Prehike
I dropped my dad off at security in the Paris airport and went to my gate-10.5 hours to Vancouver BC, then a short flight to Calgary. It was bizarre to fly 10.5 hours and only have it be 1 hour later than it was in Paris when I left. Finally got to Calgary and took the bus to “Wicked Hostel” and got a private room. Slept until 5 am and then was up because of the time change so went out early to buy food for the boxes I needed to send. The GDT stays quite remote and there are only 2-3 towns on the whole Trail where you can actually go to a grocery store. Then I had to break down all the boxes and organize 23.5 days of food into 4 resupplies. That made me laugh because when I hiked the Long Trail in Vermont in 2011, the whole thing took me 23 days. It was fun to see all the food organized on the dining room table. Speaking of which, the folks at Wicked Hostel are super kind and a friend to the hikers. I checked out of my room at 11 but stayed at the hostel until 8:30 pm, even taking a nap on a couch. Then took a night bus, the only available, all the way to Coleman, Alberta where I’ll pick up the trail, getting in at 4:45 am. Rough. I
Day 1
I got about 3.5 hours of sleep from 5:30 until about 9 at the BCMI hotel in Coleman when the maid let herself in (“oops! Sorry!”). Well, I’m awake now. Went across the street to the pharmacy/Canada Post office and picked up my massive cardboard box of backpacking gear my mom sent me in the mail (thanks, Mom!!). It took all the way until checkout at 11 with the maid hovering around the door to sort everything and pack my pack. Don’t know what BCMI is doing right to keep their cleaning staff so motivated but they should give an inspirational lecture series or something. Then back to Canada Post to bounce my extra sneakers forward, along with some town clothes and the fancy Spanish conditioning hair masque I can’t bring myself to part with. Walked out in the heat of the day at 12:30. Got 13 miles in, not bad. Gentle dirt road that slowly gained 1000 feet over this section. One car pulled over and it was a guy named Lonnie, who told me he has been with the GDTA since 1974. He had picked up 3 women who were southbounding this section, so going the opposite way I am going. The told me the next people ahead of me are 2 solo women, 2 and 3 days ahead of me, respectively. Wow. These numbers oare a little different from the Camino. I found a nice camp next to a creek and slept like a rock for 10 hours. The best sleep there is, is in the woods.
Day 2
I hiked 19 miles and felt like that was enough on my old man Achilles (and the rest of my foot tendons.). This trail does a LOT of up and down and my pack is stupidly heavy with 7 days of food. I realized that I had messed up and not sent a food box to Kananaskis, the next town–supposedly there is a “trading post”, whatever that means. It’s only 3 days beyond that to the town of Banff so hopefully I can just get some Fritos and Ho-Hos and go on a Fritos-and-Ho-Hos cleanse for 3 days. The Trail and mountains are beautiful. The Trail stayed pretty low today, not really in the mountains-down in the valleys with the mountains rising up on all sides. The Great Divide Trail is a “new” Trail (although it’s been designated since the 1970s), and because of that it isn’t complete yet. It mostly runs on Forest Service roads (or whatever you call those in Canada), 2 track, ATV paths, and theoretically other trails (although I haven’t seen that yet.). All of the US’s national scenic trails used to be this way until the actual trails were fully built. I remember reading a great article about how Earl Schaffer complained that the AT was too hard when he hiked it the last time when he was in his 80s; when he was the first AT thruhiker in the 1930s, the AT was mostly on 2 track or tote roads the way the GDT is now. It would have been a completely different trail sixty years later. Speaking of which. What I am about to say is going to rub some purists the wrong way but…..holy CRAP am I glad there is a Guthook for this (especially being solo.). The GDT out of Coleman is this spider network of dirt roads with exactly zero signage, blazes, or any on-trail indication of the route. Without GPS and a track, you would spend hours navigating, going the wrong way and retracing your steps, etc. Guthook put all of Dustin Lynx’s guidebook commentary into the Trail notes which is super handy since the new addition of the Guidebook didn’t ship before I left. I am also carrying the paper maps and the printed out Google drive notes of previous hikers. Everyone warned that today’s section goes very close to an active mine and if they catch you on the mine property they immediately kick you out. At the end of the day I saw the only person I saw all day–a mine employee who wanted to know what I was doing out there. He was quite sure I was on the mine property-I wasn’t, and was able to show him on the map that I was within the easement-and we ended up having a real nice conversation which ended with him giving me an ice cold Smirnoff Ice. Not my first go-to beverage generally, but I was certainly grateful. He let me know there are lots of grizzlies and wolves up here (“not to scare you or anything!”). Anyhow, the moral of the story is that I have at least temporarily become one of those people who just follows Guthook, and am glad of it. I did try and keep myself oriented throughout the day by looking at the paper map and identifying the peaks around me. Yay, technology!
Day 3
What an awesome day. Hiked almost 17 miles and went over Tornado Pass, which Dustin Lynx says is the “hardest part of the GDT.” I loved every minute of it. I got moving at 6:53 am per my watch and was feeling great–climbed the first mountain for the day and got some really amazing views. Then a little later around 10 I came upon a hand written sign that the Trail had been blocked by avalanche debris 4 kilometers ahead and that the GDTA had flagged an alternative route up to Tornado Pass. I drily noted that this is the first on trail signage I’ve come across. So I took the alternate which turned out to be about 2 miles of bushwhacking through pretty dense forest up the side of a mountain. I enjoyed the change of pace (I also like this kind of travel, in small doses at least.). I lost the flags at some point and was delighted to find that the GDTA had actually loaded the track for this alternate into their .kmz file which I have on Gaia (another mapping and navigation app.). Great job guys!!! Eventually the forest gave way to a massive glittering emerald alpine meadow surround by HUGE mountains. I’m talking 10-11 thousand foot peaks. Utterly jaw dropping. It was sunny and warm but super windy. I slowly started to make my way up the scree (loose rocks) which was pretty unstable so I had to really watch my footing. I followed what I thought was a use trail for awhile until I noticed a goat hoof print in some mud, which made me laugh. Somebody else’s “use trail”. It’s amazing how untraveled this whole route seems. The Pass reminds me a LOT of the Knapsack Col alternate in the Wind River Range in Wyoming on the CDT. After crossing the Pass I saw my first orange blaze, which is what the GDTA uses to mark the trail. Apparently Tornado Pass used to be the southern terminus of the GDT, so blazing starts there. After that it was a long descent into a really beautiful forest, on actual dedicated GDT trail. The Trail felt really strange to me–almost like some ill-used Trail in some remote area of Washington, like Glacier Peak Wilderness. I’ve walked on so many trails that my brain kind of runs an analysis of what it feels like when I’m walking–this felt less used than the boot track on the Ptarmigan Traverse, the mountaineering route across the North Cascades me and my friends did last year. I saw one set of shoe prints today–I think a girl because they were pretty small. Maybe I’ll catch up with her sometime. I started up the third climb of the day around 6 pm but my body said “no more!” So I found some nice camping overlooking a ravine. Seems like it’s pretty windy higher up. Oh, and the wind at Tornado Pass apparently ripped my white long sleeve shirt off of my backpack where it was tucked, so now I’m down to one shirt. I really hope those folks at Boulton Trading Post in Kananaskis are friendly and like hikers.
Day 4
Holy moly this trail is beautiful–and hard. 6500 feet gain over 21 miles today. In the morning I had a treat and met a GDTA trail crew out doing some work, including Dan Durston, who yo-yoed the Trail last year. They were extremely helpful with advice and tips. The Trail stayed high for long stretches and then dropped down into gap after gap. I decided to hike a little longer today, remembering from previous trails that I often get a second wind of energy between 5 and 7 pm. I felt real tired about 4:30-5, and then as predicted, really good after that. I camped high up in the small pine trees of the alpine. I’m slowly getting more comfortable with camping alone-which is good, because there will be a lot of that for awhile.
Day 5
A little less elevation gain today–more like 5000 feet. Similar conditions. Those Spanish tapas I was storing in my midsection are just about used up, methinks. I decided to camp just below Fording River Pass in what was listed as a Campground and saw another tent when I rolled in! A thruhiker tent-the Z Packs Soloplex. There was no response when I tentatively said “hello..?” So I’ll meet them in the morning. Day 6
I met the other hiker, Char, this morning when I woke up. She is from Canmore, local town. But she’s getting off the Trail for a few days in Kananaskis so I won’t probably see her again. Hiked about 23 miles today, up and over Fording River Pass, which had no trail. It was glacially carved and beautiful. Then dropped down onto a rough trail after awhile and then onto Aldridge Creek’s floodplain-had to ford it 2 extra times when I forgot my shoes on the wrong side. Hit a dirt road about 1:00 pm, doctored all my blisters after the final Creek crossing. Feeling pretty tired and not thrilled about doing Coral Pass by myself–it’s 10 miles on this road, then 10 miles cross country up Cadorna Creek, then the Pass which is technical rock scrambling, then a deep river ford, then the road again. I met some locals in the road who put the final nail in the coffin on the alternate when they mentioned the grizzly bears were particularly bad up there. I decided to just take the road, resupply at Boulton Creek as best as possible, and head on, and I’m sure I’ll see plenty of beautiful mountains. They gave me a bunch of snacks which was really nice and more importantly–bug spray, which I had forgotten, and feel like that girl in the second Hunger Games after the killer bee attack. I set up the tent under some power lines in a clear cut about 8 pm. My ankles are swollen on both sides, for some reason–but my old man Achilles is mostly behaving, which is great. Passed out in a deep sleep by 9:30 pm.
Day 7
It rained overnight. I got up about midnight and put the rain fly on my tent. Then was leaving the power lines when Char walked by–so we walked and talked together the 5 miles to Elk Lake. She is from Canmore and mentioned the Banff NPS rangers told her they don’t want to “cow-tow” to GDT thruhikers when she went in to get her permits. I walked on to Boulton Creek Trading Post–totally reasonable place to resupply for a few days, essentially a gas station. I attempted to call the provincial park office I’m camping in tonight, Peter Lougheed–spent $2.25 on the payphone and got 2 wrong numbers before I gave up. No cell phone service up here. If they’re going to make this complicated to do it the right way…….I’ll stealth camp.
Update: walked all the way to the Forks Camp instead of stealth camping. The forest looked creepy and there was no flat ground. It ended up being a 20 mile day. The I snagged a spot and sat down at the campfire and immediately met another female GDT hiker, Adi! She is from Israel and has a lot of amazing travel stories.
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