Boulton Creek was quiet during the night (after some late arrivals). I think Chris & Dean plus myself were the only ones without cars (hence why we shared the bear box).
As usual, I was awake early and thought I might as well get moving. There was no rush and I thought I get all the chores done and then hang out by the store.
The tent had a lot of condensation on the inside (I bring a Swedish dish cloth for that), plus the groundsheet was wet and dirty from the rain storm. Never fun packing that up!
Then I walked past the bear box, picked up our food and went over to the shower building. It’s quite the distance to walk so I didn’t want to do it back and forth.
Dean was already there charging electronics but apparently Chris was still asleep 🙂 We chatted for a bit, I took a shower and then moved everything down to the store (telling Dean I would see them there).
Only a few people stopped by the store; it was still closed but the WiFi works. I got my cooker going for my breakfast drink, plugged in the phone and got all the gear organized.
Eventually Lee introduced himself to me and we got talking … he was camping with some others at Canyon campground. He offered to drop me at the trailhead and so I took the opportunity … just felt bad for not saying goodbye to C&D (I told Lee later to look for them at the store and update them).
So this way I had an instant ride in Lee’s Jeep to the trailhead and the day got started!
Lee dropped me around 9:30am at the Burstall trailhead. The original GDT still had a washed out bridge and the detour didn’t sound that great to me. Plus I had seen footage of the very steep downhill off North Kananaskis Pass which I wanted to avoid; the dog is still not patient enough on downhills.
So instead we hiked over Burstall Pass which was gorgeous! Nice morning temps (hot later in the day) and somewhat blue skies! It’s a gradual uphill on an old road, a broad riverbed (almost a km wide) to cross, a steep uphill, a flat meadow and another steep uphill. We only stopped on top and admired the views! (Only met one party of 8 hiking up for the day).
The downhill on the other side was shorter but steep; it’s still a challenge with the dog. And promptly, at the only real mud puddle all day, I fell and landed in the mud 😆
No real harm done, the knee is slightly scraped, pants torn, poles and pants muddy. After that Ksanka was a bit more patient 😆
At the bottom we had to backtrack a few hundred metres to get tot Burstall camp. It’s nice … you cross the Spray river and there are pebble beaches. The camp has 6 sites, very spread out in the trees and at the very end bear boxes and the eating area.
Eventually 3 others plus dog arrived and we chatted a little bit. I’m ahead of their schedule for the day, we have already eaten and finished chores. Before they arrived (the tent was in the shade) we even took a short nap!
The other annoying development is that my hiking app (the one specifically for this trail) suddenly stopped showing maps. It says I have to download the maps, even though it was all downloaded and worked fine even today half way through the day. I have other apps and the route is not hard to find (it’s a park, lots of signs) but I won’t have the exact distances or comments anymore. Bummer!
Ksanka is snoozing, time for a bit of reading for me. 14km, 512 ascent.
Happy trails!
