back in college it seemed like we would pop up to Canada every semester or so! …(Since ya know the drinking age is 18)
between the iconic lakes, Tim Horton’s, the jagged peaks, and the maple bacon poutine… I absolutely had to go back.
I scheduled 10 days of vacation from work for August, planned an adventure filled itinerary, and… then slammed a tree so hard (while mountain biking) I ended up on crutches!
Nothing was broken (I mean I think.. I never actually went to the doctor) & frankly it was comical how sausage-like my quad looked!
while it hurt like hell, absolutely nothing was stopping me from a trip to the Canadian Rockies!
& a couple weeks later we were OFF! the truck was packed up, the routes planned, and the reservations were secured.
here is our planning document, if you are interested:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h5IGvX222j1dfXXRvu98_tLmI2U5_XcHdX2zivRu7o4/edit
as always, they thought I looked suspicious at the border, but we soon made it to some good ‘ole canadian candy shops, an ATM, and to our campsite for the night.
we settled into camp, somehow caught a baby mouse (and cared for it for hours), and drank a couple of beers to celebrate that vacation had begun!
after a great first night, we headed to the canadian backroads to find the bugaboos. we found the trailhead, and then secured our vehicle from the terrorizing porcupines.
no joke, they have sticks & chicken wire set out to wrap your car in- OR- the porcupines will chew your brake lines! seriously, look it up.
cole and i planned to climb while in the bugaboos, so the 5.6 mile/ 3,251 ft elevation gain hike (with all of our heavy gear) was quite the hike!
I used my hiking poles as crutches, took a lot of pretty pictures, and made it to the top. look at this view from the tent!
oh, also- we only packed our (big, heavy) zero degree bags for the whole trip so we were backpacking with these massive sleeping bags- haha!
we had a chill night & the next morning we realized we didn’t have the right gear to do the route we wanted to do & didn’t have enough time to try something else. we ended up having a nice & slow morning while watching sunrise & hiking back down the next day.
check out the hike: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canada/british-columbia/kain-hut-trail-to-applebee-campground?u=i
once we got down the mountain, we booked a rafting trip on the Kicking Horse River & hit the town. i don’t have any pictures pf the raft trip- but it was a blast!
next up, we spent a few nights at a cheap little cabin in Spillamacheen. it didn’t have potable water, but it felt pretty good to shower & sleep on a bed!
just a tiny town with a sweet local crag to climb at. we actually ran into the (one) guy who has bolted all the routes!
after our nice cabin getaway, we headed into Banff NP and were shocked by how many tourists were there! i had only been to Banff in the off-season, never summer. damn! it felt being in a shopping mall on this hike, but i still was able to get this picture by extending my arm out over the edge.
finding spots to park & camp was a STRUGGLE with all the people, so we ended up waking up at 4am one day just to see the famous lakes.
we got lucky and were even able to climb above lake Louise- what a treat to have this view while climbing up a big rock!
the next day, we wrapped up the adventure with a massive 10 pitch climb. it was a hell of a hike up to the climb, good section of scree with the worry of bears. the climb itself was RAD, and the rappel had a breathtaking sunset for the view. i took most of these photos while still on the bolts (on the rock wall). really lucked out to be able to climb all day, with nobody around, overlooking the bow river, amongst the canadian rockies.
great send off back to the states! thanks again to cole’s parents, for watching ‘ole piñon bear while we climbed in the canadian rockies.
can’t wait to go back, who wants to join?
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