A cold front blasted through on Monday and dumped a bunch of snow in the area. At the Sunshine Village elevation, the snow was still there on Wednesday. Not surprising since it was 0° in the parking lot and -2° up in the village itself at the start of the day. But it was sunny and not really windy, and so although it only made it up to 9° during the day, it was pleasant if cool (hat and gloves required, plus hiking poles due to the slippery footing).
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| Working our way up Meadow Park. Green runs are steep |
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| On the ridge above Wawa. Delirium Dive in the background |
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| Mt. Assiniboine in the distance |
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| Healy Pass in the distance in the centre |
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| Chilly. Mt. Borgeau in the centre |
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| Wolf track. Big wolf track. ~48 hrs old. |
Peyto was quite the character. He was the first warden of Banff National Park (from 1913-1936), and guided the first ascent of Mt. Assiniboine in 1901. He was a hunter and trapper, and captured live animals that were put on display in the Luxton Museum in Banff. He also mined talc, and actually held a talc mining lease nearby in BC, subsequently sold to National Talc. To do most of this, he built a private cabin near his talc mine that's in the vicinity of Healy Pass. It's a protected cultural resource, and so I'm not going to describe exactly where it is, but it's not that hard to find if you know where to look (but it does hide in the trees). He lived in this cabin for 30 years, primarily in the winter during mining season, and never let his wife come up here. His cabin (called The Birdcage or The Simpson Pass Cabin) remains, falling down, but full of history.
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| The front door and collapsed awning |
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| The rear. Right side collapsed |
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| Barbed wire on the windows |
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| Stuff on the porch |
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| Cages where he kept trapped live animals |
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| His bed and table |
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| Cans remain |
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| Door made from lard boxes |
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| Trenches in the forest were his mine workings |
If you successfully find either cabin, please remember it is a protected national historic site. Touch as little as possible. Leave the place alone. Take nothing. Present and future Canadians thank you.
After visiting the cabin, we headed off to Healy Pass.
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| The pass is just to the left. Easy hills to climb |
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| The meadows |
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| Mt. Assiniboine in the distance. Eohippus just visible |
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| Mt. Ball dominates the view at the pass |
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| Looking back at Sunshine ski area |
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| Really fresh tracks |
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| Us from the tracks |
Despite being pretty chilly, there was noticeably less snow on the way down. Rather than going back to Sunshine, we walked the (rather boring and uninspired) ~7 km down Healy Creek to the parking lot, crossing it a few times.
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| The crossing at the Simpson Pass access |
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| The crossing 2.5 km from the parking lot |
Remember: please leave the cabin(s) as you found them.
6 comments:
Was sorta thinkin' 'bout how your house these days sorta resembles Bill Peyto's Cabin.....
Nice one Gary..
Hi,
Last weekend we found this cabin - it was pretty cool! Now I'm interested in finding the one near Eohippus Lake, but it's starting to look like it doesn't exist and has been confused with the Simpson Pass one (even good sources refer to the Simpson Pass cabin as both the Birdcage and Bookrest cabin). Do you know of anyone who has actually seen the one near Eohippus Lake? Thanks for any info you can provide!
Matthew, I personally don't but know someone who might. I'm checking.
Hi there,
Was hoping to find the cabin this summer and was looking for some information. Was in that area last year after backpacking to Egypt lake, but didn’t have any luck. Was hoping to chat with someone who’s been up there and seen the cabin. I feel like we were in the right area; saw the talc mine imprints and lots of remnants of human existence there, but no cabins. Let me know, thanks!
Hey, Jack; Lots has changed since I was up there in 2012. The biggest is that the Sunshine area now has a summer long Restricted Activity Order on it. That Order restricts all summer travel to designated trails. That means it's now illegal to go to the cabin, which is on Peyto's original trail, but that trail is NOT designated. The order covers everything west of Sunshine all the way to Healy Pass & the Monarch Ramparts. So you legally can't visit it in the summer. That order is not in place in the winter; lots of people ski the meadows area. To protect the cabin, it's also surrounded by trail cameras that the Park Wardens check regularly in the summer. I am aware of people who have been caught and charged because they were captured on camera.
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