And then there were two...

AUGUST 18 - The Crossing

Sadly, five days ago in Lake Louise we said goodbye to Paolo and Bev as they decided to stop hiking the Great Divide Trail and bussed back to Vancouver. Bev's nagging hip injury had gotten worse and she had stopped enjoying the hike so after much soul-searching and discussion with Paolo, they decided to call it quits. So now it's just Christy and me trekking through the mountains on our way to Mount Robson. We miss both of them and really noticed it on the last section of trail which had us hiking through some very remote areas.

We left Field last week and hiked through the western area of Yoho National Park, up and over Amiskwi Pass and did not see anyone else on the trail for several days. Just before the pass, Christy said to me, "Brad keep your eye out for wildlife because I smell something funny."
I looked at her strange and mere seconds later, charging down the trail towards me, were two young grizzly bears. They hadn't seen me and appeared to be playing or racing or something so I shouted out and immediately they skidded to a stop about 30 feet away. Christy and I both pulled out our bear-mace, but after a quick sniff and look at us the bears ran off into the forest. We continued on, loudly and cautiously but never saw them again. But the area is ripe with berries and we saw bear scat often.

After that scare, we hiked further that day than expected but the beautiful blue-sky sunshine kept our spirits high. The next day we took on the role of explorers as we headed up on the David Thompson Heritage Trail, an original fur-trading route into BC 200 years ago! We enjoyed the first bit of the hike but as we climbed towards Howse Pass, where we would cross the continental divide again and re-enter Alberta, the trail became very overgrown and difficult to walk on. In fact, the next day of hiking as we descended from Howse Pass we walked for more than 6 hours, covering a mere 10 kilometres, struggling up and over hundreds of fallen trees while wading through the flooded glacial water of the Howse River. Quite the adventure!

Tomorrow we head off towards Jasper and only 3 weeks left on the Great Divide Trail. The weather forecast looks good and our legs and feet are feeling pretty good... just time for one more steak dinner tonight!