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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
23 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2010 : 9:32 PM
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Allenby Pass is a 2440 m pass in the South part of Banff that has intrigued us for a couple of years. It is closed during all of August and September, so a trip in late July seemed like our best bet. Since this pass is also close to Assiniboine pass, we turned this into a 5-day (July 26 - July 30, 2010) backpacking trip and included a short trip in Mt. Assiniboine provincial park as well.
Day 1: Hike 17km along the Bryant Creek trail from the Mt. Shark parking lot to the Allenby Pass campground (BR17). This is a little-used campsite: many of the 5 tent "pads" had willows growing through them. We had the campsite to ourselves. The tent area has alright views of the willowy meadows, but the eating area was viewless.
Day 2: Dayhike to Allenby Pass! This is only approximately 13 km round trip, so there was lots of time to wander around and explore. Most of the hike from the campsite was at or above treeline, so it was a great day for views.
Some views during the hike up:
  
Some photos taken in the pass:
       
Some of the wildflowers:
 
The Pass is closed in Aug & Sept due to grizzly bears, but we didn't see any signs of bears at all. Here is the only wildlife that we saw (apart from a hummingbird that I couldn't photograph):
Day 3: We hiked from the campground up through Assiniboine Pass and set up camp at the Lake Magog campsite. After that we strolled around Lake Magog, Sunburst Lake and Cerulean Lake. You all are probably familiar with Mount Assiniboine park, so I'll just post a couple of photos:
  
Day 4: We day-hiked to Lake Og and into the Valley of the Rocks. (It was a day with a mix of rain, hail, lightening so we stayed low.) We saw a rainbow over Assiniboine Pass. It's sort of faint in the photos:
Day 5: We hiked out the 27 km from Lake Magog back to the car at Mnt. Shark. We were extremely tired at the end of the day and spent the evening eating lots of food!
I really enjoyed this trip! Allenby pass was magnificent, and Assiniboine was incredible. We're already planning what we'll do the next time we visit Assiniboine.
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Edited by - sheesh on 08/03/2010 9:35 PM
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
797 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2010 : 9:39 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by sheesh
The Pass is closed in Aug & Sept due to grizzly bears, but we didn't see any signs of bears at all.
They were there! Two friends of mine were hiking in there the same weekend (do not their exact itinerary) and they came around a bend to meet a grizzly and two cubs, about 10m away. Yikes! Bear didn't seem too bothered, so they backed up and turned round. On the way back they bumped in to two Americans, who they warned about the bear and the cubs on the trail. Apparently the 2 americans were going to go on regardless of the bear...so my 2 friends thought it wise to accompany the americans to make a bigger group. The bear wasn't in the same spot when they returned. But they bumped into it again later in the day!!
So they were out there....if you saw signs or not! |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
617 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 11:22 AM
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Oh yeah - the bears are certainly in that area, this is what we saw while hiking past the closed area a few years ago  :
Thanks for sharing pics of the pass - I always wondered what it looked like around there and imagined that with the closures it must not see very many backpackers.
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972 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 11:31 AM
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i was up there too around that time,maybe we met you along the way??
1st time in there and it was vera vera nice!! |
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Clairmont, Alberta
Canada
134 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 5:01 PM
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| Great job on your first trip report sheesh. |
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877 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 5:12 PM
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| I haven't seen many pictures from Allenby Pass. Nice! |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
23 Posts |
Posted - 08/04/2010 : 6:55 PM
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We were hiking in Allenby on Tuesday July 27 and didn't see any humans (except for ourselves) that day. The next day in Assiniboine, we learned that people saw grizzly bear(s) in Wonder Pass on the same Tuesday and in Assiniboine Pass on Wednesday (about 6 hours after we went through). Does anybody know how big a territory grizzly bears have? Could this be the same bear (or bears) that booewen's friends saw? Anyways, I hope this means that all the yelling that we do is scaring the bears away!
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Allenby Pass and a little bit of Assiniboine
