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| Alderson Lake |
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| Up at the pass lakes on the other side |
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| Bee working on the flower |
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| One of the two Carthew lakes |
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| Ridge walking |
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| Ridge Walking |
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| Another look at Alderden |
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| Lone Guy fly fishing at trailhead |
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| View of the chain of lakes |
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| This is our lunch table view! |
Total miles hiked 133.2
After yesterday's hike out of Sperry we arrived back at our car and then drove up to Waterton. We did not have anything for groceries as the closest town with a grocery store on this side of the border was Waterton. in order to get into town to buy groceries we would have had to pay a one day Canadian national park fee to enter the town to buy a few groceries. That sounds silly, but I don't make up all of the silly stuff. So we turned around and continued our drive out to our bed and breakfast cabin. No bread for sandwiches for tomorrow's lunch.
The cabin is way down a gravel road. It is about twenty minutes outside of Waterton. Located in a peaceful little rolling hills in the prairie. The bed and breakfast is a log cabin townhouse. We rented the sunrise side, as you might have figured the other side was the sun set side. The owners have a incredible log cabin home 100 yards away. Both main home and bed and breakfast cabins are situated along Waterton river with a great view of grazing cattle. Included in the package is a hot tub that is wood heated the water is drinkable and looks like plenty of toilet paper. Breakfast is delivered the night before and all you have to do in the morning is heat it up. Our first day was croissants and fresh berries. Hmmmmmm. Excellent.
For today's hike you better put on your track shoes, grab your energy bars, and oxygen masks. We're going up up up and since we are behind the clock by an hour or so we are going to fast track it up the mountain. We are behind the clock because we had to stop at the rangers station and check on some hiking information. Today's hike is one that you are suppose to take a shuttle to way out and over a mountain pass and then hike back into town. Sounds great except the road we need to take is washed out and closed to all traffic. The only way to hike this trail today is hike it up, take a look, and hike it down.
We did this hike last time we were in this area. But our pictures and memories of the hike are kind of foggy, because it was in fact socked in with fog. We had terrible weather with the clouds and fog hanging low and swallowing up all of the mountain views. We are hoping we will have views today. It seems the sky might be blue up there, but since our first 4 miles of up are in the woods we will have to wait and see. Today Kathi is on a mission. She is hiking very fast and I think assumes there must not be any grizzly or bear around here. I think she must have put some rocks into my pack when I was not looking. The pace Kathi is blazing is way more that I am ready for today. I'm starting to wonder if she is trying to ditch me? I have sweat squirting out of me like sprinkler on a dry lawn. I'm sucking some serious air and am dressed way to warm for this pace and elevation gain. I just try it stay close enough to her dust so that I am not bear bait hanging off of the back end. Finally after about a half of a hour Kathi finally asks if I needed to take off my long sleeve shirt. Yes, I'm soaked through both of my shirts and dripping sweat. I ask her why she is running up the mountain ? She said she wasn't... I think I should look to see if she put those rocks into my back pack. I change into a short sleeve shirt, and I request a more reasonable pace.
Kathi is kind enough to climb the steep stuff slower and fast foot the flatter stuff. This works way better for me. There is more happiness for both of us. Kathi does not have to wonder if I was eaten by a bear and I can breath.
We meet a Father and son who are hiking out, they have camped for two days up at Alderson lake and have seen no evidence of bear. Well that makes us feel a lot better. On the trail up every once and awhile there is a tree with pink duck tapes nailed really high. So being the true Midwesterners that we are Kathi and I think this must be markings of a trail for cross county skiing. Of course I can't imagine in any sort of world that I would go cross country skiing on this trail. It is way to edgy in deep woods with a drop off down the cliff on one side. Those Canadians are Coo coo for their winter sports rights? Well wrong it is way later that Kathi and I notice the pink tape actually is a visual marker on trees that have barbed wire attached to collect bear hairs. Hey Kate Kendall's research continue on. Remember she is the lady we meet up at Sperry. I'm also very glad those Canadians are not cross country skiing on this trail. Perhaps they have more reasonable skiing choices.
We arrive at an overview of Alderson lake. We were kind of sad that we were not going to be getting a better and closer view of that lake after such hard work. It is two hours into our hike and we take a quick snack and head on. We are now about half way up.
From this point on up the destruction to the trail from the June rain was more evident. The trail was washed out at some places and altèrnate side paths had emerged. The trail was all very uneven and made moving fast very difficult . We hiked on up past the two carthew lakes and had lunch above the second lake. During lunch I rummaged through my pack to look for those rocks that Kathi must have placed into my pack. Good thing for her I did not find any!!! Chatted for some time with a lady from Switzerland who was heading down. Put our packs back on and moved on up more scree making it to the summit in 4 hours. This view was well worth all of the effort. The view was of three very blue lakes and majestic mountains. The views of the other side were way better than the one we hiked up past. We unfolded our topo map and identified the lakes and mountains. Since it was chilly up on the ridge we did a little ridge walk and then headed down.
Not much to say about the trip down except when we got to fast step it down the loose scree section. The scree run was fun and fast. Everything after that was just trying to make good foot placements on the challenging washed out trail.
We made the entire trip in 7 hours and 43 minutes.
Drove to half hour up the road to Pincher creek to buy groceries and gas. Waterton is way to expensive for food and gas!
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