The walk back along Albert Edward's north-east ridge was a spectacular, if somewhat rocky, walk. There are excellent
views into Albert Edward's northeast cirque and it's crevassed apron glacier. We started encountering more people
along this, the main route to Albert Edward (we encountered no one at all up until just after starting our descent from
AE), although the numbers of people were not large (perhaps ten people in total).
Eventually, the northeast ridge route drops off to the east, heading down to the Forbidden Plateau. The trail is well
marked and cairned throughout, although once in the trees there are a few very steep gullies where care must be taken.
It's was a nearly 1,000m (3,000 foot) knee-pounding descent, but we finally made it to the junction with Circlet Lake.
From here, it was mostly gentle grades and generally smooth trail back to the car. The only problem was that there
was a lot of ground still to cover.
With the sunny day still holding out, we hiked, and hiked, and hiked. Back through Whiskey Meadows, back past
Hairtrigger Lake, past the ranger station, up to the col between Mt Brooks and Elma, down into the muddy, rooty trail
along the west side of Helen Mackenzie. Here we were grateful for the beginning of the 'immaculate' trails, complete
with their boardwalking-out-of-control. In fact, there was even a new section of boardwalk here that wasn't there the
day before! Amazing!
Wishing for sneakers on this sort of terrain, we power-walked along, eventually reaching the trailhead and the car at
5:20pm, and nearly 17km after leaving Mount Albert Edward's summit. Including the distance from our tent that morning,
our total day's mileage was nearly 26-and-a-half kilometres. Not bad.
This loop is definitely scenic. The views and angles on nearby and distant features are superb. It's long though,
perhaps better suited as a 3-day outing, but definitely worth it.
Again, note that this backpack was part of a larger trip to Vancouver Island that Jenn and I took in August of 2008. If you'd like to read about the trip as a whole, complete with many pictures and a full narrative, please
click here.
