Day 8
Short day today…..mileage-wise. Effortwise, it was normal to strenuous. I took an alternate route out of Forks Campground over South Kananaskis Pass. The Trail in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park was pristine and manicured. As soon as I crossed into Heart of the Rockies park, the trail was a little less manicured but still followable. The Trail went by several incredibly beautiful lakes and then began dropping precipitously down a huge scree field towards Beatty Creek. Unfortunately a large piece of the trail in that scree field had been swept away either by an avalanche or a rockslide, so I had to pick my way down probably 800 feet and rejoin the trail farther on. Then the Trail crossed a few creeks and rivers which required a ford. I kept my shoes and socks on because the water was a little too deep and fast for flip flops. Finally the trail went steeply up towards Palliser Pass and I camped in a beautiful little meadow next to a creek. Adi rolled in about 45 minutes after me–she had taken the standard route over North Kananaskis Pass and said it was extremely steep, rocky, loose, and took hours. So, who knows which way is better. Into Banff National Park tomorrow!
Day 9
I slept in a little and headed out about 7:30 am. Went over Palliser Pass and crossed into Banff National Park. The Trail was almost completely flat after the Pass as it crossed a huge glacial meadow. Adi caught up around noon and we walked down to Big Springs Campground. Day 10
Got up pretty early this morning and started hiking a little after 7. The Trail from Big Springs Campground was flat for a couple of miles, then climbed up about 2000 feet to Wonder Pass-a classically beautiful alpine Pass, but certainly no more beautiful than some of the areas on the Trail I’ve come through. Then I dropped down to Assiniboine Lodge with its postcard view of Mount Assiniboine and Lake Magog. I got there about 12:30 but they weren’t serving any food or drinks till 4 pm….but a lady happened to be walking by when I was looking sad to hear this information and offered me chicken, hummus, marinated tomatoes, and Brie cheese, the leftovers of their lunch they had brought up. It was HEAVEN. Then I sweet talked the Lodge custodian into selling me a beer. She wanted to know “how many of you there are” because “every time I bend this rule for one person, more of you appear.” So, on behalf of Mount Assiniboine Lodge, the people working here are very nice, and no, don’t ask about buying a beer outside of the posted mealtimes (although they sold me one.). Adi showed up a little later and I shared the rest of the miracle food with her, then we walked the 10 miles down to Porcupine Campground. The Porcupine Trail had a LOT of elevation gain and loss, and the GDT looked like it had better views, so I would recommend staying on the GDT here. We had dinner at the Campground with a family from Calgary. It was nice to visit with people and it’s amazing how few people you interact with while hiking this trail.
Day 11
We started hiking about 7:15 and hiked up the approach trail from Porcupine Canpsite back to the GDT. I really am not a fan of this campsite and would recommend people just stealth camp rather than deal with the 1000 feet of elevation loss for this campsite. We went over Citadel Pass which was very beautiful, a large alpine meadow, then descended towards Sunshine Ski Resort. For 4 days I had been talking about how much I wanted nachos-Adi saying I’m such an American, and fair enough–and there was a sign advertising the ski resort restaurant’s nachos right as we entered town, which we both laughed about. When I got the restaurant and ordered the nachos they were HUGE. And delicious. We had to walk the 5 kilometers down the ski hill since we didn’t want to pay $43 for the gondola ride, then hitchhiked with a really nice Taiwanese couple, a doctor and a nurse. We checked into the Banff International Hostel which miraculously had availability on a Saturday night and then headed to the Parks Canada Office to try and fix the National Park Permits. There was a lot of explaining and talking, but pretty much, they couldn’t fix the permits which are now 2 days off from what I reserved in March. So….I guess we’ll wing it. The good news is that the ranger let us know there are exactly 6 rangers employed by Banff and they are completely swamped with issues in the front country Campgrounds, where most of the people are. So I think it won’t matter much, and we tried to do it the right way, but this system is not friendly to thruhikers.
Day 12
I zeroed today. I’ve noticed this strange phenomenon–when I’m doing a physically intense portion of a thruhike like the GDT has been so far, and I stop, I feel really ill for the first day-almost like I have the flu. I felt that way yesterday afternoon when we were talking to the forest ranger (Adi blamed the Canadian burocracy for my feelings of nausea and lightheadedness), but this morning when I woke up I actually felt really strong and like I wanted to hike. But, I decided to go ahead and take the day off as planned. I talked to my Dutch friend on WhatsApp for awhile-The Netherlands are 8 hours ahead-and did all my resupplying. Adi hiked out as she wants to do the next section over 5 days instead of 4 (reasonable). We’ll meet up around Field, the next town. I chatted with two Swiss women who were staying in the bunk room with us–we had apologized profusely to them for how terrible we made the bunk room smell, but they just laughed. Banff is a fancy ski resort town-it reminds me a lot of Vail, Colorado. It’s really nice to be in a pleasant, vacation-y place for a day, though.
Day 13
I got up a little before 6 today, finished some last minute chores, downloaded some more maps, and took the free shuttle bus to the Sunshine base. I decided to take the gondola up instead of walking the 3 miles up the mountain and felt a little bad about it-there was at least a backpacker discount which was nice of them. Started hiking about 11am and hiked about 12 miles to Ball Pass Junction. (A PSA to any thruhikers reading this site: FYI, you just need to let go of your 2 mile per hour or 2.5 mile per hour pace on this trail. Most of the time, it just ain’t gonna happen.). Lots of people on the trail and I started to get annoyed at the stupid comments people make (“you’re ALL ALONE? You’re hiking ALL THE WAY to Ball Pass?? Good luck!”). It was easy to ignore the first time but by the fourth time it was starting to wear on me. I’m looking forward to getting away from these types of people (although I surely do like to chat with folks in the backcountry when I’ve been out,alone, for a few days.). The Trail was high, alpine, and beautiful. The people died out the farther I got from the ski resort. I camped at about 7:45pm.
Day 14
Two weeks on trail. It seemed like a lot of up today…..I think it was about 5000 feet. The Trail went right up Ball Pass immediately, dropped down for a looooong time to Highway 93, crossed the Vermilion River which is robin’s egg blue for some reason, and then goes right back up again to Floe Lake and then an unnamed Pass above it. It was hot, and the entire day was in a “burn zone” (old forest fire from 2013) so there were lots and lots of fallen trees to climb over, under, and around. Also, everything kind of gets covered in soot from touching the trees. I hiked alone for almost the whole day until Floe lake, glittering in the late afternoon sun,huge snow banks coming all the way down to the water from the cirque of mountains towering above. Breathtaking. When I arrived there was a group of 8 women who were camping there and who wanted to ask me questions about thruhiking, and then a wonderful thing happened-Carol, one of the ladies, used to be the host at Kakwa Lake! Kakwa Lake is the northern terminus of the GDT, but the problem is it’s in the middle of nowhere and requires days of hiking dirt roads to get out. She gave me some really good advice about the area, ideas of how to coordinate the exit, and even took down my phone number to see if any of her friends up there could help me out. People are so nice. After saying goodbye to the ladies I hiked over the final pass and just loved it up there-total and complete silence, and the alpine environment, and the sun setting, and I set up a stealthy camp in a little meadow. I think I’ll sleep well tonight. I was a little unnerved when.a yellow jacket got stuck in my tent and was angrily buzzing around, until he proceeded to eat all the flies that were also trapped in my tent. I let him finish his dinner before I gently trapped him with my mug and released him.
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