Tonquin Valley Trail - Maccaib Pass Trail

Tonquin Valley Trail is a 2 - 3-day loop that can be begun at either the Astoria trailhead near Mt. Edith Cavell or at the Portal Trailhead on the Marmot Basin Road, which is where we decided to start the trail. A strenuous hike, the Maccaib Pass Trail section climbs over 2000 feet and is 5.5 miles to the Portal Creek campground, our turn-around point.

The Maccaib Pass trail is dominated by several peaks.

At the trailhead were these visual aids for the upcoming hike. Here's the trail with the small "P", for parking, at the upper right, to the "Portal" campground icon at center left. 

Here's the elevation chart - from the left side to the first "tent" line is the distance and elevation gain.

As we were preparing to leave from the parking lot two vehicles arrived and disgorged this backpacking equipment and several women. Three of the women then took off in the vehicles and we deduced that they were driving to Mt. Edith Cavell to leave one vehicle and then return to join their companions for the loop hike and a car waiting at the other end of the loop. It turns out that they are Provincial employees and the six women plan a yearly backpacking trip together. They were in high spirits and were planning on 4 days to complete the loop, staying tonight at the Portal Campground, our turn-around point. We agreed that we would see each other along the trail and that they would probably pass us since we are slow-but-steady.

The trail follows the Portal Creek and this is one of two substantial bridges that allow dry passage over the creek.

Lovely colored mushrooms and

another group of mushrooms.

In the Tonquin Valley - Maccaib Pass Trail.

Now who left this shovel by the side of the trail?

At 5.5 miles we were alongside the creek at the Portal Campground where...

we saw these two grizzly bear tracks that looked fairly fresh.

Heading back to the trailhead we began tracking our progress against Aquila Mountain, seen from the south side.

As we returned through the Tonquin Valley we came around the southwest side of Aquila.

About 2 miles from our turn-around point we encountered the six women making their merry and, it turns out, slow progress to their 1st night's rest. If you have sharp eyes you will notice a 7th figure in the group, a young man in the red poncho right in the middle. We had passed him earlier in the day coming from Portal Campground. He said he had stopped there but there were no other hikers there and he didn't want to stay in the campground by himself. We told him there were six women just behind us and he might ask to join their party, at least for the night. He had an interesting accent and when we asked we learned that he is from Catalonia.

Here's the west side of Mt. Aquila.

The northwest side and...

the north side, as seen from the second bridge.

As we hiked towards the trailhead we descended into a more forested area and Mt. Aquila began to recede into the distance.

Barely visible but...

we got one last picture just before we turned a corner for the last 1/2 mile of the hike.