Category: Great Divide Trail

Wednesday, July 24th, 2024, 0700-1800Helmet Falls Campground to Ottertail trailhead, mm 332.617.2 miles, Gain: 2340′, Loss: 4200′, elevation 3880′ Woody actually beat me out of camp in the morning…I guess he was that eager to get out, too. I was slow to begin moving, despondent about our thru hike ending so prematurely. But I pushed my way up our final pass (Good Sir) pretty fast and easily. Far Out notes warned of some bushwhacky sections on the descent, but I didn’t find it to be that bad. I caught up to Woody and we took a short morning break at the McArthur ranger cabin. It was to have been our campsite this night, but we were obviously pushing on. Parks[…]

Tuesday, July 23th, 2024, 0700-1730Floe Lake to Helmet Falls Campground, mm 31517 miles, Gain: 5375′, Loss: 6310′, elevation 5740′ Well, this was the day when we all discovered our GDT thru-hike was over. I slept well and woke feeling excited for another day, especially through an area so renowned as the Rockwall. But just as I was passing Jan’s tent on my way to breakfast, he told me the news from the GDT grapevine. Another hiker told him that Jasper National Park and the town were being evacuated due to a raging set of fires that had just sprang up in the past few days. Also, the fire in section D had grown and now closed all of that section[…]

Monday, July 22nd, 2024, 0640-1230Ball Pass Junction camp to Floe Lake, mm 298.114 miles, Gain: 3865′, Loss: 3590′, elevation 6670′ I took it easy packing in the morning, since distance-wise it was a short day. Two groups left before me: the Strawbridges of course, and another couple, Colby and Janet. I later found out they were also hikng the GDT. I think pretty much everyone staying at the campsite were on the GDT, since it wasn’t really in the vicinity of big attractions, nor was it anything special as a camp itself. But it was a convenient location along the GDT. This was the first camp we stayed at that wasn’t on our permit, but it worked out. At least[…]

Sunday, July 21st, 2024, 0600-1800Howard Douglas Campground to Ball Pass Junction camp, mm 28517.5 miles, Gain: 3130′, Loss: 4270′, elevation 6380′ I was up early to hike 3.5 miles to the  Sunshine ski lodge, eager to maximize my Wi-Fi and real-food-eating time. It had been over 10 days since I had a connection to anything other than texts from my ZOLEO satellite messenger. A lot of big news was coming from the US…even our Canadian friends were talking about it. But I was kind of glad to be so isolated, truth be told. The sunrise over the mountains and meadows was well worth the effort of packing so early. Even the mosquitos were still asleep, so it was a win-win[…]

Saturday, July 20th, 2024, 0700-1700Marvel Lake Campground to Howard Douglas Campground, mm 268.720 miles, Gain: 4850′, Loss: 3350′, elevation 6080′ I felt pretty fresh starting this day, but it ended up being another hard day. I quickly covered the rest of the distance to Marvel Lake and wondered why the campsite wasn’t located anywhere near it. Instead, it was in the woods with no views of anything. But it didn’t matter to me, since I arrived late and left so early. The Strawbridges were also already on the trail, probably miles ahead of me. We seemed to be the only ones for a few hours. But promptly after 9 am, on the way up to Wonder Pass, I started passing[…]

Friday, July 19th, 2024, 0710-1920Beatty Lake to Marvel Lake Campground, mm 248.626 miles, Gain: 2880′, Loss: 4110′, elevation 5900′ Several times through the night I had to chase off the porcs. The little guy was climbing around in a nearby downed tree, making a racket, and then a much bigger porc was strolling by several times. I even caught him chewing on my bottle, which I figured would be of no interest. So I gave him a taste of the contents of the water bottle and he decided he didn’t like it after all. My goodness there seemed to be a lot of porcs! I even caught one grazing over the picnic table when I went to get my bear[…]

(Scroll down to see the post for this day) Section C – 207km / 129mi, Alternates: Northover Ridge – This section goes through some of the most popular national parks in all of Canada: Banff, Kootenay and Yoho. As such, backcountry permits are required and most of the trails are well-maintained and signed. Leaving Peter Lougheed, the trail follows a beautiful lake, with the option of taking the incredible Northover Ridge Alt, which is a challenging knife edge route with exposure and loose scree. A day later, the trail enters Banff NP and becomes a lot more crowded. The trail then crosses the Divide at Wonder Pass and enters BC and Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park, often called the Matterhorn of[…]

Wednesday, July 17th, 2024, 0600-0900Lower Elk Lake to Boulton Creek Campground, mm 211.56 miles plus 1.5 mile detour to campground, Gain: 945′, Loss: 920′, elevation 5720′ We were up early for our town day…but not really a town day. The commercial campground was a place that others went to get away, but for us it was our closest pass by civilization in a week. Ah, the paradox. A slice of nature, but mostly built society. It’s not camping by my book, but I guess it fills a need for some folks. For us, it was a place to take hot showers, charge electronics and get some ice cream… can’t find any of those things in the backcountry. We only had[…]

Tuesday, July 16th, 2024, 0610-1830Fording River Pass Lower Lake to Lower Elk Lake camp, mm 205.625 miles, Gain: 2134′, Loss: 3640′, elevation 5620′ There were rumblings in the night. First there were 2 separate rockfalls, or maybe only one that was ongoing, I was too out of it to grasp a timeline. I was woken from a deep sleep by the sound of the crashing dense masses. I felt safe in the woods by the lake but it was a reminder of the destructive power of nature. Later, a large animal must have gone crashing by…a moose, elk or bear. Nicole heard it but I slept right through. Pulverizing rocks were cause for alarm but giant ice age mammals that[…]