Holiday in Canada July 96

Link zur deutschen Version
Home

We were a group of at first 12 towards the end only 10 people. For 28 days, from the 2 to the 30 of July 1996 we went to Canada for holidays. The trip was formulated as the 'Rocky Mountains Wilderness Tour' which in result it was.
The two highlights ot the trip were the canoe trip down the Wildhay River and the trekkingtour through the Willmore Wilderness Park.

July, 2nd: The only boaring part of the holiday is the flight from Zurich by London to Calgary, Canda. Yet we Seiss get to know each other as a group during the flight. After a very long day, because we have 8 hours time difference, we are all happy to arrive finally and to go to bed.
July, 3dr: We drive about 300 km Northwest over one of the worlds dream highways, the Icefield Highway, which leads through the national parks of Banff and Jasper. We come upon several touristic viewpoints, ex. Peyto Lake, Athabasca Falls etc. Our guide Jonny though looks for a peaceful place to lunch: Hector Lake:

Hektor Lake
Again on the road we see our first bear directly beside the highway. It is a still young blackbear. At the North Saskatchewan Crossing we set up for the first time camp and tents which are going to be our home for the next 4 weeks.
July, 4th: Today we treck about 4 hours to Glacier Lade lying on an altetude of about 1500 m. The Glacier Lake in Banff National Park is categorised as being one of the most beautiful lakes found in the Rockies. What adds to the screen of the lake is that it is not accessible by car, one must go by foot, there is no road.
We camp directly by the shore. We make our first encounter with the wilderness. During the night squirrels munch on our food, which we have hung up safely against bears, away from our camp and in a good hight of 4 meters.
July, 5th: We return the same way back to our bus. We continue by highway along the beautiful "Icefield Parkway". Along the way we come by the Columbia Icefield, Deauty Creek and Jasper. We camp on the campground in Switzer Provincial Park.
July, 6th: Today we begin our canoe trip. On Cache and Blue Lake, we practice the strokes and manouvres that we shall soon need on the moving waters. We change over to the Graveyard Campsite, which is just a couple of hundred meters away.
July, 7th: Today we practice on moving water. With the canoes we paddle from Brule Lake down the Athabasca to Hinton.
In the late evening a couple of us see three beavers which had there damm washed away by flood. We hope that they will stay anyway and not move away.
July, 8th: Today we take it easy and have much time to prepare and pack for the 6 day trip. For this long trip we have two guides who are pleased with the capability of the group. They are willing to take us on the narrow and challenging Wildhay River instead of the large and easy Athabasca River.
July, 9th: We ride the first part of the Wildhay River. We always have to pay attention, avoiding crashes with rocks and driftwood.
The only thing which reminds us of humans are two almost unused bridges,
?
?
that we are totally off in the wilderness. Whenever one moves a couple of meters into the bush, one must always be prepared to meet up with a bear. Yet if one moves through the forest and makes a little bit of noise, then normally these animals will not even be seen.
July, 10th: We paddel a little further and enjoy nature, today with better weather. We come by a trapperscabbin directly by the shore of the river. It is only atainable by canoe or either by foot through sometimes quite dense forest. Yet therefore one doesn't have the noise and rat race of city life.

Mood after Sunset
July, 11th: Today we paddle a record distance. In 9 hours we cover an astonishing distance of about 70 km. This is only possible because the melting of the snow in the mountains is about a month late and all the creeks and rivers habe a high water level, this in cause gives a fast current. We come till to the tougerther flow of the Berland River.
July, 12th: We spend this day on the Berland River. We pass by an incredible creation of erosion:

Erosion
We travel to the Athabasca River. About 300 meters before we land and set up camp we see at the shore a bear mother with two cubs. When they see us they disappear in a flash away into the bush. An animal which leaves near the highway doesn't let itself be disturbed, but out here, arriving people bring the animals in fright.
July, 13th: We paddle very little and let ourselves drift down. The large Athabasca doesn't require that much concentration.
We camp on an island, yet which doesn't give us very much additional safty against animals. Towards evening into the night there are always a lot of mosquitos. Only when it's raining do they disappear.

Mosquito
July, 14th: We paddle the last bit of the Athabasca till we reach the Mackanzie Highway near Whitecourt. We drive with the bus back to Hinton, and at once there we go to the swimming pool to wash and shower ourselves. After we go to eat pizza which we have been long waiting for, one can not just go shopping in the wilderness. In the Afternoon, we plan our next big hiking trip through the Willmore Wilderness Park.
July, 15th: With the bus we drive to Rock Lake. Because of bad weather we delay the start by one day. Therefore we have a lot of time left, intending to catch squirrels:

Squirrel
July, 16th: With one day delay we now start finally. For the next 8 days we totally depend on ourselves. It is forbidden to drive in the park with motorrized vehicals. Therefore are absolutely no bridges over the creeks. We cross the rivers wading. Today it's easy, we only have to hike for four hours and only once we must cross the Wildhay River. We all would have liked to climb up to the Fire Lookout Tower, yet because of bad weather it was canceled out of our program. We can stay overnight at the White Cabine, a ranger controle cabine. In the night a mouse munches, but fortunately only at Jonny's food.
July, 17th: Today is probably the hardest day of all. We hike about 8 houres to the Summit Cabin, compared to the White Cabine a very nice cabine, from the inside and the outside:

Summit Control Cabin
July, 18th: Today it becomes steeper. It's going up to the Jackknifepass. Here on about 2000 meter altitude there are still some remaning snowfieldy. It feels more like winter than mid July, because it is quite cold. We witness though a beautiful sunset. At night a strong wind blow up and it begins to snow lightly. There is one positive point to cold weather at least: There are no mosquitos.
July, 19th: Even thought we don't have the best weather and there is relativly little fire wood, we decide to stay here one more day. Four of us decide to hike up Mt. Ester. The mountain was named by the Canadien Wilderness School. Because of fast weather change and drifting snow we are forced to return without being able to reach tho peek. In the night the wind starts up again and it is a little bit colder than yesterday. The snowfall is a little harder than the night before and the snow stays till mid afternoon:

Snow-covered Mountain
July, 20th: Because of bad weather we only reach the confluence of the North Berland River and the Snow Creek. We regretted not to hike up the Snow Creek valley and the next day to hike back on top the mountain ridge.
We have now much time left to relax, yet we don't find much to do and sadley we didn't bring any games to play on the trip. So we have the idea to carve dice, and indeed they resulted quite pretty.
July, 21st: Today we finally enjoy good weather. We treck along down the North Berland River until we reach Sunset Creek. We cross today 24 creeks and rivers and 8 mud holes in which we have to wade through:

Easy Creek Cross
The problem is not that there are so many creeks, but that the river winds and twists through the vally and the trail goes strait through. Most of the people that come to the Willmore ride on a horse back, so they don't matter if they have to cross a creek. There dogs though have some more difficulties.
July, 22nd: We hike today to the South Berland River, crossing 22 creeks and rivers and only 6 mud holes. Ther river therefore is getting higher and higher, for some, the river has already gotten quite high enough. We keep our water shoes on for the whole time. We were happy about our second pair of shoes that we were carring with us all the way long. We have a little bit of time so we build ourselves a sauna. Out of willow we build a large fire in which we heat up stones till they begin to glow. These stones are than brought in the igloo, then we poures a water mixture over them to make steam.
July, 23th: Today we hike out of the Park near the Berland River. It was planed to camp one more night in the park yet this was voted againts by the majority. We have to cross the river 15 times, and the very good weather makes it easy. With the bus we return to Wildhorse Lake from which one can see Mt. Roch Miette above Pocahontas:

Mt. Roch Miette above Pocahontas
July, 24th: Today we visit Miette Hot Springs. Too bad that it's built just like a normal swimming pool and not simply left naturally. They used to be simply pools of hot spring water left to themselves. We stay overnight at Lake Annette, another beautiful lake in the Rockies near Jasper.
July, 25th: On bike we ride from the Maligne Lake down to Jasper about 50 km. On the trip we meet again a motherbear with two cubs. The last bit we ride on a single track trail which at first follows the Maligne Canyon and later leads back to the Highway. Because the trail is very dry our bikes raise so much dust, that the last people can't hardly see anymore.
July, 26th: We drive a couple of kilometers with the bus where we can observe another joung bear. The 20 km long stretch through the Wabasco Valley with the five lakes to Jasper it tecnically quite demanding. We have super weather. We camp again at Wildhorse Lake.
July, 27th: The end point of our hike today is going to be the Miette Hot Springs. On the way up we see from the highway a bear. On foot we want to go up the Utopia Mountain. Because there is no trail and the mountain is to high, we climb up the back face of the mountain beside Utopia. Once on the top we realise that the mountain is a tourist attraction by the hot springs. Downwards, we prefer the normal tourist trail, which seems for us like a large road.

Squirrel
July, 28th: The bus brings us to Edmonton. We spend all our time shopping in the West Edmonton Mall. This is actually the largest mall in the world. Here you can do and get everything: Roller coasters, bookstores, banks, an ice rink and so on. Too bad it's Sunday so most of the stores close at 5 pm. During the week one can shop at many places till 10 o'clock in the evening.
July, 29th: We bye the last souvenirs. Now it is finally off back home via Toronto and
July, 30th: London to Zurich, which is not easy for some. It was realy fabulous! Actually we would all like to start again. All what's left are the fotos and the wunderful memories.