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.