Hiking Tent Ridge

September 27, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

After a somewhat disappointing start to the summer (where I wrecked my foot on the HBC Trail), I had a very eventful end of the season. My friends got married outside of Calgary at the end of August, so I decided to turn it into a 2 week holiday to the Rocky Mountains! I lived in Vancouver for 6 years before I finally visited the Rockies during Covid in 2020. Since then, I’ve been back every year and I love exploring around all the National Parks!

To start off the trip, I caught up with some friends living in Calgary and we went day hiking in Kananaskis. I haven’t spent much time in this area except for starting my Assiniboine hike at Mount Shark. The trail my friend Craig picked for the day was Tent Ridge, which actually starts very close to the Mount Shark trailhead, but is a very different kind of hike. It’s approximately a 2 hour drive from Calgary or a 1 hour drive from Canmore. You can get there in any kind of vehicle, but it is partially gravel road and quite dusty (but in good condition).

Tent Ridge is a fairly modest hike at only 10km total distance, but don’t underestimate it! Although we parked at the wrong trailhead and added an extra 2km to our hike (drive past the first turnoff for about 1km and there’s a lot). Throughout the trail there is ~850m in elevation gain and a fair bit of scrambling. If you’re afraid of heights, this is definitely not the hike for you. We encountered a few people on our way up that had decided to turn around because the scrambling was too intense for them.

Describing a hike as a “scramble” basically means that there are some exposed sections where you may need to do a bit of light climbing with your hands, or where the trail is not super obvious through some sections. I’m not really a big scrambler, but overall I felt good on Tent Ridge. There is one section early into the ascent where I had to use my hands to climb and that was probably the sketchiest section, after that it’s not too bad, except maybe for one spot along the ridge on the other side that is quite steep with some loose rock, so I did this part in a low crouch in case I had a slip. But personally, I found that the scrambling at Tent Ridge generally looked scarier than it was. The one climbing section looked a bit intimidating at first, but up close I felt safe the entire time.

The main thing to be aware of at Tent Ridge is the direction of your hike. My favourite part of this trail is that it’s a loop hike, so you’re always looking at new terrain, but it’s a lot easier to go clockwise. The climbing sections are all done uphill when you go clockwise, which is generally a lot safer, so if you decide to visit, definitely start in this direction. I also generally think that clockwise is the more scenic direction as well, because on the descent, you get to look out towards Spray Lakes reservoir, which is incredibly scenic and I would hate to have my back to it on the way up.

My group had 3 hikers and it took us ~5.5 hours to do the entire hike with breaks. We weren’t rushing, but we weren’t going that slow either. You do a decent amount of elevation gain in the trees at the start, and then the rest is done in 2 ascents along the ridge. The first ascent takes you up to a small emergency shelter and is the largest climb, after which you drop down through a pass for a smaller ascent up to the second peak. After that, it’s all ridge walking and pretty much the entire trail has phenomenal views.

We stopped a lot to take photos, so that definitely slowed us down. Craig takes some of the most beautiful pictures and all the shots of me that I share in this blog were taken by him. Our friend Alex was in much better shape than the two of us and always well ahead while we were ogling the landscape, so it’s a very enjoyable hike and I had the best time soaking in the views.

It can be a bit cold from the wind up on the ridge, so bring extra layers with you. I also really recommend trekking poles. It’s a steep descent when you come down and poles helped a lot with balancing. Just make sure to secure your poles to your pack when you need your hands for climbing as it’s a lot safer that way.

Overall it’s a pretty short trail report – the trail is in great shape – so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. We concluded our hike with a stop in Cochrane on the way back for some delicious ice cream from MacKay’s Ice Cream, which we all highly recommend!!

Russet Lake Backpacking Trip

September 22, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 4 Comments

After a month of resting my foot from my plantar fasciitis injury on the HBC Trail, I was really determined to get back in the backcountry. To be honest, my foot was definitely not feeling 100%, but I had a two week hiking trip planned for the end of August and I really needed to test out hiking again before committing to that trip. We had permits to camp at Russet Lake in mid-August, so it was a good opportunity to test the waters. Me and Brandon bought our Whistler edge cards early this year, and the pass comes with a free summer sightseeing ride on the gondola, so our plan was to take the gondola up to the top of Whistler and hike to Russet Lake from there.

This was my first time hiking at Whistler-Blackcomb and I was totally blown away by it! I’ve never bothered to pay for the gondola up because it is expensive and I spend a lot of time there in the winter, but it is absolutely worth visiting in the summer. There are a ton of cool trails up there, as well as another entrance to Garibaldi Provincial Park. I’ve done all the other major hikes in Garibaldi Park (Garibaldi lake, Elfin lakes, Wedgemount lake, etc), so this was the last big hike in the park for me. That said, even with the gondola, Russet Lake is still a challenging hike. It’s not at all technical, but more psychologically challenging with the topography of the terrain.

There’s a few options for hiking to Russet Lake. I think the most common option is to take the gondola up the mountain and hike from either Roundhouse or Peak Chair via the High Note trail (like we did). This route is approximately 12km long, with 600m of elevation gain. However the gondola pass is just shy of $100, so the free option is to hike up from Whistler base via the Singing Pass trail. It’s only 3km longer than hiking from peak chair, but it has more than 1400m of elevation gain. That said, it’s a gentle uphill most of the way.

I didn’t do the Singing Pass trail, but the reason I say the route via High Note is psychologically challenging is because there’s a lot of up and down. Every time you finish a peak, you can see several kilometres forward to the next peak that you’re going to have to hike down and up again. We had to do this 4 times, so it some ways it felt harder. However, it’s worth noting that it’s a net downhill hike on the way to Russet Lake, so there’s more uphill on the way back. If you want to try both trails, you could hike down the Singing Pass trail on the way back instead.

Me and Brandon were joined by Carolyn and her friend Scott on this trip and they opted to hike up the Singing Pass trail. So between us we did both, but Carolyn and Scott joined us on the return trip to complete the rest of the High Note trail, which loops back to Roundhouse. I would say that Russet Lake is an ambitious hike for a single day (24km roundtrip), but the High Note trail is a great option for a day hike from the gondola. It starts at the top of the Peak chair and there’s a few cool new attractions, such as the Skybridge. From there it hikes down around the back of all the chair lifts, looping back to Roundhouse around Piccolo Summit. It’s a 10km loop option to do this trail, but I’d recommend adding on an extra 1km each way to go to the top of Flute Summit – in my opinion this was one of the best views along the entire trail.

But let’s talk about Russet Lake. The biggest thing of note when we visited was the wildfire smoke. It was perfectly clear in Vancouver the night before we did the hike, but then a lot of smoke from Kelowna started to roll in in the early morning. The closer we got to Whistler, the smokier it got. Honestly, we probably shouldn’t have gone, the smoke is really not good for your lung health, but it seems to be a fact of life in the Pacific Northwest these days, so we opted to go anyways.

Carolyn and Scott headed off on the Singing Pass trail and beat us to Russet Lake by more than 2 hours. It took me and Brandon a while to get to the top because we had to take the Blackcomb gondola, followed by the Peak to Peak gondola, followed by Peak chair. But we had the best time on the trail and the views were fantastic! You leave the resort and enter Garibaldi Provincial Park just after Flute Summit. The biggest uphill section on the way there is right before Russet Lake and when you crest the top of the pass you can see the very fancy Claire and Kees Hut looking down to the lake.

The Hut is pretty incredible. It’s managed by the ACC and requires advance booking of course. The campsite is managed by BC Parks and also requires advance booking 4 months prior to when you want to go. Permits disappear quickly, so mark your calendar in advance! The hut is gorgeous, but the campsites are right on the lake, so personally I preferred the campground. From the campsite you can look out to Fissile Peak and Overlord Glacier, so it’s pretty cool.

We went for a quick swim in the cold water immediately after arriving and then Carolyn and Scott left to head up to Whirlwind Peak for more views. Me and Brandon considered joining them, but my foot needed a break, so we ended up just climbing a short way up for a view of the lake to have our dinner instead. Carolyn and Scott opted not to go the whole way to Whirlwind Peak, but got a few more views of the area.

My foot was definitely tired when we got to Russet Lake, but overall doing well. I made a point to stop once an hour on the way there to roll it on a ball and stretch it. Regular breaks makes a huge difference and since then it’s become a part of my hiking regimen to make sure I stop every 5km to rest it.

The rest of our evening was spent lying out enjoying the views and being a bit giddy about being out in the backcountry again. We were eventually driven back to our beds as it got colder. It was pretty cool overnight, but warmed up quickly again with the sun in the morning.

Unfortunately, the smoke was worse in the morning and there was a real smell of bonfire in the air. When you’re out in it for too long, it definitely gets in your sinuses and I had a bit of a persistent cough for the next week, which is why I don’t recommend it. It helps to wear a wet mask, but it’s hard to hike uphill with a mask on. At one point even my eyes were watering from the smoke.

Carolyn and Scott joined us on the hike back to Roundhouse because we all wanted to go to the Umbrella Bar. It’s more uphill on the way back, but I actually preferred it because I find going uphill easier on my foot than going down. There’s a few cute lakes on the way back and you hike through the actual ski resort, so it was cool to compare the terrain in the summer to terrain that I’m very familiar with in the winter because it looks like a different world depending on the season.

The Umbrella Bar turned out to be a bit of a bust. You can get drinks, but there’s very limited food, so we opted to download the gondola and eat in the village instead. We treated ourselves to burgers to celebrate a successful trip. For me, I was celebrating that my injury hadn’t prevented me from doing the trip and looking forward to heading to the Rockies just 1 week later. Overall it was an eye-opening trip for me – I feel like there’s a whole world of hiking at Whistler that I didn’t know about. So if you get the chance, definitely check it out!

Kayaking Pender Harbour

September 13, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

Me and Seth frequent the same places over and over on our kayaks, so it’s always a special thrill to visit someplace new. We were heading over to the Sunshine Coast in early August for our friends wedding, so we figured it was a good nice to paddle somewhere different.

The wedding was in Pender Harbour, which I’d never been to before, so I didn’t feel much need to go further for paddling. The Sunshine Coast is an interesting place because it’s a great place to paddle, but it does get pretty windy along the exposed coastline. Every time I drive through Sechelt I’m always surprised by how windy it gets along the main beach. Pender Harbour is a lot more sheltered, so there’s a few more areas to explore.

Our friend’s family manages one of the private marinas, so we were able to put in there, but according to BC Marine Trails, you can also launch from Welbourn Cove (behind the hotel) or Bargain Harbour Drive. If you have the time, there’s a nice roundabout route around the Francis Peninsula (just west of Pender Harbour) to see all of the area, but you have to get your timing right. Francis Peninsula only has 1 small canal that you can pass through to go from the south to north harbour. We were told you can pass through in a kayak, but not when the tide is really low. The tide was super low when we were there, so we didn’t attempt it, but it would be a nice challenge when passable. (our route is shown in red, with the canal circled in blue – but remember you can’t launch where we did, it’s a private marina)

Instead of going around the peninsula, we just explored the harbour. Seth recently took up crabbing, so he was keen to drop his crab pots. It was too shallow near the launch, but if you go out a little way (near Gerrans Bay) we could see several other crab pots. It was about 15-17m in depth, so we dropped his pot and then continued on.

Our goal for the day was to paddle around the point to Francis Point Ecological Reserve, where there’s a short hike. The water was extremely flat in the harbour, but the wind picked up a lot when we rounded the peninsula. It wasn’t too windy to be out, but we could see some white caps around the corner which indicated a more turbulent area, so we decided to abort and stop at Martin’s Cove instead. I’d still like to visit Francis Point though, so I’ll have to return for it another day.

Since it was too windy for a round trip and the tide too low to connect through, we returned the way we’d come. Even though there’s lots of people living along the edge of the harbour, we still saw a fair bit of wildlife. As always, we saw several seals, but we also saw a few herons, a kingfisher, and our personal favourite, black oystercatchers!

We didn’t have high hopes for the crab pot because we’d only dropped it for 90 minutes, but it turned out to be quite lucrative! Before this trip, Seth had only crabbed out of Belcarra, which is a very frequented area. He always catches crabs, but most of them are too small or female and have to be thrown back. In Pender Harbour, he only caught 2 crabs, but they were both male and large enough to take home! So you can really tell the difference when you leave the lower mainland – just make sure you have a license and report your catch.

So overall we were only paddling for a little over 2 hours, but it was really nice to get out and explore somewhere new. There’s so many places to paddle on the Sunshine Coast, I know we’ll be back again!