TAKE A BOW
My
favorite dayhike from the 2005 trip was a hike to Helen Lake and a scramble up
Cirque Peak. The view from the summit is
still the best I’ve ever seen. I was
tempted to do that hike again on this trip, but wanted to focus on new
territory. For Monday’s hike, I came up
with a compromise. Bow Peak is in the
same area as Cirque Peak. In fact, it is
just on the other side of the Icefields Parkway, just
south of Bow Lake. The hike offered a
new experience, but promised more outstanding scenery.
This
hike is described in the “Don’t Waste Time In The
Canadian Rockies” guidebook. It promised
to be steep and difficult, with quite a bit of off-trail scrambling. Christy decided to skip it, in her ongoing
effort to preserve her knee. She planned
to spend the day in Banff, swimming and relaxing at the hot springs. She drove me up to Bow Lake, where we turned
around. From there, we measured the
distance of 0.9km to the pulloff closest to the
beginning of the trail to Crowfoot Pass.
There is no official trailhead or parking area, so from that point I
walked down the shoulder of the Icefields Parkway
exactly 370 paces. I found the trail
there, right where the book describes it.
It starts down in the brush below the road, so it isn’t really visible
if you are just driving by.
I
followed good trail through deep forest to the outlet at the south end of Bow
Lake. Finding the starting point of the
hike was my first challenge of the day.
Crossing the Bow River was my second.
The river is knee deep and wide at the outlet, but fortunately the
current is mild. The trick is crossing
at the widest point, before the river channel constricts and the current
strengthens. I made it across without
any trouble, but that glacial water sure was cold! I was changing back into my boots on the far
side when a guy came by on a paddle board.
He was out cruising Bow Lake, and appeared to have the whole thing to
himself. It looked like a great time,
and something Christy would’ve enjoyed.
I
hid my water shoes near the ford since I didn’t want to carry them to the top
of the mountain and back. From there I
continued on good trail, above but parallel to the river. After another ˝ mile or so I reached the
tributary stream draining Crowfoot Pass.
I rock hopped the creek and began the climb to the pass. This stretch of trail was decent, but
unmaintained. There were lots of fallen
trees to avoid, but no major obstacles.
In fact, this trail is in pretty good shape overall even though it isn’t
an official trail. It doesn’t even show
up on most maps.
I
cleared tree line and crested the pass a few minutes later. Before the pass, I was treated to nice views
north of Bow Lake and Cirque Peak. Once
through the pass, snowy peaks in British Columbia lined the horizon. Unfortunately it was a hazy, smoky day, so
photography was pretty hopeless.
From
the pass, the route to the summit is up a steep face covered in boulders. After lunch, I headed up a talus slope. Eventually the talus gave way to boulders. I zig-zagged around
a lot in an attempt to find the easiest terrain, but I don’t think I
accomplished much. There was no easy
terrain, just bad and worse. The key was
to avoid the largest boulders and the most awkward footing. Falling down the mountain was only a minor
concern, as twisting an ankle or breaking a leg was the major hazard.
Early
on I learned not to pull on the rocks above me.
Some of them were loose. Pulling
the mountain down on top of me wouldn’t be helpful. On a couple of occasions I started to get
“sewing machine” leg syndrome. That
forced me to stop and rest, as rock hopping up that slope in that condition was
an accident waiting to happen. Somewhere
along here I had something of an epiphany.
It felt like gravity was trying to pull me back down to the bottom of the
mountain, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Gravity was my friend. It is what
was holding me onto the mountain. From
that point on, I embraced my new friend gravity, which helped me focus on the
climb.
I
passed an older couple about half way up.
At first I thought they were on their way down. We chatted briefly, and they told me that
they had made it that far before conceding.
They didn’t look forward to the descent.
I didn’t either – going down through all of those boulders would be
tedious and awkward, if not downright dangerous.
I
finally reached the summit ridge, but the footing didn’t really improve. More rock hopping lead upwards. The views from here were fantastic, despite
the haze and smoke. I continued along
the ridge towards an obvious pinnacle. The
last few minutes were easier, and I reached the peak at 2:45, after starting
the hike at 11am. I took a long break
there to enjoy the 360 degree view. The
summit register was gone – only the lid is still there. I only
spent a few minutes up there before starting the hike back. Christy was planning to pick me up around 5,
and I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get back down. If I took the same route, it would be slow
and tedious since I would have to think carefully about every single foot
placement.
LET BUBBA SLIDE
I
started back down the ridge. After a few
minutes I encountered another group of hikers on their way up. They were surprised to see me. Apparently they’ve done this climb several
times, and had never seen another person previously. I had eyeballed a couple of steep scree
chutes on my way up. They were pretty
steep and full of loose rock and dirt, but I thought they might be doable for
the descent. I asked the other group if
that was how they planned to descend, and they said it was.
I
reached the top of the first one and decided that it couldn’t possibly be any
worse than the route I had ascended. It
was basically a controlled slide all the way to the bottom. I’d get up a little speed, but then the
accumulation of dirt and scree would slow me.
I’d dig myself out of the debris and start another slide. Part of the way down I actually crossed a
minor ridge to get into the next chute.
That one comes out a little closer to Crowfoot Pass, so it seemed a bit
more convenient. Plus, I figured the
group I’d met would be coming down pretty soon, and that inevitably means that
they would be kicking a lot of rocks down ahead of them.
The
long slide down to the bottom was a little tedious, but much better than the
route I had ascended. It was much
faster, too. By the time I regained the
trail at Crowfoot Pass, I thought I had a chance of making it back to the road
by 5:30. My hike back was fast. In fact, it was almost fast enough to be
called a run. I encountered a lot of
deadfall, it barely slowed me down.
Ankle high trees were hurdled.
Hip high trees were vaulted.
Other obstacles I gave the Mississippi Half Step, or the Alabama Shake,
or even the Georgia Brown. I’ve had
“runner’s high” a few times in my life, and this was similar. I wasn’t quite running though, so I guess
I’ll have to call it “hiker’s high”.
Since
I was in deep forest I had to be concerned about bears, especially since I was
keeping a brisk pace. Since I was solo,
I had to find a creative way to make noise.
I must’ve been hungry for Mexican food, as I would periodically shout
out “burrito” or “quesadilla” or “salsa”.
By the time I reached the Bow Lake outlet I was pretty much focused on
margaritas and fried ice cream.
I
switched to my water shoes and splashed across the outlet. I was concerned that the water level would be
higher since it was a hot, sunny day (which causes more glacial runoff), but
the difference wasn’t noticeable. I made
the final dash to the Parkway and walked up the road to where Christy was waiting
for me. I was 30 minutes late, but I had
warned her that my 6-hour estimate for the round trip was pretty much a wild
guess. It is a good thing that I had
descended the scree chute and had hurried down the trail. If I had been much later Christy would’ve
worried.
We
returned to camp and grilled steaks for dinner.
We rounded out the meal with potatoes, broccoli, beer, and a pleasant
campfire.
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