Bourgeau, Mount
Trip Report
On Friday, June 02 2006, Wietse Bijlsma and I hiked to the summit of Mount Bourgeau in Banff National Park. I have wanted to do this one for a while already and even though it was a bit early in the year I figured with the dry spring we should be ok.
The only reason I've wanted to this one for a while already is because I suspected that it contained beautiful scenery and I wasn't disappointed in that regard! We started out from a mosquito-infested parking lot at around 07:30 under partly sunny skies. The trail is obviously very well traveled and we made quick time till coming to a raging Wolverine creek with no obvious crossing. We went a bit downstream and found a makeshift bridge of branches and logs that we used to keep our feet dry.
After the creek the trail rises quite a bit steeper as it gains the headwall where the waterfalls tumble down. It was here that we started to encounter snow and mud and our travel speed started to decrease a bit. We pushed on as the views continued to improve and the trail continued to dis-improve!
After getting briefly lost in the open marsh / meadows just before Bourgeau Lake, due to a flooded trail and large amounts of snow, we found some footprints and followed them up into the forest around Bourgeau Lake. We couldn't follow the lake shore because the water level was too high. Due to avalanche debris and winter blow-down, the trail above the lake to treeline was not in good condition. We ended up losing the trail several times but finally we came out on a scree slope and climbed up to the second lake. The views continued to improve as we got higher.
Once we got up to Harvey Pass we could see that we still had a long way to go. We struggled through some patches of waist deep snow but overall the route was clear. After summitting we had to rush down because of very rapidly changing (for the worse) weather. Of course as soon as we got down to Harvey Pass everything pushed north and the weather was good the rest of the day.
Because I was wearing a pedometer for a contest at work, I know that this is a long hike - 40,000 steps to be exact! Recommended as an early (but not too early) season objective when other, tougher mountains aren't in season yet.
 We wondered out loud whether we were heading into a cage or out of one... |
 Above the falls the trail was wet or snow covered but still in excellent shape. |
 Above Bourgeau Lake the trail is quite bad but Wietse is still enjoying himself. |
 The trail above Bourgeau Lake had a lot of winter falldown messing it up. |
 The route to the top is obvious from Harvey Pass. |
 Wietse climbing the slope above Harvey Pass. |
 Wietse didn't like the snow patches very much! |
 An impressive view of Pilot Mountain as seen on the ascent. |
 Vern on the summit of Mount Bourgeau |
 Wietse approaches the apparatus on the summit of Mount Bourgeau |
 Panorama to the west from the summit of Bourgeau. (Click to view larger) |
 Panorama to the west on the way down from the summit of Mount Bourgeau. |
 Colors abound on this hike. |
 Wietse heading back down to Harvey Pass. |
 Enjoying some strong Dutch coffee just before Harvey Pass. |
 A neat perspective. This stream is actually about 500 meters from the lake! |
 Wietse heading down to Bourgeau Lake from the pass. |
 There were waterfalls cascading down the steep walls of Bourgeau into Bourgeau Lake. |
 Spring colors are out! Globe flowers (white) and Glacier Lilies. |
 Taking a breather at Bourgeau Lake - a wonderful and peaceful spot. |
 Wolverine Creek is a raging waterfall in the warm afternoon sunshine. |
 One last flower before we end an excellent day out in the mountains. |