Jul 25, 2025 High Rockies - Boulton to Elk Pass Trail Report

NOTE to MTB Riders: At mile maker 0.33 m, or ~0.5 km, on this trail where there are 2 means to reach the BC border from Alberta, and where taking the 'right', if traveling south, at that junction means getting off the main route to Elk Pass, this short section is, in the opinion of this MTB rider, not terribly recommended for MTB travel for a few reasons: 1) it's horribly 'rooty' in such a way that I felt I was on a never-ending pogo stick ride, 2) It's very narrow, 3) any recent rains will make parts of this trail as horribly muddy and 'slough-ish' (requiring frequent 'walk-a-rounds'), and 4) at the very beginning there is a mandatory 'hike-a-bike', or perhaps, better, 'carry-a-bike' up the very steep and rooty 40-degree incline.

Once at the BC border where there is a 3 or 4-trail junction, that's where I decided to turn around and abandon the effort to take a bike to Frozen Lake, and I saw that a previous MTB rider arriving earlier on the same day at this very location had the same idea since I found his or her locked (secured) bike at that very location indicating that the owner decided to alternately proceed onward on foot in one of the available directions, presumably to Frozen Lake.