Last minute trips are the best trips! We got an invite to bikepack out to Elk Lakes, and who could say no to that?
We’d been kind of planning to hike Arethusa Cirque with Tanya on the Saturday morning. But it had snowed a lot, and hiking motivation wasn’t high. I struggle more with hiking than biking, and the boy wasn’t in a hiking mood. So rather than fight that, we decided to keep it short, and get to the trailhead for the bike trip.
It was a bit chilly – the forecast had been threatening snow, or maybe freezing rain, or maybe just to be generally unpleasant. We gambled and won. Except for having to carry all those pesky waterproof layers. Thankfully the boy is carrying a bigger load on his bike these days, which helps matters.
We were taking it slow – our friends were already in at Elk Lake, and we’d ended up leaving the trailhead with plenty of daylight up our sleeves (or in the sky, which is where you’d usually keep it).
Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised when we got to Elk Pass to discover this rather awesome gateway feature had been installed.
Some online research showed that it had been installed just recently, and was a joint project between Elkford , Sparwood and Fernie schools and the Ktunaxa nation. The students chose the imagery and helped carve the poles – there’s one pole representing the human elements of the valley, and one pole representing the animals.
Very cool.
Anyway, it was all downhill from here! Thankfully only literally and not figuratively.
Down into British Columbia we went, with the day actually warming up and turning out pretty pleasant.
On arrival, we walked into Elk Lakes to lie in the sun and throw rocks, and not fall in the lake (much).
After some wood chopping, fire feeding and rabbit chasing outside, it was time for dinner and lego and other important cabin-based fun.
Bikepackers assemble! Elk Lakes Cabin is one of the few bike accessible Alpine Club huts, and definitely a fun destination. It’s not the best beginner/kids bikepack destination though, just because of the number of hills that are a bit demoralising on the way in and out. But if you’re ok with pushing your bike up a hill occasionally – then have at it! It is only 10.5km after all.
Some of the group was hiking out, but the seven of us were biking. At least, mostly biking. Except for the hills that were too steep to bike up, or the hills that were too steep to bike down.
The best bit about joining other families on trips like this is seeing the kids biking together, hanging out and chatting (and assuming as a result that this is a totally normal thing that all kids do MUAH HA HA HAH!).
All outdoor clothes and gear should only be sold in bright colours. I love the current colour trends!
There’s nothing like seeing kids having a blast battling up enormous hills on their tiny heavy bikes to inspire you to be as awesome as them.
And there’s nothing like convincing a tired kid to keep pushing a bike up a hill to make you really appreciate the times when you’re out on the trail alone and it’s just your own cranky hungry tired meltdowns you have to deal with.
(He didn’t actually have a meltdown, but it did need some entertainment and bribery to keep him going for a while there)
Once we were over the pass (where we stopped for a nice long lunch in the sun), it was pretty fast going. The other two boys had fatter tyres than Finn, at 2.8″ and 4″ and they really handled the rough track well compared to his tiny 2.1″ tyres – he might have some fatter tyres in his future.
Beautiful day to ride out, and a great trip. Let there be more bikepacking trips with kids!
The playground in Radium is pretty great
Also great? Hammocks. My old hammock, originally purchased circa 2001 for La Trobe Uni Mountaineering Club trips, is still going strong and has gotten more use than ever this summer.
A handy feature of the Radium playground is that it’s only a couple of hundred metres away from an icecream shop.
Hanging with Willow
Sleepovers with BFFs and visits to the Canmore Icecream Bus
Visits with Zara and Odessa, in Canmore and in Invermere
At one point in summer, some land art popped up in one of the local parks. Eventually some signage popped up explaining everything, but it was equally lovely when there was just art for no reason.
The rutting elks had a go at these woven balls though, and damaged them quite badly – someone captured video footage of it happening.
West Spray Lakes campground – I’ve ridden by before, but never camped. It’s often full, and seems a lot of work to go camping so close to home (which doesn’t really make sense).
It’s a beautiful spot though, I’d like to camp here again.
And of course, there was more hammock time.
The beach is covered with handy rocks and sticks
And it’s not a bad place to watch the sunset from.
One of the benefits of car camping is enormous tents that handily contain a plenitude of gear and children.
Green grass, teepees, blue sky and orange t-shirts are photogenic.
When I realised we’d be going car camping with a bunch of friends the weekend before his actual birthday, I quickly organised a cake so that the camping weekend could also count as a birthday celebration. Inside, the cake was actually half red and half white, but I completely failed to get a photo of that. I’ll consider it a success that I got the cake to Invermere and down to the lake after a night of camping, and it neither suffered too much damage or got too warm.
Lake Windermere in Invermere has a splash park
Z & O came by for a visit.
But then, summer was nearly over (and in this photo, Finn’s friend had gone off in an inflatable kayak to go and play on the slide – he was invited, but isn’t a big fan of boats or water) (no idea where he got that from)
