A Walking Report 21

Dear Reader (2020-10-02),
Tuesday September 29, 2020 – Larch Valley to Sentinel Pass Trail < 10k – out and back

I’ve now gone beyond stupid o’clock. When I wake at 2:17, I declare the time stupidest o’clock. Today, I’m off to walk at least part of the same trail I walked with Liz and her daughter 11 days earlier. There has been snow and wind since that first walk, which should have cleared out the smoke experienced that day. Around 3:15, with coffee in hand I’m headed west. It is just me (or so I think) and the long haulers out on the Trans-Canada at that time of night.

Somewhere a little west of the park gates (Banff National Park), and before the first of the Banff exits, a semi truck is driving east on the shoulder of the west bound lanes with its lights flashing. Well that is odd. Was this planned or not, how, and why? I drive on in my padded cocoon listening to Mark Gruber talk about the location of consciousness. It is around 5, when I slow down for another small set of flashing lights. A cyclist is pedaling along the highway. He doesn’t look like a traveller. He looks more like someone on his way to work. I give him a virtual tip of my toque.

Around 5:30 I make the now familiar left turn off Lake Louise Drive towards Moraine Lake. No one is controlling traffic. I am no longer alone in my cocoon, there are over a dozen of us all in a line driving towards the parking lot. 45 minutes later, my head lamp is on, and I’ve started the climb to the wooden bench that marks the fork in the trail between the one to Eiffel Lake and the one to Larch Valley . By the time I reach the bench the stars are gone and the false dawn has begun. Maybe I might be able to get to the largest of the Minnestimma Lakes before the real dawn. I increase my pace.

I choose not to huff and puff my way to the top of Sentinel Pass. Instead, I spend nearly an hour and a half in the alpine before walking back to the truck. The trail is busy on the return walk. Once again, so many people appear to be unprepared for a walk in the woods. By the time I get back to Lake Louise Drive, there are RCMP constables controlling access to Moraine Lake.

The second set of images is a point of comparison, and comes from the walk of September 18 (click here for A Walking Report 19). Well good people, you and I are now at the same place – walks and reports are now all current . I am not sure when my next walk will be, but I have ideas on new approaches. After today my bar for my craft is a little higher.

---

As always all comments are welcome and sought.
Cheers, Sean

All rights for all material on any media reserved – © Sean P Drysdale 2020-2024