Lake O’Hara Backpacking Trip Part II

November 15, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 1 Comment

Click here to start with Part 1.

The rain held off all night and it wasn’t looking too bad when we got up on Day 2, so we decided to make a go at visiting Lake McArthur, which is the the second big hike in the area after the Alpine Circuit. We had breakfast and packed up our bags. But just as we were getting ready to start hiking, it started raining. It was pretty light at first, so we started walking up towards the junction to the Lake McArthur trail, but the rain got heavier as we went, so we decided to stop in Le Relais, which is a Parks Canada owned hut just before the lake (right at the junction to the Lake McArthur trail).

Le Relais is pretty cool. It’s a log cabin and they have some information on the history of the park and run a small cafe out of it during the day. It’s well known for its carrot cake, which is legendary inside and outside of the park. They notoriously sell out of the carrot cake every day, so we decided to see if we could score a piece and wait out the rain. We managed to get the very last slice! So we split it between the two of us and bought some hot chocolates.

Le Relais was pretty busy because of the rain, but it has a woodstove inside, so it’s toasty warm and has a really nice atmosphere. We decided to wait for the rain to let up, but we ended up killing 2-3 hours there with no reprieve! We made friends with some of the other people trying to wait out the rain and ate our lunch while trying to decide what to do.

The weather forecast was supposed to be better the next day, so we decided to hold off on Lake McArthur. I didn’t have any rain pants with me and I wanted to avoid getting totally soaked when the temperature was very low (around 3 degrees) and we still had another night at the campground. But we also didn’t want to just sit around all day, so we decided to do the hour long walk around Lake O’Hara instead to see Seven Veils Falls.

The rain never really stopped, but it didn’t lighten up a lot, so we had a fairly nice walk around the lake. Even in the rain, the area is still incredibly beautiful and we could see a fresh layer of snow sitting on the peaks of the Alpine Circuit. The water still looks like kool-aid, even on a rainy day, and we made the best of the rain. We stopped at Seven Veils Fall, which had a pretty steady flow coming down, before continuing around the lake. We returned to Le Relais just before it really started pouring again and killed another few hours warming up and drinking a second round of hot chocolate.

When we got a break in the rain again, we ran back to the campground to hang out for the rest of the evening. I love meeting people at the campground and I’m a busybody. I noticed one guy was wearing a knitted hat with the Labrador flag on it (and I happened to be wearing my NL home hat), so I quickly befriended him. He and his wife are from Ontario and met in Labrador when they were both working at Voisey’s Bay, so I had a great chat with them. They later broke out a crib game (which I also love), and I was joined by another camper named Lynn to play doubles against them. Not to brag, but we totally fleeced them! We won the first game and then Lynn pegged an incredible 3 triples in a row in the second game and we skunked them. So that was great fun!

We got a few more reprieves from the rain throughout the evening, and even saw a sliver of sun poking through the clouds. So we congregated outside at the campfire for awhile, but eventually the rain returned and sent us to bed early. We decided that we were going to make a try at Lake McArthur the next day (rain or shine) because even if we got soaked, at least we were going home after that.

Unfortunately things still didn’t work out as planned. It wasn’t raining too hard when we packed up our tent and gear in the morning. There’s a storage room at the campground, so we left everything we didn’t need in there and starting hiking back towards Le Relais. It was raining pretty hard and my pants were already soaked by the time we got to the turn-off. We continued on a little further to see the Elizabeth Parker hut, and then hiked as far as Shaffer Lake, which is the halfway point to Lake McArthur. When we hit Shaffer Lake, it started wet snowing on us and we had to re-assess. I was definitely not having a good time without rain pants and I was already soaked all the way to my underwear. I had a dry pair of pants in my bag, but they’re not really much use to you if they’re just going to get wet again. I think Brandon would have been okay to keep going since he had rain pants, but I had to do a bit of risk management.

It was below zero and we still had several more kilometres of uphill to get to the lake, so it just didn’t seem like a good idea to keep hiking. I was already cold and if I had to stop for any reason, I would freeze in wet pants and sub-zero temperatures. Plus I wasn’t having any fun, so we made the smart decision and turned around to go back.

There was still carrot cake at Le Relais and we stopped in for a slice each and some hot chocolate while I stood by the wood stove to dry off. We checked the bus schedule and decided to catch the next bus out. The weather might improve later in the day, but we still didn’t have anywhere to stay that night, so we decided to come back another year for McArthur.

We walked back to the campsite and changed into dry clothes to wait for the bus. It was definitely not the ideal trip to Lake O’Hara, between the smoke and the rain, but we still got to cram in most of the alpine circuit. Now we just have an excuse to come back again another time. It’s so exclusive, I’ll probably just try for permits every year until I get lucky again.

Our plan for the night had originally been to get one of the first-come, first-serve campsites at Takakkaw Falls in Yoho Park, but we really needed a hotel to warm up. We called around to every accommodation in Field town that could offer us two beds, but they were all booked, so instead we drove a half hour back to Golden where there were lots of budget options. We showered and then hit the hot tub, sauna, and pool at the hotel to relax before getting a celebratory dinner of more elk burgers (3rd of the trip) at the local pub.

Rockwall Trail Backpacking Trip Part II

October 11, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 2 Comments

To read Part I, start here.

Day 3 very much felt like the second half of the journey to me. The total length of the trail is 54km (though we tracked 58km in total on my GPS). By the end of day 2, we had done 34km of 54km, so we had two much easier days ahead of us. Unfortunately, the weather was supposed to deteriorate on Day 3.

I checked a ton of weather forecasts before we left and they often contradict each other, so we weren’t sure what to expect. The original forecast had said a 60% chance of showers, but when I got a weather update from my inreach, the POP had increased, but wasn’t starting until 1pm. So we got up early to try and finish the 10km hike to Floe Lake before the rain started.

It was overcast when we started hiking, but looking pretty good. It drizzled on us for a few minutes mid-morning and I put my backpack cover on, but then it didn’t bother us again for the rest of the hike. The trail from Numa Creek to Floe Lake ascends up through Numa Pass, with an elevation gain of ~800m. It was the biggest uphill of the trip, but similar to other parts of the trail, it was largely switchbacks, so it’s never overly steep. We made good time hiking up and decided to stop for a break at the top of the pass.

Coming up to the pass is very beautiful, with lots of larch trees. Before you get to the top of the pass, there’s a fantastic view looking back at the Rockwall and where you’ve come from, so that’s where we decided to stop. The downside is that it’s also the highest point of elevation across the entire trail at 2,336m, so it was quite cold up there. The rain was still holding off, but it’s very barren and nothing grows, it’s just a lot of rock, so it can get a bit windy.

We continued on to the top of the pass, which is where you get your first view of Floe Lake! If you have the time, definitely linger in the pass for a while because it is incredibly beautiful in all directions. We took some photos with Floe Lake, but then continued on in an attempt to warm up.

While my plantar fasciitis was doing quite well, I was battling a second foot problem on Day 3. I’ve been wearing trail shoes for the past 2 years (meaning they’re short and have limited ankle support), so I switched to my mid-ankle hikers for the Rockwall Trail. They were fine for my injury, but I think I’ve been overcompensating with my left foot and my ankles got used to short shoes, so I ended up with a very large bruise on my left ankle from rubbing against the shoe. It was actually quite painful and resulted in a bit of a stabbing pain with each step on the downhill sections.

It’s all downhill to Floe Lake from the Pass, which is only a few kilometres, but it was quite painful on my ankle. I was really concerned about Day 4, which is all downhill for 11km, but after a bit of workshopping, I figured out it was less painful if I didn’t tie up my boots past my ankle and rolled my socks down to create a bit of a cushion. But I dumped the mid-ankle shoes after that and switched back to my short ones for the rest of my trip.

There’s no where to swim on the Rockwall Trail aside from Floe Lake, so me and Carolyn were pretty keen to swim there. The problem is that it was quite cold and we weren’t convinced it would be warm enough to strip down to our swimsuits. Fortunately, we worked up enough of a sweat on the way down that we decided to immediately make a swim attempt. We didn’t look for a campsite, but walked directly to the lake to immediately strip down and run in the water. Unfortunately, we didn’t pick the best swim spot, because it was very muddy and we sunk ankle deep into it, but we went in anyways and had a quick refresh before going to set up camp (obviously it was freezing).

Floe Lake is by far the most popular campsite on the trail and because it’s only 11km from the trailhead, lots of people visit as a day hike. That said, it was not at all busy when we were there. It was mid week and the weather was dicey, so it was a pretty quiet. The cooking area at Floe Lake is right by the lake and really nice. There’s 2 campsites with lake views, but the rest are way up in the woods, so we spent most of our time just chilling at the lake. The layout of the campsite is a bit odd and don’t rely on the site maps provided because they aren’t accurate. The outhouses are far up in the woods and there’s a few tent pad clusters around. The campground wasn’t full when we were there, but not too many empty sites.

Because I didn’t have to carry a tent on the trip (I shared Brandon’s), I decided to bring my tarp for Floe in case it rained. We caught up with our new friend, Jason, and set it up on the beach for lunch. It did drizzle on us a few more times, but later in the afternoon it actually started to clear up and we got a few glimpses of the sun poking out from behind some clouds. So we spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out and doing a few photo shoots.

It was by far our most relaxing time on the trail and we hung out for several hours. Floe Lake is just another extension of the Rockwall, with lots of glaciers sitting up on the rock. They’re quite active and you can regularly hear and see bits of ice falling off the glacier. It was kind of nice to listen to it while you sleep, but at one point in the middle of the night it sounded like half the mountain had fallen off into the lake!

While relaxing we did spot a black bear on the other side of the lake. He was moving pretty quickly and we think he got scared by a few hikers that decided to hike around the lake. They never ended up seeing him at all though because he took off so fast and ran the entire length of the lake. We decided to start preparing our supper around 6pm, but our timing was bad because the wind picked up at the same time. It got really windy and it felt like the weather was getting ready to shift back to rain, so we ate and tidied up everything really quickly to get back to our tents before the it started.

We decided to all hang out in Brandon’s tent for the evening and I went there while Carolyn did a quick run to the outhouse. The rain never did materialize so I started doing a bit of journaling. But I was alone for a long time and I began to wonder where Carolyn and Brandon were. Eventually, Brandon showed up at the tent laughing to himself and started to gleefully tell me that Carolyn had a REALLY good story for me. He made it sound really ominous and I was convinced that she got cornered in the outhouse by a bear or something while I was obliviously writing in my journal. Brandon said they’d be back soon and I kept waiting for them with no sign of anything.

Eventually I gave up and went looking for them. I had to walk through the entire campground before I finally found them coming back from the lake with Jason. Carolyn looked mortified. It turns out, in her quick trip to the outhouse, she made a grave mistake. She keeps all her stuff for camp in a cross-body bag, including her toilet paper, and when she leaned down to close the toilet seat lid after using it, her inreach and kindle both slipped out of her open bag and fell in the outhouse!

I have to say, the outhouse at Floe Lake was particularly disgusting. It looked older and it was really dirty on the inside. She immediately had a panic attack after they fell in because she was alone and had to address the problem immediately lest someone else come along and poop on them. To her credit, Carolyn was more worried about the Leave No Trace aspect of her electronics in the outhouse than the actual monetary value of them. The outhouse wasn’t that deep (by which I mean, the gap between the seat and the waste wasn’t that far, maybe 5-6 feet). She managed to fish out her inreach fairly easily with a stick because the inreach has a carabiner and it was sitting on top of mostly toilet paper. She obviously sanitized it, but overall it wasn’t too dirty.

The kindle was another issue. You can imagine her relief when Brandon happened to show up at the outhouse with the intention of conducting his own business. Apparently her first instinct was to tell him to go and get me immediately, but then she reconsidered and said, “wait, no, Maria can’t help me. I need help now, you’ll have to help me!” For which I am grateful!

It took 3 tries, but the two of them were able to fish out the kindle using a pair of giant stick chopsticks, but Carolyn did have to go almost shoulder deep in the outhouse to reach it. They double bagged the kindle to deal with later, but she ended up washing it (and her jacket) in the lake because at the end of the day, she cared less about whether she would still be able to use the kindle and more about just not leaving it in the outhouse, even if she ultimately disposed of it.

So yes, it was incredibly gross and I think most people’s instinct would be to just leave it in the outhouse, but I do respect her for actually going in after it. It was mostly to assuage her guilt, but as Jason pointed out, “guilt fades, shame is forever”. That said, Carolyn claims that if she could go back in time, she would probably still do the same thing, but she’ll never be making that mistake again! However, we have stumbled upon a few articles since then about other people who have fallen into outhouses and got trapped while trying to retrieve items, and S&R recommends against this risk! So you do get a pass to just leave it if this happens to you. We spent the rest of the trip sizing up the depth of every outhouse we used to assess ease of retrieval!

After that the rest of the trip was somewhat uneventful. It didn’t rain all night, but then started to pour around 6:30am on Day 4. It rained for about an hour. We waited it out and then I got up as soon as it stopped to grab our stuff for a tent breakfast, but it didn’t rain again after that. We packed down our camp and readied for our final 11km descent back to the parking lot.

It’s pretty steep for the first 3km, but there’s still lots of switchbacks and it levels out a lot after that. It’s a decently nice hike back down through the valley with views across the mountain, but it’s all one massive burn zone, which puts a bit of a damper on the hike and is fairly exposed. It would be pretty rough on a hot day hiking uphill because there’s limited shade. The burn zone is from 2003, so it actually has 20 years of growth in it, but it’s still very obviously a burn zone because it takes years for the burned tree trunks to finally fall down. Knowing that the rest of the province was burning at the same time made for a somber hike.

We only stopped once for a break on the way down and did the whole 11km in 3 hours. We loaded everything in Carolyn’s car and drove back to Paint Pots to get Brandon’s car. There’s a few picnic tables there, so Carolyn cooked us some ravioli for lunch and then we drove to our hotel in Radium to shower before going for a proper post-hike burger and ice cream in Radium.

So overall this was one of the most fun hikes I’ve been on in a long time. I don’t think it was as stunning as Mount Assiniboine, which I did in 2021, but I had a lot more fun on this trail and it is still incredibly beautiful. The Rockwall is a really unique feature and I loved hiking along it for 3 days. Even though this is a very popular hike and it’s hard to get permits, it doesn’t feel busy at all because it’s a long trail and the permit system greatly reduces the traffic on the trail. I could see it being busy at Floe Lake on a nice weekend, but mid-week really eliminates a lot of the crowds. I really think Kootenay National Park is underrated in the Rockies and we had a great time exploring the trail and the region! Definitely recommend!

Rockwall Trail Backpacking Trip Part I

October 4, 2023July 11, 2024 / Maria / 7 Comments

Backpacking the Rockwall Trail was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my time in the Rockies this summer. There are a lot of iconic multi-day trips in the Rockies that I’ve been wanting to do and this year we landed on the Rockwall Trail. It’s a 56km backpacking trail in Kootenay National Park that is extremely popular and requires permits for camping. There are several entrances to the trail, so it’s not a bad option for beginners because you can exit out if needed, or you can just do a portion of the trail.

The full trail goes from the Paint Pots trailhead to the Floe Lake trailhead. There’s a total of 5 campsites on the trail to choose from and most people do it in 3-4 nights. You only need a park pass to visit as a day hiker, but if you’d like to visit overnight, prepare early. The campsites are released for the entire summer in March from Parks Canada and they disappear within minutes of being released. Me and Carolyn were both online trying to get permits in March and it was still a challenge to get what we wanted.

The trick to the Parks Canada site is to log in on a lot of devices (I had mine and Seth’s computers and both our phones). Before the sites release, it puts everyone in a random queue, so you’ll be in different places in line on every devices. Whatever device is the lowest in the queue, focus on that device and abandon the rest. I was actually #700 on my computer, which is really low, but I had a brain fart when booking the sites (it’s a lot of pressure!) and accidentally booked the wrong campsite for one night. But we watched for cancellations for months and were eventually able to switch to our preferred site about a week before the trip. So even if you don’t get what you want, don’t lose hope. A lot of people do cancel because you have to make the bookings so early and plans do change.

That said, I do feel very lucky to have scored 2 campsites for our 3 night trip. Me and Brandon tented together and Carolyn had her own site. We started hiking the day after attending my friend’s wedding outside Calgary, so we didn’t get an early start and it wasn’t the most well rested I’ve ever been, but fortunately it was an easy-ish day.

We dropped Carolyn’s car at the Floe Lake trailhead (which was easier said than done because it’s a small lot, so we had to wait for a spot to open up), and then all drove in Brandon’s car to Paint Pots to start the hike. It was around 1:30pm when we finally hit the trail and we had 15km to do to our first campsite at Helmet Falls.

Fortunately it was an easier day terrain-wise. It’s pretty easy forest walking and there’s limited elevation gain, only 400m over 15km. The trail starts at Paint Pots, which is characterized by the red ochre in the ground that has tons of traditional uses, particularly as a dye. We did the first 6km to the Helmet-Ochre Junction Campground relatively quickly and ate our lunch there. It’s a nice little campground next to a beautiful river, but it was completely empty when we arrived. We did pass a small group later in the day that were hiking there, but they were the only other people we saw all day and I suspect there were multiple empty sites.

We had 9km left after lunch and most of the uphill is after the campground. The entire trail is a gentle incline, but I only noticed in it for the first half an hour after our lunch break, after which it levels out. The trail continues along the river through the valley and it is very beautiful. I was a bit worried for the hike because I still have plantar fasciitis in my right foot, but I did lots of preventive care and it managed really well. Mostly that just meant that we stopped every ~4km for me to stretch and roll my foot with one of my dog’s tennis balls. So halfway to Helmet Falls we took another break along the river. It was hot out, but not too hot, and I put a lot of effort into starting this hike hydrated (which wasn’t the case with the HBC Trail), so overall I was feeling really good!

We got to the campsite after 5 hours of hiking and immediately set up camp. There were a lot more people at Helmet Falls than the ochre junction campsite, but there were still several empty sites around. The campground is located in the forest, but it’s surrounded by mountains and you can see Helmet Falls thundering down from the cooking area. Despite the hot afternoon, it cooled down really fast in the shade and we immediately had to add some layers. It ended up being our coldest night on the trail, but me and Carolyn kept warm filming some dancing reels for instagram!

On Day 2 we had the option of going to either Tumbling Creek or Numa Creek and we chose Numa Creek to get us closer to Floe Lake for our last night. It’s 20km from Helmet Falls to Numa Creek, so it was our biggest day on the trail and I was a little nervous about my foot. But Day 2 ended up being my favourite day on the trail! I’ve come to the conclusion that 15-20km of hiking is really my preferred distance for backpacking. After 20km, the day starts to feel long and your feet get sore. You have less time to actually enjoy the trail and the tiredness compounds day after day when you don’t give yourself enough time to rest.

We tried to get up early, but it was ~9:30am when we finally made our departure. The day started with a big climb, but I found the Rockwall Trail has a lot of switchbacks on the climbing sections, so overall, not too bad. Plus it was still cool. We took a break at the top of the pass before starting the highlight of the trail, the aptly named, “Rockwall”.

Floe Lake has a big reputation as being the most gorgeous place on the trip, but personally I think the actual Rockwall was my favourite. It’s easy to understand the trail name when you do it because you are essentially hiking along a giant wall of rock all the way from Helmet Falls to Floe Lake. You get to the top of the pass after 4km and then you’re hiking along the Rockwall for at least the next 10kms. It’s incredibly beautiful and I had the best time hiking it with Carolyn and Brandon.

Unlike the HBC Trail, where I was super worn out, we had a great energy on this trip. I was honestly giddy for most of it and the more we hiked the sillier the 3 of us got. I was genuinely thrilled to be hiking with my friends and the mountains brought me a lot of joy that translated into a lot of laughter while on the trail. There’s always things that characterize a trip and they’re usually challenges. When I think of my time on the North Coast Trail, I think about the tiring and muddy terrain; when I think about Assiniboine, I think about how draining the heat wave was; when I think about HBC, I think about overdoing it and injuring my foot. But the characterizing feature of the Rockwall Trail for me was how much joy it brought me, and I think that’s really special.

We spent a lot of time goofing around, singing, and filming tiktoks. Say what you want about Reels and Tiktoks, but I always have so much fun filming silly things to put on the internet and embracing that only makes me happier. I don’t actually have Tiktok anymore, but check out my Instagram for lots of fun content from this trail!

That said, I did encounter some difficulties on Day 2, they’re just not as memorable as the joy. I was on my period for this entire trip, so we had to make an emergency stop along the ridge for a period poo (just being honest) and after that I popped some advil and pepto and then I felt a lot better. It was a Tuesday, so we all celebrated Taco Tuesday for lunch, which is my favourite cold soak that I make (dehydrated ground beef and veggies). I just crunch up doritos into mine for a taco salad, but Carolyn goes the whole 9 yards and brings taco shells into the wilderness!

We had first lunch on the ridge along the Rockwall, where we met Jason, who was doing the final section of his 30 day hike along a portion of the Great Divide Trail! The GDT is a bucket list hike for both me and Carolyn (it’s 1200km of hiking through the Rockies), so we were both keen to hear about his experience and ended up making a new friend along the rest of the trail since we were all on the same track.

Then we had our second lunch at Tumbling Creek Campsite, which meant we had done 12km of trail and had 8km left. Tumbling Creek was also pretty empty, but it was earlier in the day, so I know it got busier later. We ate by the river, which is really beautiful, but very silty. We decided to cross the river in order to shave off ~1km of walking down to the bridge. It wasn’t that deep and was totally safe to cross, but it was very wide and very cold, so it was an appropriate post-lunch wake up!

Unfortunately we had a really big climb after lunch. It’s not the biggest climb on the trail by any means, but I remember it as the most draining because it was mid-afternoon and quite hot when we climbed it. But once you get to the top, there are incredible glacier views before you start your descent down to Numa Creek.

It’s a really big downhill to Numa Creek and it’s totally exposed along the side of the mountain, so I was really glad I didn’t have to climb up it. It was around 5pm by the time we got to it, so it was starting to cool down. It was hard on my feet to end the day on a huge downhill, but we made it to Numa Creek after ~9 hours of hiking. In total we tracked 21km and over 1000m in elevation gain.

Unlike Helmet Falls, Numa Creek was extremely busy. We were the last people to arrive, so it took us awhile to find a campsite. We thought they were all full at first, but then we found 2 tucked away next to each other at the back by the river and somehow I think we actually may have scored some of the nicest sites there! We all had river baths and then Jason joined us for dinner and Carolyn treated us all to ‘worms and dirt’ for dessert.

Growing up in Girl Guides, I am very familiar with ‘worms and dirt’, but it took us awhile before me and Carolyn realized that Brandon and Jason had no idea what ‘worms and dirt’ was and were reluctantly pretending to be excited about this mythical dessert. Once we explained that it’s actually chocolate pudding with crushed oreos and gummy worms, they quickly got on board! But we all agree that the worms are best eaten on the side rather than mixed in – but both me and Carolyn are purists and insisted on eating it all together. So overall, an excellent first 2 days! Stay tuned for Part II.