PART UN: CALGARY

O CANADA, EH?

 

 

Originally, we were going to go to California.  By January, we had it all planned out.  We’d visit Yosemite Valley first, and then we’d thru hike the 220-mile John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada.  We’d finish up with a few relaxing days on the coast.  Then the snows came.  While southern California was getting record ,rainfall, it was snowing in the mountains.  By February, the Sierra’s were well on their way toward receiving the most snowfall in the past 100 years.  This presented some problems.  The high passes would be blocked with snow until at least August.  Because of the snowmelt, streams would be running high, making fords hazardous.  We needed a backup plan.

 

The Canadian Rockies have been high on our list of places to visit for years.  With the spectacular glaciers melting rapidly, the sooner we went, the better.  Plus, we each had $400 flight vouchers with American Airlines as compensation for getting bumped off our flight back from Hawaii the previous year.  That was a real hardship – a free extra day in Hawaii.  With those vouchers, we figured we might as well go somewhere expensive.  Flights to Calgary were running a little over $500, so we could get there cheap.  An incredible deal with Alamo car rental ($600 for 4 weeks!) sealed it.  O Canada?  Ya sure.

 

So, where would we go in our four weeks?  Canada is huge.  Most people realize this in a general sense, but don’t really grasp the magnitude.  If you have a world atlas, take a long look at Canada on it, and you’ll see what I mean.  Of course, the vast majority of the country is inhabited only by Polar Bears and the occasional Eskimo, but it’s still a lot of territory.  The Canadian Rockies cover only a tiny portion of the country, but they are still vast.  Even with four weeks, we’d need to narrow it down a bit.

 

The most popular area for recreation and tourism is centered on the four national parks along the Alberta / British Columbia border.  Banff is probably the most famous, thanks to easy access from Calgary, and stunning scenery around Lake Louise and along the Icefields Parkway.  It’s a powerful park that really jumps right out at you.  If Emeril Lagasse was a hiker, it would be his favorite park.  Banff!  Jasper is the largest of the parks, and borders Banff to the north.  Jasper simply sounds pretty, and it is.  Across the Continental Divide in British Columbia lie two more parks.  To the north is Yoho, which is a very hard name to say.  I find it more natural to sing it.  Try it yourself.  “Yoho”.  See, doesn’t that sound better?  South of Yoho lies Kootenay, which is the least visited of the contiguous parks.  This might be because the park lacks stunning scenery that can be viewed from the road.  Or it could be that the park name sounds vaguely dirty.  Regardless of the reason, we planned to visit Kootenay, as well as Yoho, Jasper, and Banff.  While we were at it, we’d spend some time in Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia.  A Provincial Park may sound like the equivalent of a state park back home, but we found those areas to have some of the best scenery of the entire trip.

 

With the help of The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, by Brian Patton and Bart Robinson, I picked out 4 backpacking trips and nearly a dozen dayhikes to tackle during our trip.  We’d start the trip with a week car-camping and dayhiking in Banff.  After that, we’d backpack 100 kilometers along the Continental Divide, starting near Vermillion Pass in Banff and running south through Sunshine Meadows and Mount Assiniboine to finish near Spray Lakes.  After a brief respite at a hotel in Canmore, we’d head to Kootenay to backpack the Rockwall Trail.  From there it would be on to Jasper, where we’d car camp and do a few dayhikes.  The final week would feature two shorter backpacking trips.  The first would be to Berg Lake, at the foot of Mount Robson.  The vacation would culminate with a stroll along the Skyline Trail, where we’d hike nearly 20 miles above treeline.

 

I returned from my final business trip on Thursday, leaving me with all day Friday to pack.  By that evening, we had all of our gear stuffed into 2 duffel bags, a pair of suitcases, and 2 packs we planned to carry on.  Each of our bags weighed in just under the 50-pound limit.  We were ready to go.  I had my Rush, and my Triumph, and my Gordon Lightfoot burned onto discs.  (Actually, I’m just kidding about the Gordon Lightfoot.)  Really!  O Canada, here we come.  

 

 

YO-YO THE BOW

 

 

We were up at 4:30 Saturday morning for our early flight to Calgary.  It was fortunate that we arrived early, because there was a huge crush of people checking in with American airlines.  We eventually made it through, and enjoyed an uneventful flight to Chicago.  We had a lengthy layover there, so we had breakfast at Chili’s, which was surprisingly good.  From there, we had one more flight to Calgary.  We arrived by early afternoon, breezed through customs, retrieved our luggage, and picked up the rental car.  We were off to see Calgary.

 

Actually we were off to do errands.  We had a lot to do though, and it required us to drive all over Calgary, so I guess we saw the city.  We liked what we saw.  It’s a pleasant city, with lots of parks and greenways.  Downtown is lively.  What we didn’t see much of was litter, or signs of crime.  It takes a while to get around town, as there are hardly any highways to speak of, but plenty of traffic lights.  Then again, we hardly ever saw anyone in a hurry.  Most of the Canadians we met were pretty easy-going, even in the city.

 

Our first destination was downtown at the Mountain Equipment Co-Op.  They were holding a box full of stove fuel canisters that I had reserved by phone the week before.  This turned out to be completely unnecessary.  They were well-stocked, and every outdoors store we visited in Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise, and Jasper carried canisters as well. 

 

After picking up the fuel and bear spray we headed across town.  Christy was competing in a triathlon the next day, and she needed to register for the race.  We also picked up the bike she was renting for the event.  After that, we made a $200 grocery run.  We visited several grocery stores, but found ourselves facing a dilemma.  We’ve come to rely heavily on chicken, tuna, beef, and salmon packaged in bags for our backpacking meals.  They’re very convenient, and are fairly lightweight (at least compared to cans).  Unfortunately, with the exception of tuna, none of the stores we visited carried what we were looking for.  We’d have to do some serious rearranging of our menu.

 

We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn, organized our gear, and had a pasta dinner.  While we were out, the temperature dropped, and dark clouds built over the mountains to the west.  It felt like it could snow at any moment.  It was a pleasure to hurry back to the hotel and go to bed early.

 

We were up early the next morning for Christy’s race.  I drove Christy to Stanley Park for the triathlon, and headed for Banff.  Unfortunately, campgrounds in Banff National Park do not currently accept reservations (though that may change in the future).  They recommend arriving in the morning to secure a site.  Driving 2 hours to Banff to get a campsite, and then driving back to pick up Christy would be a hassle, but not as much of a hassle as getting to the park and finding all the campgrounds full. 

 

I drove west out of Calgary up the Bow River valley.  I drove through rolling prairie for an hour as I approached the mountains.  The peaks were still hidden in the clouds, but it looked like it might clear off by the afternoon.  Just after Canmore, I stopped at the park gate and purchased an annual park’s pass for $109.  This was in addition to the wilderness pass I had already purchased, which allowed us to camp in the backcountry.  The wilderness pass cost a similar amount, so between them this wasn’t going to be a cheap trip!  On the other hand, in Canada you at least get your money’s worth.  We found most of the trails well-maintained, and frequently passed patrolling rangers.  I don’t mind paying hefty fees if I receive something in exchange.

 

I drove past Banff (the town) and up the Bow Valley Parkway to Johnston Canyon Campground.  Johnston Canyon is one of the few campgrounds in Banff with showers.  Since we’d be backpacking during much of the trip, we wanted to be able to take showers when we could.  Luckily, there were still a few sites available.  Johnston Canyon wasn’t cheap ($31 a night, including free firewood), but then nothing in the Canadian Rockies was.  I pitched the tent at our site, which was somewhat secluded in the woods.  After only a few minutes I began the 2-hour drive back to Calgary to pick up Christy.

 

I made it back to Stanley Park, but had trouble finding Christy.  It was noon, so she should have finished much earlier.  Finally we found each other.  She had just finished, as the race had started late.  She had suffered through a miserable race.  After a strong swim, she had nothing but problems on the rental bike.  The seat kept sliding out of position, and she could never get it adjusted correctly.  This cost her a lot of time, and left her in pain before she even began the run.  Despite those setbacks, she still wanted to wait around for the results and the prize giveaway.

 

We still had a couple of hours to wait, and it was a nice day in Calgary, so I decided to go for a run.  I changed clothes and headed out on the greenway along the Elbow River.  The Elbow is a cleverly named tributary of the Bow.  That must be terribly confusing for Spanish-speaking visitors.  I mean, there’s the Bow River, and the Elbow River, which I’m pretty sure translates to “The Bow River”.  How do they keep it straight?

 

Regardless, the Elbow is a pretty stream.  I ran along it for a mile before reaching a bridge that looked like it might be closed for repair.  I turned around and ran back the other way, before eventually returning to the park.  Christy wasn’t thrilled with her results, and failed to win any of the door prizes. 

 

We finally left the park, grabbed a late lunch, and stopped at WalMart to pick up some things we forgot (namely towels).  It was late afternoon when we finally headed back out of town for Banff.  Originally I had hoped to get in a short hike Sunday afternoon, but that was beginning to look rather unlikely.

 

We headed out of town on highway 1, passing the Olympic facilities, including ski jumps and bobsled runs, on the edge of town.  We used the rest of the drive to work on our French.  Canada has two official languages, English and French.  As a result, all of the highway signs are written in both languages.  Since we were constantly exposed to them, it was hard not to pick up on a few words.  I hate to admit it, but I learned more French in a month in the Rockies than I did in 2 years of high school.  (Technically that is probably because my French teacher was clinically insane, but why should I make excuses?)  Below is a handy French / English translator that you may wish to refer back to as you continue with the trip report.  Here are a few to get you started:

 

English                                               French

 

Glacier                                                Glacier

Cirque                                                Cirque

Crevasse                                           Crevasse

Camera                                              Camera

Six                                                       Six

 

 

 

See how easy this is?  Now let’s try something harder:

 

Bourgeau Lake                                 Lac Bourgeau

Toilet                                                   Toilette

Tourist                                                Touriste

Quart                                                   Litre

 

 

Are you getting the hang of it?  Good.  Going forward, I will be introducing a new segment to the trip report, entitled “the French word of the day”.  This will help you, the reader, expand your French vocabulary, and may occasionally provide some humor.  Stayed tuned for today’s French word of the day, coming up soon.

 

We made it to Banff at 6pm, which sounds late, but really isn’t.  Due to a quirk in the time zones, it doesn’t actually get dark there in July until 10:30.  Of course, the sun also rises at 5:30.  Many people believe this is some sort of government conspiracy designed to keep tourists awake and promote more shopping.  My sources tell me that conditions are quite different in the winter, when the sun apparently makes an occasional brief appearance around mid-day.  I can’t confirm this, as we were only there in July and August.

 

Since we still had more than four hours of daylight, we decided to go for a short walk.  Not a hike really, just a short leg-stretcher.  We stopped at Lake Minnewanka, which is not the lake where the summer camps were located in the “Meatball” movies.  It’s a large lake surrounded by mountains, just outside of Banff (the town).  We were battling some feisty mosquitoes while getting ready when Christy realized her Dana daypack was missing.  Where could it be?  She last had it…at the triathlon.  At Stanley Park.  In Calgary.

 

What to do?  The pack itself is valuable, and we’d need it for the trip.  That’s not to mention all of the expensive clothing and gear that was in it.  Christy made a couple of phone calls to Calgary, without any luck.  Finally she decided to drive back to Calgary in hopes that it would still be there.  I had already made that 2-hour drive 3 times, and didn’t think I could stand it twice more.  I had Christy drop me off in town, while she returned to Calgary.

 

I started at the park visitor’s center, where I picked up the permit for our first backpacking trip.  Then I wandered through town, where I dodged tourists in the midst of a shopping frenzy.  I crossed the bridge over the Bow River, and followed a greenway downstream.  It was a pleasant place to reflect on the first two days of the trip.  So far, we’d done a lot of driving, and Christy had run a disappointing race.  I could only hope that she would find her pack, and things would take a turn for the better.

 

I walked downstream along Bow Falls, which is really a long run of nasty rapids ending with drop over a final ledge.  I would’ve loved to see someone kayak it, but there wasn’t anyone around.  At the base of the falls, the Spray River joins the Bow.  I extended my hike, walking upstream along the Spray River.  I ultimately made a loop that brought me back to Bow Falls.  From there, I retraced my steps back upstream to town.  Along the way, I called Christy a couple of times to see how she was doing.

 

I had a cheeseburger and a beer at the Rose and Crown, which features seating on the roof.  It was a pleasant place to wait for Christy’s return.  She finally made it back after 10, which was still a bit before dark.  She had the pack!  She had reached the park, only to find the pack gone.  A few minutes later, one of the race organizers called her to tell her that he had it.  They were able to get together, so that scare was over.  We headed on to camp, with high hopes of getting some real hiking in starting on Monday.

 

The French word of the day is “Essence”, which translates to “gasoline” in English.  I chose this word in honor of all of the gasoline we burned driving back and forth between Calgary and Banff.  And let me tell you, that wasn’t cheap.  While we were there, gas was running around $1 (Canadian) per liter (i.e. “quart”) or close to $4 a gallon.




Continue reading about our adventures in Canada, as we hike to the Plain of 6 Glaciers near Lake Louise.

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