Abbey's Road

At the advice of a ranger at the visitor center, I drove down to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and got a campsite right away. Since Labor Day weekend was coming up I knew it would get pretty crowded so I wanted to get a site early. In fact, some people drove down early in the week, paid for their site for the week, parked their trailer or camper and came back on Friday to stay for the weekend. I was real lucky and got a site on the lake. The campground was actually between 2 big lakes and was one of the nicest campgrounds I’ve been to. The sites were huge with tons of room between you and your neighbors. Since it was a rainy, cloudy day I didn’t really notice how nice the scenery looked until I got up the next morning. It was starting to clear up and you could see the mountains surrounding the lakes. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as some of the scenery in Banff and Jasper, but the mountains in this area give the national parks a run for their money. There were several good hiking trails in the area too. Thursday was still pretty cool, but at least the rain had appeared to stop. Since Abbey hadn’t been out much the two previous days I took her on a trail around one of the lakes and she was raring to go. She was doing great until it started to snow. Well, I think it was snow, but the flakes were small and hard so it could’ve been hail. It just didn’t come down hard like hail. Anyways, I managed to get Abbey going again and back to our campsite.

Friday was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. As an added bonus, the crowds weren’t all there yet. I took Abbey for a shorter hike in the morning and then I went on my own to a beautiful sub-alpine lake. It didn’t take too long so I decided to climb up to a higher vantage point above the lake and just below this rocky ridge. I sat there for a while enjoying the view, but I kept hearing these noises that sounded like falling rock. Every time I heard it I would look but couldn’t see any rocks falling. I was far enough from the ridge not to worry about anything falling on me, but my curiosity was killing me. Finally, after it sounded like an avalanche was starting I saw clouds of dust flying up and then I saw the rocks bounding down the ridge. The rocks weren’t all that big for all the noise they made. I was glad that I stopped where I did and was satisfied not to climb up any further.

On Saturday, another cloudless day, I took Abbey for another nice hike along the other lake and she got to go “fishin”, her favorite activity next to eating. After eating lunch I wanted to do another hike but the crowds finally caught up to us. I couldn’t find a parking spot at 2 different trailheads. Giving up I drove back to the campground but remembered another trail near the campground that the ranger had told me about. It was supposed to be less than a mile, though steep, to a nice viewpoint overlooking both lakes. The trail was very steep and rocky, but it was still packed with people. I stopped for a few seconds to catch my breath at the viewpoint then decided to continue on up the hill. The views kept getting better as the trail climbed higher. When it turned into the woods I was beginning to wonder when it would end. After asking a couple how much longer the trail was (a famous question on most any trail) I found out that one fork climbed up to a saddle overlooking the lower lake. Then I met some girls who were making a lot of noise because they just saw some bear scat. Despite the bear scat I figured there were enough other people around to not be too worried about the bear. One thing about the Canadian trail builders – they don’t seem to believe in switchbacks. They just blast straight up the hills. After a flat section around a dry lakebed the trail climbed up, steeply again, to the saddle. I think it was about the most tired I’ve been in a long time on the trail. The views were worth it, though. I didn’t stay up there too long though ‘cause I started to think about that bear again. Luckily I never ran into him.

On Sunday Abbey wasn’t up for a morning hike so I did the one that I wanted to on Saturday. It was the 3rd straight beautiful, blue sky day. In the afternoon I finally saw a few thin clouds. The hike wasn’t anything spectacular, but after the trail passed a lake the crowds thinned out considerably. It also leveled out and wandered through a beautiful valley surrounded by rugged mountains. It typified the whole area in Peter Lougheed. None of the areas were jaw-droppingly beautiful, but at the same time they were pretty darn nice. On more advice from that same ranger at the visitor center I went to the season finale of the interpretive programs of the park. The group who put it on were college students, most of whom were drama majors. This was obvious right from the start. At first I was thinking that it was pretty corny, but the kids did a great job and it was pretty funny, as well as educational. I found myself laughing pretty hard at times. My favorite line was when a girl playing a wildflower was dying because someone picked her. She looked up into the stage lights and said, “Oh no, I don’t know which light to go to.” It took me a minute so if you don’t get it, don’t feel too bad. You can always email me.

Monday morning meant the end of my trip into Canada. The clouds and smoke were back but it was a driving day so I didn't care so much. All in all I really enjoyed the Canadian Rockies despite the smoky skies and the crowds. I still had a lot of great days and the scenery was as good as any I’ve seen. I also saw signs that fall is coming. The wildflowers were mostly gone, but plants and shrubs at the higher elevations in many areas were starting to change colors. It will be nice to get back in cellphone range, though, and my brother will be happy about that too.

Posted by Ed at 7:10 PM | Permalink

Most everyone who told me about Lake Louise said it’s a beautiful place, despite the throngs of tourists. The village is nothing more than a few hotels, restaurants, gas stations and stores to cater to the tourists. The lake itself, however, is quite beautiful. The Chateau Fairmount Lake Louise is a very famous hotel that sits on the shoreline. From the lakeside it looks quite imposing, but once you climb high above the lake on one of the many trails in the area, it diminishes in stature a bit. I heard one guy saying that a standard room there goes for $800/nt. That’s enough to pay for a few months of camping for me. I think it would probably be up to my brother, Jim, and his wife, Carol’s standards, though I don’t think Jim would be able to get a room comp’ed there like he usually tries to do. Abbey got to check the place out from the shoreline trail. Having recovered from the previous two traumatic days of high winds and thunderstorms she was ready to go. She walked me around for about an hour and a half before I brought her back to the RV and struck out on some of the more strenuous trails without her. The views from high above the lake were pretty incredible. The canoes on Lake Louise looked like little more than dots on the water. I was amazed at how many people actually made the climb up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse. It’s only a couple of miles but you go up about 1300 ft. in elevation. I was wondering if the staff has to hike up everyday because there certainly was no road. I passed on the tea because I didn’t really want a pot by myself and the service didn’t look speedy. I guess they figure everyone is pretty tired and wants a long rest anyways. After leaving the teahouse I was in for a steep climb up to a place called Big Beehive, having done Little Beehive on the way up to Lake Agnes. Still not sufficiently satisfied with all these great views I decided to do the full loop and go to the Plain of the 6 Glaciers. I was thinking that it couldn’t be much higher than I already was, but I found out that you have to go down to pick up the trail and then you go back up. Needless to say I was pretty tired when I got to the plain. It was pretty cool though, but I was a bit disappointed that no chunks broke off the glacier while I was there. A large piece broke off about an hour before I got there. Luckily, the way back to the beginning was all downhill ‘cause I was pretty beat.

There was another area around Lake Louise that I wanted to hike but you had to be in a group of 6 due to all the grizzly activity in the area. The buffalo berries are in season and it is one of their favorite foods so they are out in full force. Some areas have even been closed to hikers because of the bears, but there are still plenty of hikes to do. I was going to go to the trail head early the next morning to try and hook up with a group, but decided I was too tired and needed a light day. The weather was as nice as it had been the day before. Ever since the thunderstorms on Wednesday things had really improved and the smoke had pretty much cleared out. So Abbey and I did a hike about 3 miles into Boom Lake. I was hoping she could swim while I ate lunch, but the rocky shore wasn’t really conducive to it. Instead she went hunting for things in the woods and unfortunately found a frog that I didn’t notice until it was too late. It was still alive when I pulled her back, but I don’t think it lasted too long after that. The rest of the day we hung out in Banff before going to another campground. I had registered earlier in the day and left a chair in my spot so people wouldn’t think it was empty. I was pretty ticked when we got back and found my chair gone. The next night we got back fairly late and found that they had taken my ticket stub off the post as well. I was happy to move on from that campground, especially since the train seemed to run right through it several times a day.

On Saturday I tried to take Abbey for a hike early so I could go up to a place called Sunshine Meadows by bus later in the morning. There’s a place called Johnston Canyon not far from the campground that has a couple of nice waterfalls. We got there early before the crowds, but things didn’t go too well. They had these concrete and steel catwalks built into the canyon walls in places where there wasn’t enough room for a trail. I was amazed they went through that much trouble to put a trail up the canyon. If I had remembered my camera I could’ve shown you pictures. Well, Abbey wasn’t too fond of these catwalks, especially when they made noises, but I managed to get her most of the way to the upper falls without too much coaxing. As the falls got louder and the trail got more crowded, though, she got more nervous. It took a while to get her all the way back and I had to make sure that I didn’t look too mad or frustrated in front of all the other people. Let’s just say it wasn’t a fun walk. Sunshine Meadows turned out a bit better. You drive to the parking lot of Sunshine Village ski resort and they take you up on a shuttle bus to the upper lodge. I remember once when Mary Beth and I first went to Germany we went to hike Alpspitz, the second highest mountain in Germany. We decided to save a few bucks and hike up instead of taking the gondola. Well, by the time we got to the top of the gondola run I was so tired I didn’t even have enough energy to go get a beer at the lodge. Luckily, Mary Beth still did so got the beers while I laid down on one of the conveniently placed lounge chairs. That beer was probably one of the best beers I ever tasted, second only to the ice cold free beer at the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. The worst part was some of the best hiking started from the top gondola station, but we were way too tired to do anymore. Ever since then I’m always willing to spend the money to take a bus, gondola or whatever to get up to where the good hiking starts. The views from the trails around Sunshine Meadows were nice, but I don’t know if I would do it again unless the wildflowers were in bloom. We were a few weeks too late. And the $5 bottle of beer just didn’t measure up to that one on top of Alpspitz. At least I wasn’t as tired. Nonetheless I decided to treat myself to dinner at a Mexican place in Banff. The food was actually pretty good and the beer tasted pretty good too. I sat at the bar like I usually try to do and met a few of the locals so it was an interesting night.

On Sunday, I was pretty tired and wasn’t sure how Abbey would be after my frustration of the previous morning. I found a nice easy walk in Banff that we could do and figured that might work for her. She was fine except it turned out to be popular with horses so I had to try to keep her from eating all the horse dung. It’s not easy finding a trail that works for both of us any more. After eating lunch and working on the computer some she was getting restless so I decided to give it one more shot. We went to Lake Minnewanka (when we lived in Woodstock, Lake Minnewaska was one of our favorite places to hike) where Abbey got to swim for a while. To my surprise she perked right up and we went for a fairly long hike along the lake shore and then up a canyon. It turned out to be a beautiful hike. The stream in the canyon was incredibly clear and the crowds thinned out after a while. She seemed pretty satisfied at the end of the hike and I was pretty happy too.

The next morning Abbey was still tired from the day before so I hiked up to Bourgeau Lake by myself. The lake was pretty high up above the trailhead but it didn’t take as long as I expected. The winds had changed though, and the smoky skies were back. You could still see everything but it was very hazy and not worth taking any pictures. After having lunch at the lake, it was still kind of early so I decided to keep going up to Harvey Pass. It was quite a climb, but the exercise felt good. By the time I got back Abbey had regained her energy so we stopped at a lake on the way to the campground. She stayed in the water until she was shivering, came out long enough to dry off a little and went back in. After an hour she finally had enough so we left.

Today, Tuesday, is laundry day. Laundry in Canada is quite a bit more expensive - $3 a load. Many things are more expensive here – food, gas, laundry, beer. I wasn’t expecting so much of a difference though it could be that I’m in very touristy places. Maybe the rest of Canada isn’t so bad. The exchange rate isn’t what it used to be either – US$1 buys you about C$1.10 or so depending on where you exchange. I just use my ATM and credit card. They seem to be best.

Well I woke up this morning to thunderstorms so I know it won’t be a good day for Abbey. It has been raining all morning and looks like it will most of the day. So we’re saying goodbye to Banff and heading south into an area called Kananaskis Country. There are several provincial parks there and it is still in the Rockies. I’m hoping the weather will clear up soon and we can enjoy a little bit more of the mountains before leaving Canada and crossing back into the States in Montana.

Posted by Ed at 12:21 PM | Permalink

After getting everything done for my land purchase Friday morning, we drove up the Icefield Parkway. It’s about 230km with views of mountains, lakes and glaciers the whole way. You can see more glaciers from this parkway than any other road in the world. You can also see a fair amount of wildlife, even right from the road. I saw mountain goats, big horn sheep, caribou and a huge bull elk.

Thankfully, I haven’t met any bears or grizzlies on the trail yet. Jasper is more known for the wildlife and backcountry hiking and not so much for day hiking. But we managed to do a few nice hikes. On Saturday after getting Abbey out on a moderately easy trail I felt like I was coming down with a cold or something. I had planned on doing another hike but decided to go up to Miette Hot Springs instead. I figured I’d try and steam it out of me. Either it worked or it was just a 24 hour bug because the next day I felt much better. It was a long drive up to the hot springs and Abbey was stuck in the RV the whole time, so on the way back I pulled off and took her down to the river valley. In this particular spot the river was really a series of braided channels with gravel bars and mud flats all throughout. We saw a guy fly fishing and Abbey was doing some fishing of her own. She had a ball running through the water as usual.

Unfortunately, there have been wildfires in British Columbia so many of the days have been hazy from the smoke, which isn’t great for picture taking. But it’s better than rain and doesn’t hurt the hiking at all. It has actually been fairly warm with most days in the 70s and a couple in the low 80s. At night it cools off into the 40s so it’s great sleeping weather. We stayed 3 nights near Jasper townsite before heading back down the Icefield Parkway. On the way up we pretty much drove straight through with only a few stops for sightseeing. I found out later that at one of the places we did stop, Athabasca Falls, an Italian tourist died just four days earlier. He climbed over the rail, slipped and fell in just above the falls. On the way back down we spent a few nights and stretched it out a bit. We stopped at the Icefield Centre which has some nice exhibits on the glaciers and they let you go out on the edge of one. After reading about how dangerous it is and how you can easily fall into a crevasse and be crushed by the ice, I really don’t have a strong desire to go exploring on one. I tried to take Abbey on a short, but steep hike to get a closeup view of another glacier. She was doing fine until the wind picked up near the top. I was having a hard time getting her to continue when this couple saw her and started petting her. I had to explain to them that she is afraid of the wind because of the noise it makes, but I didn’t feel too funny because the woman had her head almost completely wrapped in a scarf. She said “I don’t like it either,” as she pointed to her head. To top things off we got a bunch of thunderstorms early the next morning so I barely got Abbey out that day. It wasn’t a great day as it rained off and on all day long. It was our first real washout. So the next morning I headed down to Lake Louise with hopes for better luck with Abbey and the weather.

Maligne Lake
Mt. Edith Cavell
Angel Glacier on Edith Cavell
Cavell Lake and Glacier
Sunwapta Falls
Waterfowl Lake
Can you see the wild animal?

Posted by Ed at 8:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Sunday, the 13th, I finally left Jim’s ranch and headed to Canada. Going north from Tonasket you see nothing but orchards and vineyards as you cross the border. There are fruit stands and signs for wineries everywhere. Since I had a long drive I didn’t partake of the wine tasting opportunities, but I did stock up on fruit. It’s funny, but right away I could tell I was no longer in the US, even though Canada is not all that different. It just has a different feel to it, almost like that of a European country. I found a place to stay for the night along the way and headed out again in the morning, finally reaching Mt. Revelstoke NP by late morning. It’s one of the smaller national parks and doesn’t even have a campground, but we drove up to just below the summit. No use hiking up a steep trail when you can drive up. Besides, it had been about 10 days since our last real hike so we took a moderately level trail to a lake. Only thing was that it turned out longer than I thought so we were both pretty tired afterwards. It was a nice introduction to the Canadian Rockies. We got some good views of the peaks and glaciers in the distance getting me excited for what was to come in the next few weeks.

We camped in Glacier NP that night. The campground wasn’t great but it served its purpose. One funny thing about the parks around here is that most of them have a major highway running through them. It’s not as big as our interstates, but it is 4-lane in spots and there is plenty of truck traffic since it’s the major east-west route through Canada. With the parks being quite mountainous the highway is one of the few roads through them so, as a result, many of the campgrounds are not far off the highway. This means that they can be pretty noisy. Luckily, the traffic dies down almost completely at night. The other funny thing is that they charge you extra if you have a campfire – every night! I thought this was pretty strange, not to mention expensive at C$8, so I asked one of the workers about it. She said that they have a problem with people bringing their own wood which can be infested with beetles that will kill the trees, so they supply the firewood and charge you for it. Abbey doesn’t like campfires (yes, due to the crackling of the wood), so one of her neuroses has finally saved me money instead of costing me. Glacier didn’t have a lot in the way of sightseeing or hiking so we moved on to Yoho NP the next day. It borders both Banff and Jasper but is smaller and less well-known. It has some nice hikes so I drove up to Emerald Lake after I found a campsite. Emerald Lake, like all lakes around here, gets its blue-green color from something they call “rock flour”. Rocks in the glaciers get ground up into a fine silt as they move downhill and the silt gets carried into streams, rivers and eventually lakes by the glacial meltwater. The silt gets suspended in the lake water to make it cloudy and they get their blue-green color because that is the only light that gets reflected back to the surface. The streams and rivers are more grey and very cloudy. Poor Abbey has a tough time seeing rocks and fish in the lakes, but she still tries. We hiked around the lake on a real easy trail but it was long enough to give us enough exercise without wearing us out too much. I was saving my legs for the Iceline Trail the following day. Abbey got to stay behind in the RV because it was about 13 miles with a lot of elevation gain. It gave me some great views of Takakkaw Falls, some glaciers and the icefield above.

One thing you won’t find in the Canadian Rockies is solitude. And you’re just as likely to hear French, German or some other language as you are English. You can escape a lot of the crowds if you avoid the bus tours and go out on some of the longer hikes, but even those are fairly crowded. And just like I’ve noticed in the States lately, the hikers are of all ages with many in their 60s and 70s. Despite the crowds though, it is well worth it. The Rockies here don’t seem to be as high as Colorado, but there are tons of glaciers and huge ice fields if you get up high enough to see them. I only wish there was a little more snow on the peaks, but it is mid-August and the mountains are still impressive nonetheless. It just seems that mountains look so much more picturesque with snow covering them, or at least their tops.

The next day and a half I had to be around an internet connection and phone so I could complete the purchase of my land. So we detoured from my original plan a little and went to Banff for a night. Unlike American NPs, many of the Canadian parks have a town, or townsite as they call it, inside the park. They are essentially normal towns or cities with schools and everything, though they are mostly geared to the tourist industry. Banff seemed like a nice place to hang out so I am looking forward to coming back here after visiting Jasper NP up north. Plus Banff NP seems to have the best selection of day hikes.

Posted by Ed at 3:17 PM | Permalink