Cadomin to Miette, Jun 8-10 2009

A *very* early hike from the Whitehorse Creek Campground, up the Whitehorse Valley to Fiddle Pass, then down the Fiddle River trail to Utopia, over the back side of Sulfur Skyline to Miette Hot Springs.

Cadomin had had about 5 cm of fresh wet snow the previous night, so in addition to the snowpack up high we had wet snow down low, with a few cases of nice fresh Grizzly tracks. We used snowshoes for about the last 500 meters of trail before the alpine campground in whitehorse provincial park (just before fiddle pass), then crossed fiddle pass without snowshoes, only to switch back to them for a kilometer of descent in the trees where the snow was still about a meter deep in the alpine fir near the pass. We saw a Sow and Cub grizzly on the Jasper Park side of Fiddle pass, they were about a click away from us and bolted for the trees when we hit the pass and scared them up.

Stayed at the whitehorse provincial park campground before fiddle pass, and then at utopia campground in jasper park, before stoping for a soak in the hot springs and heading home.


				muddy xterra


	whitehorse creek	starting out		claudio


	henning		fresh snow on trail


		Fresh grizzly tracks


				Lunch break at sawmill campsite


		Most Virga's don't get snowshoes strapped on		The snowpack appears as we ascend..


	Henning postholing through snowpack


				Snowshoeing up to the fiddle pass campsite


		Art	Ingo


			Claudio breaking the tree.


		Tent on a meter of snow.


	Henning, as an Alberta Redneck


				My hammock, hung over 3 feet of snow in fiddle pass


	Starting out from the campground for fiddle pass


		Looking back, just before ascending over fiddle pass


		Claudio taking a picture of me on the way up to fiddle pass


			Looking back towards Whitehorse from Fiddle Pass


		The start of the Fiddle River.


		Ingo descending from Fiddle Pass


			Heading down Fiddle pass towards Miette.


	Moose Antler Shed	Back on go the snowshoes...		Hooray! a kilometer of snowshow slog through the alpine fir.


		Oh thank god we could take the snowshoes off again!


	Rest stop at Whitehorse campsite, Jasper National Park.	Henning sleeps like this frequently on the trail.


	Crossing the Fiddle River


			More Fiddle River crossings...


			The cool looking slab of mountain by slide creek.


		My hammock in Utopia campground. After 20 km with a kilometer on snowshoes it was very welcoming :)


				Leaving Utopia - only 6 km to a buffalo burger and a soak!


	Sulpher skyline, from utopia


		Fiddle River, before ascending over to Miette.


	The Bridge over Sulpher Creek. Here you start seeing people again.			Miette Hot Springs Source


			Sheep in Miette Parking Lot licking Salt off a vehicle.


			Sheep Lick Marks on a truck in Miette parking lot.


	Jacoby's store in Cadomin, when we picked up the vehicle on return.		Claudio's pictures start here...


		Henning's pictures start here