We are officially back from our 5 year anniversary camping trip! It seems like whenever I plan a trip something always has to go awry. Who knew you needed to have your passports with you if you were planning on crossing the US border?! OOPS! What a test of our marriage though! Instead of getting angry at each other we worked through it. We weighed our options, 1) drive 16 hours there and back to get our passports and continue on our planned trip or 2) cut our losses (we had paid for campgrounds across the border) and explore our home country. This was tough for me at first because I love to plan and hate when plans don’t work out the way I had hoped. It took me a little while but I finally put it into perspective. The point of this trip was not to see the coastline or the California redwoods, though it would have been a nice backdrop I’m sure. The point was to work on our MARRIAGE, to have time ALONE, to have time TOGETHER, to be ACTIVE, to UNPLUG, and to RECHARGE. None of these were going to happen if one of us was driving while the other slept. We let go of our original plans and made a new plan: to fly by the seat of our pants.
Our first night was spent in Waterton. The following day we drove part way up a small mountain and then hiked the Lineham Creek trail. The trail was gorgeous, starting in a wooded area and continuing through some open meadows with great views of mountains and valleys. We followed it over streams and through paths that had rather steep drop-offs until the final view of a beautiful waterfall. We were fortunate to meet some more experienced hikers at the end of this trail and learnt some incredibly beneficial information! For example, we should really carry bear spray when hiking in the mountains; probably should have a backpack to carry food, water, and extra clothes if we did a more difficult hike; and what the best stops, drives, and trails were between Waterton and Banff.
Upon the guidance of our new hiking friends we chose to check out Lussier Natural Hot Springs next. After all we weren’t opposed to “a little bit of gravel road driving” that is until the “gravel road” turned American Loggers on us with a steep drop on one side of the narrow lane and a rock wall on the other. Needless to say we powered through but I’m sure glad Scott was driving since I’m sure my vertigo would have put us right over the edge! If you are ever on the 93 south of Radium Springs be sure to stay at Whiteswan Campgrounds and check out the Lussier Springs. Our campsite backed out onto a serene glacial lake at the base of a mountain for only $18/night! The natural hot springs are truly a step above the pools that Radium and Banff offer. Four different rock pools with four different water temperatures and a blue-green glacial river rushing in the background is truly relaxing.
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| Lussier Hot Springs |
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| The "gravel road" to the hot springs. |
Despite all these amazing adventures so far, I have to say my favourites were in Banff. Upon arriving in Banff around 4pm on Monday we set up camp at Johnston Canyon campground, bought bear spray, and set out on a 1.5 hour stroll through Johnston canyon which was highly populated compared to the Waterton trail and we probably didn’t need the bear spray! It did offer spectacular views of multiple waterfalls, some educational facts about the creation of canyons and limestone, and a surprise visit with some friends from home!
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| My favourite waterfall of Johnston Canyon |
As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, the activity that I wanted to do the most on this trip was hike. But after our new hiking friends mentioned a mountain that you could actually SUMMIT in just 4 hours, we both set a new goal to summit Cascade Mountain near Banff. The mountain has an elevation of 4,392 metres, what an accomplishment! We began our day by driving up Mount Norway to the ski lodge parking lot around 9am. The trail led us down Mount Norway to a bridge that connected to mid-way up Cascade Mountain. From there we began a steady climb. When I say steady I actually mean every part of our legs, buns, abs, etc were in pain. The slope was easily 45 degrees on the easy sections and ranged to close to a 60 degree incline. The first 3 hours of our climb were spent in heavily forested area and towards the end we were becoming rather discouraged at ever reaching the end. We took turns using our precious breath to encourage each other and make noise to deter wildlife encounters. It was all worth it once we finally reached the edge of the thick forest and were able to see the view.
I found the next part the most difficult in terms of conquering my fear of heights. From the concealed forest path with trees to block my view of how high we were actually climbing we switch to open stretches of rock piles that showed exactly how high you were and how far you could plummet to your untimely death. As long as I didn’t look behind me I just kept climbing. I pushed that voice that said “look how far you are going to fall” to the back of my head and chose instead to tell myself “don’t think, just do”. And guess what?? I DID! We made it to the summit of Cascade Mountain right around lunchtime and sat down to a snack amongst a view so extravagant and magnificent that I wonder how people dispute God's existence. His Glory was surrounding us from every angle and in every way.
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| The pile of boulders and shale that we climbed to reach the top |
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| WE MADE IT! |
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| The small white buildings in the background was our starting point. |
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| Banff in the background. |
As much as I wanted to soak in this glorious view and experience at the top of the mountain, I found my mind wandering to how on earth I was going to make my way down this mountain. Going down was my stumbling point. I have often become overconfident and climbed a ladder onto a roof, or ended up in various other viewpoints from which I have had to be carried down from or have crawled away from an edge. I honestly had a picture of Scott carrying me down this incredibly steep, rocky slope to the safety of the covered forest. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same vision as I did. So we began our climb down and one rock at a time I DID it AGAIN! The slope down raged against both of our knees and we were very thankful to reach the car at just 4:30pm. We can officially say that we summited Cascade Mountain in just 7.5 hours!!
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| On our way down. Very, very slowly. |
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We sumitted the peak on the left. It would have been another 4 hours total to get to the other peak and back.
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After a full day of climbing we were sore to say the least and wondering how we would conquer another hike tomorrow morning. We were thankful when we received a message from Scott’s parents to come back home to our girls who were missing us. As much as I work-out at home and stay fit, nothing compares to working every muscle in your body at the same time while consuming less oxygen at higher altitudes. To those of you who are feeling unchallenged in your workouts or like you need a new perspective on life, go climb a mountain!
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