Back at the Nordic Centre towing the Moosling again (I had to get out of the harness to jump, he was fast asleep back there, and probably wouldn’t have appreciated it).
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Return to Watridge Lake
The last time I passed by Watridge Lake I was 34 weeks pregnant, feeling too warm, with sore feet, and generally feeling as if I’d hiked far enough. We’d hiked through from Sunshine Meadows to Mount Assiniboine, and I’d already travelled 19-20km that day. I was kind of hoping for a travelator to take me home. Or a small helicopter. Perhaps a tame and friendly moose.
This time I returned with a baby on the outside, and a tame snow-shoer to pull along the Chariot.
It took us less than an hour to reach the lake! I was flabbergasted.
After having lunch on the far side, we returned home.
On the drive back to Canmore we came across some moose! They were standing on the road, and weren’t entirely sure what to do as I drove slowly up to them. After running along the road for a while, in a remarkably sheep-like fashion, they worked out how to dive off into the trees (where they glared at us balefully).
So, today I tested the theory that I could stroll with the Chariot to the Nordic Centre carrying my ski gear; switch wheels off, skis on, attach skis and boots to me, ski a loop, then walk home again.
It worked!
The hardest part of the workout was pushing the Chariot up the hill to the Nordic Centre through all that slush.
We ran into four other Chariots also out skiing – the warm weather was too tempting. Thanks to the wind though, a lot of the trails had a good coating of pine needles… and twigs… pine cones… small branches… a squirrel…
(How it was done: The Chariot skis and pulling pole things fit in the back pocket, leaning against the handlebars. Meanwhile my ski boots went in my backpack, and skis and poles were strapped on the outside. After switching into ski mode, I locked the back wheels to the fence at the Daylodge, and just turned the strolling wheels upside down)
Goat Creek is the trail that goes from one end of Mount Rundle to the other, on the south side of the mountain. The Canmore end starts in the parking lot just beyond Whiteman’s Gap, and today we were just doing an out and back, not going all the way to Banff. We didn’t even get all the way to Goat Creek, as we had a “must turn around” time limit to meet up with friends who were hiking Ha Ling Peak (although in the end we probably could have made it down there).
Skinny skis were on – I’ve the feeling there’s a couple of downhills between the Canmore end and Banff that I’d happily walk while towing the Chariot with skinny skis. The Goat Creek trail is multi-use, and often looks like herds of elephants have been trampling along it – which can lead to challenging skiing conditions.
The thing about finding ski tours to do without any avy danger – they all seem to involve skiing to lakes. Ok, not all, Goat Creek and Cascade Fire Trail are at least two exceptions I can think of. Nonetheless, on Sunday we skied to another lake.
The handlebars on the Chariot definitely come in handy for descents when some manoeuvring is required. Also on ascents on a narrow trail, as it likes to try and dive into tree wells – it really doesn’t track very well.
The Chester Lake trail is about 10km return, now with a one-way section in force for part of the ski trail (all signed and obvious). Nice and wide for the first half, turning into a thin and windy trail through tighter trees towards the end, but still plenty of room to get a Chariot through (although with the tree wells and sections that are a little off-camber, doing it alone could get interesting). Our heavy skis were overkill, seeing as we weren’t actually heading out for any turns – cross-country gear would be much more sensible (although the downhill is definitely much steeper than the Moraine Lake trail).
It’s pretty popular for snow-shoeing as well, though there’s a separate snow-shoe trail to the lake (no idea what that’s like for towing a Chariot on). On weekends in general the trail can be pretty busy, with half of Calgary turning up there – if you can get out and back early you’ll miss a lot of the other traffic though.