Twig Adventures

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[…]

Monday, July 15th, 2024, 0700-1800Lost Creek camp to Fording River Pass Lower Lake, mm 180.317 miles, Gain: 4665′, Loss: 3520′, elevation 7220′ I slept really well at the great campsite and felt rejuvenated after my previous low energy day. The 3 of us set off together  and as usual, we had a big uphill to get done. At least it brought us to a beautiful ridge with great views ahead and behind us, with a line of sheer mountains stretching as far as I could see. There were also beautiful fields of wildflowers everywhere. I got a great picture of Michelle, who I hiked with much of the day. She was from Ontario, just outside of Toronto, and was a[…]

Sunday, July 14th, 2024, 0600-1530Beehive Creek to Lost Creek camp, mm 163.517 miles, Gain: 3240′, Loss: 4180′, elevation 6080′ Contrary to the title of this blog, I did not have a bear encounter. But it felt like I had a bear on my back all day…a saying often used to describe when a runner loses steam just before the finish line. This honestly felt like one of my slowest days ever on a trail, similar to the day I climbed through the Mahoosuc notch on the AT. My legs just felt so tired and I had low energy in general. But I guess I was doing pretty good because Alex said he felt great and I was able to keep[…]

Saturday, July 13th, 2024, 0610-1850Dutch Creek camp to Beehive Creek, mm 147.417 miles, Gain: 4970′, Loss: 4540′, elevation 7010′ My tent was still wet in the morning but not too bad. I was again the 3rd to leave camp but caught up to the early risers by Tornado Saddle. First I had to follow the rough ATV to Tornado pass, which confusingly wasn’t the pass because we still had to go up over 1k’ to the Saddle. It seemed the 2 names had been mistakenly switched. Then the trail backtracked almost a mile along the mountain shoulder. Back down in the valley, I could almost see our camp again. The trail traversed rather than gaining elevation more steadily, then abruptly[…]

Friday, July 12th, 2024, 0610-1730Window Mountain Lake Camp to Dutch Creek Camp, mm 130.724 miles, Gain: 5220′, Loss: 5170′, elevation 6585′ Alex set off at 5 am, just as he said he would. He was really averse to hiking in the heat and had vowed for very early starts…it made sense. His early start at least got me moving. It still took me an hour to do my routine. By then, the Strawbridges were long gone too. I marveled at how Georgie got moving so early each day…what 17 year old is so motivated? I never once heard her complaining about it either. She was an inspiration for us all. The trail had the profile of a stegosaurus back this[…]

Section B – 195km / 121mi, Alternates: Coral Pass – This section begins in Crowsnest Pass near the quaint towns of Coleman and Blairmore, proceeding north to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in Kananaskis, Alberta. This is one of the longer stretches in between resupply points. Except for a small portion in the north, random camping is allowed throughout. 2022 marked the grand opening of the High Rock Trail, the new official route of the GDT. As such, this part of the trail is in excellent condition. The High Rock Trail follows the east side of the mountains, running parallel to a popular ATV road. Vehicles and active forestry operations may be encountered in some parts. The route goes over Tornado[…]