Day 6 is drive day… We get up to a beautiful sunny sky… We have a wonderful breakfast and drive to ‘Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump’. Yes, that really is the name. Yes it is a museum showing how the Indians of the prairie out smarted the buffalo to get them to runoff of a cliff and die in a pile so they could put the meat up for the winter months.
Here are a few facts:
• When stampeding, a buffalo can reach and sustain speeds of 50 km/hr.
• It is estimated that 60 million buffalo roamed the Great Plains at the time of the arrival of Europeans in North America.
• During the summer months the buffalo hair is at its shortest. Skins were taken for lodge covers and numerous other articles were made from the soft, dressed skins.
• Natural topographic barriers such as coulees, depressions, or hills were sometimes used to funnel buffalo to the jump. Such is the case at Head-Smashed-In.
• Buffalo herds were led by one or two individual animals, usually females.
• Some meat was made into pemmican by first sun-drying it, then pulverizing the dried meat with a stone maul and mixing this with buffalo fat and grease. To add flavor to pemmican, fruit such as chokecherries were then mixed together in a parfleche container and pounded to remove all air form the food. This pounded mixture, when carefully prepared, would keep in a tight parfleche container for many months.
• Buffalo horns were scraped and formed into spoons.
• Buffalo tongues were often given to medicine men or women, who were responsible for ensuring the success of the hunt.
After seeing the jump and then going through the exhibits we had a good understanding how the Indians went about this little hunting adventure.
Drove to Johnston Canyon Cabins for the night and to pack for Shadow Lake. We have to back pack our things in to the back country lodge. We will be carrying two nights and three days worth of “stuff”. After packing we head sown to the little café and shop. Wanted to check out when breakfast was. I checked out the shop…It had the same stuff as Banff. Go figure.
Woke up, showered put the 100 oz. of water in my pack and lifted it up. Ya, I set it back down and reconsidered what I had packed. I took out a shirt, a pair of socks, and a pair of pants. If I could have taken anything else out I would have. How about that hair brush …how much does that weigh???
After breakfast we drove 15 minutes up the road and parked the car at the trailhead. Since we were going to be leaving the car sitting there right off of the road for three days, I resisted the urge to do a Mr. Kentucky and check all if the doors individually. Kathi just doubled beeped the clicker and we snapped the keys into her pack and headed off down the trail. We are headed off to day for Shadow lake Backcountry Lodge. There are three ways into this lodge. One trail is very easy roller coaster hike of 6 miles. One is a very steep 13 mile hike. The one we are choosing is a 9 mile hike past 4 lakes and two mountain passes…
First thing is a 400 foot loss in elevation down to our first lake. Ahh you remember now that this will mean a 400 foot trudge back up at the end. We drop down to Vista Lake and walk the length of it, then begin the long climb up over our first pass. The willows are rather tall here so we are yelling out every so often. At on point some guy said “don’t worry, I’m not a bear!” We pass a guy, of course carrying bear spray, and a fishing rod. Good ok, he is not a bear! Up over the pass and down to a tiny little pond then we start doing a roller coast hike to the first Twin Lake. More roller coast hiking before we come to the second beautiful lake called Upper Twin Lake. We stopped and had a lunch break at Upper Twin Lake. We began our climb up to the second pass. This part of the hike we had to do some stepping over, sitting on and sliding over and jumping over several downed tress which were lying across the trail. This adds a little interest to the forested hike. We entered a large larch forest toward the top. Larch are a pine tree which needles turn a golden yellow in the fall and actually fall off of the tree. The needles are very soft. We reach the top if Gibbons Pass. Sit down to have a little snack. We hear voices. Hmmm now where is that coming from? Up on top of Copper Mountain is a group of 7 boy scouts (must have been eagle scouts as their looked like they were in high school) who dropped their packs and hiked up the additional steps to get to the top of it. It is not a hard hike to the top, but it seems silly to go up there if we still needed to go 2 miles to get to the lodge… We did not go, but enjoyed sitting up at the pass just enjoying the sun and warm weather.
The last 2 miles are a 1800 foot drop in elevation to get down to the Lodge. This is a very steep drop in elevation. I think they just looked at how the water rushed down the mountain and decided to go with that as a trail. Yikes this is going to be a killer climbing out of. All in all this was a very interesting hike. Lots to look at. After hiking for two days in the fog and rain, some rubber necking was a welcomed event!
We arrived at the Lodge in time for afternoon tea. We had coffee and sweets, sweets, sweets. Hmmm chocolate chip thick and chewy cookies, toffee bars, and what is that bars that has about seven ingredients it has chocolate chips and coconut. Geez I will not make those in my kitchen, but can’t refuse it when I see someone else has made! Oh I think I had a brownie caramel bar also. Perhaps I might have over indulged… Well, when else can you eat like this and know that you are going to hike it off? I think Kathi had juice a cookie or two and piece of fruit…healthy choices.
We have a quick tour of the place and receive our cabin assignment. We are in the Pilot Cabin. It is right next to the lodge. This is closest to the water source and privy. Good thing. We go to the cabin and download our packs. It is good to get rid of that extra weight. We decide that we need more hiking for the
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