On the Trail of Earl Grey - Sept 9 to 13, 2010

The Earl Grey Trail is a historic route connecting the Toby Creek valley near Invermere with the Hamill Creek Valley near the NE end of Kootenay Lake. It's about 60 km in length, crosses the Purcell Range over Earl Grey Pass and is normally hiked in about 5 days. Word had spread that the trail was in good condition this year so 10 of us decided to give it a try. Four of the group drove vehicles to the Toby Creek trailhead and started there while six of us started at the Hamill Creek side.

Information about this trail comes with cautions about changing mountain weather, tricky creek crossings, real backcountry camping, long distances from help, precautions about bears and food storage, steep trails and so on. For the most part, I'd say the route lived up to that information.

Our first 3 days were relatively easy, with 12 km being the longest day of hiking. Distance hiked is only one way to measure difficulty, though, and we found the going slow, with huge logs to clamber over and around, slippery log crossings of many streams, several (5) cable car crossings, muddy sections of trail and wet West Kootenay bushes. Indeed, the entire trail over the 5 days was damp or wet. There were showers, intermittent rain and cool temperatures. Only a couple of brief times did we see the sun.

Camp spots were small and rustic and we spent a certain amount of time at the end of each day drying boots and clothing. Food had to be pulled up into trees in case bears visited our camp during the night. Biffies were the usual backcountry rustic.

The first 3 days were spent hiking up Hamill Creek mostly in old growth cedar forest. It was dark, damp and mystical. Misty too, sometimes. Day 4 we climbed for several hours to reach Earl Grey Pass and admired what views we could with the swirling cloud and mist. The trail then dropped steeply into the Toby Creek Valley. We believe views in this area would be quite amazing, but we saw only low-hanging cloud and mist. We made an impromptu camp in a thick spruce forest where we were able to find some dry areas under the trees to camp for the night. All that remained was a 4-hour hike to the end of trail and the drive home.

This is a challenging trip through remote terrain. Trail conditions were good but rough. Careful preparation is important, keeping in mind changeable mountain weather. The unprepared could find themselves in trouble quite quickly. That said, it's a classic hike through the very remote Purcell Wilderness and well worth doing. Hope for good weather. Pictures live here.