Glacier clad peaks, lakes and waterfalls in a three day trip along one of the Rockies premier alpine trails.
Takakkaw Falls Parking Lot to Yoho Lake to Twin Falls to Takakkaw Falls Parking Lot, September 3 – 5, 2020.
I was super excited to explore Yoho NP with Siobhan during her summer visit in the time of Covid. Hiking/backpacking is a great way to spend time together but it is relatively easy to stay socially distanced from others. I am also quite fond of the idea of adding a very short first day to make the most out of the following days on the trail. By leaving Canmore after work at 3:30 pm and doing a short 4.5 km hike up to Yoho Lake we would already start the second day in the backcountry and would not have to use up time on day 2 driving to the trailhead. I feel that by tacking a short first day onto what is really just a two day hike really transforms the entire trip without really adding much time to the trip. You spend a good deal of the extra time sleeping so why not sleep in a tent as opposed to at home.
I had mapped out a route around Yoho and and first we were spending our second night at Laughing Falls CG. I kept an eye on the reservations and was happy when I was able to switch my booking to Twin Falls CG. While this would add 4.5 km to our second day I knew it would only add about one hour to our day since I hiked the section when I had visited Yoho with Volcano in July.
Staying at Twin Falls would also give us lots of options. On day three we could just hike back to the car, we could go to the Twin Falls Day Use Area, we could hike up to the top of Twin Falls without packs or take our packs and hike up to the top of Twin Falls and complete the hike up and over the Whaleback. As it would turn out we would visit the top of Twin Falls with only a day pack and then return to the campground to grab all our equipment before hiking out to the car.
I made the decision to not bring either of the dogs on the trip. We had an amazing trip last year to Floe Lake with both Links and Volcano. This year Links was just not up to backpacking and I felt that our second day was just too long for Volcano.
The trip went off with only one hitch. I trusted Siobhan to bring the beer. I even gave her the cans. But she forgot them in the fridge. I should have trusted her with something not so critical to the success of the trip, like the tent. Somehow we did survive.
Like my previous visit to Yoho NP I am in awe of this amazing park and cannot believe it took me so long to visit it.
What we learned:
- You can survive a summer backpacking trip without beer.
- Even during a time of social distancing you can carry on conversations with people safely.
- Adding non dried food to your dehydrated meals really adds to the flavour.