2020-09-18 | Road to Jasper

We decided to do a road trip with the hiking crew up to Jasper to do some hikes there. We rented an AirBnB just east of Jasper and loaded up a couple cars and left on Friday morning with the plan to do a couple short hikes along the way.

Because of the many forest fires burning South of the border, we were concerned our views would be diminished but hoped that the smoke might not be as bad further North. Our first stop was Bow Lake and the beautiful reflections of Crowfoot Mountain.

  • Hiking crew at Bow Lake
  • Mary at Bow Lake
  • Map of Bow Lake

While not much of a hike, it was an amazingly beautiful spot with the hazy sky.

We continued on North with a stop for snacks (which became lunch) at Saskatchewan River Crossing where the smoke seemed even worse. (Everyone of us exiting the car commented on how smoky it was)

Our next stop was supposed to be a hike up Parker Ridge (sorry Terese) but we made an impromptu stop in a parking lot at the top of the hairpin turn to go see Panther Falls. We hiked down the cliff to see Bridal Veil Falls and the base of Panther Falls.

  • Bridal Veil Falls
  • Hike to base of Panther Falls
  • Panther Falls
  • Big Bend going up to Sunwapta Pass & Panther Falls

Our next stop was to see the Athabasca Glacier on the Icefields Parkway. The smoky sky blocked some of the warming sun so we only did a quick hike to the toe of the glacier.

  • Athabasca Glacier

A short drive away, before heading down from Sunwapta Pass, we stopped at Tangle Creek Falls to scramble around this beautiful little spot.

For our 3rd set of waterfalls, we made a quick stop at Sunwapta Falls.

  • Sunwapta Falls
  • Sunwapta Falls

Our last stop before Jasper (and my fav) was Athabasca Falls.

  • Athabasca Falls
  • Mary on the Abandoned Channel
  • Athabasca Falls

We made it to our AirBnB, had some dinner and relaxed before bed to rest before doing Mount Edith Cavell Meadows the next day.

Swears: 1

  • 1 for the smoke
  • We were in the car all day… no hills!

2020-08-08 | Burstall Pass

We’ve heard about Burstall Pass for many years (our climbing friend, Hugh had first tried to take us there but a winter storm turned us back…) We started out on a gloomy kind of morning that was chilly and threatening rain. We’d heard about people missing the turn and heading up to French Glacier instead an of course we also missed the turn and had to backtrack about 1km to find the right trail.

Rain was threatening for most of the day but it only gave us some sprinkles here and there but made for great photos.

For the first couple kilometers, the trail was flat. We checked out 2 of the 3 Burstall Lakes (not sure how we couldn’t find the 3rd one). Once entering the forest, we soon found our crossing of Burstall Creek. After donning our watershoes/sandals/flip-flops we began the crossing of the braided streams following the signs to help us get to the other side. The water was “f***ing cold” (Right, Mary?) It was a nice experience and Hogan enjoyed it the most.

After making across the 1km delta of the creek, we had a rest, switched back to hiking boots. We met another group who’d taken a little longer way around to avoid the water altogether and found they were a wedding party where the happy couple was planning to elope! Such a great place for a wedding ceremony! The bride had her dress in her bag and they were heading up to find a good spot. We hoped to get to see them during the ceremony but they were pretty fast, we were old and there was a f***ing hill we were starting!

We headed up our first bit of elevation for the meadows. Deep in the trees, we enjoyed following the creek & periodic waterfalls. Once we made it up to the meadows, we had some lunch and bundled up against the chill of the rain and wind.

Tons of f***ing flowers here! Hogan got to enjoying himself in the meadows. We headed up our last ascent up the headwall to amazing views and nicer weather. We encountered our first trail sign in the middle of nowhere along the already obvious trail! (Would’ve been nice to have this at the start of the trail instead of 90% of the way along!)

Only a couple of swears later, we made the top, found the Banff Park sign and (finally) some direction/distance signs. We setup on the ridge to enjoy the view and have some snacks. And then the wind picked up! This shortened our pause and we began our descent to even more impressive views ahead because of the moody/angry clouds ahead of us.

On our way back down from the meadows to the creek, the wedding crew caught up to us again so we made a “hiking pole receiving line” where we made an arch for the happy couple to walk through. (Of course we didn’t get any pictures…)

Somehow, we avoided any more rain and enjoyed our recrossing of Burstall Creek in the sunshine and steadily warming weather. With the clearing clouds, we were able to see the glacier and Mount Robertson up Burstall Creek.

Great day! We’ll do it again some day

Swears: 3

  • 2 for the hills
  • 1 for the cold water crossing the creek

2020-06-12 | Mount Black Prince

With some uncertainty about whether we could avoid the rain, we headed to the Mount Black Prince parking lot and were met with a beautiful day.

With only a few breaks for pics and only 1 swear on the hill going up, we met no one else on the trail.

We had a couple minutes of some sprinkling once we got to Warspite Lake but it quickly stopped and we enjoyed the reflections in the flooded lake.

After some lunch by the lake, we attempted to find a trail clockwise around the lake but were thwarted by a few “creeks” running out of the lake into the meadow to the NE of the lake. A little bushwacking and we decided to head down and tackle the hike to Blackshale Creek suspension bridge.

We opted to drive to the creek to take the “bypass” instead of the out-and-back trail from Mount Black Prince parking lot. This made it only about 1km up to the bridge and back.

Once we arrived at the bridge, we were pretty impressed but had to wait for a family taking their time crossing from the other side while taking pictures. Once we crossed, we noticed that the view was WAY better from the other side.

Swears – 2

  • 1 on the way up to the lake
  • 1 heading up to the bridge

2019-06-08 | Bertha Falls

The plan was to go to Bertha Lake but with 25 switchbacks on the rain… No F***ING way!

There was a light snow the morning we headed out to do the hike and while it had earned up, the rain made it pretty cold.

This was our first time hiking Waterton after the Know fire so it made things very different. While most of the trees are gone there is a lot of green coming back.

The hike to the falls starts right in the townsite and we found some park rangers at the trailhead warning people about an aggressive bear along the trail. We immediately noticed a bear about 50 meters up the slope from us! We asked if that was the bear they meant and she replied “oh no, that one’s not aggressive. The one you need to worry about has been following hikers looking for food”

We walked along admiring the flowers poking up through the snow.

After making it to the falls we enjoyed some scrambling around the creek and falls trying to decide if we should attempt the trail to Bertha Lake.

We decided to go but had only made it about 3 switchbacks before deciding it was a f*** of a long way up.

We headed down and enjoyed some appies at the Prince of Wales Hotel and got some nice shots at the Waterton Lake

Swears – 2

  • 1 for the number of switchbacks to the lake
  • 1 for the bear 🐻

2018-09-01 | Helen Lake

Mary, Vanessa and I headed out for this beautiful hike across the valley from the Bow Glacier. After the initial elevation gain there is a long stretch of amazing scenery heading to the meadow before we make it to Helen Lake.

No, we didn’t do Cirque Peak. That’s too f***ing far.

After we had some lunch at the lake in view of Cirque Peak.

Vanessa, Lucy and I headed up the headwall for some photos while Mary relaxed by the lake.

Swears – 4

  • 3 Swears on the hike up to the valley
  • 1 Swear to NOT go up the headwall toward Cirque Peak

2017-06-19 | Lower Rowe Lake

Mary came to join us for one night in Waterton and we chose to hike to Rowe Lakes. Still pretty early in the season so we couldn’t do Upper Rowe Lake because there was still a lot of snow and too much f***king elevation to get up there.

With a few swears (F*** I hate hills!) to start heading up the switchbacks, we got out into the beautiful open valley along Lineham Mountain. When we hit the fork , we opted for Upper Lake first so continued on.

We arrived at the meadow at the head of Rowe Creek. Still lots of snow but many mountain lillies. Too much snow and a significant elevation gain turned us around to head back to Lower Rowe Lake and the falls.

Swears – 4

  • 2 Swears on first part
  • 1 Swear at the elevation to Upper Rowe Lake
  • 1 Swear at having to turn around

2019-09-20 | Larch Valley

We all took the day off to make our first time going to Larch Valley. Mary and I have done most of the way to Larch on 2 separate occasions in the spring but got distracted by the sound of the avalanches and always veered off to do Eiffel Lake instead.

We arrived at the turn off for Morraine Lake at 6:15am but they were just closing the parking lot so we had to drive back to the highway and take the bus back up.

We spent some time on the rockpile enjoying the views of Morraine Lake. Doesn’t matter how many times we’ve been here, the view if f***ing amazing.

All the effort-swears took place on the switchbacks up to the fork for Larch & Eiffel. Once we got into the valley, the overwhelming beauty swears took over.

We couldn’t have timed it better as the larches were in full colour. If we’d come a week later, they wouldn’t have been as spectacular.

We had lunch at Lake Minnestimma and a couple of our crew headed up to Sentinal Pass.

Swears – 5

  • 2 going up the switchbacks
  • 2 for the beauty of the valley
  • 1 for NOT going up Sentinal Pass

2019-09-27 | Lake O’Hara

We were very lucky that a friend had 3 tickets for the Lake O’Hara bus but couldn’t use them. We all took the day off and made our way to meet the 8am bus.

We hiked part way around Lake O’Hara and then started our first up along Lake Oesa Trail. We passed Lake Victoria, Lake Lefroy and Victoria Falls on the way to Lake Oesa.

After a relaxing lunch admiring Lake Oesa, we headed up the Yukness Ledges and across to Lake Opabin.

Swears – 6

  • 2 Up the first switchbacks from Lake O’Hara along the Lake Oesa Trail
  • Up the Grassi stairs before Victoria Falls
  • Up to Yukness Ledges from Lake Oesa
  • 2 for View at Lake Oesa