[wamtngal]

Since a number of people headed to Horseshoe Basin this week, I'm going to focus more on the Boundary Trail after Horseshoe to Upper Cathedral Lake, Amphitheater Mountain, Tungsten Mine and so forth. DAY ONE - June 30th Distance: ~6.5 miles Four of us - myself, K Gazelle and the two T's, Todd and Tony, were on this trip. We started out under partly sunny skies at the Iron Gate trailhead and walked 5.2 miles through the charred forest. It's an amazing experience to walk through a once living place, now filled with death. But somehow, it is also oddly beautiful. And life is slowly returning. Heading towards Sunny Pass and stepping over the invisible fire line was incredible. One moment you are still in a burn area, the next, you cross over to flowers, grassy meadows and green trees via Sunny and Horseshoe Passes. Makes you appreciate the power of Mother Nature even more. As others have shown, photos do not do Horseshoe Basin justice. A wide angle lens wouldn't do it justice either. It is just so expansive... We made our camp a bit north of Louden Lake and decided to cross-country trek toward Ol' Canada. Although the fire did not reach the interior of HB, there is a bit of burn on the flanks of Rock Mountain and some hot spots that flared up. Near our camp we found three ninjas who were hiding in the charred area, trying to escape the mosquitoes. The sunset that night was very pretty. DAY TWO - July 1st Distance: ~13 miles The next morning we headed down the Boundary Trail toward Tungsten Mine and Apex Pass. Only a few miles into our trip, I suddenly notice movement out of the corner of my eye...A MOOSE! He or she was splashing away in a swampy pond near the trail. At this moment in time, I wish I had lugged my telephoto lens. Fortunately Todd's camera could get a better zoom and he shot a photo of this lovely creature. Soon after the moose headed into the brush. If we had gotten to the pond only 5 minutes later, we would never have had this rare moment. This was a highlight moment of the trip. After our moose experience, we kept our eyes peeled for animals. You just know they are out there, especially with so many meadows and waterways along the trail. Speaking of the trail, the only burned area beyond HB is right after you head behind Rock Mountain. Camps that were once great, we imagined, are now gone. This section of the forest was not as charred as the first 5.2 miles of the trip in, but the damage was still evident. Fortunately it does not last long. The trail is in great condition as well. Most blowndowns have been removed from the trail and finding water was not a problem at this time of year. The beauty of this section of the Boundary Trail is that it sticks to the side of ridges - views abound most of the time and you stick above 5000 feet the entire way...where else can you do this in July without hitting deep snow? As we tromped along, we were able to take in the many sites, including looking across the valley to the burned area we had tromped through the day before, Teapot Dome, Haig Mountain, Bauerman Ridge, Apex Mountain and those lovely larches. We eventually found ourselves at Tungsten Mine after heading up Sheelite Pass and another 3 miles. I had pictured the mining cabins to be 3 tiny 10'x10' cabins...was I wrong. The two cabins are practically palaces. Not that I would stay in the rodent-infested quarters, but I could imagine standing by the woodstoves on a very cold night. We had heard about a bathtub at the mine that folks had actually used only a few years ago. Now the tub sits on it's side and the spigot could not be found. We wondered if the water spigot had been removed or if it was conveniently hidden. Due to the great weather and very little breeze, TM was riddled with mosquitoes. In hopes of finding a somewhat breezier spot, we ventured on toward Apex. We eventually found a decent camp spot only a 1/2 mile or so below Apex Pass (we did not head to the pass as we were unsure of water availability, in retrospect, we could have found some up there). We did not see anyone else today. DAY THREE - July 2nd Distance: ~14 miles Today, we knew, would be one of those trip highlight days. We left camp and headed to Cathedral Lakes. And we were not disappointed. After a quick 4 mile or so hike up Apex Pass, and down again, we were treated to views of pyramidal Cathedral Peak, Amphitheater Mountain, Apex Mountain (backside)...we headed up the pass, sitting at 7600 ft (I provide that from memory, K Gazelle has the map). Upper Cathedral Lake is tucked underneath Amphitheater Mountain's stately granite walls. At the pass we noticed that the sun/clouds was making an interesting ring, from memory, we think it has to due with ice in the atmosphere? A small Cathedral Tarn provided a lovely lunch spot. The basin is pretty much melted out with only a few small snow patches here and there. The lakes were full and clear. Oddly, no one was camped in the basin and we only saw/met a handful of people at or near the basin...we wished we would have drug our bodies (more so our feet, which were screaming at us to stop) to the basin the night before. After shooting a number of photos and being eaten by those mosquitoes while trying to have lunch, we headed to our destination: Amphitheater Mountain. As we rounded the lake, we ran into a group of goats, including a few babies. Very cute and always a treat to see goats in an alpine setting. Continuing on, we crossed a boulder field and snow patch, then headed behind Amphitheater Mountain via the trail that heads to Remmel. Here we were treated to amazing views of Remmel and surrounding peaks, not to mention little tarns and streams. The backside of Amphitheater is interesting. From the basin it looks stately and forbidden to those without rock climbing gear. From the back it is a simple scramble (if you want to make it harder) or you can hike up the path that horsepackers have created... We decided to traverse as much of the mountain ridge as possible, hitting every point in between. The views were amazing. At the highest point, the south summit (8,358ft), you could look south and see an endless sea of mountain ranges -- simply breathtaking. This was all of our first times trekking that far north, you just don't get that view in many places. Soon it was time to head back to camp...leaving so much unexplored... DAY FOUR - July 3rd Distance: ~13 miles As we did not want to head into the valleys, we made this an out and back trip. However there are a number of possibilities for creating a loop trip. A few folks we talked to also mentioned that there is still severe blow-down in the area. So we trudged back the way we came and enjoyed the sights once more. We also explored the mining area around Tungsten, in awe over the heavy iron equipment that they brought to such a remote place. Once back in Horseshoe Basin we found a secluded camp spot (not too hard to do if you wander around a bit). Tonight there was hardly a breeze and the mosquitoes were horrendous and we ended up eating in K Gazelle and Tony's tent to avoid eating them. DAY FIVE - July 4th Distance: ~6.5 miles Sad to leave and head back into the "real" world, we reluctantly packed our bags and headed back to the trailhead. At Sunny Pass we enjoyed one last break and then dropped down into the charred forest. Pausing to remarks upon what interesting things fire does to trees, I heard a rustling to my left. Turning my head I see a small dust cloud and a waddling shape -- a porcupine and another highlight. None of us had seen a porky on the trail before. The little guy was trying to be intimidating, turning around and staring at us with his beady eyes, but he quickly headed up the hillside. Todd was able to score another great shot. We made quick progress through the hot and dry "forest" and soon reached the luxury of the car. This is definitely a trip that should have been longer than 5 days...there's just so much to do. In fact, we've already planned 2 future trips, including an itinerary of staying in Horseshoe Basin and hitting all the surrounding peaks and one toward Cathedral, hitting all of the peaks in between, including Teapot Dome, Bauerman Ridge, Cathedral Peak, Apex, Haig and all the others I missed in naming--perhaps in September when the bugs and people have disappeared. Can't say enough good things about this area...

[Foist]

Wow, looks like an awesome trip, thanks for the report. Why are the pics so tiny though?

[detekt]

Nice TR. But yeah, I want to check out the pics!

[wamtngal]

Yea...so I'm new to using webshots (I think I like Flickr better) and I added the thumbnail link, not the link to the larger photo...I'm fixing them now but it'll take a bit...this report has taken me a long time...what a bummer. Give me an hour. UPDATE: PHOTOS ARE FIXED! VIEW AWAY!

[Magellan]

Thanks for the great TR Wamountaingal! I appreciate the hard work you put into this outing and TR. Lots of great scrambling in those areas, and it's hard to be the forever views. Looking foward to those pictures.

[Matt]

Like you say, Amphitheater is a superb viewpoint. Nice trip.