Aug 1 - Resupply Day
14.0km, 959m ascent
Easy hike to the highway where we hitched 4km to The Crossing Resort where our resupply of food and new shoes were waiting for us. Paid way too much money for some food that looked bad but totally tasted delicious and met our hiker friend’s friend who delivered our new stove!!! Organized our next load of food - 7.5 day carry - and enjoyed flush toilets many times. Then, the owner of the groundsheet showed up! She’s speed hiking the GDT and we’ve actually met her and her boyfriend (who is supporting her in a van) a few times prior. We had a hunch that the groundsheet was hers and had satellite texted her boyfriend. It was great timing because they were able to drive us to the next trailhead, saving us an hour of walking along the highway.
We shipped new shoes to our resupply - look at the difference!
This brought us to the start of Section E which began with a very steep and unmaintained trail that followed Owen Creek, another creek that we would not classify as a ‘creek’. This one carved immense canyons that we had the pleasure of hiking along. The campsite was just at the treeline in a small meadow with so many colours of wildflowers!
Some parts of the trail were washed out.
Aug 2 - Best Day Yet
21.4km, 1342m ascent
We’ve been looking forward to this section because the itinerary Vivian made did not distribute the distance and elevation very well and unlike the previous sections, this section only has one day above 30km and one 4 digit meters ascent day! We actually slept in and didn’t hit the trail till 10am. We hiked over three alpine passes, each just absolutely stunning. On the second pass, which is the highest point of the GDT sitting at over 2500m, we left our bags and took an hour detour to summit the eastern peak. This might have offered the most amazing vistas yet - 360 views of peaks, deep valleys, teal blue alpine lakes, and enormous glaciers. Bill has been trying to convince Vivian to end the hike at Jasper (the northern sections beyond Jasper are really logistically irksome this year) and it was somewhere on one of these incredible passes that Vivian felt truly satisfied and content and, for the first time, perhaps ready to end at Jasper.
The gorgeous Michelle Lakes.
Small summit near Michelle Lakes, looking back on the GDT.
Small summit near Michelle Lakes, looking over the edge.
On the last descent to the campsite, we missed a river crossing and bushwhacked 500mish on the wrong side of the river before we found another safe spot to descend to the river and cross. Apparently we just can’t have an easy day!
There was a group of young social media dudes flying their drone around at camp and the noise was kinda annoying, but to each their own! The camp was a very nice lakeside spot though, and the water was only moderately cold so we were able to have a descent field shower.
Aug 3 - A Rainy Pass
31.0km, 1160m ascent
The day started with sleeping in again and getting some free food from a very kind family who thought what we were doing was both awesome and a bit nuts. We followed the Whitegoat/Cline River into the Whitegoat Wilderness Area. No trail maintenance is allowed, but the old horse track is easy to follow. There was a trail register on entering Whitegoat. It was cool to see some familiar names who were just ahead of us, and the oldest entry was from 1997!
Some very old pictographs.
Then we followed the Cataract Creek up to Cataract Pass, which is the boundary with Jasper National Park. Along the way we saw pictographs on a boulder, and our friends from section D caught up to us! It also started raining a lot, and was really cold at the top of the pass. We all rushed into camp and set up tents as quick as we could, then huddled under a tree eating dinner.
Hiking through the rainy day.
Aug 4 - More Rain
30.9km, 955m ascent
We slept in again because yesterday was a cold and hard day. Our friends said goodbye this morning because they had to exit the trail due to one of their sleeping quilts being completely soaked :(. We continued hiking to Jonas Pass during which the steady raining became horizontal and at some point it was snowing. Hell, it was cold and windy and we just hiked hard staring at the ground for hours. We passed a group of hikers while they were changing out of their boots into water shoes for a river crossing all while the rain was hammering. God do we not miss boots. I mean they have their purpose but plowing through the bijillion river crossings on this trail so far has been both a time saver and a bit of a confidence boost in dire times. We were lucky to gain Jonas Shoulder during a break in the rain, realizing that we were indeed still in the mountains! But the rain returned and continued well into camp where we so fortunately met a couple who had kindly let us eat dinner under their tarp.
Spooky looking mountain in the clouds.
Aug 5 - The Rain Stops!
30.1km, 1064m ascent
The first half of the day was as bad as yesterday. We laughed about how our clothing and gear have developed a new scent - nasty sweat AND dankness from being wet/damp for days. And we entered a section of Banff called the Maligne Pass trail which has been decommissioned for 10 years so while the trail on the ground was identifiable for the most part, the foliage were very overgrown at parts and there were again many deadfall to climb around. It almost felt like a miracle when the skies cleared for a bit as we gained the high point! We took advantage of the sun and had an alpine yard sale, as in we just laid out all our stuff on the ground to dry. This was fabulous. As we descended into the Maligne Valley, the bush got worse. The parts close to the river were particularly bad because I guess the plants grow faster with more water available. The last solid km involved hiking with our poles and arms barred in front and just ramming through bushes that were often taller than Vivian. It wasn’t too bad though because it was short and we got to see a porcupine chilling by the river.
Yard sale!
Aug 6 - The Trail Sucked Until it Didn’t
24.2km, 586m ascent
This was a short day hiking out the rest of the unmaintained trail out to Maligne Lake, which is a popular destination you can drive to. It has a lodge and everything. The trail was actually only bush-ramming-deadfall-gymnastics-bad for a few kms until just before the next campsite - someone had recently cleared all the deadfall! We spoke to a park worker who said trail crew are beginning to maintain the trail again. We had dinner at the lodge (highlight was salad - fresh veggies are so good), then walked the 5km to our camp. The short days in this section have been great because we’ve been able to sleep in everyday. Amazing. We also bought sandwiches from the lodge to have for breakfast tomorrow instead of our oatmeal concoction, exciting.
Bill wading through the overgrown trail.
Aug 7 - A Treat to Finish
27.5km, 1395m
Today we hiked along the Skyline trail which might be the most popular backcountry trail in Jasper. It was incredibly well maintained which allowed us to move very fast! The most technical section was a 300m ascent of steep saddle called The Notch. We’ve officially decided to end at Jasper, making this the last pass of our adventure, so we both called our mummies at the top with spotty reception to share the excitement a bit. The eponymous section of the Skyline was definitely the 8kmish ridgewalk after The Notch. The immediate ridge we were on felt like Mars, with rocks of various shades of reds, browns, and purples. And to either side were other massive mountain ranges, in particular the west which had the giant Divide range and icefields. We met a hoary marmot who literally just chilled immediately next to the trail nibbling on shrubs and didn’t give a damn even when we walked by him. We found this hysterical. Vivian filmed this process and had her phone about 10cm from his face at the closest point! I guess the Skyline trail is popular enough that these alpine rodents just get used to us humans. We got to camp super early and had a nap before eating dinner and sleeping more. Fab day.
The skyline deserves its name!
Marmot friend.
Aug 8 - Out to Jasper
22.8km, 229m ascent
Our last oatmeal breakfast didn’t actually taste too bad, maybe we were just so excited to be in Jasper. The trail treated us to a last 8km of beautiful alpine views before the descent. Vivian wasn’t looking forward to the descent because it was supposed to be along a fireroad. Luckily, the Jasper locals have built a trail along the road which was a huge relief for our feet and much more fun to hike. This popped us onto some day-use trails in the Jasper Valley where we meandered around some lakes for a few hours until we got into town. The rest was a blur - beer! food! shower! laundry! And now we’re laying on a real bed writing this. Incredible.
Vivian is very happy with this month of hiking. It was a great combination of challenging terrain and unreal vistas to pay for the hard work. The trail also taught her what type of adventuring she wants to so more of in the years to come. Lastly, she’s very grateful for Bill who always made her laugh tons every day.
Bill also feels it was an amazing trip, and we pushed ourselves a lot. Definitely more interested now in technical mountain stuff, as opposed to groomed trail grinds. Bill’s feet are very happy to go to a beach now. Thanks Viv for coming up with this trip!
Shout out to Daphne for trail managing, Mama Zhou for getting us to the start, all our awesome trail buddies who shared the ups and downs, and the mountain rodents who kept us giggling.