The birth of Salty.
I would like to acknowledge that this hike past through the ancestral and traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples. The Blackfoot Confederacy, Tsuut’ina, Stoney (Ĩyãħé) Nakoda, Cree, Ktunaxa, and Métis who have called the Rocky Mountains home since time immemorial. I acknowledge the many Indigenous Peoples in Canada whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations and I am grateful to be a visitor in these lands.
Sunshine Village, Banff NP to Interlakes Trailhead Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, July 30th – August 5th, 2025.
Year two of what is becoming an annual group trip. I would classify a group trip as being group of three or more with at least three unrelated hikers comprising the group. Otherwise it would be more of a family hike. In 2024 I did groups hikes with two separate groups. This year the three younger hikers from 2024, my kid Micah, their partner Anfin and university friend Jordan were not able to get time off in the summer so we combined the two groups from last year. Bent who hiked with the youngsters last year got to be introduced to the boys, my teaching colleagues Spencer and Ken along with Ken’s brother Neil and best friend Chris.
I was tasked with planning the outline for the trip. I quickly came up with a couple of route options. The first option was hiking Section B of the Great Divide Trail from Coleman to Upper Kananaskis Lake. A big plus for the route is that there are no camping permits required. A serious drawback for the route is its lack of flexibility. The hike requires 9 – 11 days to complete and it is very challenging to get a resupply or find an exit during the hike. The second option had us hiking from Sunshine Village in Banff NP to Upper Kananaskis Lake with a day or two at Mt Assiniboine. This route would include reservations for both Parks Canada and Assiniboine Provincial Provincial Park but a major benefit was that while it was 9 days there were multiple access/exit points. The second option was the easy choice selected by everyone. That suited me as I had chosen the second option because not only is it a great hike but it would allow Bent to complete Section C of the Great Divide Trail. Bent and I met on the Great Divide Trail back in 2021. Bent had started his hike at Sunshine Village and had hiked the north portion of Section C, before completing both Section D and E finishing in Jasper. We met briefly at Yoho Lake Campground but started hiking together on Section E when leaving Michelle Lakes.
For the trip I wanted to incorporate a couple of worthy side trips, Northover Ridge and a full day at Mt Assiniboine. My first inclination was to head northbound (NoBo in hiker talk). I pulled my Northover intel from a married pair of Great Divide Trail thru hikers who put together Youtube series on their hike, Rockymountain Scrambler.
My initial plan was to start at the Rawson Lake Trail Head and go up and over Northover Ridge to Three Isle Lake, then head up to Turbine Canyon and possibly spend a day visiting the Haig Glacier, then over North Kananaskis Pass and up to Mt Assiniboine for day before heading out to Sunshine Village.
I was trying to keep the hike to around 8 days. Below are my first iterations.
It was pointed out to me by Bent that by doing Northover Ridge first meant that we would our heaviest packs for the hardest part of the hike and that we should do the trip southbound (SoBo). Spencer put together the following elevation profile for the hike heading NoBo.
The 27 km day caused some discomfort with some of the group members so I added another day bringing the total up to 9 days.
Our first day southbound was only from Sunshine Village to Howard Douglas Campground which is a distance of just 4 km. When I had laid out the route my intention was to start the hike from the base of Sunshine Gondola and hike up the Healy Pass Trail and then up to Sunshine Village via Simpson Pass before heading to Howard Douglass CG. For the group members who did not live in the area I thought this would be an opportunity for them to see an area they may never have a chance to visit. My plan was overwhelmingly vetoed. The group preferred to have a late start and just go to Howard Douglas to shorten the hike to Og Lake Campground.
The biggest obstacle to our plan was booking campsites at Mt Assiniboine Provincial Park. The primary objective was two nights at Magog Lake Campground but we also were thinking of Og Lake Campground which is just 6 km short of Magog. The challenge for booking at Magog Lake is that BC Parks have a 90 day rolling booking. In comparison the bookings for campgrounds in the National Parks are all completed sometime in January. So if we were unsuccessful in booking at Mt Assinboine we would have to rethink the entire hike despite having all of our Parks Canada bookings.
Leading up to the booking date I was practicing booking at Og Lake Campground and I managed to secure four sites for three days so I booked it. The next day a couple of us secured Magog Lake for the dates we were hoping for. All of a sudden we had a embarrassment of riches for camping near Mt Assiniboine.
The discussion went back and forth on what the plan should be until it was finally decided that we would break into two groups. Ken, Chris and Neil would take the late start on the first day and camp at Howard Douglas. Then continue on to stay at Og Lake Campground before arriving for one night at Magog Lake Campground.
Spencer, Bent and myself decided we would make a dash for Mt Assiniboine by hiking all the way to Og Lake Campground on the day 1. Leaving a mere 6 km to hike in the morning to Magog Lake Campground at the base of Mt Assiniboine the following day. I figured if we woke up early at Og Lake we could be at Lake Magog before 9 am giving us almost the full day to explore the area. Before spending a complete day in the area the next day.
A last detail to organize was to decide how we would deal with the trip up to Sunshine Village. We thought we had two choices hike up the gravel road or take the gondola for $60 each. I had hiked up the road with Siobhan and Links back in 2017 when we did a quick one night trip to Howard Douglas since dogs are not allowed on the gondola. The hike up the road was dusty and hot and not very stimulating. Since on this trip we were trying to make to Og Lake in one day we really could not afford the time to hike up the road so we figured the gondola was worth the price.
As luck would have it one of the teachers at school had a spouse who was working for Sunshine Village Ski Resort and was able to arrange rides up to the village. Cost was only much appreciation and some adult beverages.
With the trip details sorted out it was time to get in shape with some hiking and organize my camping gear and food.
With my back issues setting down in April I had finally been able to start getting back into shape hiking and running. I was not going to be in tip top shape for this trip as I had a busy non backpacking summer planned. At the beginning of July we went to Revelstoke, BC, to trailer camp for a week. We did do some hiking and I used a weighted backpack to try and help me prepare for the backpacking trip. I do recall during one of the hikes not feeling very confident that I was in the shape I was hoping for the backpacking trip. After camping we went to Europe for a river cruise on the Danube. It was an amazing trip and I did run almost everyday but it was not as intense as what maybe I should have been doing but at least it was something.
A common discussion that goes around our group, and the hiking community in general is the shoes vs boots debate. I was getting tired of the refrain that under heavy loads you should be wearing boots so I looked on the internet to see if there was any research into the topic. I did find a US Army study that found that there was no difference in injuries between wearing boots or shoes. It really just comes down to personal preference but there is no magic pack weight number above which you should wear boots or below which you should switch to shoes. For me backpacking in the summer I favour non-waterproof trail running shoes. They are light, breathable and dry fast.
Another frequent topic that pops up on trail involves stoves and fuel. I clearly remember Spencer asking me if he should bring a second can of fuel, 227 g, on the trip. Bent got things focused when he said he got 27 burns out of a can of fuel consistently. To track the number of burns Bent utilized the very simple method of scratching his fuel can with the edge of his stove after each burn. Both Spencer and Bent use the Soto Windjammer which is currently the top rated stove on many websites. I had my 10 year old MSR Pocket Rocket for all my summer activities. During the fall after the backpacking season I purchased a new and very inexpensive stove, the Fire Maple 103 as a replacement for my aging Pocket Rocket.
After the hike in the fall I did a little boil test using Spencer’s stove and my two stoves. I measured both the burn time and the before and after weight of the fuel/stove combo when boiling 500 ml of water.
The final results where interesting. The amount of fuel used did vary a bit but there was not a big difference between the three stoves. The Windjammer did come out on top with the ancient Pocket Rocket slightly outperforming the Fire Maple.
My takeaway from the tests is that if I consider I usually do two burns a day I can get 12 days out of a can of fuel. The more expensive top rated Windjammer would net 13 days. So for me a trip around 11 days I would be able to use the small can of fuel. Definitely for a trip under 10 days I would be good using the smaller can and still have the ability to have a couple of bonus burns for mid afternoon bonus coffee. Having a baseline of how long the fuel is going to last will help take the guesswork out of future planning. As far as a comparison between stoves it was Spencer who said something to the effect “it really does not matter what stove you have, the brand of stove will not make or break your trip”.
I had a slight incident when baking my on trail snacks. The Latte Bars that I love were a last minute idea and I was a little short on baking supplies and time. In my rush I accidentally poured into my mix a cup of salt instead of sugar. I did realize quickly that what I had poured in was not sugar and scooped it out. I thought I got most of the salt out and I did try the Latte Bars after baking to make sure that they tasted OK. While they did have a slightly salty taste to them I thought that they were edible and would be fine on trail.
I have never been good with knots but on this trip I had purchased a lightweight tarp which I thought would be good for setting up to keep an area dry during dinner if it was raining. I found a great little website, Mom Goes Camping, that had a great page dedicated to knots. I used primary Tautline Hitch knots but did put Bowline Knots to use on trail.
Just prior to the hike Ken said that his group would be cutting the trip short and leaving after camping at Big Springs, which was two days after visiting Mt Assiniboine. While this was a bummer a benefit was that Ken’s wife Katherine, who was picking them up, could bring us a resupply which would be handy in lightening our loads just a little. Since he would be home Ken did offer to pick us up after we completed our hike which meant that Laura was off the hook.
Bent arrived the day before the hike and I had already purchased a few supplies for him that he could not bring with him on the flight. We were ready to go. Next up a fragmented Group hike 2025.
What we/I learned:
- Slow down when baking, salt is not a substitute for sugar, and while a hiker needs salt too much salt is a bad thing
- Communicate with your hiking partners, they will understand and help
- Do not camp in the low point of a drainage even if you think it won’t rain that much. It will rain more than you expected or wanted.
- Tarps are great in wet weather.
- Rain pants are amazing when walking through wet overgrown trails.
- Mt Assininboine never disappoints.
- Carefully consider where you pitch a tent especially the drainage and think of the worst possible rainstorm when evaluating your tent site.
Day 1 Sunshine Village to Og Lake CG
Day 2 Og Lake CG to Magog Lake CG
Day 3 Day in Mt Assiniboine Provincial Park
Day 4 Magog Lake CG to Marvel Lake (Big Springs) CG
Day 5 Marvel Lake CG to Wild Camp Palliser Pass
Day 6 Wild Camp Palliser Pass to Turbine Canyon CG
Day 7 Turbine Canyon CG to Interlakes Trailhead Upper Kananaskis Lake