Thursday, August 11
Today was my favorite hiking day of the week. This was both because of the people I went with and because of the hike that we did.
The group of people came about as a result of something called a “bootleg.” A bootleg is when someone wants to do a specific hike that is not being offered as one of the official hikes that day (or perhaps even the entire week). If you can get enough people together, you can check out your own van and do the hike you want to do without one of the August Camp hike leaders taking you along. When I heard Virginia was organizing a bootleg, I asked if I could come along. The final group ended up being Mike, Virginia (the transportation coordinator for August Camp), Julie (the camp manager) and Gina (the camp director).
The hike we did was called the Iceline Trail. Unlike a couple of B hikes that did an out and back on this trail up to the summit during the week, we made our hike into a loop. We went out the Little Yoho Valley trail to the Stanley Mitchell Hut. From there, we did the entire length of the Iceline Trail back to the parking lot at Takakkaw Falls. This made it into a really nice 12.5 mile loop with about 2200 feet of elevation gain.
The other four people in the group with me have spent at least four weeks at August Camp in the Canadian Rockies over the past two summers. Three of them had done this hike before. In spite of that, this is the hike they chose to do on one of their last days here. That says a lot about just how spectacular this hike was.
The hike started out nicely enough: a great view of Takakkaw Falls as we walked to the trailhead. As you often do, we followed a river up the valley past some nice waterfalls and scenic vistas. (especially the bridge on the Lake Celeste Trail where we ate lunch). I was walking with Virginia most of the way up and we had a nice chat.
We took another break at the Stanley Mitchell hut before starting out on the Iceline Trail itself. Spectacular. This was much different scenery than the other hikes I have done this week. We were really close to a glacier which gave the landscape somewhat of a “lunar” feel. There were also great views of the surrounding mountains (as always) and Takakkaw Falls on the way back down. As we walked past all of that, I totally understood why the rest of the group wanted to do this hike (again). The only part that wasn’t so great was the switchbacks through the forest on the descent. Fortunately, it was over quickly: just 30 switchbacks on this one! I couldn’t help but counting and the group who did the hike the next day actually confirmed my count.
Another great thing about this hike: it was close to camp. We were back in plenty of time for me to take another solar shower. I didn’t end up quite as clean as the people who soaked in the hot springs at Radium, but it still felt good. Dinner tonight was a Thai Peanut Chicken that everyone enjoyed so much they demanded the cook come out for a round of applause at the end of the meal.
There were a couple of twists at campfire tonight. The first was weather related. I haven’t said much about the weather so far because it’s been great. Temperatures in the 70s. No rain. Mostly clear skies. You couldn’t ask for much more. Even though it was supposed to rain today, it didn’t really happen. We did have a few sprinkles as campfire was about to begin but the only real impact they had was to create an amazing double rainbow. The inner one was extremely vivid and you could see both ends of it. The colors in the outer rainbow were a mirror image of the inner rainbow, just not quite as bright. It also went all the way around. Incredible.
The second campfire oddity tonight was an August Camp tradition called the Follies. Various campers put on skits/songs/stories to entertain the crowd. I didn’t participate, but it was definitely an enjoyable evening. I even caught one of the cookie vouchers the Croo had thrown into the crowd as part of their act. Nice.
The hikes for Friday are:
Mary: Walk in the town of Banff. Visit hot springs.
- Ron: C hike. Johnston Canyon Upper Falls. 3.4 miles/700 feet
- Julie: B hike. Iceline Summit. 8 miles/2250 feet
- Carl: B hike. Balou Pass in Glacier National Park. 6.2 miles/2300 feet (toilet with a view at the top)
- Deb and Michele: A or B hike. Two Teahouses at Lake Louise. 9.0 miles/1900 feet OR 5.8 miles/1300 feet
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.