Leafy Aster
We spent today in the campground. It was rather drizzly all morning. Enid went for a walk in the morning around
the campground. I tried to walk on the river trail; however, when I got to the bridge it was flooded, so I turned back. In the evening we played Scrabble (I won), then watched a movie. It was a day to rest.
Curious Pika
Our last day was very nice. It was a bit cloudy as we packed up and then ate breakfast, but is began to clear. We hiked to Linda Lake. The trail leaves directly from the campsite, and it seems quite flat, though actually it is dropping gradually. At one point we wondered if we were on the correct trail, as we hadn’t seen a trail sign for quite a while. Consulting the GPS and the map convinced us we were heading in the right direction, and in fact we came across a trail junction sign almost immediately.
We ate our lunch on the rocks at the far end of Linda Lake. We were joined by a curious pika. I’m sure it was attracted by the odor of our peanut butter, honey, jam and crackers. It approached us quite closely, then would dart away.
Finally it overcame its fear and came at us from behind. We took a lot of pictures of it. Enid had taken off her sunglasses to better see her camera and set them on the rocks. Suddenly the pika darted in, grabbed the sunglasses, and began to drag them away. Fortunately it dropped them onto a large rock, as it could just as easily have dropped them down into the cracks between the boulders where we could never have recovered them. Just a bit later it was licking at our hiking poles, so we assumed it was after salt.
We hiked back on the Morning Glory Lakes trail. This trail was a lot rougher than the one we walked this morning from the campsite. It was now very hot and muggy, and as we passed the Morning Glory Lakes (where someone was fly fishing) I commented to Enid that I thought it was going to rain.
Sure enough it did just as we reached the Alpine Club hut in the meadow. We had originally planned to leave on the 4:30 bus, but we thought we might just barely make it on the 2:30 bus. Since it was just sprinkling, we didn’t want to get wet, and we didn’t want to miss the bus, we hustled! I could hardly keep up to Enid, she was walking so fast! We made it to the campground just in time, got our packs out of the shelter, and it opened up and poured. Fortunately we were able to stand under the sheltering roof at the washing up area, put on our raincoats, and didn’t get very wet at all. The bus arrived just a couple of minutes later, and the rain slackened, though we drove through it all the rest of the way down the mountain, and most of the way back to Lake Louise.
Everything was fine at our trailer which has been sitting here in the campground while we were away. Since it had stopped raining I strung up every piece of rope we have with us between the trees, and we hung almost everything we had camping out to dry. Most of it is nicely dried up and now put away.
McArthur Lake
We had a bit of the ham that was leftover from last night’s supper, together with oatmeal, for today’s breakfast. It was a beautiful warm and sunny day. We hiked to McArthur Lake and saw mountain goats on the side of the mountain as we climbed up from Schäffer Lake. We probably wouldn’t have noticed them but there were three men from Herbert, Saskatchewan there and they pointed them out. We followed the men for a while, but they got ahead of us as I was taking lots of pictures.
The lake was covered with a lot of ice floes. It was very beautiful with the sapphire blue water reflecting the mountains between the sparkling white ice on the lake.
We ate lunch here, and afterwards talked to a fellow camper. He was easily identified as he was wearing a kilt (which Enid and I both commented to each other must be rather unpleasant with the amount of mosquitos about). Later after we were finished eating we were sitting facing the lake. Suddenly we heard a shout from high behind us, “Watch out for the marmot!” We turned and a marmot that was right behind us scampered away. A few more seconds and it would have been into the remains of our lunch. The Saskatchewan people were high above us and had been watching the marmot’s approach.
We came back on the low trail which was easy to come down, but wouldn’t be as nice to go up. Then we took the McArthur cutoff to see where the Odoline trail branches off, and continued back along the Big Larches trail. This was the poorest trail we’ve been on, heavily rooted, steep, and with a lot of rough boulders throughout the trail. We wished we had not come down it.
This evening we sat around the campfire and were reading a bit, but did not get much read. A young couple came and asked if they could sit by the fire as well. We said “of course”, and I commented on her accent which I thought was German. She said she was Dutch, from Belgium, and so we had a very interesting conversation with them, and with a family from BC, and a teenager originally from Russia who was there with his family, now from Calgary who also joined us at the firepit. The Dutch couple were both involved in education, so I had a lot in common with them, and all of us learned a lot about each other’s cultures. We finally went to bed as it was getting dark.
Enid and I commented that one of the things we miss about camping in more developed campsites in Canada and the USA is this kind of conversation with fellow campers. It just doesn’t happen when everyone is in their own individual RV. It did take place a lot in Australia because of the communal kitchens in the caravan parks, and was something we really enjoyed as you got to meet and learn from all the different people sharing a common interest in travel and camping.
Northern anemone
It rained at least once more during the night so it was pretty damp in the tent, but not wet. Everything outside was really wet, so I wiped off the picnic table as best I could.
We hiked to the East Opabin trail. Just before the junction we saw a pine martin on the trail; however, it disappeared quickly into the bush. There are steep switchbacks on this trail up through the heavily forested area until you come to a junction. We met an older couple here who were familiar with the trail and suggested we walk up the left trail by the creek. We are glad we did, as the flowers along the small stream were lovely.
We ate lunch on a large rock at Hungabee Lake, then after that continued on to Opabin Lake. A man had passed us while were looking at flowers earlier, and we met him here again at the lake. He had an ice axe and was going to try and ascend to the Opabin Summit (we saw him a day later and he told us he did make it). There was a lot of pink watermelon snow around, and we walked over the remains of this past season’s avalanches littered with broken trees and branches.
We circled back to the Opabin Prospect which is a viewpoint out over the Lake O’Hara valley with a great view. Then we came down the West Opabin trail, which is very steep and drops off sharply on the left side through scree and boulder fields.
We saw a female harlequin duck with six ducklings on Mary Lake. The water was so clear we could see the ducklings swimming under the water.
That night after supper Enid and I sat around the campfire, and talked to some of the people there. In particular there was a young family from Ontario who we visited with a lot. As well a former park naturalist, Ben Gadd, who is an author of a couple of guide books to the Rockies was there with his wife and granddaughter. We talked to him for quite a while, then joined them later at the fireside talk he gave down by the lake.
Lake O'Hara reflecting Mout Odaray
We got up early today and leaving the trailer in Lake Louise, drove to the parking area for the bus ride to Lake O’Hara. We got there by about 7:30, so we were in lots of time. There was some road construction between Lake Louise and Lake O’Hara, so it was fortunate that we didn’t get held up for long.
After the fifteen minute bus ride up to the campsite we were given a brief introduction by the park officer. We set up our ten in site 19, which is just about the farthest tent site from the kitchen, but up high and seems level. It was a nice day, so after we were set up we set off on a hike to Lake Oesa. The trip map we have says it is one of the “must see” hikes, and it is very nice.
One of the most spectacular parts of the trip is man made. Lawrence Grassi spent many years of his life constructing stone trails around Lake O’Hara, and this is one of them. He levered great blocks of rock into place to make steep stone steps past Victoria Falls. As well there are many areas where he built stone paths out of huge flat sheets of rock, many of which must have weighed several hundred kilograms. There is a plaque honoring him at the steps past the falls.
Enid did not go beyond this point of the stairs, but I walked up to the lake at the top. The lake was still at least half ice covered. Strangely there was a rubber inflatable boat on the lake with two men. I assumed they must have been fishing, but that night in speaking to one of the other campers learned that they were researchers investigating the turbidity of the water.
There was a ptarmigan here and she had several chicks, though they hid before I could photograph them. She sat atop a high rock clucking at them. I didn’t stay too long at the lake, but headed back down to where I met Enid, and we walked back to the campsite. Enid lay down in the tent and had a short nap. I dozed on the picnic table bench. Just before we rested we heard a massive crash and roar. We assumed it must have been an icefall from the glacier, and another camper confirmed that night that he had seen it while hiking in the area.
We met Kim Heidel and his cousin at the bus stop this morning, and so we talked to them quite a bit. Neither of us could remember if I taught him, though I definitely remember him at Carlton years ago. They are only able to stay for one night, as they booked in over another person’s cancellation.
We ate our supper of chicken and dumplings. It was far too much so we ended up throwing some of it away. After supper we went to an interpretive session with the park interpreter about the Burgess Shale. There was a very heavy thunderstorm during this session, and we walked back in light rain as the storm eased. Our tent was dry inside, but there was a lot of water standing around.
We left Kananasksis early this morning in heavy overcast. It did start to clear shortly so that we could see the tops of the mountains. We drove to Canmore where we bought gas and groceries, and then went to McDonalds to use the wifi. However, the parking lot there was too small for us to find a spot, so we went instead to the visitor information centre. They don’t have wifi, so we walked back the 200 m or so to McDonalds and bought some coffee and a muffin. That allowed us to catch up on our email, and post the blog and pictures.
From there we drove to Lake Louise, and got here just before noon. There was a very long lineup waiting to register, and it was moving slowly, so that we finished our lunch before we got to the booth. After we got set up on our site we checked and finished packing for our trip to Lake O’Hara. I looked at my socks and noticed that the toes and heels were getting pretty thin, so we went into the little mall in town where I got socks, a carabiner for Enid’s knife (we’d forgotten to bring the one we usually use), and a nice large scale map of Lake O’Hara, with a description of all the trails on the back. We think that we are now all ready to go.
It was much wetter today than yesterday, and we hardly left the trailer. It’s been nice to sit here dry and warm with the furnace. The campsite is practically deserted, just a few hardy souls in trailers still here.
Upper Kananaskis Lake
It would be foolish to complain about the weather, since we have had almost continual hot sunny days since we started on our trip to the mountains. Today started out cloudy, but still warm, so we washed a few clothes and hung them on the line. In the morning we played a game of Scrabble, which Enid won, then read until lunch.
After lunch we drove to Lower and Upper Kananaskis lakes, along the way taking a tour through some of the other campgrounds. They were all quite full, and they don’t seem to have running water, so aren’t as nice as the one we are in.
We walked around a bit at the lakes, but it started to sprinkle rain as we were getting ready to leave the spillway area of Upper Kananaskis lake. We drove to the start of the Rawson Trail and walked a bit but as it started to rain quite a bit more we turned back and drove back to our campsite. Our clothes were still hanging on the line, but as they were a bit under the trees didn’t get too wet. We took them and hung up a line inside the trailer.
It didn’t rain continually, but sprinkled a lot, with occasional heavier rains for the rest of the day. We just stayed inside, read, played another scrabble game, and watched a movie for the evening.
Yellow Columbine
There is a paved biking trail which connects all the campgrounds here. We travelled north on it today to the visitor information centre, which has indoor displays of the animals and geology of this area. The trail is easy to ride, with only a few steeper sections, one near the visitor centre. We thought it would be a hard climb back, but it turned out to be not bad at all. The other steep section is the road into our campsite.
There are a few picnic tables along the route, near the Elkwood campground. We stopped for lunch before we returned that far back by taking a short side trip to the William Watson Lodge area. We also took a short tour around one loop (the powered one) at the Elkwood campground, just to see how it compares to the one we are in. It is pretty similar.
Mountains viewed from Kananaskis Lookout
We hiked today to the fire lookout. The trail is wide (a road to the tower for the last couple of kilometres), but definitely uphill all the way. From our campsite at about 1790 m we climbed steadily all the way up to 2130 m. At the top is a picnic table, an observation point, and an outhouse, as well as the private area fenced off for the fire lookout.
The lookout operator asked us if we had ever been there before, and when I said “No” he invited us to come up onto the platform. You get a much better view out over the entire Kananaskis Valley from this vantage point than from the public viewpoint. I talked to him a bit about the role he plays in looking for fires, and Enid talked to his wife, who is also a lookout operator. They also had their granddaughter staying there with them. He indicated that they don’t like to invite everyone up, as sometimes there are many people there and it gets pretty crowded, and some people behave irresponsibly.
We ate our lunch at the picnic table, then started down. There were hardly any flowers along the trail, but on the way back I spotted a few small purple orchids. They were tiny, less than an inch in size. It had looked like there might be thunderstorms building when we were at the top, but they dissipated during the afternoon. We washed some clothes, and since the sun came back out, they dried rapidly.
