Hike Into Willmore Wilderness Part Four

Once again we awoke to clear blue skies. I got up and ate the last bagel I had packed so it sort of marked the passing of time. I had brought along three bagels as part of my food supply and ate one each morning toasted over my MSR Pocket Rocket stove. Along with this I was having a package of instant oatmeal and some instant coffee. I enjoy starting the day off with a good breakfast. Generally when I'm hiking I have a hot breakfast and a hot supper.
Lunch is not really an official event. I like to refer to it as second breakfast or elevensies in honor of Lord of the Rings! During the day we are usually on the move so I graze on dehydrate fruit, granola bars and chocolate bars. All-Bran bars were also a staple of my diet for this week of hiking. I decided on this trip to forgo trail mix. I was diagnosed with diverticulitis earlier this year. Apparently it is aggravated further by things like nuts and seeds. Last year a bout of stomach cramps landed me in the emergency ward the night before I was to go on a three day hike. In the back of my mind I was worried about a recurrence on this trip which would have been compounded further if we were several kilometres in the bush. Thankfully I had no stomach problems. Trail mix is a good weight to calories ratio however I am not taking a chance on stomach troubles.

The plan for the day (Tuesday) was to hike to Eagle's Nest Pass and take in some of the sights. Harold said there wasn't much to see overall, but we would go anyway just to follow the Mountain Trail further into Willmore Wilderness. The trail went through the pass which was basically a couple of rock faces and then a long descent to Rock Creek where there was a small campsite where we rested. It was still early in the day so we decided to walk further along the trail until we came into a large open valley where the Starlight Range bordered to the west. We stopped here and rested again for a bit.

As we were sitting there a couple of horseback riders approached from the direction we had just come. It was a guy and his daughter on their way further into the park. Sheep hunting season was going to be starting on Saturday and they were on their way in to set up camp and scope some possible hunting sites. They were pretty friendly and they rode on. We were ready to turn back and make the hike back through the pass to camp.

As we came through the pass a rainstorm blew in, not too intense but enough to make us don our raincoats. The rain was soon over however. We ran into four more hunters on horseback as we got closer to our camp. They didn't seem as talkative so we just let them pass. By the time we gotr to camp the sun was out and hot. I washed up in the creek again and cooked up a Mister Noodles for supper along with the last of my beef jerky.
Throughout the week we had been sort of neighbors with a couple and their dog. They weren't camped with us but they were somewhere close by. As we sat by our fire the man came over and asked us if anyone had been in our camp at all. We said we didn't think so as everything was in order when we got back. He said it looked as though someone had been in theirs while they were out day hiking. There were horse prints around the site and someone had unzipped their tent door and left it open. Unfortunately when the rain had blown in earlier that day it had gotten into their tent and their stuff was wet. I thought that was very unusual to happen way out here. Most people you would think would be respectful of each other's property. You need to have a lot of trust in your fellow hikers and so on as generally you leave your camp set up when you go on your day trips. There is no place to simply lock up your gear!
Once again a thunderstorm blew in about 9pm. This was by far the most intense. A couple of mounds of hail several inches high built up at the corners of my shelter and the lightning so loud you could swear it was striking only a few metres from the camp.
The nightly bouts with nature's awesome power were becoming a little tiresome. Nothing left to do again but turn in for the night. The guy we had spoken to earlier in the shadow of the Starlight Range had told us the weather was going to turn for the worse by the end of the week.
Regardless, this was our last night at this camp as we had decided we would make our way back toward Seep Creek the following day and do a day hike from there on Thursday before heading back to the trail head on Friday.