail, was to check out the view of Bow Lake, Crowfoot Mountain (10,023 ft.), and the Crowfoot Glacier from the N shore.

Off to the SW, where she would soon be headed, Lupe could see the toe of the Bow Glacier and the upper half of Bow Glacier Falls.

A few people were out and about, but it was still relatively early.  The views from Bow Lake were wonderful, but this was only the beginning!  An incredible day full of amazing scenery was ahead.  The Bow Glacier Falls trail would be busy before long.  Still a chance to beat the rush, if the Carolina Dog got underway now!

From Num-Ti-Jah Lodge, the Bow Glacier Falls trail heads W along the N shore of Bow Lake.  Loopster had been this way before, but it was still astonishing how beautiful Bow Lake was!  Crowfoot Mountain soared dramatically from the opposite shore.  As Lupe got farther along the lake, she could see more of the wilderness peaks to the SW.

Immediately beyond Bow Lake, the trail went SSW along the edge of a delta built up by the Bow River.  Looking back to the NE, Lupe could see Cirque Peak (9,820 ft.), which she had climbed in July, 2014.

For short stretches, the trail was forced a little up into the forest on the steep slope W of the closest channel of the Bow River, but most of the way Lupe was crossing an exposed floodplain covered with smallish rounded stones.  The river was low this time of year.

At one point, the Bow Glacier Falls Trail left the floodplain to climb over a little bump of a ridge before returning to the low ground.  A higher forested ridge was now ahead past another long stretch of floodplain.  At the far SSW end, a steep set of stairs started up this larger ridge.

Lupe started up the stairs.  To the L (SE), the Bow River gushed through a deep, narrow gorge.  When the stairs ended, the trail continued a short, steep climb to the top of the ridge.  Upon reaching the ridgeline, Lupe could see a tributary coming in from the S that joined the Bow River right before it entered the gorge.

Snow-clad Mount Olive (10,256 ft.) was in view at the far end of the scenic canyon that this tributary came from.

From this same point, Bow Glacier Falls was in sight again off to the SW.  It wasn’t that much farther away now.

As Lupe knew from experience, the trail went on all the way to the falls.  A most worthwhile trek, but that wasn’t the plan today.  Loop was now on the same forested ridge she had explored a year ago looking for the trail to Mount Jimmy Simpson.  Back then, none of the little side trails in the forest had panned out.  Her chance to conduct a more thorough search of this whole region had finally arrived.

Just ahead, the Bow Glacier Falls Trail dipped into a low area next to a rocky ridge.  The trail skirted this ridge to the S before continuing on to the falls.  Before that, though, a side path headed off to the R (NW) into the gap between the forested and rocky ridges.  Of course!  That must be it!  SPHP led Lupe into the opening.  Two minutes later, the path ended.

Ended at a small, flat clearing of cracked mud where green shoots sprouted up.

Down?  That’s crazy!  Why would we go down, SPHP?  We just got here!  Only 2 seconds ago you were convinced the trail to Mount Jimmy Simpson was right around here, or only a little farther up closer to the falls.  Why don’t we go that way?

We will Loop, but first let’s eliminate the possibility that we’ve already missed the turn.  Might be harder to find this trail to Jimmy Simpson than I thought.  Keep in mind that last year on the way back from the falls to this point, I’d already spoken to the hiker that told us about it.  We looked for the trail to Jimmy Simpson up there, and we didn’t see it, remember?

Yes, but the trail has got to be partway up that mountain to the W, doesn’t it?  Which is higher, not lower!  Let’s just go over to the mountain, and start climbing.  We’ll find the way!  I’ll sniff it out!

Yes, it’s up there somewhere, but that mountainside is a huge, steep area.  Maybe you can run around easily enough on it, but I can’t.  You know how slow I am!  A lot of that territory might be completely impassable to me due to the jungle lower down, and cliffs higher up.  We should at least scout out what looks like the best approach from down here in case we can’t find the trail.

Can’t find it!  We’ll come across it soon enough.  Your magic map shows the route, doesn’t it?  Why aren’t we following it to begin with?  What does it say?  How about we just follow the map instead of wasting time going back to where we’ve already been.

The map says I should have printed out more map.  It shows a GPS track, but I can’t tell exactly where until it’s way, way up there.  So we need to find the trail down here, or at least figure out what looks like the best chance of success before doing anything drastic.

A year to prepare, and you brought half a map?  Oh, silly me!  That’s right!  I’m with someone who doesn’t think to bring a coat to the Arctic.  OK, whatever you say, SPHP.  Seems ridiculous, but if it makes you happy, let’s go back down and see whatever we should have been looking at on the way here.

Shouldn’t take long, Loop.  Promise!

Lupe hadn’t had much of a lead on the morning crowd about to swarm up to Bow Glacier Falls.  While she headed back down the forested ridge to the stairway, groups of hikers were coming up.  SPHP chatted briefly with anyone who seemed inclined to stop for a moment.  Any chance they happened to know where the trail to Mount Jimmy Simpson was?

It was a total, desperate, long shot, and SPHP knew it.  Probably wasn’t one person in a hundred, maybe a thousand, who had any intention of going up Mount Jimmy Simpson.  Everyone was heading to Bow Glacier Falls, the splendid, easy to reach attraction not that far away.

Naturally, no one had a clue.  Lupe was almost to the bottom of the stairs when one couple that was particularly friendly offered to compare the GPS route on SPHP’s paper map with the topo map on their phone.  The verdict was inconclusive, but it looked like the GPS route left the trail somewhat farther up toward the falls, not down here.

SPHP thanked the helpful couple, and they went on.

No sense going any farther.  What could be seen so far didn’t look right.  Too much dense forest to the W for too far up.  Not much of a chance the trail to Mount Jimmy Simpson was actually down here.  Who knew for sure, though?  Couldn’t be ruled out entirely, but this didn’t jive with what the hiker had said a year ago, nor what the friendly couple’s phone indicated, nor SPHP’s impression held for many months now based on what could be remembered of the complete map.

Satisfied, SPHP?

Yeah, I think so.

Back up then?

Uh, huh.  Onward, sweet puppy!

When Loop got back to the top of the forested ridge where she could see Bow Glacier Falls again, the friendly couple wasn’t far away.  They were now down in the dip between the ridges chatting with another group of hikers.  They had the trail blocked.  After the conversation broke up, and the other hikers were already underway, Lupe and SPHP went over to talk to the couple again.

They had news!  Guess where that group of 5 hikers that had just left them was heading?  Yes, that’s right – Mount Jimmy Simpson!  A quick, sincere thank you, and Lupe was off!

 After them, SPHP!  Don’t let them get away!

Luck of the Dingo!  That’s what it was!  The 5 hikers stayed on the main trail to Bow Glacier Falls much farther than SPHP expected.  They were halfway to the falls before they left the trail angling WSW up a rock strewn slope toward a big forested ramp.

SPHP wasn’t fast enough to gain on the hikers.  They reached the base of the ramp and disappeared into the forest.  No choice, but to try to keep after them.

Perfectly obvious now why the Carolina Dog hadn’t seen where the trail to Mount Jimmy Simpson left the Bow Glacier Falls Trail a year ago.  No such discernible trail existed.  This was simply an unmarked route up the stony slope.  And it didn’t start from anywhere near that lower forested ridge.

The Luck of the Dingo held.  When SPHP reached the forest at the base of the ramp, Lupe discovered that the 5 hikers hadn’t gone much farther.  They’d paused for a break in a grassy spot among huge boulders.  SPHP stopped to catch breath close enough to hear them talking.

The hikers were already about rested up.  Within minutes they pressed on heading NNE up the ramp.  SPHP tried to follow, but immediately fell behind.  A scramble up a short rocky slope led to a grassier, wider part of the ramp.  Lupe did find a faint trail along in here.

The grassy part of the ramp was moderately steep, but not too hard.  It wasn’t long, though, before an obvious scar appeared on the really steep slope on the L (W).  That scar was a badly eroded remnant of a trail.  The hikers were still in sight, heading straight up this slope toward a stunted forest at the base of a cliff.

Lupe could have kept up with those hikers so easily!  Ever faithful, she instead hung back with SPHP, who kept having to pause to catch breath, and seemed doomed to lose them.  Even while gasping for air, it was amazing how spectacular the views were already becoming!

The hikers disappeared from sight again well before SPHP reached the base of the cliff.  Lupe continued steeply higher, following a bit of a trail N right alongside the cliff wall.  To SPHP’s relief, the hikers had paused a second time.  Lupe and SPHP caught up.  The Carolina Dog’s tour guides left again almost immediately, still heading N along walls of rock.

SPHP took another breather.  Lupe now had a great view of Bow Lake.

Then it was off again, chasing after those 5 hikers!  Lupe traversed many narrow ledges.  Every now and then, there were nearly vertical short climbs higher.  Some places there were stunted conifers, other places were out in the dizzying, airy open.  Often there was a visible trail, but not always.  Sometimes the “trail” was braided, offering more than one possible route.

For a while, SPHP did a better job of staying caught up.  Eventually, though, the hikers began to pull away.  More and more often, they were lost from view.  Each time the Carolina Dog rounded a minor corner, she saw them again, but farther and farther away.

The views became ever more impressive.  SPHP often clung to the rock walls next to the narrow ledges.  Finally, two errors were committed – steep climbs that led to dead ends.  Careful retreats consumed precious minutes.  Lupe continued on, but the hikers were gone.

Happily, before going too much farther, the ledges finally broadened out.  The terrain became far less steep and nerve-wracking.  Lupe ought to be able to get to Mount Jimmy Simpson on her own now!

Lupe and SPHP were making much faster progress again.  A question soon arose as to whether or not to climb up onto a considerably higher big ramp to the W.  A little movement caught the eye.  Two of the hikers were in view!  Far away, but on the same ramp Lupe was on.  No need to go higher.

This was easy terrain, almost level.  Lupe was gaining on them now!  Soon all 5 were in sight climbing a slope leading to another wide ramp.

Looper followed them.  As she reached the top of this final ramp, all 5 hikers were once again in view, but still with a big lead.  One by one, they disappeared over a bouldery ridge at the far end of the ramp.

Puppy, ho!  Onward!

Lupe crested the bouldery ridge 7 minutes later.  A down climb amid huge boulders was directly ahead.  At the bottom, a long snowfield led NW most of the way up a giant cirque.  The 5 hikers were just now reaching the snow, about to start up again.

As soon as SPHP managed to get down there, Lupe was in pursuit.

The huge cirque became progressively steeper.  Beyond the upper limit of the snowfield, it was worse yet.  Most of the terrain consisted of small to medium-sized scree.  The loose scree was increasingly unstable.  A partially exposed band of bedrock formed the critical juncture.  Get above that upper rim, and the American Dingo would have it made!

This was not a trivial task.  Lupe had almost caught up to the 5 hikers.  Their group consisted of 3 women and 2 men, all young and strong, but even they were having to be careful and take their time.  SPHP favored going almost straight up the middle of the cirque, but Lupe’s guides headed toward the firmer exposed rock formations on the R (N).  Stones came clattering down, but both men and one of the women made it up without too much trouble.

The other 2 women were having a slower time of it.  Lupe and SPHP caught up to them, and even got ahead for a little way.  It was the first real opportunity for interaction, and sort of broke the ice a bit.  After some anxious moments clinging to whatever nub of firm rock presented itself as scree showered down the treacherous slope, everyone made it safely past the dicey part.

The worst was over!  Yet another steep slope led directly to the big upper saddle, but this was nothing compared to what Loopster had just been through.  The unseen summit of Mount Jimmy Simpson was somewhere to the N, still 900 feet higher, but nothing but a long, steady trudge up a barren, obstacle-free slope remained.  Lupe was in a world of rock, sky, and fabulous views of snow-clad peaks, ice fields and glaciers.

It would have been easy to go straight on up to the huge upper saddle, but Lupe’s guides took a more efficient route, bypassing it more directly to the N.  SPHP couldn’t keep up, and fell behind again.  All 5 hikers were pulling away.  Hardly mattered now, anyway.  Lupe was going to make it!

Lupe reached the summit of Mount Jimmy Simpson (9,731 ft.) 10 or 15 minutes after the 5 hikers.  They were all hanging out near the summit cairn, or over by the tremendous view of Bow Lake.  SPHP made certain to praise Looper for making it all the way up this mighty peak, shaking her paw and congratulating her with great enthusiasm.

Everyone else seemed pleased by that, and offered the Carolina Dog praise, too.  Introductions were made, and SPHP got to chatting with Lupe’s benefactors.  All 5 were from Calgary.  Apparently they were in the habit of exploring the Canadian Rockies together fairly frequently, although whether they were were all members of some sort of alpine club, or simply good friends, was never clear.

After pleasantries were exchanged, Lupe and SPHP devoted attention to the fabulous views good fortune had made it possible to enjoy.

For a while, Lupe relaxed near the summit cairn.

Lupe got to spend over 40 minutes up on Mount Jimmy Simpson.  She rested up, saw incredible sights, and made 5 new friends.  Before departing, her Canadian benefactors were all quite willing to pose with the American Dingo.

It was sad to see them go.  Sad, because her new friends were all leaving her behind.  And sad, because it meant Lupe was going to have to leave the splendor of Mount Jimmy Simpson, too.  SPHP thought it best to try to stay close to the Canadians during the tricky route along the narrow ledges.

SPHP is even slower going down steep stuff than going up.  So the return trip was similar to Lupe’s ascent.  SPHP always trying not to fall too far behind.  Lupe caught up to the Canadians once as they were deciding which way to descend into the giant cirque, and again when they took a short break on the wide ramps.

After that, though, the Canadians were simply faster.  They came into view now and then, but always farther ahead than before.  They took a lower descent path this time avoiding some of the more treacherous, narrowest ledges.  SPHP wound up too low, stuck thrashing around in the forest for a little way.

From the top of the morning’s first steep ascent where the scar of a trail was, Lupe saw the Canadians for the last time.  They were already down on the first big ramp, still moving fast.

The way back was well known from here.  Lupe and SPHP slowed down.  May as well enjoy this beautiful evening in the Canadian Rockies.  Lupe’s Calgary guides were gone.  The crowds who had come to see Bow Glacier Falls were long gone, too.  Solitude, splendid scenery on an enormous scale, and an easy trek back to Bow Lake to look forward to.

What a glorious day Mount Jimmy Simpson had been!  By all rights, it should have been a complete flop.  Not likely Lupe and SPHP would ever have found the way up Mount Jimmy Simpson, if those 5 Canadians from Calgary hadn’t come along right when they did.

Luck of the Dingo!  If it kept holding like it did today, the next 6 weeks were going to be fantastic!

Links:

Next Adventure

Bow Lake & the Trail to Bow Glacier Falls, Banff National Park, Canada (7-25-13)

Cirque Peak, Banff National Park, Canada (7-27-14)

Bow Glacier Falls, Banff National Park, Canada (8-2-17)

Want more Lupe adventures?  Choose from Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon, Northwest Territories & Alaska Adventure Index, Dingo Vacations Adventure Index or Master Adventure Index.  Or subscribe free to new Lupe adventures.