Today’s picture was taken where our festivities began -- at Moraine Lake. Most people say that Moraine Lake is the second most beautiful lake in the Canadian Rockies, behind Lake Louise. We saw both lakes today and I have to say that “most people” are morons ... which of course doesn’t surprise me in the least. In my mind the race isn’t even close. And yes, the water really does look like that. For those of you who’ve never spent any time around glacier-fed lakes, the blue color is attributable to “glacial flour”. Basically, the glaciers grind down rocks, producing a suspension in the meltwater that forms (and colors) the lakes. The first time that Paige and I were really exposed to it was 18 years ago when we hiked in to Iceberg Lake during our first trip to Glacier National Park. To us, the experience of seeing and appreciating these lakes and rivers never gets old.
After putting Moraine Lake behind us, we set off on a hike to Consolation Lake. The initial part of the trail crosses a large boulder field and, while, taking my sunglasses off and putting them away, I rolled my ankle in a rather big way. Awesome. For the whole three-hour circuit to the destination and back I kept hoping things would kindasorta return to normal. They didn’t. Double Awesome. The good news is that it’s not quite as purple as I figured it would be. The bad news is that now I’ve gotta decide whether to do the planned hike tomorrow at the Icefields and risk screwing it up more (which definitely would rule out the much longer route I have planned for Reagan and me on Friday morning) or bag the Icefields hike entirely and hope that I’ve healed up enough for the longer trip on Friday. I suspect we’ll go with Door #2, but I guess we’ll just have to see.
Lame old man feebleness aside, the trip to Consolation Lake was terrific. Kids had a great time. Cool destination. Beautiful country. The Moraine Lake region has more grizzly activity than other areas in the park, and for all of the trails in this area groups are either encouraged or required to hike in tight bunches of no fewer than four people. If you don’t have a foursome, you’ve gotta make one when you get there. Ahhhhh ... hiking with strangers. Fabulous. Anyway, I figured the trailhead would say REQUIRED today as there was some activity over the weekend, but that wasn’t the case. Wouldn’t have mattered to us, obviously, because we ALWAYS have more than four. Plus we have the Secret Weapon (Hunter). Y’know, if we were to send Hunter up here every summer I think they could add an asterisk to the instructions at all of the trails in this particular system.
*If you have engaged the services of Hunter Wilkins, you may ignore all warnings and hike in as small a group as you wish. You may proceed as quietly and stealthily as you’d like, as he will more than cover the noise requirement for you. You may also feel free to grease your boots with bacon drippings and eat barbecued ribs on the trail, casting the bones and unused sauce behind you. He is an unpaid intern, so tips are appreciated.
Returning to Consolation Lake, I knew it was supposed to be a cool hike but I hadn’t remembered that the trail terminates at yet another boulder field -- this one at least ten times bigger than the one we crossed at the outset. No joke. Better yet, this one does NOT have any sort of trail route through it. If you wanna cross it or play around on it, that’s your business. And returning to the subject of Hunter, that most definitely IS his business. When we arrived, his eyes were like dinner plates. This boulder field is absolutely massive. I seriously think that if we had a house on the edge of this area, Hunter would get up with the sun, pack a lunch so he didn’t have to waste any time coming back at midday, and return as the last shred of sunlight was fading into the distance. He could jack around on these huge rocks forever. And given that a fair amount of my time on ANY trail route is spent telling Hunter and Hadley both to please-get-off-the-rock-does-that-look-like-it’s-part-of-the-trail, they both were in Heaven when I said that they could cross the field as far as the water.
Paige, however, was not particularly thrilled.
There was a window of time several years ago when a series of students and student-athletes who are now some of our very best friends were spending a lot of time at our house -- babysitting, eating all of our food, hanging out, whatever. In no time at all, they picked up on the fact that Paige is a very careful person who is extremely interested in the well-being of her children. Obviously, this a terrific / necessary quality for a mom to have. But that didn’t stop these well-meaning young men and women from developing two labels for Paige -- Safety Director and Fun Patrol. Anytime the kids would do something deemed fun (to them) and slightly unsafe (to Paige), these people -- actually this PERSON ... let’s call it JennaRobynLukeNickiStuSarahSuzz because really what’s the point of changing names to protect the guilty -- would shout out “Fun Patrol!!” Sometimes they (it) would even make the sound of a police / ambulance siren. Can you imagine such behavior?
Well this evening, the Fun Patrol / Safety Director was not AT ALL thrilled with her crippled tour guide’s decision to let the three older kids do a 150-yard free-form boulder field scramble to the edge of Consolation Lake ... nor was she happy when said guide followed them over ... nor was she happy when said guide returned to her and suggested that Hollis could make the trip too, with appropriate supervision / portage, and that it would be good for him. But for the most part, she kept the police siren under wraps and even made the journey across herself. Was she happy when all four ducks were safely back on flat land? Most definitely. But I think she deserves a lot of credit for enhancing an experience that, for whatever reason, they can’t stop quacking about. Was it just the boulder field? Was it the marmots (the kids are rodent freaks and a rodent the size of a small terrier is almost too much for them)? Was it the fact that while we were taking a couple of pictures, two separate avalanches exploded from one of the amazing hanging glaciers at the far end of the lake? I dunno. But it definitely was a red-letter day as far as they’re concerned.
Thursday around lunch we’ll shove off for the Icefields Centre.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by.
Mike
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