Date - May 19, 2018
Length - 15.3 kmElevation - 567 m
Time - 5 hours 37 minutes
This the first post in our first “series”. This post and the next two cover our May long weekend backpacking trip through an eastern section of Riding Mountain National Park. The total mileage for the trip was 42.6 km. Each post covers one of the three days of hiking!
AllTrails map of our route to East Deep Lake
Finally, our first actual backpacking trip. This one is no mere training hike but a three day trip out in Riding Mountain National Park along the Packhorse and J.E.T trails. At least that was what we thought it would be. Unfortunately, Packhorse is permanently closed so we ended up taking J.E.T both ways. This routing change did not lessen the experience in the slightest however because our hike in had nearly no blooming on the trees, but on our hike out two days later all the trees and flowers were in bloom, completely changing the sights on the hike.
So... Day 1.
The trip started Friday night with Roslyn, our friend Tyler, and I driving from Winnipeg to Brandon to stay at Roslyn's mothers house. The next morning we were up at 6:15 am packing everything into the car again and picking up Roslyn's cousin Mathew at 6:45 am. By 7 am we had picked up breakfast at Tim Horton's and started the drive to the trail head.
A bit less than two hours later, we were driving down a dirt road about a minute from the trail head. This stretch of road gets a special mention because the Honda Civic we were driving in bottomed out a few times. If you're driving a low car beware, drive around the loose gravel in the road as you will sink into it. Another reason this section needs to be mentioned is that we got lost about 20 seconds from the trail head. It not visible until you are right on top of it and we spent maybe 5-10 minutes looking for it on foot down a side road the Civic couldn't traverse. Once we found the parking lot we parked pretty carefully as there's only room for about 2 cars in it.
The start of the trail is a nice, easy walk, with minimal elevation change along Bald Hill Trail. After about 1.2 km we came to the Packhorse trail head. As mentioned, we originally planned to travel this trail, but after about 100 feet decided against it due to the obvious lack of upkeep and too much deadfall on it.
A little under 2 km later we came to the Bald Hill-J.E.T trail junction. Taking the turn onto J.E.T trail we had our first, and only, water crossing of the trip. The creek here is only about 10 feet across and 4-6 inches deep. Tyler and Roslyn walked through it, and Mathew and I rock hopped across it.
Creek Crossing
The creek it as the 3 km mark, which is basically the bottom of a pretty steep climb that gives an elevation change of 90 m over a kilometer. At one point on this climb the grade reaches 32 degrees, which is pretty steep when you're carrying 30 lbs of gear. On our way up we were passed by two guys trail running. About 30 minutes later one of them was returning down the trail and warned us of a bear cub ahead near the official look out points.
Right at the top of the first climb there is a wonderful look out site, and not the one that has a bear cub! It was a nice place to catch our breath and made the climb worth it.
Lookout point over the valley
From here the trail eased up a bit for the next two kilometers. While not flat, I wouldn't say it was a climb either. About halfway through the flat section there are two side trails, one to a look out on the north side of the spur and another to a look out on the south side. Having been warned about bear cubs in the area we decided to check it out on the way back and moved on.
After the flat section we began the second climb. This climb was definitely worse, rising 56 m over 0.4 km of travel. At one point the grade reached 44 degrees, which looks and feels like a everything is straight up when you're leaning into it with a 30 lb backpack.
Beautiful Tree Tunnel Walk
From here on the trail is relatively flat, with generally gradual ups and downs. The kilometer after the second climb is a beautiful tree tunnel. Eventually you come out of tunnel very suddenly to the view below.
Large muskeg lake
The trail only followed the edge of the lake for a few hundred meters, but it was cool watching the wildlife in it, even though we only saw birds.
Walked through a lot of stands of trees that looked like this on the way in
The last 6 km after the lake were enjoyable. There are 2-3 old large beaver dams that you walk across, not that you'd recognize them as such any more.
At around 3:30 pm we made it to the camp site and set up camp.
View down the trail from the camp site
View out over the lake at the campsite
In Roslyn's Words:
And so our biggest adventure yet begins! The start of the trail is a very calm and easy walk to the main trail junction and is quite a nice warm up. It was somewhat disappointing to have to change our plans from Packhorse to JET both ways, but without the proper equipment it is better to be safe than sorry, and it was a good thing we chose safe. The shale washouts made it look impassible without full on climbing gear.
Looking back on the bear sighting at the viewpoints on the way in, it was a good thing we skipped them as the full hike in ended up being longer than anticipated and not easy. This trail goes from low farm land to the highest point in the park so there was some intense long incline stretches. At one point I would look up the trail, find a point about 100 ft away, and focus on getting to that point. Once that was accomplished I did it again, and again until we made it to the top. It was a great challenge that is often hard to find in Manitoba.
Finally getting to camp was very satisfying. I felt that I had really accomplished something that day. We were at East Deep Lake campsite #2, but if I were to go back, I would try to reserve site 1 as it had more shaded area and better ground for pitching a tent. By the end of the day we were a little bored as we forgot to bring some cards but our spirits were high as we ended the first day watching the trees reflecting in the lake.
Once camp was setup we ate supper, which was ramen with vegetable flakes and sausage chunks cut into it. Nothing tastes as good as food eaten while hiking or camping, no matter how bad the food actually is. We spent the evening filtering water (more on that in the next post), watching the wild life in the area, and occasionally chatting with our neighbors in the site next to ours. We tried to stay up late to see the stars come out, but with twilight still hanging out around 11 pm we went to bed and vowed to see them the next night.
All in all, it was a great day.
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