Planning already

It is that time again and we are starting to plan out a new hiking season. Debated about the first one, but we have decided go back to Mount Robson for the July long weekend. This time, however, we are making it a five day long weekend with 4 days on the trail. Two days to get up to Berg Lake (staying at Whitehorn again) and spending the third and fourth up at the Lake to do the day hike to Snowbird Pass. It is supposed to be beautiful and neither Richard or I have gone there.

As for other trips we will have to see... probably sticking close to Jasper this year, as time off might be a factor.

No new equipment yet, but as we get closer there is a possibility.

Jacques Lake

One last trip for the summer... August seemed to be destined to be a grey cool month, but we wouldn't let it deter us. because of our cut short trip we decided that one last trip was in order, but where to go. Although it wasn't our first choice, we knew Jacques Lake suited the cool weather (ie no snow likely). It also is a relatively flat trail, which makes for a relaxing weekend. We left Saturday morning to avoid the rain, and arrived at a large lineup of cars. We got on the trail at about 3 and enjoyed the first part of the trail (up to the second Summit Lake) very much... but soon the trail lost its views and was muddy... we were very relieved to get to the lake, which was beautiful.

As we made dinner we realized we were the only ones likely to be camping that night. It was reinforced when 4 wardens and their horses (8 altogether) arrived (on their way to patrol the South boundary trail for poachers - Sept 1 was the start of hunting season). Day 2 we decided to day hike down the South Boundary trail to look for a potential scramble. We soon found it a few Km down. Unfortunately Richard was having some boot problems, so we ate our lunch, then Angela Scrambled up a little ways, to get some great pictures (it was steeper than it looked BTW ;)

We met up with a few interesting campers the second night - including a couple about to head down the South Boundary trail (an 8 day attempt) and Tim, the semi-retired business owner who took 5 weeks to hike!

Overall it was a relaxing weekend, and we are happy we got to explore the historical lake.

Sometimes things don't go as planned...

So we were set! All our gear packed, 7 days of food, all the light gear (I opted out of taking the SLR camera)... My packed weighed 35lbs!! But Richard was still not feeling great, BUT we decided to go for it anyway. Well to make a long story short our Sawback hike turned into the Mystic Pass hike. Not to say it was bad... there are all sorts of reasons that hikes don't get finished, weather, malfunctions etc. So the first day was supposed to be 16k, but we went the extra bit to get to Mystic Lake campground. Although this part of the trail wasn't spectacular, but the next day made up for it. Mystic pass was beautiful. We recommend approaching the pass from Norquay, as we did, as the decent into Larry's Camp was long and steep. About halfway through, neither one of us was feeling great, so we decided to rest a day and see how we feel. We took it easy and enjoyed our surroundings... It was nice, but after a day we weren't feeling any better and decided to leave the trail at our escape route... Johnston Canyon!

The rest of the trip included two nights in a hotel! Enjoyed some great food, and spent some time with Richard's parents. In the end was was still a great vacation, despite Angela getting sicker and sicker throughout the trip. We have promised ourselves that we will finish the trip, as Pulstilla Pass is supposed to be amazing, and the Skoki area is fabulous.

Mount Robson - July long weekend 2007

Our annual July long weekend trip to the Rockies brought us to Mount Robson.





Itinerary:
June 29th - Jasper - Whistlers
Jun 30th and July 1st - Whitehorn campground on the Berg Lake Trail.

This is a great trail, where the first half gives you beautiful valley forests and gradual elevation gain, the second half gives you thundering waterfalls and huge elevation gains... But it is most definitely worth it.

In the end we have decided to add Mount Robson back on our list of to do hikes again. Next time with more time, and a chance to day hike from Berg Lake itself.

Click on the picture for the photo gallery.

Packing it up!

Quick gear update. Richard finally bought a pack three weeks ago. It also is the Arcteryx Bora - the men's version.

Also, we discovered something really irritating... we have the MSR Sweetwater filter, that fits my generic hard plastic bottle, and my "Source" dromedary. Well Richard decided to buy the MSR dromedary... Turns out the MSR Sweetwater filter and the MSR dromedary does not fit together.

We're thinking of writing a letter!

Hikes we are doing this year!

So we ARE going to do the Sawback for our long trip... should be fun.

We are going to do Berg Lake for sure.

And hopefully will do the Skyline at the end of the summer.

Possibly doing Jacque Lake as an overnight as well.

No gear updates unless you count the quick dry clother with have bought. Going shopping for Richard's backpack this weekend as well.

I'll be doing a proper update soon.

Great Day Hiking - Local

April and May will soon be upon us, which means great day hiking (not that you can't hike these trails in winter - we just don't like to fall on our behinds)!

Thank goodness Edmonton has lots of places to hike in the River Valley, where we are going to start training for our summer! Part of the system includes the Trans Canada Trail.

100 year old Elk Island National Park also has some great hikes... If you grew up in or around the city you probably had a field trip to the park, and ended up on the Living Waters boardwalk.

Richard and I have also done some Geo-Caching, basically its something fun to do with that hand held GPS you thought was a good idea. There are several Geo-Caches in and around Edmonton which require hiking.