Hiking Jasper National Park’s North Boundary Trail has always called for thought. Even in the good old days, when dozens of bridges let hundreds of hikers enjoy the trail all summer and fall, it was still a hundred miles long and few would hike it in less than a week. Today, it has a very short season and some dangerous fords. Once upon a time it could easily be somebody’s first long backpack, with an appealing combination of remoteness and ease: isolated but otherwise unchallenging with well-kept campsites, good trail, few technical aspects, and plenty of predictability. No longer.

The trail’s been deteriorating for decades and in 2021, flooding on the western half of the trail took out two of the three most important remaining bridges, over Twintree and Chown Creeks, plus the entire Berg Lake Trail. Some people have done the trail since, often on horseback, but it’s become both more difficult and more obscure. All the YouTube videos are now somewhat out of date and the Twintree ford in particular has probably been taken on foot by fewer than twenty people, of whom I am now one.

Naturally, I put a good deal of planning into this trail, and (not least thanks to God providing some spectacular weather) it worked. I have experience, but not much fitness, and it proves the North Boundary Trail remains possible for the hiker, but you need to know what you’re getting into. Here is how I arranged my own hike.