Sawback Lake, Banff National Park
From a basecamp on Forty Mile Creek in the heart of Banff’s Sawback Range, backpackers can day hike to several, seldom-visited backcountry lakes. Canmore backpacker-photographer Zeljko Kozomara recently filed a “comment” on my posting “Banff’s Sawback Range: The Fitch Variation” (Sept 2018). Like Gavin Fitch’s take on the Sawback Trail, Zeljko’s itinerary makes total sense. Once again, this trip falls under the category of “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Why speed through the Sawback Trail, or around the Sawback Range Circuit, with a full backpack? Instead, pack to a basecamp and hike to three of the range’s spectacular lakes.
Forty Mile Creek and the 2150m (7,054 ft) Forty Mile Summit have always been good early season destinations for backpackers. And especially this year, with snow lingering on most of the high trails.
Rainbow Lake, Banff National Park
Zeljko set off on his journey from Mount Norquay a month ago, on July 11, and made it to the Fm19 campground by evening. Like so many backpackers these days, he only discovered one other campsite occupied, even though all 5 sites were listed as occupied by Parks Canada.
The next day, he headed over Forty Mile Summit to Sawback and Rainbow Lakes, where he took some excellent photographs. And on July 13th, he broke camp and headed back to Mount Norquay, taking a side trip to the more frequently visited Mystic Lake. (However, he had the lake to himself.)
Autumn Sky Photography
Photos on this page courtesy of Zeljko Kozomara. Check out Zeljko’s description of the trip Forty Mile Rainbow posting on his Autumn Sky Photography website. It provides far more useful details and photos than I can include here. And check out his entire autumnsky.zenfolio.com site for a collection of photos and useful trail descriptions from his Canadian Rockies trips. As well as remarkable portfolios from around the world. You can spend hours exploring this website (I have).
By setting a basecamp at Fm19 on Forty Mile Creek, backpackers can day hike north to Rainbow and Sawback Lakes or west to Mystic Lake. Map courtesy of Gem Trek Maps (Banff & Mt Assiniboine).
Great photos Zeljko! I remember fondly our day hiking from Fm19 to Flint’s Park. Besides seeing Rainbow Lake I particularly remember the walk down that escarpment towards Flint’s Park. What amazing views west and north.
Because we were hiking through we didn’t see Sawback Lake, but now definitely want to. Love the idea of using Fm19 as a basecamp for a loop taking in both Rainbow and Sawback Lakes. The only drawback to that is missing Flint’s, one of my favourite backcountry campsites anywhere.
I am considering doing a loop of the Sawback, Moose Meadows Trailhead to Badger Pass, then to Sawback Lake, then final camp at Larry’s Camp. My question is about creek crossings. I am hiking with my dog, a rescue with an unknown history, and they are not great with creek crossings. Are there any crossings I should be concerned about? I was wondering about crossing the Cascade River at Flint’s Park.
Thank you for your help.
As far as I know, the Cascade River is still bridged in Flint’s Park. And I can’t think of any other stream crossings that should be a problem. However, I never recommend taking a dog on a backpacking trip into grizzly country.
I found a reference in your guide book to a bridge over the Cascade River
Thank you your reply, I did see the reference about grizzly bear country in the guide book, not a happy thought when going solo with a dog. Appreciate the feedback
Does anyone know the origins of the name of 40 Mile Creek and why the pass is 40 Mile Summit when it is clearly not a summit? Just curious.
thx
ian
The use of “summit” or “pass” is interchangeable. A summit is usually a height of land that separates watersheds but is less distinguishable than a pass. In this case, Forty Mile Summit is a watershed divide for Forty Mile Creek and Sawback Creek. (Bow Summit on the Icefields Parkway is similar in that it is seldom referred to as Bow Pass.)
As for the name Forty Mile Creek, place names books have drawn a blank. I would suspect that the name goes back to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, since the creek crosses the CPR line 40 miles from Morley on the east and Kicking Horse Pass (B.C. border) on the west. Not many people realize that Major A.B. Rogers ran his first survey for the railway east from Kicking Horse Pass and down the Bow Valley, hence the names Pilot Mountain and Tunnel Mountain.