Maybe one day I’ll be up to date again, but in the meantime, here is another post finally coming about a month after the actual action.
This day was gloriously warm, and felt more like summer than post-leaf autumn.
With a visiting grandparent, we decided to get out hiking somewhere different. And for some reason, we’d never hiked up to Helen Lake. It lies just by Dolomite Peak up on Hwy 93 – an area we’d ski toured, but not visited in summer. Which is crazy, because it’s amazing.
Up near the treeline, views were gorgeous.
The lakes had started to freeze, which just meant there were lots of ice chunks around to throw into them.
We spent some time up there disturbing the peace as the boy gleefully threw ice into lakes.
On the final alpine stretch of trail to the lake there is quite a lot of trail braiding – it’s hard to pick the right trail to walk in.
There was a certain amount of bribery going on as we hiked. We haven’t been doing enough family hikes this summer, which of course we only realised now that summer is over. The boy did pretty well though for a 12km hike with around 420m of elevation gain – but occasional distribution of m&ms and raspberry jubes helped matters.
Dolomite Peak lurks dramatically trailside for most of the hike – looking even better for a sprinkling of snow on top.
My cunning plan after the hike was to ride back to Canmore. It was a great plan, but not as well thought out as I’d imagined. By the time we finished hiking, there was not an awful amount of daylight left.
They ended up dropping me off at Castle Junction, and I rode the 50km or so home. Which didn’t hurt my knee too much!
But the Helen Lake hike is highly recommended, and we’re already working on our hiking to do list for next year.
