Total miles hikes 141.8
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| Wash out over my shoulder |
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| Washing my face off after the hot sweaty climb |
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| Goat Lake |
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| Long switchback in the sun |
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| It is in fact steep |
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| Looking back down the valley |
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| How I fished my topo map out of the lake... |
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| Landscape waterfalls |
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| try to find the trail in the cow parsnips |
Today there is a 40% chance of rain. We are up early and try to get going so we can avoid some of the rain. We had a little juice mishap this morning. Kathi was trying to get the flavor of her daily drinking water straightened out and in the process a glass of juice flew off of the table and across the floor. We had to do some mopping up and scrubbing up so it did not leave the log cabin sticky.
Drove to Waterton and got on the Red Rock Canyon Road. I'm not sure what I thought this road might be, but is was hilly and windy back into the mountain valley. As we are driving backs into the red rock valley the clouds are looking very serious about throwing down some rain. The road is 15 km long so it takes awhile to get to the back in there. Around one corner they have a drive cautiously sign with a very real looking life-size picture of a bear. It fooled both of us for a moment. Almost counted another bear sighting ...
Got out of the car put on our boots and headed out. At the sign board there was a guide from the sporting good store in town taking two guys up to Goat Mountain. They are standing in front of the map taking about the hike and perhaps going on up to the Avion Ridge. The guide said we'll talk about that when we get to the lake.
We play hopscotch hiking with this group of three men. They fast hike ahead and then stop, Kathi and I walk past at a,slow pace without stopping, they hike fast past us and stop, we walk by. They are hiking too fast because they need to keep stopping so the father and son can catch their breath. Kathi and I are hiking with a reasonable pace today. There are no rocks in my pack today.
The guide asked us to join them , but we said no because they hike to fast and we are just doing a tortess pace. The trail is a very flat fire road for the first half of the hike. At two points we are suppose to have creek crossings. At the two creek crossing there was a total wash out where lots of rock, trees and other debris washed down the mountain during the rain storm. I go and stand in the dry washed out gully so you can get a feeling of how deep all of these wash out were.
We continue on until where the trail splits, one section going to Goat Lake and the other to Twin Lakes. The weather has cleared and blue skies look like they are here to stay. The second half of the Goat Lake trail has ALL of the elevation gain. The first half mile of this up has been taken out by the rains and they brought in a skidder loader to level out the trail. Level is not the correct word here as this portion of the trail was by far the hardest to walk on. All of the rocks were loose and round which made it very difficult to walk through with any sort of stability. After this rock and roll section the trail fills in with tall cow parsnip and thimble berry plants. The plants in some parts the trail are taller than me and I'm 5'6". This overgrown section does not last for long and with in a hundred yards you can begin to see the long switchback leading up to a hanging ledge. The long switch back is hanging off the side of the mountain. The three men in front of us have stopped along the trail leading up to this exposed ledge. The older of the two is a bit freaked out by the exposure and wants to turn back. This sort of surprises Kathi and I, as they were the same people who wanted to go on a ridge walk on Avion Ridge. I would think one might have a better self awareness of what they can and cannot do before saying they want to do a ridge walk. We step past them and head on up to the tree line. Several times we comment that we are very happy we started early in the morning as walking up it in the hot sun would be no fun. There was also some pondering about how much money the guided hike must have cost and now the guy was not able to hike up the last half mile to the top because of the exposure. Don't you think he might have asked about the hike before throwing down the cash?
Once on top of the last switchback there was this meandering stream with several small water falls. We were able to get close to the cool water and wash our face off as we were totally sweaty after making that last climb in the sun. We arrive at the lake which sits in a tiny little cirque up again the base of Norman Peak. The lake was very quiet, and had a trail around one side of it. There is a back country camp ground located back there and it has many foot trodden paths running all over the place. We wander on back around the lake and find a perfect spot with a bench to sit by the water, look at our topo map, swat mosquitoes and eat half a lunch. During this time we are able to eye ball where we would have been if we went on up to the ridge and did the Avion Ridge walk. Since the bugs were so bad we decided to put away our topo map and head on out. As Kathi was putting the map back in her pack she used the map to swat at some more mosquitoes, but really the map just helicopters through the air and lands out into the lake. This is just one of those moments you want to burst into laughter, but better wait until the map rescue has been completed. Kathi's first attempt of map rescue evolved just trying to reach it with out falling in. her best reach is far short of the map. I suggested she use her hiking pole to fish it out. So here is Kathi's fishing story. "How she caught a big topo fish up in Goat Lake when she was on vacation." The map is dripping wet. We then used our fast drying wicking towels to dry off the map. This is the second time these fast drying wicking towels have come to Kathi's aid. Good thing the map is made with special paper that can get wet... I doubt the maker of the map had throwing the map into the lake in mind when he decided to use water proof paper...or perhaps he has accidentally flung his paper map into some water and watched as his topo lines all disappear into one lump of mushy paper pulp.
We head out to leave the lake thinking that sometime in the future we will return to scramble along the Avaion Ridge. We will give the Canadian trail crew a few years to repair the ridge trail before returning. We poke our way back around the lake past the backcountry camp ground, past the peaceful waterfalls that anyone would want in as a backyard landscape water feature. Back out onto the sunny switchbacks which lead to the lake. We meet several people who are on their way up the long switchback. It is now HOT on this open trail. Our first group of four we meet are a set of husband and wives out for a little exercise. They are in their 70's. Of course we stop and chat, they need a little breather, and me... I like to chat with people. They are out on their summer camping trip which lasts from June until September. I like the sounds of that.
The next three some that we meet are the most unlikely set of three hikers you could think of traveling together. The lady in front had on a blouse and jeans. She was about my age (50's) and sporting a haircut like Jaclyn Smith who played the part of Kelly Garrett from Charlie's Angels during the late seventy's. Her hair appeared to be hastily assembled into a pony to get it off of her neck and the sides of her hair were pasted to her sweaty face. She wanted to know "how much much further to this g-- d-- lake?" She is not what I expected from one of Charlies Angels... Such unlikely verbiage to be coming from a Jaclyn Smith look alike. Kathi and I just point out the very visible switchback and tell her there are a few short switchbacks after the one you can see, then you are at the lake. She points out that it is a 'g-- d-- hot day, and why is this trail so g-- d-- steep?" I think she should take a different perspective of what God has created and understand that nothing on this trail is anything less than majestic... The person in the middle was a man wearing his cowboy stampede outfit. Jeans, plaid western cut shirt open to his navel, and big shinny cowboy buckle and boots to compliment his western outfit. His cowboy hat was a straw hat tightly rolled side brim with front and back of the hat severely angled down. His teeth were nasty looking and he did not say much as he stood and listened to Jaclyn Smith look alike ask all of the questions. The cowboy and Jaclyn are not caring any water or other common trail essentials. The third person is younger perhaps early twenties, has a full backpack strapped to her complete with a camelback water system. She has very very short shorts on with the waist band rolled down and her tummy excess fat billowing over her hip belt. She has her hair up into two braided pigtails, sunglasses, and a sports bra. The bra was working past its intended load maximum. The backpack shoulder straps and chest straps from the pack aided the control of the blossoming bubbles protruding forth from the very inadequate bra. The scene was visually very distracting.
We finish our little chat with these three unlikely hikers and head off on our trip down the trail. As soon as we are out of ear shot, Kathi says over her shoulder, "I sure hope she has sun screen on those..." I about fall off of the mountain in laughter. I laugh and carry on an uncontrollable giggle for about a mile down the trail.
We meet a few other people along our trip out, but after the last set of three they all pale in comparison. Although a father and son hiking in their Lycra biking shorts and biking shoes does come to my memory. I'm still laughing about the sun screen comment as we are off of the trail and wandering through the town of Waterton "shopping". All we can find to buy is an ice cream cone. On the drive out of Waterton is the the Prince of Wales lodge. Another building of historical significance. A lodge built by the Great Northern railroad to entice people to come and vacation in this area and use the railway to get there. We had stayed in this lodge many years ago, but just needed to see if all was the same. We looked around the main room and took a gander out of their big windows that look all the way down Upper Waterton lake. The lake is ten miles long half in Canada and half in the US.
Went home early for once and watched a big storm blow over the mountains and provide a brief but heavy downpour of rain.
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