David Flowers' Alberta Trip Report
Here's a brief report from our Alberta
trip. Bob Bollinger and I traveled along the Alberta/British
Columbia border from August 16 thru August 26.
It was a fantastic trip. Bob and I had
a great time. We spent 5 days dayhiking and traveling
along Hwy 1 through Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.
We also drove down the British Columbia side from Field
down to Radium Hot Springs.
We then backpacked in the Kananaskis
for 3 days on route that crossed two passes and took us
from Alberta to BC and back.
I had new boots, the Asolo Fusion95
GTX. They worked out great. Good traction, NO BLISTERS!
even when thoroughly soaked.
I also had my MSR Whisperlite almost
start a new forest fire. Apparently the fuel tube gasket
had cracked and allowed fuel to escape along the feeder
tube. This caught fire around the pump assembly but I
was able douse the whole thing with water and we escaped
major catastrophe. This was Bob's first experience with
someone using a Whisperlite. I don't think he got a good
first impression. Bob brought his Sierra Zip stove. It
worked great, even with damp wood.
I also tried a new coffee maker. A "Backcountry
Bistro". It's a big insulated mug with a french-press
style top. You dump your coffee grounds in, pour in hot
water and let it sit for a while. Then you push the plunger
down and supposedly you get coffee. I really didn't work
very well and make a pretty big mess to deal with the
wet grounds. So I'm back to square one finding a way to
get good coffee on the trail.
Some of my highlights from the trip
were:
Spending time on the Athabasca Glacier
and a smaller glacier called the Angel Glacier. We pretty
much had Angel Glacier to ourselves. Explored a small
snow cave and found an old stuff sack with a can of Budweiser
in it.
We spent some time at Takakkaw Falls.
The day before we got there, a Cessna 180 Bonanza float
plane had crash landed on the riverbed right near the
falls. The pilot escaped injury. It was pretty surreal
to see these majestic falls with a crashed plane in the
forefront.
I really enjoyed the town of Canmore
much more than Banff. I thought the setting was better
and less tourist-infested.
I think we did some hiking in almost
all of the major parks in that area. Kananaskis, Peter
Loughheed, Banff, Jasper, Yoho.
© David Flowers 08/15/01 |
