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[ Archive Index ] [ 2003 ]
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The Hodgeman & Trail Bunny are on the road to the Rocky Mountains ! We're meeting my American friends Aero, Snow Nymph, Snow Dude, Martyb (Bowlderman) & Geezr, for a week in the backcountry of Yoho NP. I made the trail reservation in the spring, since the group was already booking flights etc and making arrangements for their families to join them in Canada. Yet with less than a week to go, I got a phone call from the park office which left me scrambling. Due to the record dry summer, much of B.C. forest is burning and there has already been some backcountry closures. I quickly made a backup plan for a trail in Jasper, then crossed my fingers and hoped for rain. With the possibility of delays on the highway, Trail Bunny & I hit the road on Saturday, to get as far as the Glacier Park Lodge, in Rogers Pass. It was brutally smoky through the Okanagan Valley, but we made good time and even had a chance to take in the railway museum in Revelstoke. Despite a lightning strike igniting a small fire near one of our proposed camps, upon arriving in Field on Sunday morning to meet the team, we got the 'all clear' from the park office. Whew !!.... |
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Trip Report - by AeroSaturday, August 9th - Most of the group, Geezr, Weezr, the Snows, Martyb and I hook up in Calgary, Alta. A trip to the Toad & Turtle Pub is in order. As we round the corner of the building, a patron falls from the front wall, in an attempt to retrieve his wedding ring dropped from the 2nd story deck. We take this as a good sign and proceed through the doors. We notice a Hooters restaurant across the parking lot, and Snow Nymph asks the waitress to take a picture of the group with Hooters in the background. The waitress misunderstands the request and things go terribly wrong. We patch things up with a round of ales and a big tip. Sunday, August 10th - The fires in southern B.C. are horrendous and smoke fills the mountain valleys. We can't see more than ¼ mile from the highway through Banff. We’re still concerned they might close the park! We meet up with
Hodgeman and Trail Bunny in Field, B.C. and have a buffalo burger, before heading to the walk-in campground at Takakkaw Falls. This is our last night before we hit the trail, so we celebrate with a few more
Molsons. |
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| Monday, August 11th
- We hit the trail bright and early and get group pictures that rival Japanese tourists at the trailhead. Easy trail 7km, to Twin Falls campground where we set up the tents and head off for a side trip, in search of the Yoho Glacier. We traverse along the lateral moraine and can spot the toe of the glacier. The Snows continue on, and make it to the glacier.
Back at camp, we notice we have another group member, Krazy Kevin, a lone backpacker from Red Deer, Alta who had a backcountry permit for the same week as ours. Things get weird when he and Hodgeman discover that they were born four months apart, work for the same company, in the same position for the same number of years, only in different cities. Hodgeman's Evil Twin Kevin! Kevin is very knowledgeable of the area and shares this and all other conceivable information with us. That night, Hodgeman prepares steaks, along the streamside, as the rest of us choke down freeze-dried paste. |
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Tuesday, August 12th
- The day dawns clear and bright, and the smoke has dissipated in the Yoho valleys. We head up the trail, to the top of Twin Falls, past the Chalet. Snow Dude gets
"tingly cajones" as he leans over the falls and contemplates the
800' drop. We contour around Whaleback Mtn and take in the Glacier Des Poilus to the northwest.
After lunch we drop down the steep switchbacks into Little Yoho Valley
campground (6800') . Hodgeman and I take a look at the Stanley Mitchell Hut,
then head to the warden cabin, to get some info on the surrounding peaks. There we run into the bitter, intermittently French-speaking girl from Vancouver, who has nothing good to say about either Americans or Canadians.
Hodgeman deliberately mispronounces her Vancouver neighborhood sending her into a string of French expletives. Our work is done here. The Little Yoho Valley
campground is home to one of the finest 'biffys' in North America!
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| Wednesday, August 13th
- Another smoke-free day with a few few clouds! We take a side daytrip west, to Kiwetinok Lake
(8051'), to attempt a summit scramble of Mt Kerr (9400'). We pass the glacial moraine of the President Range where we climb huge, sinuous piles of ice-bulldozed rocks and gravel. Once to the lake, we plan a route up Mt. Kerr. It looks steep and scary, but better as we climb. There were a couple steep
pitches and we finally reach the summit. Views back to The President Range are fantastic.
To the west are more peaks and mountain ranges, for what seems to be 100 miles or more.
Thursday, August 14th - Hiked 10km from Little Yoho CG (6800'), over the Iceline Trail (high point 7250'), past the Presidents Range and glaciers, to Yoho Lake CG (5950') . The weather was crystal clear and we had great views of just about everywhere we had been. We climbed huge glacial moraines along the way. The highlight had to be Trail Bunny’s dive into a glacially-fed lake.... but for a price. The bidding was up to $5 before she went in, attracting a fairly large crowd of onlookers. |
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Friday, August 15th - From the camp at Yoho Lake, we took a side daytrip along the Wapta Highline (high point 7215'), for views of Emerald Lake (good even in the smoky haze), toward Mt Field (8650'). Part of the group (Hodgeman, Martyb, the Snows) scrambled Mt. Field and narrowly averted disaster, by dodging an errant boulder dislodged by Martyb. The boulder careened towards the descending climbers and changed directions several times. The boulder faked left, but Snow Nymph didn’t take the bait and held her ground as the melon-sized projectile whizzed by her head. Martyb has been searching for a new trail name and the consensus, after the incident, was Bowlderman. Meanwhile, I made a 12km run, from Burgess Pass to Field, in an attempt to bring back beer for the last night on the trail. The trailhead is tantalizingly close and the beers and group arrive
back at camp simultaneously.
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| Shortly after the group returned to the lake camp for a cold dip,
'Paleo Pete', a guide with the Burgess Shale Foundation, arrived after leading a tour to the Cambrian Fossil site, which is
one of only three sites in the world known to contain rare soft-bodied animals, from the Cambrian Age. Paleo stripped off his shirt, revealing a six pack to rival our cold
Kokanees, then his shorts and dove into the lake, under the gazes of Trail Bunny and Snow Nymph, who could barely contain themselves. They eventually regained their composure, but not
before burning through 200 gigabytes on their cameras.
The men’s patience was rewarded shortly thereafter, when a German couple tested the waters, off a nearby rocky point. Upon exciting the water, the woman bared her bosom, to the appreciative campers across the lake, and changed into a dry t-shirt. After all the excitement we settled into the last evening last evening on the trail and worked our way through the cold beer, that we had sunk in the lake earlier. |
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Saturday, August 16th - After a short exit trail down, to complete the loop at Takakkaw Falls, we headed to Field for ales and lunch, at the pub in the Kicking Horse Lodge. Then we were off to our rooms, at the West Louise Lodge, for showers. Before dinner in Lake Louise, we toured the Chateau and were overwhelmed by tourists. So much so, that we located another pub for more beer. Eventually we made our way to yet another pub, the Outpost, and had dinner with our beer and a rousing rendition of "Oh Canada"........ Aero Thanks for the trip report, Aero. You certainly
covered the 'highlights' ! What a great team and a great trip. Thanks to
all of you for coming up to B.C., to share the trail with us. It was great
to meet Bowlderman and Weezr, for the first time, and I'll hope to see you
all again soon. .......Hodgeman
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