Saturday, July 6th, 2024, 0700-1800
Lone Lake to Scarpe Pass, mm 43.1
14.3 miles, Gain: 3400′, Loss: 3340′, elevation 6740′
I slept well initially but then a salt-hungry habituated deer started pestering me all night. I’d hear the soft clopping of her hooves approaching and I’d clap my hands or beat on my tent walls and she would satisfyingly scamper away, only to return again for a repeat. I hung my extra pole in a tree and left nothing out to chew on, but I still didn’t want her rustling around next to me. This was the game we played for hours, thus my sleep was quite interrupted. I swear, bears get such a bad rap when they are rarely the cause of problems compared to deer, mice, squirrels, porcupine, and racoons. But I guess when they do cause problems, it’s significant. I knew this after having to abandon my campsite on my last hike. Four habituated juvenile black bears were more than enough to run me off.
I found Alex ready to go as I was just starting out, so we joined forces. He asked if I’d seen the black bear and grizzly fighting in the meadow nearby camp the night before and I was like what? We hiked over 12 miles by noon, passing by Twin Lakes and then along a really nice ridge. So much of the area reminded me of parts of the PNT…only much easier. At one point on the ridge, we walked between 2 rock spines with snow collected in the middle. We called it Snow Canyon and it was so beautiful and unique.
It was a really pleasant stroll, partly because I had such good company. I especially enjoyed Alex’s accent and dialect…as he claimed, Americans are suckers for it. We were both really keen on New Zealand too, so we could have talked for days just about that. At some point the conversation turned to plans for the day, and I suggested that since we were killing it, maybe we keep going past La Coulotte peak and make it as far as Grizzly Lake on the Barnaby alternate route. Alex and I had agreed to give the alt a go the night before, but we were going to try to tackle it all in one day, the following day. With my new idea, we could break it into 2 days.
With 1.5 miles to go to our originally planned campsite, we sat down for a lunch break. I ran the numbers, noting that it was another 8.5 miles and 4k’ gain to make it all the way to the lake. Suddenly, putting off a big day until tomorrow sounded more appealing. So we went back to our original plan. Vince and Georgie were already taking a long lunch break there, so we all hung out together. It was nice to have friends around all the time.
With just over a mile to go to finish the day, I got antsy and covered the last bit on my own. I fell in love when I saw the proposed campsite. It was at a pass, so I expected an exposed, desolate spot but instead, it was a beautiful meadow surrounded by small green pines and larches. The morning had some recent burn areas but all afternoon we walked through a newly regenerated forest, full of young trees. I’d estimate the burn had been 30 some years ago and now the area was just gorgeous, uncluttered and vibrant. I pointed it out to Alex, who had earlier inquired if these forests ever grew back. Here was a wonderful example of one.
I reached the meadow by 3 pm, so I enjoyed another very leisurely afternoon. First I found a running spring with cold clear water. Then I ate some more and lounged in the bear grass. It was so thick, it provided a perfect bed. I wasn’t too worried about ticks or chiggers. Before the trip I’d doused my clothes with permethrin and it really seemed to be doing the trick. The few mossies that there were really seemed to be avoiding me. On top of that, I’d doused my tent with the spray and I had zero bugs on my mesh screen. The few that did fly inside my tent became deceased within minutes. That stuff wasn’t just a repellent but toxic! And I was covered head to toe in it. But I recalled the horror of the mosquitoes on the PNT, where I’d spent nearly every evening inside my tent, hiding from them. So far the GDT had been a 180, with the mosquitoes barely registering on my scale. I really hoped it stayed this way for a bit.
One by one the other hikers trickled in, including the new guy, Strider. I hadn’t yet had a chance to talk to him. He was from Boone NC and of course, also doing the GDT. So now we measured 8 in our little posse. Incredibly, we hadn’t seen a single other person in 2 days. It was great.
We had a nice social hour eating dinner in the meadow. Then we all shared advice on how to secure an ursack bear bag, since some of us were new to them. Good thing we had them, because the trees were all too small to hang properly. There had been metal bear boxes at the past 3 campsites, which is always the most ideal situation. The night wound down with optimistic plans for the next day. Strider wanted to join Alex and me on the ridge alt. He was already moving fast (24 miles from Waterton to Lone Lake in one day), so I had no doubt he could keep up. I expected the ridge walk to be similar to the Selkirk Lionshead ridge, which had taken me 12 hours to go 12 miles. We needed to do at least 15 miles with little to no water along the way but I felt ready. The PNT bushwhacks had prepared me well, I figured.