Friday, July 19th, 2024, 0710-1920
Beatty Lake to Marvel Lake Campground, mm 248.6
26 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 bag from the locker. I also videoed one in a tree near the toilet. It came down the tree as I was standing there, looked at me quizzically, then went back up the tree with its quills out menacingly. I noticed that quills were just falling out as it went up and down the tree. No wonder there were so many around the campsite. I also noted that they didn’t climb trees all that well, not like squirrels anyway, more like sloths.
Not all campers fared as well as me. One lady left her trekking poles tucked under her tent vestibule, but the porcs came right under and chewed the grips to pieces. Bummer. I left the lake, still happy I stayed there, but having my fill of quill. There was a steep descent into the Palliser River valley to start the morning, then some big fords of Leroy creek and the Palliser River. I got my feet wet, since the day promised to have a lot of wet crossings. I met Michelle at the crossing and then Woody camped near the river. We started up the long valley to the pass, with a really steep and taxing push at the top. The trail was reported to be very overgrown, but it still felt like nothing half so bad as those on the PNT.
We passed pretty Belgium Lake and descended a bit along a small stream. I decided to take an early lunch break, figuring the hardest part of the day was over. Michelle and then Yan joined me. Yan reported that the porcs had kept him up all night too, but at least they didn’t eat any of his stuff.
The trail entered an enormous valley, following the Spray river for the next 12 miles. The app showed almost no elevation gain or loss for this stretch…. cruisy right? Tall peaks surrounded the valley on either side and it was a pretty pleasant stroll through meadows…for awhile. The way was sometimes a slog through bogs and thick grass. It also got pretty hot, so I broke out the umbrella and took off my layers of sun protection. But then the mosquitos started attacking, so I had to put my sun shirt back on. Thank goodness I treated most of my clothes with permethrin before I left, because it sure seemed to be effective! The mossies didn’t try to bite through my layers at least…if only I’d done the same for the PNT. Lessons learned.
I still had over 15 miles to go when I resumed after lunch, so the afternoon dragged on. By 4 pm, I passed a ranger cabin and still had 9 miles. Ugh. Normally I could just stop and camp if I wanted to, but I’d entered Banff National Park and had to make it to our designated campsite at Marvel. I trudged on, entering a forest and crossing the river on a bridge. I ran into the two Quebec ladies, Juliet and Macey…their names were something like that. I stopped to chat a bit with them, since I hadn’t been able to during the picnic a few days prior. They were very nice…but like me, also tired from the long day. They only needed to go as far as the next campsite…a few more miles. I still had 4 miles, so I reluctantly bid adieu and hurried on. Thankfully when I reached the head of Spray lake, the trail became a smooth, wide path, nice enough to ride a road bike on… or at least a gravel bike.
I started passing tons of other backpackers, which gave me something to focus on. I’d felt so slow all day, slogging over the pass and through the meadows, but now I felt like I was flying. Thank goodness for an easy finish this day. I rolled into camp and found Georgie and Vince, already finished with dinner. I pitched my tent in the spot next to theirs, rinsed and fetched some water, then walked a good long ways back to the food lockers and meal area. This was the most spread-out backcountry site that I stayed in. It was nice in the sense that the tent pads felt isolated from the others, but I didn’t enjoy the extra walking after such a long day. On top of that, the site was named Marvel Lake, but was actually almost a mile from the lake. The creek was nice and refreshing, at least.
As I was eating dinner, I began to hear thunder. Just as I finished, it began to rain. So I had to run back to my tent to batten down the hatches then back to the meal area…I swear it was almost a quarter of a mile. I met Woody just arriving, welcomed to camp by the rain…just his luck. At least I was able to fill him in on the layout of the camp, saving him from doing a full circle to see where everything was. He too was exhausted and just wanting to go to bed. There were still several empty spots, so he grabbed one nearer to the meal area.
The rain only lasted for a few minutes, as did the thunder. Still, I ducked inside my tent as soon as I could and called it a wrap. There was no hanging out on this night, even though it was the first night we were all camped together since before Tornado Pass in Section B….our original party of 4, when we all met up in Calgary 3 weeks earlier. I hoped we’d have more time together in the weeks to come….but it wasn’t to be.