You know those times when you think you’ve got a REALLY good idea, only to find out later that MAYBE it wasn’t the best and the brightest way forward?
We decided to tackle a fishing hole that is a little alpine lake on the great divide in-between the Alberta and BC border. To optimize our fishing, we thought the belly boats strategically strapped to our backpacks would be a great way to access more fishable area of the lake when we got to the top. All the other poor suckers could fish from the lake edge, HA! Laughing with glee, I thought about how great an idea this was as I packed my heavy waders and equally heavy and outdated flippers into my pack.
So on a hot Saturday morning, we started our hike to the divide. It started as an unassuming, overgrown logging road that was supposed to be approx. 10km (a little over 6 miles) to the lake. So we started with a brief but cold river crossing…
Then the unassuming logging road turned into a steady uphill climb until we came out of the trees and slowly started to climb up a scree slope. After the scree scramble and some of my finest choice words, the last leg of the hike was a series of chains anchored into 70 degree rock slopes.
All most there! I think I wanted to turn around at this point 🙂
What the!.. After the scree scramble we had to scale a series of chains and rock slopes to finally drag ourselves to the lake…
So, we may have underestimated the hike… but the fishing was spectacular! And love ’em or hate ’em, the bellyboats were worth their weight in gold (no pun intended 🙂 ) However they were deflated the minute we packed for the hike down, which was considerably faster and less painful than the path up. All in all the experience was memorable and vista’s spectacular but I was very jealous of the hiking group that we heard had chartered a helicopter in to tour the alpine.
Finally at the top!
The last shot is especially spectacular! I would love to do this hike with you some day!!
There are better hikes! But I agree we need to go and do one of these 🙂
Brandy, I feel your pain about underestimating the effort it would take to get to that lake…been there, sworn at that. I tell you, your photos are absolutely spectacular. The last photo is great. I’m a teensy bit jealous of that day out…it will be a memorable one.
Thanks Cheyenne! Isn’t it a beautiful place? I could have stayed there longer and we did get very lucky with the weather, the stars up there at night were amazing!
what’s the name of that lake/hike… it looks like an amazing trail! (don’t think I’d be as willing as you to do it with that much on my back tho)
The hike is to Carnarvan Lake in AB. I think with a daypack on it would be a great little trek! We may have overdone it as well, lol
Cahhh-razy! But looks like it was a LOT of fun once you got there! Beautiful photos!