Shakedown Hike – Banff National Park

Day 1

The reason I picked this particular area for our shakedown hike was the fact that I already needed to be online the minute Parks Canada reservations opened for Banff/Kootenay Parks in February. So since I was already there, I planned a few days of hiking in the park before the big one.

The dog and I left Kimberley before 6am to have plenty of time to get to Banff before 10am and find shaded parking. On the 3 hour drive, the scene from last year when we drove to the Rockwall trail played out again: While I was going 95km/h in the 90km/h zone through the park, every single car passed me and every single one was from Alberta. That includes passing across double yellow lines! I just don’t understand the rush or disrespect to the environment.

After a doctor’s appointment (a specialist I’ve seen before), we quickly headed out of town … Banff is always a bit too busy for me. We also managed to mail my resupply package for Elk Pass to the lady in Calgary that takes it to the trailhead. It’s a heavy package so mailing from Alberta was much cheaper than from BC! Then it was a quick drive up to Mount Norway ski area where a small area of the large parking area for ski resort is open for hikers.

It didn’t take long to get ready for the hike, just a change of shoes, the backpack on the dog and last accessories such as hat, gloves, and poles on me. The dog was happy to start walking and I could tell she was excited. Around the base of the ski area there were two or three trail entrances to the right but my maps seemed to say that this was not the right trail. I climbed back up to the chairlift base and eventually got to the last lift where a crew was working and the sign said to take the trail detour to the right. I tried it but again my maps said I was too low and not on the trail that goes along Forty Mile Creek. So I asked the guys and they didn’t really know but allowed me to walk through the grassy area where they were working. Then I just climbed straight up the ski run to find the trail I was supposed to be on. A confusing start but after that, there were no more issues with navigation!

The trail starts out being a road in the summer through the middle of the ski runs and then turns into the trees. At the trail entrance, it started with a downed tree, and I was hoping that that would not be the theme of the day! Luckily it wasn’t (it was already removed when I came back from the hike!) and most of the day until the last section the trail really was a “highway” (apparently people ski to Sawback Lake in the winter).

We only encountered a few rock slides that were a little trickier, some creek crossings that you could complete with dry shoes hopping from rock to rock and a gentle climb all day.

Ksanka was keen and her bells chimed on throughout the day. No wildlife encounters except squirrels! We did not see very many people, just a few from afar in a campsite off the trail and later a young couple. They gave me the rundown on the pass section, after having talked to other hikers. Apparently there are three avalanches before Mystic Pass that are difficult to navigate with logs stacked on top of each other and snow inbetween. On the backside of the pass, the trail is flooded. They only met one person who made it through, very slowly.

They also didn’t hike the pass (young and without dog) so after hearing that I considered only doing the two camps and not getting to Badger Pass because the last thing I wanted to do is injure the dog or myself before the long hike. The main reason for this hike is to test gear, and to see the area.

I was reminded of the bad day I had with Keyla hiking in the North Cascades when we ended up on an unmaintained trail and navigated huge log jams for hours, until Keyla was so frustrated she started barking, and we ended up sleeping in the only open area without burned trees, when we reached the end of daylight. Wasn’t fun!

So we hiked all the way to the Mystic valley camp, which is pretty rugged. The last trail section from the junction is 2.5km and a bit trickier with more roots, mud & water and rocks.

Once you get to the camp area, there’s the eating and food storage area which is full of large downed trees. Not much is cleared, except for a small sitting area around the lockers.

Then you actually have to walk down to the creek, cross a narrow bridge and walk up the hill until you get to the campground.

Definitely not as close together as most other camps I’ve seen. There are six camp spots or tent pads here (“somewhat” level?), a toilet and that food storage on the other side of the creek.

Eventually, other people arrived like the six people from Saskatchewan I had passed earlier. There’s another dad and son party here as well. I chatted briefly with all of them, but then quickly got ready for dinner and the usual chores of filtering water, putting stuff into storage, washing the face, etc.

It is now 7pm, and both Ksanka and I are in the tent. She’s definitely tired and hopefully she will sleep well. The new tent has a lot less space than my old 2 person tent so we’ll see how the night goes.

We hiked 20.44 km in 4:45hrs.

Day 2

During the night, it got cooler which was expected. I only brought my 40F summer quilt so was prepared to put on additional clothing. I added my puffy and additional leggings when I felt the temperature drop, then fell asleep and only woke again at 4:40am.

A leisurely start at 6:30am, then leaving camp at 8:15am, with all chores done. So instead of heading into the avalanches before Mystic Pass, we headed down the valley to Mystic Junction, which is a 2.7km, somewhat technical section. But we took our time, there was no rush.

From there we headed up towards Sawback Lake, enjoying the morning and nice temperatures. Compared to the “highway” leading to the junction, the trail above it became more technical and was deteriorating a bit.

It wasn’t just the uphill, or rocks and roots. But there were more and more flooded sections that I had to either take my shoes off or make a big detour through the bush to get around the mud pits. At the first crossing, the water wasn’t really raging, but Ksanka‘s footing already wasn’t as good as it should be, and if there would be a big drop, I would be worried.

So when we got to a fast flowing river and could see the trail as being flooded ahead (up to my thighs or so), we decided to turn around. Because not only did we have to do it on the way out, we also would have to do it on our way back. Flooding is currently an issue in the park. Bridges have been washed out and some campsites are not accessible after a big storm a few weeks ago. It seems like the snow melt is still happening as well.

On a thru hike it’s a different story … you just have to make it across once, and you can take your time to scout up and down the river for a safe crossing (or even wait until morning). I wouldn’t put the dog at risk of course, and I would have to hold on to her in any deep moving water. But this one would have been tricky.

So we headed back to the junction where I knew the party of six from the previous night would be staying after coming down for Mystic Valley. We would have company but I wasn’t sure about empty spots (since my reservation was for the lake). I had a look around and tried to figure out whether I should stay there or move on to the next campsite. And as they say, the trail provides – or answers your questions! A couple from Oregon arrived to take a lunch break, and they were hiking out to the next camp that’s about 8 km from the parking area. However, they had to do a 14 hour drive for a wedding the next day and were thinking about not using their reservation in that campground and instead hiking to the car (and start driving). So that at least gave me a camp spot that I could use for sure without having to worry about a full camp.

Those two also had talked to other people about the conditions on the pass. Others had confirmed that the avalanches were definitely very very difficult to navigate with snow in between and big log jams (so this couple didn’t hike the pass either). I’m glad I didn’t attempt it with the dog. While we were talking, it also started thundering so that was even more incentive to move on. The storm wasn’t close and we only had a little bit of rain but it helped to focus on getting to the lower camp (the hiking was never exposed, always in low areas among trees).

Arriving at the lower camp, a French fellow greeted us and told us about his trip including some of the fords he had to do … they were chest high on a tall guy! The couple from Oregon showed up, had some dinner with us and then started hiking out. In the meantime, some youth group arrived and it got busy, with all of the campspots being taken so I was happy to officially have a tent pad

Again, the campspots, eating/storage area and water access were very far apart so the usual chores took a bit longer. The sky had cleared and the evening was beautiful. Both the French guy across the path and us were in bed early but unfortunately had no support from the youth group (about 10 people) … they talked/yelled late into the night, talked loudly every time they passed our tents (including the two adults) and generally just didn’t show any consideration. Their meals smelled as strong as I have ever smelled a meal in the background … even that far away from the eating area! I actually encountered their open bear lockers in the morning when I got my food bag and could not believe how strongly they smelled. A bit of education on appropriate packaging and smellproof containers to use in bear country would be useful!

Today we only saw some frogs crossing our path and Ksanka was just watching them, once trying to lick them (was she hoping for a canine prince?) but I pulled her back. Otherwise no wildlife. Now Ksanka is already snoring …

Day 3

I didn’t spend much time in camp in the morning, just grabbing my bags from the bear locker, having a coffee and feeding the dog, then packing up. French guy was up and starting breakfast as we left. The night was much warmer, at this lower elevation, but the tentpad was not as level and we were sliding around quite a bit.

The hike out was an easy 8km on the “highway”, again with no wildlife sightings but some more people encountered that were coming in. We easily manoeuvred the ski resort trails this time and arrived at the car around 10:30am. As soon as Ksanka was off the leash in the parking area, she was looking for sticks she could chase so apparently that was just a warmup for her and she had energy to burn!

We headed back home, saw the same impatient drivers on the highway and stopped for lunch in Radium.

Coming home is always the start of gear cleaning, gear organizing and gear assessments! A lot of things worked well, but we also have some tweaks to make before the long hike. But even this short trip rekindled the excitement about being out in the mountains and moving with the weather and the landscapes so that we are super excited for the GDT now!