Day 15
There was a huge electrical storm starting at about midnight and lasting for hours. Luckily, I had chosen a spot which was a little bit sunken from the surrounding trees, so the wind didn’t mess with my tent at all. It sure was howling, though. I got a little bit of a later start at 8 o’clock and headed down towards Numa Creek. Right before the Campground I unwittingly stepped in a beesnest which was close to the Trail-the bees swarmed me, stinging me, and I ran and fell, smashing my phone screen. Not good. I made a big paper sign that said “BEES!” to warn anyone coming the other direction. The Trail went up and down , steeply dropping and climbing for 2 more passes. It continued to follow the Rockwall which was jaw-dropping with its hanging glaciers. I finally dropped down to Helmet Falls at the end of the day-I set up my tent and was placidly eating my mac and cheese staring at the waterfall when a man excitedly came up to me and told me they were evacuating us from the Campground by helicopter and to go pack my stuff. Apparently that electrical storm had started a forest fire near Floe Lake. At the end of the day when we had been standing around for an hour, they decided to just escort everyone out on foot the next morning. Just as well.
Day 16
I hiked 23 miles today to Field. It was pretty good Trail, mostly downhill– a few blowdowns but nothing too obnoxious. I got to Highway 1 at about 2:30pm and noticed that traffic was completely stopped-apparently there was an accident up ahead-so everyone was laughing and joking with me as I slowly walked by. I got to Field about 4:45 pm and was immediately acosted in a hug by Adi-she had been waiting at the Field Visitor Center for me for 5 hours and was unsure if I had gotten out of the fires okay. We got some dinner then hitchhiker to Golden, British Columbia, so I could try and fix my phone. We walked into Kicking Horse Hostel about 8:30 pm and met Tanya the owner, who told us she was fully booked, but she let us set up our tents in the back yard and furthermore bent over backward to help us. A true friend to the hikers. Golden is a great town for hikers.
Day 17
Zero in Golden.
Day 18
We got up from our tents at the hostel and managed to get all packed up and moving by 8 o’clock. We got a hitch in about 30 seconds from an extremely nice couple who drove us all the way back to Field. The Trail from Field is notoriously the worst section of the entire GDT as it is almost completely abandoned. But, it started out on an easy to follow forest service road with just a few blow downs. We moved faster than we thought we would and figured that we could get about 19 miles in today. However, the last 1.5 hours was miserable bushwhacking as the Trail mostly disappeared. We did get our 19 miles in though and camped at 7:30pm. I am very tired.
Day 19
We got moving a little later today–about 7:40 am. The morning was quite cool and I kept my rain gear on all morning to not get soaked by the wet plants. The Trail wasn’t too bad at all-following an old road bed, easy to follow. I forded the Amiskwi River a total of 3 times, none of which were difficult fords. Then the Trail headed up towards Amiskwi Pass which is when the BERRIES started. I showed Adi how to spot wild strawberries and blueberries. She had never had them before. That reduced our hiking speed significantly. The Pass was nothing special, in the trees-a little bushwhacking then we found the dirt road we would take all the way down the mountain for 14 miles. There were completely amazing views of Cairnes Mountain with its 20 kilometer long ice field. I really don’t understand (yet) why everyone hates on this section of the GDT. it was an easy and pleasant walk down the road in the sunshine, then we turned off on another road eventually and started to climb slightly towards the Campground we were going to stay at. Along this road there were hundreds of thimbleberry bushes with ripe fruit-Adi had never had a thimbleberry before-they kind of taste like a mix between a raspberry and a strawberry. We camped about 7 o’clock at the Campground that was described in my notes as “pleasant, but abandoned.” This made me smile-all of the campgrounds in this section are abandoned.
Day 20
Today was the “crux” day of Section D-two challenging river fords, and the David S Thompson Memorial Trail which is described as “the worst hiking on the entire GDT.” We started with the ford of Cairnes Creek first thing in the morning. It was fast and deep-I found a part where the Creek split into 3 parts and forded there, which worked fine. Adi found a large tree to cross on. Then the DST Trail started-it certainly was very brushy and overgrown, but not terribly hard to follow. Also it paralleled a the Braeberry River which was really beautiful in the morning light. We didn’t move very fast but got to the most theoretically dangerous ford of the entire GDT at 11am- the Lambe Glacier torrent. Fortunately, someone had built a little bridge across it! Using 4 small trees and what looked like their bear bag rope. So, it went from being scary to a 30 second crossing on a bridge. We headed up to Howse Pass and then in the afternoon started the alternate we had decided to take-walking the cross country route across the Howse River floodplain. Boy, did that prove to be the right decision. The walking was easy except for occasional scrambles to avoid cliffs where to river goes right up to the edge. It diverts onto the DST trail for 0.4 miles-that was 0.4 miles too much. The Trail was absolutely covered in blow downs and was so badly overgrown it was almost impossible to stay in the Trail. We got back on the floodplain the second we could. Plus, the floodplain had jaw-dropping 360 degree views of the mountains. I would tell anyone wondering about hiking this section to ABSOLUTELY DO THE HOWSE RIVER FLOODPLAIN. It should be the standard route. We camped at about 7:30 pm. I feel pretty good despite what a tough day it was.
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