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, Lheidli T’enneh, Ktunaxa, Secwepemc, Sinixt 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.
Laura was gone for the week moving kids into university accommodations leaving me with a free weekend with Margaux. I scanned the trails close by and first found availability at Twin Falls CG in Yoho for Friday evening and then snagged a site at Yoho Lake CG for Saturday. I was pretty happy with the booking considering that this was the Labour Day Long Weekend. Twin Falls was a great book since it was a relatively short hike and I had to work on Friday making for a late start. What I did have going for me was that for this school year I had my spare first semester in last period meaning I could escape school just after 2 pm.
Since it was going to be a short hike, just two days. I decided to splurge on the food for both Margaux and myself. I cooked up some sausages and added a few sausages to Margaux’s dinners for the two nights. Then for the second night I cooked up a real meal for myself and the plan was to leave the meal in the cooler in the back of the car. My plan was to hike the Whaleback in the west end of Yoho NP then hike back to the car to pick up our food for the evening and the morning then head to camp at Yoho Lake. This meant that I could take real food, as opposed to dried, and both keep it cold and fresh and not have to carry it around for two days thus lightening my pack. To ensure that the cooler stayed cold I froze a block of ice in an old ice cream bucket that we used to use for Volcano’s food. When canoeing in Canyonlands in Utah I learned that a block of ice will keep a cooler cold for up to four days. Perfect I thought. As an added benefit it would ensure that my beer would be cold for the second night. This is actually important when camping at Yoho Lake since the water in the lake is spring fed the lake is not actually cold making it difficult to chill my beer.
On Friday everything went to plan. We were out of the house and on our way by 3:00 pm and hiking at 4:30 pm. Our first day to Twin Falls CG was very short at just 6.5 km so I was completely comfortable with the late start.
Day 2 did not go as well with smoke blowing into the valley. As we arrived back at the car to pick up our dinners the smoke was getting thicker. We had had such a great couple of days out I decided that I really did not want to spend time sleeping in the smoke so we bailed on camping at Yoho Lake and went home.
Despite leaving early it was a great couple of days on the trail and Margaux is such a fun hiking partner. I do feel I am going to have to work on slowing her down more when moving down the trail. Margaux expends a lot of energy pulling the human attached to her up the trail. On day two while were going up to the Whaleback we averaged 4.5 km/h over 4 km while rising nearly 500 m. The 4.5 km/h was all Margaux as I do not hike that fast on the flats by myself.
What we learned:
- need to be careful about Margaux getting wet before bed. She walked through a stream then shivered through the night. Thinking of getting a new jacket or bringing a blanket to put over her in addition to the fleece jacket she wears
- The plan to use the car was great, but even without the smoke I could tell Margaux thought we were done. She would have been confused if we kept going. Probably will not try the car strategy again.
- Margaux needs to learn to walk slower or not pull so hard on trail.
- Adding mandatory breaks was a good idea to let Margaux keep up her energy on trail.