Waterton

Stuart and I spent 5 days over the long weekend in Waterton International Park. Overall, it was a great visit; the landscape is stunning, the weather was acceptable, but the people were infuriating. We were too late to get back country camping passes, so we decided to stay in town and do day hikes. All weekend, we watched our fellow campers leave coolers, bbqs and boxes of food outside and (in one memorable incident) Stuart saw a guy bring his cooler out of the tent he was sharing with his three kids! Keep in mind that not only is this in the mountains, but an area of high bear activity. The deer in town are like the hares on campus: numerous and not afraid of humans. We watched over and over as kids tried to trap and pet the deer, including fawns.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's nothing like a chance to get back to nature to really make you hate humans. Stupid gits.

Other than the idiots, the other stand-out feature of Waterton was the wind. It's apparently one of the windiest spots in the country with blows over 100km/hour coming quite frequently. Thursday and Friday were crazy windy like that, although it died down over the rest of the weekend. Our humble car camping tent definitely held it's own though. On Friday night, the poles were bent so flat I got wall fabric in the face as I was sleeping, but they didn't warp or snap.

We drove down on Thursday following the Cowboy Trail again, but this time Stuart was driving, so I got to see more. As we were setting up camp, we realized that we'd done a less than stellar job of packing. We forgot our pillows, I forgot pajamas, some of the food we'd planned to bring, the list went on... sigh. So we drove back to Pincher Creek and hit the Walmart.

On Friday, we got up in plenty of time to catch the ferry across the lake to the Crypt Lake trail head. After the agony of our trip to South Kananskis Pass, we'd done some work on my boots that seemed like it had addressed the problem. Unfortunately, by the time we were half way up, it became apparent that blisters were going to be unavoidable and I made the call to head back down and save my feet. At approved "ultra trail runner" pace, Stuart made the top and was back down in about 3 hours.

Stuart's ex, Christa and her beau Brian were staying at the same campsite, so the next day we did the hike up to Wall Lake. (After a quick trip to the local outfitters for a pair of light weight dayhikers, which were on sale - read regular price anywhere else!) We saw a couple of bucks on the trail up and a doe at the top; all of them pretty unconcerned about humans, but they didn't like Cody the chocolate lab. The lake itself is well named, being situated at the bottom of a pretty much vertical mountain side. I don't know for sure how tall it was, but it sure went UP!

On Sunday, Stuart took off from Red Rock Canyon to do the Snowshoe loop and I walked the canyon before hiding in the car from the pounding rain. Stuart was back early, having hit the poor weather without his full complement of gear and deciding to turn back. As a bonus though, he got to see a cinnamon Black bear sow and her two cubs - twice! No pictures though... We walked up to Blakiston Falls together when he got back and the rain had slackened off.

Monday morning, it was time to pack up. We checked out the Cameron Falls at the end of the campground finally and hit the road by 10:30am. We drove through the buffalo paddock, but they were cunningly situated in the center of the road circle, so the view lacked a little something. To make up for it though, we stopped at Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, which neither of us had seen in years. It wasn't spectacular, but it was kinda fun.

And from there, we made our way home. Phew!