Sir Donald and Macoun; stands low between the Summit Range of the Selkirks and the Dogtooth Mountains.
Route: Reached by trail from Bear Creek station. At the junction of the Beaver River and Grizzly Creek the trail forks, one path, now impassable owing to slides and fallen timber, leading up Grizzly Creek and its west branch to the divide at the head of the north branch of the Spillimacheen River; thence an easy opening ascent to the summit. The other path leads up Beaver River Valley from which it is a climb of between 3,000 and 4,000 feet.
Time required: It requires at least 4 days and a camp outfit to make this expedition comfortably. Mountain guides are necessary. Bald Mountain is of great interest. Its crest is composed of grassy slopes of considerable extent separated by transverse ridges. It suggests the likelihood that at some time, in a by-gone age, before the Beaver Valley was carved out, glaciers had swept across it and shorn off its crest leaving the ridges as dividing lateral moraines. The southern end is sprinkled with groves of shapely spruce trees, giving a park-like appearance.
View: The high tops of Bald Mountain present wonderful views of Mt. Sir Donald and the black precipitous wall of the eastern escarpment of the Selkirks' Summit. At the base of this great wall, high on the slopes of Beaver Valley, a long array of pocket-glaciers are in plain sight, and the glaciers of Mt. Sir Donald, Uto and Eagle Peaks; and the climber gets a peep into Glacier Circle, an alpine park of rare beauty set in the ice and snows of the Dawson Range. Bald Mountain furnishes first-rate hunting for such big game as cariboo, bear and goat. It is a paradise for the botanist, brilliant alpine flora following each other in quick succession; and for the photographer and artist, it is a rich and almost virgin field.
Hunters and climbers will find it a profitable outing to Bald Mountain. Mr. Wheeler has written of an expedition in 1902 from Glacier to Golden through mountain defiles by way of abandoned trails—trails which will be rebuilt and maintained for the pleasure of the public as soon as the rich Government can be persuaded to the enterprise. Of game on Bald Mountain he says: "It is a splendid place for game. Several bimches of caribou were seen and, a snow-fall occurring soon after our advent, it was a surprise to see a very net-work of foot-prints on the newly fallen surface: caribou, singly and in lots, grizzly and brown bear, fox, wolf, porcupine, martin, marmot, and all the small mammals. Truly, if one can only efface one's self in the apparent solitudes, it will be found that there is much going on around you."
Baloo Pass—Name: By Topographical Survey with reference to Bear Creek (Baloo, Indian for bear).
Altitude: 6,681 ft.
Location: At the head of Beaver Creek Valley, north-westerly from Glacier House, and leading to the Upper Valley of Cougar Brook.
Route: A pony trail up Bear Creek Valley leads over the Pass and connects with the trail in Cougar Valley near the Caves of Cheops (Nakimu Caves).
Time required: The round trip can be made in one day, either by saddle-pony or on foot, though it is more comfortable to take two
