Today was the day for chores and shopping. We had a great buffet breakfast at the hotel and then went to the basement of the Cascade Mall to do our laundry. While we waited, we searched for a light weight massage tool to take with us on trail and foot care supplies for Oliver. We also grabbed a knee support sleeve at the pharmacy for me to try. I was willing to try anything to get through those downhills.
After flipping our laundry into the dryer, we searched for a game we could play when stuck inside our tent during the rain. We found cloth 3 in 1 game set for checkers and chess that we felt wouldn’t add too much weight.
As we had extended our reservation at the hotel, we had to switch rooms. We moved our packs to a storage room and were passing the time while we waited for our new room to be ready. For lunch we went to a Thai Restaurant where I got a stir fry, I had been desperate for vegetables all morning and the stir fry hit the spot. We then stopped at Cows for ice cream and stopped by the Visitor’s Centre in search of activities we could do that wouldn’t involve a lot of walking. We were looking to rest our bodies.
Out of luck, we went back to the hotel and drank coffee and tea at the lobby café until our room was ready. It had felt like a long day even though we were “resting”. Our muscles were tired and we still had a few more trail days ahead of us.
With our packs in our new room, we set off for Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner where I was thankful they seated us at a bar height table so I could dangle my feet from the stool. Now all that was left for the night was repacking our bags, thinking through what we would need in the morning and what needed to be accessible once back on the trail. Finally, it was time for bed to have another good rest.
It was another cold night and everything felt damp in the tent from the dew and condensation. I was half asleep when Oliver smacked the side of the tent to scare away a mouse sitting on top of his backpack in the vestibule. With both of us now awake, we got up at 6:30am to frost on the ground and frozen water filters. We were glad we had filtered our water the day before.
We stepped off at 7:30am and the fireweed was still frozen, saving us from getting soaked feet first thing in the morning. The climb out of Porcupine was challenging and slow. It took about an hour to reach the Citadel Pass junction and there was still more climbing to reach Citadel Pass. We still never saw any bears and continued to make noise to keep them away.
It took a long day to reach the Howard Douglas campground where we stopped for lunch. The outhouse was filled with mouse droppings but someone had created a lock with a stick, so there was that going for it.
Next was the climb up Quartz Hill and it was one of the steepest climbs up the shortest distance. We also heard something thumping around in the bushes across from us and pulled out our bear spray. The noise went away and we assumed we must have started a deer or some other animal that took off, but it got our hearts racing.
When we reached Sunshine Meadows we were excited to see some flat trail ahead but there was still some uphill in our future. When we reached the ski lifts, there were benches to sit on. Of course, we sat. Sadly, the Gondolas weren’t running at Sunshine Village, which is the usual mode of transportation when heading into town for resupply, so we had a road walk ahead of us. My knee wasn’t feeling great coming out of the meadows and definitely flared up on the long winding road. It was also a hot day and we were feeling the heat.
Maintenance vehicles from Sunshine Village and Parks Canada were driving the road, kicking up dust in our faces. Due to insurance issues, they weren’t allowed to give us a ride to the bottom of the mountain. One truck stopped and offered to take our packs and leave them at the building at the bottom and gave us directions to a shaded ski trail that we could take to get us out of the sun. We were appreciative and took them up on their offer.
We eventually got to the bottom, found our bags, and rested before walking up to the parking lot to wait for our trail angel who agreed to bring us in to Banff. We stayed at the Banff Aspen Lodge and decided to take a zero the next day, which allowed us to coordinate with our trail angel for a ride to the Floe Lake trailhead. It did mean shaving off a bit of the trail, but there was a closure at Egypt Lake campground because of bear activity and we would have needed to walk back up the ski hill road to get back on trail and we weren’t excited by that idea.
Once at the hotel we quickly realized we never packed town clothes, so we went to the thrift store and found some clothes to get by while we did our laundry. I spent a long time in the shower taking off layer after layer of dirt as the heat soothed my aching muscles. We also stopped at an Indian Restaurant where I experienced hiker hunger for the first time. I believe I entertained the folks sitting nearby as I practically inhaled a shareable portion of coconut rice and butter chicken. All I can say is, it felt so nice to be in a nice soft bed for the first time in six days and I knew it was only temporary.
It was a cold night and I shivered whenever I woke up. I did manage to stay warm if I snuggled up against Oliver to steal some of his body heat and then didn’t move. I also found it helpful to pull my buff over my lips to keep my face warm. I certainly found it difficult to sleep while cold.
We got out of Magog around 8:45am, but not before we had an amazing view of Mt Assiniboine during breakfast. I can understand why people, like the couple we hiked with the day before, made this location their destination and didn’t continue on down the trail. There are many day hikes to do in the area so may people either hike in or take a helicopter Magog Lake and spend a couple of days there.
Being a chilly morning, we kept extra layers on at the start of our hike. The sky was clear, giving us great views of Mt Assiniboine, but it was cold.
The hike started across several meadows. We were told the grizzly had been seen in that area as well at to keep a watchful eye out for the bear as we passed through. Of course, we didn’t see anything. We were far too noisy, and that was intentional. A close encounter with a grizzly was not on our wish list.
The terrain became a little more rocky as we arrived at Og Lake, which was another stunning spot. It was the only outhouse, besides Magog Lake, that was supplied with toilet paper. It also had a latch on the inside. Probably my favourite outhouse on the trip, if I was ranking them.
The lake was small but beautiful, with a great view of Mt Assiniboine. It was also sunny and anyone camped there had dry gear to pack away – unlike us. We snacked and filled our water bottles before carrying on toward Porcupine.
On our way, we passed through the Valley of the Rocks and it was evident how it got its name. It was full of interesting rock formations and many up and down hills. The valley went on for some time with uneven ground and was a fascinating area to hike through.
The descents irritated my left knee again. Whenever I could do a run/hop/bounce down the hill there was less irritation, but because I wasn’t sure of my footing under the weight of the pack, I was always resisting on the downhills. Plus, whenever I would get confident, I was sure to find that one loose rock that rolled under me to knock me off balance again.
There were more climbs this day that I had understood there would be, but it was the downhill into Porcupine that was the worst. It was a long descent into Porcupine. We met groups going up around 11:30am and 1:30pm and they had a long walk ahead of them to get to Magog Lake.
We got into Porcupine around 3:30pm and could pick whatever site we wanted as the campground was empty when we arrived. A bear locker was full of garbage and stored supplies for someone who had labeled the bag for pick up on Jan/Feb 2021. It was now August.
We filled our water bottles at a nearby creek and basked in the sun before the clouds rolled in. There was a muddy creek behind the campsites but down the path there was a lovely little spot, with a bench, where one could relax and fill up without any mud.
Once again we were at a site with an outhouse without toilet paper and we were running low. Luckily, another couple arrived at the campground. They had discovered they hadn’t brought any toothpaste. Since Oliver and I had our own mini tubes, we did a little trade and found ourselves with enough toilet paper to get us through to when we got to town.
After dinner we climbed into bed and tried to get as much sleep as we could knowing we faced a long climb out of Porcupine the next morning.
It was a later start to the day as the couple got ready and packed up. We all had to put wet gear away and they needed to figure out what to do with all their canned food and garbage.
The start of the trail was generally easy with wide trails even though it was steep. Then it turned into a “proper” trail with rocky, uneven paths. We found grouse family along the way, which upset the mother who wanted to distract us from her little ones. We also startled a moose, which was far enough away and it ran into a lake to swim across to the other side. We had made enough noise to give it enough warning to make a departure from the area.
The climb became more challenging, but the trail brought us to some amazing snow-capped mountains and turquoise lakes. As we climbed, there was snow on the ground which was deeper as we reached the top of Wonder Pass. The Pass was spectacular and it was hard to believe I was standing on a trail, surrounded by snow. It is a indescribable feeling to stand on top of a mountain pass looking back at the ground you had covered, wondering how you managed to find yourself there.
There was no sign of Bruce the grizzly, even though people we passed had reported seeing him on the trail not long before we crossed through. There were plenty of signs of Bruce, with scat on the trail and plenty of mounds where he had dug up ground squirrels.
The path ended with a stretch of boardwalks leading to Mt Assiniboine Lodge. We had made it in time for Happy Hour at 4pm which campers and hikers could enjoy. We were 20 minutes early, so we sat around at the lodge and imagined what the view of Mt Assiniboine would have looked like if it wasn’t hidden behind the snow clouds. It was actively snowing and when Happy Hour started, we sat with tea and wine while we rested our tired feet
Magog Lake was busy. Many of the bear lockers were already full when we arrived, but there was room on the bear hang. This was the first campground that required campers to set up on the tent pads. Campsite 39 was close to the washrooms, and was in a corner away from the noise of the rest of the campers.
The night, I froze and put on as many layers as I could and stole Oliver’s quilt while he was at the cooking shelter playing board games with other hikers. Sadly, he took his quilt back when he returned to the tent.
We got up around 7am or so and had our site packed up by 8:30am. It was raining while we were packing, which made it difficult to keep things dry. We said our goodbyes to the Quebecers and got water near the bridge crossing before the campground and set out.
Not too long into the hike, my shoulders were in pain again and were excruciating by the time we reached Birdwood. It was the first time that I was worried about being able to finish the hike as I couldn’t picture being able to endure that much pain for several more days. We spent a significant amount of time adjusting my pack and I took some Ibuprofen. The time spent making the adjustments was a good investment as it worked and I was much happier.
Our feet were very wet today. Both pairs of socks were damp so we chose the least damp pair to start off our day. They were quickly soaked in the rain and the water from the damp brush. Oliver changed his socks part way through the day, but I kept mine on as my spare were too damp for it to have mattered.
The trail was pretty flat with some short climbs, but nothing that would have drained my energy. We sang songs as we passed through meadows and walked through the denser forest to alert any bears of our presence. There were no creek crossings that needed to be forded today and any water in our path we could easily jump over or it had a bridge.
There were more signs of moose, but saw no wildlife. Outside of Birdwood, was an unoccupied ranger cabin with a Canadian flag blowing on the flagpole. It was shuttered, but clearly well maintained.
As we walked, we sent a message on our Garmin to family to ask for help to make a reservation at Big Springs as we were ahead of schedule and would need a permit to stay at the campground. Luckily, they were able to secure a site for us and we were all set for our arrival later that day.
It rained off and on keeping us slightly damp. When we reached the Spray Lakes area, the trail changed to wide and graveled paths, with the odd trail cam strapped to the trees. This was when we started to see people and those we talked to were coming from Mt. Assiniboine. We were cautioned about “Bruce” the 3 year old resident grizzly in Wonder Pass that liked to hang out beside the trails. They told us he was used to people, but you needed to navigate around him as he dug up nearby ground squirrels.
With permits to Big Springs in place, we got campsite 5 (the best one, in my opinion) and started to dry everything out after our arrival around 2:30pm. It was time for a nice, restful afternoon. Camping spots were spacious and we were right next to a creek. Food lockers were all the way down the hill and not a climb you want to make often with sore muscles. With the afternoon to do whatever we wanted, we took a short walk to the spring that fed the creek, which proved to be a little challenging in crocs, which I had changed into at the campsite.
We had dinner with a couple were on their way to Mt. Assiniboine and we decided to hike together tomorrow to increase our hiking party to four for when we ran into Bruce the grizzly. The rain hit and we all retreated to our tents by 7pm.
We packed up camp by 8am to start our hike Sleep was alright and we found the sound of commercial jets flying overhead to be somewhat comforting knowing there were people “nearby”.
There was a slight climb out of Beatty before beginning a descent on a rocky avalanche slope onto scree. The screen slope kept going for what ended up taking us about 45 mins to 1 hour, taking a big bite of our time. My knee felt better on this descent compared to the day before. I did take a tumble on the scree, but only landed on my backside, which is better than tumbling down the slope.
There were many ups and downs heading into Palliser Pass. I needed to stop every few feet. My left shoulder was hurting under my pack strap and I was exhausted from the ascent. There may have been tears, mostly trigged by the pain from the pack needing to be adjusted. We had to push through so much overgrown plants that our pants, shoes, and socks were soaked. Even though we had wet feet, we still made the switch to our water shoes (Crocs for me) for our first river crossing. Lee Roy creek was my first river/creek ford. The water was freezing and my feet were much happier when I stepped onto the shore on the opposite side.
We climbed for a while and thought we had reached the top of Palliser Pass, but we hadn’t. There were more climbs to go. On our travel up the switchbacks, we met a group of four from Montreal who going in the same direction, but had taken a different route and didn’t stay at Beatty Lake.
When we reached Palliser Pass Campground, there were no bear lockers and there was evidence that there had been a bear digging not too far away, with a large patch of dug up soil. We chose to keep going.
It was raining at the top of the Pass where we found the four from Quebec eating their dinner at the Pass marker. We continued on past wild flowers and scenic mountains. There were shrubs and berries along the way, making us feel better that the bears in this area were already full with the berries they found.
Around this time, we encountered some ultra trail runners who intended to complete 100km that day. They were running 50km into the park and would then turn around and run 50km back to their car, which they wouldn’t reach until sometime later that night. We thought they were brave as we had run across a lot of bear scat during our hike and wouldn’t want to be the one to surprise a bear while running down a trail.
The walk to Burstall Campground felt long, but we were the first to arrive and could pick from any of the sites. We chose campsite 2. There were bear lockers and an outhouse covered in chicken wire to keep the critters away. The four from Quebec arrived a few minutes after we had begun setting up our site and Oliver helped one of them patch up their backpack with some duct tape we had wrapped around our trekking poles incase we needed it. The poor guy’s pack had developed a tear and the contents were at risk of spilling out onto the trail.
The day before, we drove down to Lake Louise, Alberta and stayed in a nice hotel in the town. We had a great dinner and filled up for breakfast before driving down to Ottertail Trailhead in Field, British Columbia. I wrote a quick little note for the dashboard of our car to notify Parks staff that we were on Section C and we switched to our trail shoes as we waited for our trail angel to arrive and give us a lift to our starting point. We were among the first to park in the parking lot that morning, so we found a spot right by the trail information sign.
I was in great spirits this morning and full of excitement over starting my first section hike. We had been preparing for it, although for only a month or so after my husband found himself without a hiking partner and I stepped up to fill the vacancy. We had been reviewing the map of the route, which appeared to be a reasonable distance, but once we got in the car and we kept driving further and further down the highway and past Canmore, Alberta, I finally understood what I had truly signed up for. I thought for sure we were going to turn off of the highway sooner, but we didn’t, until we were well out of Canmore and finally reached the turn toward Kananaskis Lake.
After saying our goodbyes to our trail angel and freshening up at the parking lot restrooms, we started at Kananaskis Lake Trail at 11am. We strolled along the side of the lake for a short distance and then stepped into the trees, passing by a few small slides with crushed rock paths. The walk to Forks campground was quite easy and gave my legs a warm up. There was some elevation gain, but it was manageable. It was raining when we got there and stood under a tree while we ate our lunch.
As we exited Forks, we encountered our first pile of moose droppings. A lot of droppings and rather fresh. We agreed that neither were concerned about encountering black bears on the trail, but grizzlies and moose were entirely different beasts. Both of us had bear spray for grizzlies but had nothing to defend ourselves against a stupid moose that might charge at us if we spooked it.
After Forks, the trail began to climb almost immediately, taking a bit of effort to get up the slope. In increased in difficultly, requiring us to pull ourselves up at times and to use stairs with a chain to get up. Just as we were reaching the stairs, we heard some noise in the trees and below us and saw a moose with her calf. Luckily, we were far enough away that we didn’t spook her.
We finally made it to Three Isle Lakes where there was sunshine and we sat on the shore where we filled our water bottles and rested. There was another climb out of Three Isle, but not as bad as the route to get there.
There was off and on rain throughout the remainder of the day. My knee started to ache on the descent out of Three Isle, which I had never experienced before and I took my first tumble just before we reached Beatty Lake around 6pm. The campground was empty and we enjoyed a nice meal and got our tent set up before the rain hit around 7pm. There were was a bear locker with four cupboards and an outhouse with a door that had been chewed up by some critters. We got the best spot campsite, #1, right at the shore of the lake. It was a great start to our trip. Now I just had to adjust to the idea of being in grizzly bear country, get used to the sounds of the forest, and try to get some sleep.
With our upcoming trip on the Arizona Trail on our minds, we thought we would do a new Bucket List post – this time with both our perspectives. We will go through the list one place at a time, volunteering ours then commenting on the other.
Oliver’s #5: I would have put the Te Araoa on here until we watched the Hiking America videos of their thru. There were some beautiful days, but a lot more road walking than I thought, and also quite a bit of swampy stuff. I’m still traumatized by our Gros Morne Traverse thru-hike I guess! Now, I’d probably say the Colorado Trail. There’s a posting in Colorado Springs I may be eligible for in 5 years or so… (Swamps can be fun. – Cheryl)
Cheryl’s #5: The Florida Trail. While the road walks aren’t appealing to me, I like to celebrate when I complete hard things. The Florida Trail could involve a lot walking through swampy water (Hey, gators!), but it also has a lot of warm weather and plants that I would enjoy experiencing along the way. (Swampy… – Oliver)
Oliver’s #4: I’d probably put the Appalachian Trail here on the list. I am not as excited about it as some other trails, but there are parts of it I would love to see. Honestly, the busyness of the trail is probably the biggest turnoff for me, but I’d still give it a go if Cheryl wanted to do it. It wouldn’t be a hard sell. (See #2. – Cheryl)
Cheryl’s #4:Ozark Highlands Trail. Who wouldn’t want to spend time in the Ozark mountains? I have visited Arkansas and thought the area is beautiful. I wouldn’t mind spending some time hiking through it. (Or the Ouachita Trail? I wouldn’t object to either! – Oliver)
Oliver’s #3: The Arizona Trail. I’m really excited about our section hike in March. But despite the fact that I am very happy with the section we are doing, I REALLY want to see the Grand Canyon too! This isn’t the year for it though. (We will have to go back to do the Grand Canyon. – Cheryl)
Cheryl’s #3: The Wonderland Trail. It is a shorter thru-hike at 93 miles (150k) and one that needs to be done at a time of the year when there is not a lot of snow, but it checks the boxes for a manageable time commitment and beautiful mountain views. If we were to do this trail, we would need to win the “permit lottery” to camp in the backcountry. (For a short trail this would be lovely – Oliver)
Oliver’s #2: the Great Divide Trail. I’ve already hiked almost 2 sections of it, and I just love it. But I want to finish it, thru-hike it. It is without a doubt the best trail of its kind in Canada – 600 miles of Canadian Rockies, cutting right through the world famous Jasper and Banff, and those aren’t even the best parts! (So many trails. So little time. – Cheryl)
Cheryl’s #2: Appalachian Trail. Oliver has talked many times about the tree tunnels and lack of views on this trail, but the idea of really getting connected with the trail community and building a “tramily” really appeals to me. When discussing thru-hiking, this feels like a must do. (It’s my #4, so I’m in! – Oliver)
Oliver’s #1: The Pacific Crest Trail. Ever since encountering the movie, “Wild” it’s been on my mind, taking up space. I want to do it before I die, 100%. The clock is ticking though, and I know my body hasn’t been broken yet like many friends’ have, but it is wearing. I was talking to my boss’s boss last year and she said if I want to do it, do it – take unpaid leave if necessary, don’t wait until it’s too late. So I am hoping this may happen in the next few years as our kids graduate and move out.
Cheryl’s #1: We agree! Pacific Crest Trail would be my #1. It is an opportunity to connect with other hikers while getting to experience the vast mountain views. There are also enough towns along the way for resupplies and showers. The time needed to complete this hike would be a challenge though, so it must wait.
Oliver’s Honourable Mention: Since two of the Triple Crowns is on the list, I might as well add “why not the Continental Divide Trail?” It’s not NOT on the list… I think if we did the AT and the PCT, there would be a big draw to finish the Triple Crown… but it’s the longest of the three, it’s got the most road walking, and if we do the AZT and Colorado Trails, we will have already seen much of what it has to offer. So it would just be “to get the Triple Crown”.
Cheryl’s Honourable Mention:Te Araoa. It would be amazing to travel to New Zealand and thru hike, but the amount of money it would take to fly all the way there would be costly. Also, if we were to go to New Zealand, we are going to want to do more than just explore a trail, so there would be a lot of time and money involved in seeing as much as we can of what New Zealand has to offer. Also, I don’t want to do that much road walking. To me, a hike should be in the trees and not on paved roads.
Somehow writing this post slipped my mind for 3 years. Despite its importance in a number of ways – for one, I visited a bunch of times, and another – it was a critical part of our preparation for Section C of the Great Divide Trail. We spent most of 3 years in Cold Lake, AB and this was the longest and most accessible trail for us to hike locally.
During our time up there I always meant to thru-hike the trail. At 128km, it’s a nice length for a 4-5 day trip, though the trail is advertised as a 7 day trip. However, despite my shoes stepping on 90% of the trail, I never did get to do the thru-hike.
You can take a look at my previous post about how to book the Boreal Trail. However, since I wrote that post, they have released a better more current trail guide. It can be downloaded here. In my several trips out to it, I have learned that despite it feeling like it is administratively rigid, it is not. The park staff straight up told me that it’s fine to hike the trail, then retroactively pay for camp spots and such. This was as of 2022, so double check to see if they have tightened up the regulations.
On to my trips on the trail: first was a dayhike in the winter with a friend of mine. We wanted to do some “rucking” training, so we drove out to the park one Saturday with about 30lbs on our backs to walk the first 20km. We parked one car at one end and one at the other of the section we planned to do – the Cold River camp (BT1) to Sandy Beach, a frontcountry campsite on the trail. While on that walk we passed by BT2, a pretty little backcountry camping spot on a spit of land that juts out into Pierce Lake. It has a bear locker, elevated barbeque cooking spots, and several flat areas to pitch tents. It also has an adjacent “Green throne” privy set back from the camp.
My second trip was a spring overnight with one of my sons. We the the same route as the one I did in the winter, and camped at BT2 before hiking out to Sandy Beach, and the sunset was well worth it. Some swarms of mayflies liked the spot we pitched our tent, but that really was our only complaint. The way to Sandy Beach was more complicated in the spring than in the winter, as there was some beaver dam problems that flooded certain spots on the trail, but there was a way around.
My third trip was with the same son, another daytrip hike. We parked a little past Sandy Beach at the trailhead for Humphrey Lake and Humphrey Tower – the former location of a fire tower turned viewpoint on a knoll above the surrounding terrain. We hiked up to the tower site, skirting around one shore of Humphrey Lake, a little pond not really accessible for water (it’s swampy around the edges) but nice for waterfowl. The climb up the hill was brisk, and at the top, we were saddened to see that the tower had been burned down by vandals. But it was cleared in one direction, so we did have some nice views to enjoy a break at. We continued on to the narrows between Pierce Lake and Lapine Lake, where we had lunch before turning back to the car. On the return trip we did the other shore of Humphrey Lake which makes a nice little circle for dayhikers.
My fourth trip to the park was another overnight with that same son. He was a trooper that year! This time we had our sights set on a backcountry site set back from the rest – if you are thru-hiking you’d probably skip it as it’s up on a spur trail north of the main route. We parked the car at Grieg Lake near the east end of the park, and hiked up to BT9 on Fourth Mustus Lake. We chose this site because we brought my dog, Watson with us and he was a little unpredictable with people (he was an SPCA rescue) so we wanted to have a campsite with nobody around. The trail was sandy and mostly easygoing, and once again we were treated with a beautiful camping spot.
At that time (2021) there was no privy at that campground, and the picnic table was in bad repair but there was a working bear locker. But the tent sites were glorious and roomy, and we never saw another soul. We spent the evening after supper exploring some game trails on the north side of the lake, then tried to put the dog to bed. He didn’t go down easy, refusing to sleep in the vestibule. He ended up being off leash all night, and patrolled around us while we slept. Around midnight something got his attention because he bolted off barking at something, but he never left earshot and returned after being satisfied that whatever it was was not coming back. Glad there was nobody else there to be disturbed by him! Lesson learned.
My fifth trip was again with that same son, and we were aiming to do the whole trail. We started at Cold River this time, and once again camped at BT2. The next day we pushed pretty hard, and made it to BT3 by midafternoon. We could have gone further but the clouds had socked us in and the wind was blowing, and rain was beginning to make us miserable, so we set up our tents and hoped that the rain would slacken for some soggy dinner. The camping was down a rise next to the river, and the dinner spot with a firepit was at the top of the rise by the trail – so was the bear locker. After warming up a bit we came out and had an early dinner, but the weather was still miserable so we just hunkered down early for the night.
The next morning dawned sunny and nice, to the point where we could get a better sense of the place. It was an old forest fire clearing formed in 2011. The wind affected us because there were few large trees to break the wind. The river was quite nice though, and we took some snaps of a half dozen or so white pelicans who were punting around the rocks in the stream. Then we pushed on.
Sadly, my son’s feet were not as conditioned as mine to long trail days. By the time we pulled up in BT4 on Lac Des Iles he was pretty out of gas. We took a long break sunning ourselves on the functionally private beach there (Highly recommend this camp for a stop!) and then tried pushing on. We got to Murray Doell frontcountry camp (in the middle of another burn, so hot and sunny also beat us down) and then shortly after, we made it out to a road crossing and made the decision to call for an extraction. Still, got to see a lot of the park, and good quality time with my boy.
My sixth trip to the trail was in the training runup for our Great Divide Trail Section C trip. At this time my wife had decided to accompany me, but we needed to prepare her. So first order of business was to test her feet and our big four with an overnight. We selected a start at Jack Pine and hike into BT7 on the Waterhen River. We pitched my newly acquired, slightly used Durston XMid 2P above the river at sunset and it was lovely. The campsite had treed or open grassy field options, good fishing spots on the river, and well kept Bear Lockers. The trail used to go from BT7 east to the chalet and then north, but north of the chalet they had some beaver flooding issues, so they elected to close that part of the trail.
The following date we pushed for a longer day, crossing Mistohay Creek (nice views), passing the visitor center, and continuing on past BT5 to the Gold Creek area. There was some gravel roadwalking in this section, and the hot August sun beat down on us pretty ferociously. We had to hunt for water a few times in the drier stretches. Towards the end of our time in between the Murray Doell and BT5 area, it was quite hilly and nice. But we decided to call the trip there, almost connecting to where my son had left the trail on the previous trip.
All told, I probably got to see 80% of the trail, and the only significant backcountry stretch I didn’t get to hike was from Jack Pine to Kimball Lake area – most of the rest was roadwalk I was not sorry to miss.
I’d call it a well kept, well maintained set of trails for the most part, with well appointed campsites, though they frown on random camping. The challenge level is not Rocky Mountains, but there are hilly sections, and I’d definitely call it a good early season warmup hike, or late season final go before the snow flies. It is hikeable by May, and can still be done well into the fall (though make sure you hike in blaze orange in the fall!) If you’re in AB/SK, it’s definitely worth the trip!
Before the longer trips, our children were young. We had neither the types of jobs nor the ambition of some of these homeschooling families who I have heard about hiking the big trails in the USA. But passion for hiking was not going to be denied. So, I sought out hikes in the Rockies I could do with my sons as they grew up. One of the earliest I discovered was Table Mountain, just behind Pincher Creek in southern Alberta.
Perched on the south side of the pass entrance with commanding views of the transition from Rockies to foothills to plains, I was excited to get up there. I had heard of others who took kids up, so I figured it was attainable. Turns out I was in for some surprises.
The trail starts from Beaver Mines Lake Campground. It starts out fairly nicely, then begins some steep undulations as you get your start around the back shoulder of the peak. The draw that the trail follows has a little creek at the bottom but you aren’t really near it until you reach the “good parts”. A couple of kms in they start! The trail becomes more of a scramble as you ascend some very rocky areas to get to a winding switchback over scree. Some people descend by sliding down the scree. I do not recommend scree shortcuts uphill! It’s hard enough!
After ascending the very steep bit (for quite some time) the trail becomes a more gradual ascent and very dry. Bring water, you’ll be hot and need it. A cool skeleton of a tree hangs over the trail as the only memory of a time when this path had shade. Finally, as you come over the lip to the table area, you will see low scrubby trees in bunches and a couple of makeshift rocky walls to hide behind if you come up on blustery days. I am pretty sure on the second trip I spotted a bear den in the scrubby trees… I didn’t crawl in to check.
The first ascent I took my three oldest boys when they were still in single digits (2012). They complained of course on the steep bits but it made good memories. The second ascent several years later (2018) I took my youngest (twins) and a teenage friend of the family. We ascended in the afternoon, and got some stunning pictures from the top of the sun making its way closer to the line of mountains to the west. But the biggest treat was the descent: when we made it past the steep bit, the remainder of the descent was pointed right at the sunset and made for some of the best photos I have ever taken.
All in all, I really liked the mix of terrain and the challenge that the trail gives – enough to make you earn the summit but not enough to stop you. Bring adventurous children who are up for a challenge – this hike isn’t for city kids! But even if you don’t have little folks, it’s a great spot for anyone. I seem to recall a marriage proposal on one of our hikes up here!