July 13 - Zero Day
Met lots more GDT hikers at our inn. A group of 4 old dudes, and a solo hiker that Vivian had actually met years before through her job at the time. Small world!
Did laundry, ate lots of yummy, non-camping food, and prepped for the next section. Good beer.
July 14 - Coleman to Window Mountain Lake
27.8km, 1380m ascent
First 10km was road walking (highway, then dirt roads). Our friend from the inn slept in AND THEN got a ride that skipped this part. Damn!
The Crowsnest.
Met a group who were members of the GDTA (Great Divide Trail Association) who had helped build the trail we were on (this ~45km segment was just officially finished this year). God bless them.
Window Mountain indeed has a hole in it! Very cool.
We shared our camp with some even older hikers who were doing part of this section southbound. They were like, life goals! The oldest was Marg who was 77! The second oldest was another Marg who was 75ish! They’ve ski toured the divide!!!! They laughed at how much food we carried and we goggled at their various ultra lightweight gear.
July 15 - Window Mountain Lake to Dutch Creek Road (random camping)
29.2km, 1290m ascent
Sunrise at Window Mountain Lake.
Woke up way too early to catch the sunrise colours on the mountain, they were eventually very beautiful. We hiked and camped with a dude named River who has done the trail 4 times! He also supplied the GPS data in the app that basically everyone uses, and is friends with the guy who literally wrote the book for the trail. Pretty cool guy, and we got lots of trail beta from him. After talking to him we realized we need to completely revamp our plans for the last sections (north of Jasper). Still not sure what we'll do.
There was also another tent at our campsite, but they were already inside when we got there.
July 16 - Dutch Creek Road to Hidden Creek
24.1km, 1170m ascent
Mystery tent had already gone by the time we woke up! Trail started as an overgrown ATV trail. We lost our brand-new lightweight water filter at some point, and Bill half fell into a deep muddy track. Not a great start to the day.
After recouping at a campsite, we tackled Tornado Mountain. Well we didn't have to summit it, but we gained its 2,450m saddle (peak is just over 3,000m) in a fun day of bushwhacking, following sheep tracks, and scree climbing (The Margs did this!!!) Viv enthusiastically picked some wild onions which she predictably forgot to actually use during dinner. Camped again with River and the mystery tent.
Bushwhacking around some avalanche debris.
Tornado Mountain.
Looking back from Tornado Shoulder.
July 17 - Hidden Creek to Memory Lake
25.9km, 1560m ascent
Long and hot day with lots of elevation gain and loss. Didn't get as far as we wanted, but were too pooped to tackle the next pass. In the night we heard a rockslide up in the mountain which woke both of us up - spooky!
Also our tent door zippers fell off and we had to fix it before we could open the door again. Currently this problem is being prevented by strategic gorilla tape.
July 18 - Memory Lake to Etherington Creek
33.3km, 1630m ascent
Rainy, cold day today. But compared to the heat we had before, this let us hike hard for much longer! Longest day yet! The softer wet ground was also nice for our feet.
We met the mystery tent people (they had been leaving camp at 5am in order to get the kms in before the heat of the afternoon).
July 19 - Gear Mishap and Exit to Canmore
17.8km, 455m ascent
Bill's inflatable mat developed a problem in the night. The seams started popping, creating a bug bulge at the chest, which made sleeping really hard. After a bad night we decided to exit to Hwy 40 and hitchhike to Canmore, which is the closest place with an outfitter. That's where we met Paul, who went an hour out of his way to get us here! :D We also saw big horn sheep in the road.
Plan is to hitch back down hwy 40 to Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, and start section C the day after.
Decided to spent an appalling amount of money for a hostel in Canmore instead of camping for the night. Well worth it.
July 20th - Accidental Zero
Spent the day hitching back to where we should have been, missing one day of the trail. This was a blessing in disguise because the part we missed was mostly road walk, and the rest was much needed. Had a great dinner hanging out with many GDT hikers (all of whom were taking a zero the next day so we were the earliest to leave the party). Their support crew was the wife of one of the hikers, and she brought ribs for us all! We shared inReach (satellite phone) contacts with everyone so we can send them any beta of the trails ahead.