Wall Lake Revisited

A few more details on the Wall Lake hike. This is a must do while in Waterton. Easy enough for grade school kids. We saw babies in backpacks, a jogging stroller, and mountain bikes. It is enough so that you can say that you have hiked, but with minor elevation changes it is a big bang for the effort. When you hike out you have a choice of bearing off to Forum lake that is shorter, or doing 1km more hiking with less up and down. We choose the longer, flatter hike.

We did not realize that we would be leaving Alberta and going into British Columbia, but as the trail climbed into Akimina Pass, we did.  A cool surprise.

The lake itself is phenominal. A emerald green gem. It is impossible to describe the breathtaking expanse of sheer wall that gives the lake its name. You round the corner and there it is a wall of rock over 1000 feet high. Snow fields still at the end in August, and clear, then blue, then deep emerald green water.

We did do the wade out and dunk routine. Cold but not too bad. Our last days in Waterton were all 90F with a dry wind blowing. So a quick dip was refreshing.

Give Marsha all the credit for spotting the goats, all three. Closer than the last set we saw, it was fun to sit and dry our clothes and watch. For fish, it was similar to Goat Lake. Lots and lots of 3-5 inch trout near the shore rolling lazily up to the surface. You could stand there knee deep and watch them. Alas, no rod, no National Park license (and if I had it, I was 1km in BC and would need a BC license).

It was a spectacular hike.

 

Sunrise Alpenglow in Waterton Lakes

The last two mornings in Waterton I got up early to capture some sunrise alpenglow on  the peaks around town and the Prince of Wales in the glooming. Here are a couple of pictures.

The Wall Lake Hike - A Tale to Remember

Dear Cassie and Charlie,

I saw Cassie’s picture with her birthday press on nails. They reminded me of the claws of a grizzly bear. It inspired me to write this story for you. Have your Mom or Dad read it to you.

The Wall Lake Hike - A Tale to Remember

Dedicated to Sondra Grizzlyfingers and Sir Charles of Evans

This is the story of how I narrowly escaped a tragic situation by luck and my wits. It is a tall tale. A tale tale is where the author might not exactly be telling the truth. There might be things in the story that are a little bit made up to make the story better, or more exciting. Sometimes the storyteller is trying to teach a lesson and a little bit fibbing might help make the point. In a tall tale, the listener has to decide for himself which parts are true and which parts are not so true. So at the end, you have to decide what parts of the story are true and what parts are a tale tale...

This story happened on a trip to the Canadian Rockies. You know that Canada is the country just north of the United States.  In the western part of Canada, just like in the western United States there are big tall mountains called the Rockies. They are so beautiful that large parts of the mountains have been set aside as parks, to be preserved and protected so that people can come to visit them and enjoy them forever.  The Canadian Rockies are mostly in two of provinces, Alberta and British Columbia. Canadian provinces are kind of like states in the United States. These two provinces sit side-by-side like Vermont and New Hampshire do in the USA.

When Aunt Marsha and I were visiting Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, we went on a hike. It was a great hike to a high mountain lake called Wall Lake. Isn’t that a funny name, Wall Lake? Who would name a lake that? If you could name a lake what would you call it?

Anyway, it turns out that it was the perfect name. We hiked up the trail and up the trail, and then up the trail some more.  It was hot. We were sweaty. We drank water from our water bottles. We hiked up into Akimina Pass. At the top of the pass there was a sign that said “Welcome to British Columbia”. We had hiked so far that we left Alberta and hiked clear into British Columbia!

We still had more to hike, so we went on. Finally, we turned a corner and there it was, a towering wall of rock 1000 feet high. You looked at the bottom and you let your eyes go up and up until you neck hurt! You looked up until there was no more wall left, just a big open sky. And at the bottom of that wall, was a beautiful lake.

Around the edges, the water was perfectly clear. So clear that you could see all the way to the bottom. We put on our sandals a waded in a few feet. As you gazed out the water turned blue, and then further out it became a beautiful emerald green. It stretched out to bottom of the rock wall. At the far end of lake there were patches of snow and this was the middle of the summer! If stood at the top of the 1000 foot wall you could toss a rock and it would land in the lake. Wall Lake, the perfect name!

As we looked out at the lake we could see ducks. They were diving ducks, the kind that go underwater and actually swim to catch fish for food. There was a group, a Mom duck and three little ones swimming along. Every once in a while they would disappear under water and after a bit they would pop up to the surface. WIth such clear water, I thought, it would be pretty easy for them to catch fish.

Then I looked down at my feet, and sure enough, you could see fish gliding along the shoreline. Every so often a fish would come up near the surface and grab a bug or an insect to eat and dive back down. I realized that those fish were pretty tricky. If they came near the surface it was only for a moment and when they would dive back down, they tucked themselves down in the rocks or near a log where they could hide. Those ducks were going to have to work hard to catch these fish.

So, here we were, two hot and sweaty hikers, up to our knees in a beautiful mountain lake. What do you think happened next? What would you do if you were hot and sweaty and next to a lake? That’s right, were went in.

It was SOOOOO, COOOOOLD! All we could do was to wade out as far as we dared and dunk our heads under. The shock of the cold water took your breath away. We came running out of there very quickly.

We decided to sit on the sunny shore to dry off and warm up. Aunt Marsha laid back on her backpack and gazed up at the wall. See grabbed the binoculars and started pointing and yelling. One no two, no THREE mountain goats high up on the wall. Three small white dots, but through the binoculars it was clear that they were goats. They were all white and had shaggy fur. What a treat! It is pretty rare you get to see mountain goats. We got to watch them jump from rock to rock and munch on the small patches of grass that grew high up on the wall.

After a while it was time to go back down the trail. We said goodbye and thank you to Wall Lake for sharing all its beauty and wildlife. It was then we go into trouble.

The parks are the home to bears. When you hike, you need to make noise to let any bears know you are coming. Some people use small bells that jingle when you walk Some people clap their hands to let a bear know they are coming. We like to sing songs or do bear calls.

A bear call is just a shout out every few minutes, like - Yo! Bear! It can be anything but you want it has to have lots of vowels  Vowels are those letters (a,e,i,o,u) that say their name when you read them. Their sound tends to travel farther, So the “Yo” in our Yo! Bear! call is good, because the “o” sound will travel far. But we thought we could make it better by adding more vowels at the end like - “e”. We made our bear call, “Yo, Bear-eeee!” Can you try that? Just call it out ,Yo! Bear-eee!

It does get boring sometimes so you can change it up a bit. How about  -Yo! Blueberry!

or Yo! Strawberry! Or Yo! Huckleberry! Maybe you could flip it - Hucklebereee! Yooogurt! What would your bear call be? Remember it has to have lots of vowel sounds.

Of, course, if you get bored with bear calls you could always sing. Here is a favorite trail song:

I love to go a-wandering,

Along the mountain track,

And as I go, I love to sing,

My knapsack on my back.

(chorus) 

Val-deri,Val-dera, Val-deri, Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha Val-deri,Val-dera. My knapsack on my back.

I’ll bet your Mom knows the tune and she can teach you this great hiking song. Sometimes you you get bored singing the same tune and you can change the words. Try singing these:

I’d love to send
My good friend Cass,

All the way to France,

When she’s there,

She could buy

Some brand new underpants!

Valderi, Valdera …

Our problem on the way back was that we forgot to keep doing our bear calls or to sing bear songs. What can I say?  It wa a long trail back, we were tired and hot again. We just wanted to get finished.

As came back up to  Akimina Pass, Aunt Marsha was ahead by a little bit so there was a gap between me and her. In the space between us, out stepped a British Columbia Grizzly Bear! We froze. What should we do? I suddenly realized that our last bites of trail snacks and our garbage from lunch was in Aunt Marsha’s backpack! I yelled to her to drop her pack and run up the trail and she did.

The bear walked over to the pack, ripped it open with its giant claws. He gobbled down our last granola bar and our cheddar cheese goldfish crackers! He then looked up, smacked his lips, looked down the trail and saw me. He started walking toward me. What should I do?

Now I’ve never told you this, but when I was a lad, I became very good at a sport called barrel jumping. It is a crazy sport that combines skating and jumping. On a frozen pond you make a pile of barrels. You skate as hard and as fast as you can toward the barrels and then jump. If you jump over one, you and a second barrel and try again.  You keep adding and adding barrels. It is a contest so whoever can jump over the most barrels wins. Here is a picture of me from my jumping days.

Now like I said, back in the day, I was very good at barrel jumping. I even tried out for the International Championships! I was not good enough for the USA team, but because of my Polish heritage, I could try to qualify for the Polish International Barrel Jumping Team. Alas, I came in fourth, and they only took the top three to the championship that year.

Now back to bear. As he turned and came down the trail at me, I realized I could use my barrel jumping experience. Instead of running away, I ran right at him. Then I JUMPED. He reared back on his hind legs. He and the air as I went up and over. I was almost high enough and far enough, jumping and kicking my legs. His claws flashed, but he only nicked me, giving me scratches  on my calf. I hit the ground beyond the bear, rolled twice flipped up to my feet and started running.

I took a quick look over my shoulder and the bear was coming. I ran harder and dashed through Akinima Pass. I looked back again. Something weird  was happening. The bear was standing at the top of the pass, stopped dead in his tracks. I was stunned, why would the bear stop?

Then it hit me. This was a British Columbia Grizzly bear! When I  jumped and ran through the pass I had crossed into the province of Alberta. As a British Columbia Grizzly Bear, he couldn’t travel into Alberta! I was safe on my side of the border (except for the scratches on my leg) and there was nothing he could do about it. The British Columbia Grizzly  turned away and gave one last swat at Aunt Marsha’s backpack and went back down into the woods. 

As for us, we waited until we thought it was safe, grabbed got the backpack and finished our hike. We leaearn our lesson to never forget to do our bear call or sing our silly songs. All the way back down the trail from Akimina Pass we sang as loud as we could:

I’d love to send
My good friend Cass,

All the way to France,

When she’s there,

She could buy

Some brand new underpants!

Valderi, Valdera …

Oh Deer! Still Hanging Out in Waterton

We have made the decision to hang out through the Canadian August Long Weekend holiday. We are just not sure we can move north and find a campsite. It is 90 degrees today so we did a short hike and  tried to fish a little bit (no luck). We ended up in town next to the lake in the shade of some trees by the afternoon. The lake is freezing cold so it is good for a dip but not long swims.

The wind is blowing fiercely off and on with gusts that are blowing people's hats off. I am being treated to a demo from some very expert wind surfers who are obviously local. The gal was about waist deep in the water scanning the lake to the south where the wind was coming from. As the white caps grew about a quarter mile out she started shouting to her guy partner who was just moving onto the beach. She told him to hurry as the big wind was coming. To me it was blowing pretty hard already, but she was reading the lake surface way out. When the wind hit, it hit hard and she jumped up, hung her butt down and flew across the water. Her partner followed but by taking a slightly different tack than her exploded across the lake at twice her speed. Both are very, very good windsurfers and know this lake well. Great show as we perform another stealth dinner in a campground kitchen shelter down by the water, charging the devices. We did confirm that our out of town camsite entitles us to showers at the in town campground showers.

We had visitors in the campground this morning at breakfast time. Three deer, two bucks and a doe. We have actually seen quite a few deer but before this just one small buck. Both of these guys were good size, sporting full racks of antlers covered in velvet. They grazed between several campsites and around ours for about a half an hour.

The plan for tomorrow is another long in  an then up to a lake hike. Most likely it will be Forum Lake but you could go to Wall Lake from the same route. We will see how the legs feel. Wall Lake is the "postcard" lake of Waterton.

 

Stealth Dining and Goat Lake Hike

This will be a quick post. We don't have the greatest campsite in Crandell Mountain. The area for tents is just patches of gravel, bear boxes for food and little to no trees to shelter us from the sun. It has turned warm here (not like the heat wave back home)  but enough heat so that you want some protection from the full sun. It was 85 degrees at 6PM today. That temperature melts away as the sun goes down, and in the AM it is pretty chilly. We were bundled to the max. Layers peeled as the sun rose and the wind went from howling at dawn to a stiff breeze for breakfast. Going to try to get in under one of the tree shaded sites tomorrow (those are "RV sites").

So, tonight we are stealth dining. We have come into town and with our previous knowledge of the campground facilities and the kitchen shelters, we are parked in the day use picnic area but hanging out in the nearby campground kitchen shelter. We are having a quiet no muss no fuss dinner. We are using the electric out for charging and the town wifi for things like this. One of the campground's shower buildings is about 50 yards away so as long as we don't call attention to ourselves we will also have stealth showers.

And we need those showers. Today we did a hike out to Goat Lake. We actually tried to multi sport.  The description of the initial trail was that it was an old logging road and open to biking. Not so much for our touring bikes. Sweetness gave it her all and I have to take the blame for putting er in a position where her long frame was just not nimble enough and my legs not tough enough to pick through what was really a single track mountain bike ride. We gave up after a mile and stashed Sweetness and the Hopeville Flyer in the woods for the return.

At the 3 mile mark the Goat Lake trail turned and went up, really up. we did about 1000 feet of climbing in 1.5 mile. The trail to me had a very White Mountains of NH feel, in that it was all no nonsense. Switchbacks that just went after the grade in tight turns. You want that lake,we are are going to take you there. Of course, when you looked around, it was not NH. We worked uphill across a scree slope that had our knees knocking a bit on the narrow parts. We slabbed over to the outlet of the lake which was running as a waterfall through a thin crack in the mountainside.

The lake was a joy. Clear at the edges sinking to an emerald green as the shoreline gave way. It was a typical mountain tarn, a circle of peaks and a ridgeline contributing their waters to make the lake that then tumbled out as waterfall.

Camping is allowed here and if you willing you to schlep your stuff up the 1000 feet it would be a nice place to camp. We settled in for lunch and then Marsah saw them - two mountain goats way above us in a crack that led to a ridgeline. Very far away, it took the binoculars to confirm it was goats not sheep. They were just hanging out and grazing and moved slowly from green patch to green patch. Quick leaps up or sideways, with grace and what seemed like a minimum amount of effort got them to the next place. It was fun to watch.

The other amazing thing about the lake was that it was full of small trout. I am sure there ,might have been some big guys out there deeper but lots of small feeding fish at the lakeshore. You would here the gulp at the surface and then the rings. A couple of times you would get a flash of underbelly as they came up hard. The amazing things was that the water was so clear that all you had to do was look where the gulp was and you could see the fish underneath. Once you saw what the looked like in the water you could pick them out without the gulps. Couple dozen at least just gliding along near the shoreline. No fly rod or spinning rod in my pack, and certainly no fishing permit (in Glacier the fishing was free without a license) to day but tomorrow we will do another short hike to a lake lower down and with a day fishing permit in hand we will see what we can do.

We think hike/fish in the morning. Stealth shower in town and then afternoon tea at the Prince of Wales. Might have to break out the clean towel.

Pictures are coming, just not today. Sorry it is so hot back there.

Biking In Waterton

This morning we had a bit of a logistical twit to figure out. Next Monday is a kind of Canadian holiday. They call it "August Long Weekend". New to us but it means that it is absolute peak season in Waterton. We have been pretty good at working the jigsaw puzzles of reserved campgrounds versus "first come first served" campgrounds.  We took a short recon ride this AM to check out the large first come first served campground to our north, Crandell Mountain, as our reserved campsite in Waterton Townsite expires tomorrow morning. It will be tight but we think we can squeeze it if we are there at 8AM to put our name on the waiting list. If you are leaving you have to be out by noon so, we will circle back just after lunch to see if we made the cut. It is about 20 miles out of town, and much more primitive. However it is in a beautiful valley and offers easy access to a couple of hikes we want to do.

If we get a site we will park it there through the weekend. If not it is northbound to the provincial parks of Alberta. We hope we get one as Waterton is a good set up for us. There is a small grocery in town and we have enough basic foodstuffs. We would be able to do a load of laundry just before Banff and there are places to eat.

After we reconned we came back to town and biked out of town down a bike path that runs about 1looking back into the US. 0K out of town back to the park entrance, along the shores of middle and lower Waterton Lakes. Great views of the rangeland leading up to the park and on the way in great views of the mountains that ring the Upper Waterton Lake

Trail had short steep ups in parts and I could really feel the effects of being at altitude. Very hard to recover my breathing after a short up. The wind runs down valley and picks up in the afternoon, the ride back was into a tough headwind of easily  30-35km per hour, sustained. It was a long slow pullback to town, through the wind. We did get to see a demo of Blackfeet dancing.

Showers and then pizza in town for dinner!

 

Why I Love Camping In Canada

I dont know if I have written about this here in the blog but this is my 40th anniversary of my first trip to the Canadian Rockies. Yes, Douglas Hammerstrom you can take a deep bow this morning in Colorado for arranging a two week excursion in a VW Microbus for 5 guys with a lot of excess testosterone to visit the pictures of Banff you saw in National Geographic. So, wrong in your choices in politics, yet so right in your choices in recreation. Such a life changing inspirational trip that this is my fifth and Marsha's 4th trip back to the area. I could go on here for a while but this post would have to be tagged with the label back-in-the-day and that is really not the point of this.

There is in my mind a difference in how Canada approaches outdoor recreation, especially camping. Here at the Townsite in Waterton Lakes there is a European-International vibe. Some of it is the origin of the park from the railroad days a hundred years ago where you built places like the Prince of Wales Hotel and bent the railroads to bring folks to the resort. The townsite has a little village of shops and small restaurants. Not a lot, but just enough to take a stroll or a bike ride from the campground to have a bite to eat and spend some tourist dollar. It is quaint, baskets of flowers hanging along the streets, lots of benches to stop and sit, bike racks if you rode in.

The campground itself has hot showers (and not quarter showers, just push the button and out it comes). There are kitchen shelters near each of the loops. These are enclosed buildings with long picnic tables, wood stoves and lights. It is like they are saying, " Yeah, sometimes it is going to be bad weather. It can be rainy, windy and cold. You are going to want to be able to hang out in a dry space to cook or eat or just play cards or read a book. You don't have to huddle in your tent."

This morning I was up early so, I grabbed my Kindle and the rest of our electronic resources, and headed for the kitchen shelter with a bag chair. I plugged in the devices for a good charge while I read for and hour (note to family members glued to iDevices. Cold weather, and it was real cold last night , zaps battery life, sleep with you iPhone). Nothing fancy but the shelter got me a charge up a quiet hour or so in a comfortable spot.

I also get 4 hours of free wifi a day in the campground and the downtown village (I could pay for higher or faster usage). There is a laundromat in the village

This in contrast to our recent experience in the US at what arguably is the premier campground in one of the top US National Parks. At Apgar Campground there were no showers, there were no electrical hookups for RV's (meaning that when it was not quiet hours, generators were humming to charge RV batteries or run AC/Heaters). The only wifi was outside the visitors center (and no posted notice of it in the campground). It took two tries before Marsha discovered that the little snack shop in Apgar Village did have hot dogs and buns. There was no restuarant, and West Glacier was a drive out of the park. And let me add we LOVED our time there.

I guess I am trying draw the distinction about the feel of the experience. I know that I will have the same options in Banff and Jasper around the campground services. I have experienced the same in style of campground accommodations at Prince Edward Island. I don't want to get out on a philosophical limb here but it is almost like the US is the stance of the rugged individual. You can pit yourself against the environment, and go CAMPING (as long as you haul your RV/House) with you for comfort. The Canadian experience for me has been, hey, this place is great and beautiful, come and enjoy it it. We love being the outdoors, lets make it easy and relaxing.

I do not know if I am reading too much into it but we do greatly prefer camping in Canada and would choose it over the US anyday. It is looking like pizza downtown for supper, and tomorrow we are going for afternoon tea (after some morning activity and a shower) at the Prince of Wales.

Arrival in Waterton Lakes National Park - Oh! Canada!

We drove from East Glacier to Waterton Lakes today. We went past St. Mary's where the fire is still active. Did not see fire but there was a lot of smoke coming down the valley. Saw the major staging area fro firefighters and the field that had been turned into a helipad. It is raining in Waterton so hopefully some of that will trickle over the range to help with the fire.

Waterton is exactly how we (and faithful reader Janice Shannon) remember it from some 15 years ago. Beautiful, windy, rainy and cold. We are in the Waterton Townsite camping area, right in the town village area with Prince of Wales hotel overlooking the town and lakes. We get 4 hours of free wifi and then get to start paying. There is a lot to say that will come later but let me get right to the highlight of the day.

Bear!

In the meadow that stretched out in front of the Prince of Wales Hotel (away from the lake) a good sized black bear was out munching on berries and other delights. Just doing his bear thing like I am sure he/she has done many times before. We observed from about 100 yards and were cautioned by the ranger that to be any closer we really should be in a car.

The Prince of Wales Hotel is just stunning in its location, history and grandeur.  Sitting on a hill overlooking the lake and town, the bellhops all wore kilts, and as you sat for afternoon tea with a harpist playing you observed the water and mountains through a wall of glass window. All in a circa 1909 grand hotel, where the central lobby soared three flights and each floor of rooms became an overlooking balcony in wood and timber framing. we are going to try to head there for tea especially if the rainy cold weather holds up. 

We also took an afternoon walk along the shore of Cameron Lake and saw an eagle soaring and then drop like a rock to grab a fish. It clearly was an eagle, it clearly plunged to the water and rose, but it was pretty far away. It was either a juvenile American Bald eagle just coming into adulthood as it was pretty brown but we saw white as it flew, or a golden eagle with the belly of the fish in ts claws flashing white as it flew.  Just too hard to say for sure which it could be. 

Much more to say and more pictures but lets see if the wifi holds out for this post at least.