Category: hiking

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canada general hiking snow trail running

Running in the snow along Lake Minnewanka

Lake Minnewanka and the Cascade Fire Trail share a trail-head; and so we hatched a cunning plan where I would run along the shoreline of the lake, while Alex would take Moosling and Chariot and go towing up the Cascade Fire Trail. The plan was to turn around after an hour or so, and be back at the car at 11.30am (so we could then get back to Canmore to watch the finals of the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup sprints at the Nordic Centre).

The trail was well-packed to the bridge and beyond,to the high point of the climb up and around the spur.

After turning around to head north-east though, the trail was progressively less and less travelled, and by the time things flattened out it was just me and some old animal tracks. Thankfully there wasn’t a lot of snow on the ground, but it was still slow going. And a little eerie, as I kept running about four kilometres past the last sign of people tracks. There wasn’t a sign of another creature, human or animal, the whole time I was out past the bridge though.

Thanks to relatively benign weather so far this winter, the lake remains un-frozen. The trail was in the shade until 11am though, so it still wasn’t the warmest of runs.

The appearance of the sun was cause for celebration though.

(And the plan worked, and we went and watched the World Cup, and clashed cow bells with great enthusiasm, and were amazed at how fast everyone could ski)

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canada general hiking moosling

Failing to hike up Mount Lady Mac

A short wander up Mount Lady Mac, as neither of us had much time, or a desire to stray too far from home. The start of our hike was slowed to toddler pace. Not just toddler pace, but the pace of a toddler having trouble hiking up a steep snowy path.

Eventually he gave up, and started to get sleepy, so he was transferred to my back and we started to slog uphill. There was more and more snow, and eventually the pre-packed trail diverged from the summer trail, and we gained another hiker who was happy to hike along with us in an attempt to follow the summer trail.

We managed to get to the ridge, but then the huge drifts of snow were too much for us. The crazy wind blowing along the ridge line were downright unpleasant too. And the Moosling woke up and was very unhappy. And we had run out of time to make it to the summit and back down again anyway. So we took some photos and high-tailed it back down the mountain again.

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bikes canada general hiking moosling trip reports

Pigeon Mountain (lacking in pigeons since 1858)

Pigeon Mountain has been hovering on our radar for a long time – it sits just next to Skogan Pass, so we’ve travelled past it plenty of times, but have never quite made the turn up towards the summit. It was a warm day for November, and without too much snow on the ground, we thought we may as well use this trip as a good shoulder season excursion.

After cheating and driving to the trailhead, we unloaded the bikes and Chariot, and started the slog up alongside the power-lines. There were a couple of other random hikers about, but the carpark had been overwhelmingly full of hunters. We passed a few on the trail; bow hunters who had bagged a bighorn sheep.

We managed to cover 3.5 km or so before the snow on the trail started to make traction impossible, so gave in and stashed the wheels in the trees.

Above the treeline and trudging uphill, with an old-school toddler carrying device – shoving them in the space between your back and the backpack

Another kilometre or so and we reached the turnoff, taking us up single trail, climbing a spur until we were spat out above the treeline and into the wind. From there on the trail wasn’t so well defined. There was a fantastic choose-your-own-adventure set of trails to follow through the snow though…

Follow the sheep trail. Turn to page 63. You have fallen into a wind drift and can’t get out. You starve to death before summer comes.
Follow the lower human trail. Turn to page 48. The trail disappears over the edge of a cliff. You fall to your death.
Set your own tracks across wind slab. Turn to page 38. The wind slab holds for the first twenty metres, but suddenly gives way, and you are trapped in postholing hell.

Lunch!

We managed to make our way through the perilous choose-your-own-adventure section, and reached the ridge, where the wind had kept the snow pretty thin on the ground. Surprisingly, the wind swept ridge was also rather windy.

Onwards and upwards

We were not alone – hoards of bighorn sheep around. The whole area will be under seasonal closure from December 1st, as it’s a breeding ground for the bighorn sheep.

It was easy walking to the summit and after snacks and photos at the summit cairn, we shook our fist at the sun, which had just disappeared behind a bank of clouds that had been hugging the mountains to the west of us, and then we scarpered back down the mountain.

Thanks to the bike-stashing effort, we made it back to the car a full five minutes before sunset (with the added benefit that we weren’t driven insane by having to walk down a road next to a power-line for a full five kilometres).

Oh, and as an added bonus, here is a link to the song we both had stuck in our head all day long.

Distance: 16.5km
Elevation gain: 960m
Summit altitude: 2394m

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canada general hiking moosling

A lakey sort of jaunt

Another exercise in toddler coaxing, this time up to Lillian and Galatea Lakes in K-Country, with a grandmother in tow (although she didn’t require any towing at all).

The best of the fall colours …. weren’t really visible from this hike. There were certainly a few yellow leaves here and there, but on the whole it was green, and just stuck to the standard level of spectacular, rather than the techni-colour version you can get in the mountains in autumn.

Lillian Lake lurks in the trees with some campsites nearby. We had lunch there, because otherwise we may have started gnawing on our hands for sustenance. Afterwards we carried on to the higher Galatea Lake, which is certainly worth the extra kilometre or so of wandering uphill, as it’s a genuinely lovely alpine lake, whereas Lillian Lake is more of a tree-bound puddle affair.

There were nice views, but the trail seemed quite long for how long it was. A side-effect of toddler herding combined with being accustomed to covering trails at running speed more often this year.

Distance: 14km
Elevation gain: 685m

(Sorry for the phone photos, I completely forgot to bring my camera *gasp*)

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canada general hiking trail running

Out to Citadel Pass

More Autumn running. This time driving up to Sunshine Village around the time of the last bus, and then leaving Moosling and Grandma Moose by Rock Isle Lake, Alex and I ran out to Citadel Pass. Aaaaallllll the way this time.

The larches were bright yellow, and there were only two other people on the entire trail.

By the time we reached Citadel Pass the sun was starting to hide behind the peaks.

On the way home I managed to crash at one point, clipping my foot on a rock, and doing an impressive superman dive onto my chest. I was winded, but thankfully no bears or cougars came to eat me while I was lying on the ground trying to regain my breath.

A fantastic 20km return run from Sunshine Village.