Grizzlies + Mosquitoes + Rain = Awesome

After Lake Louise we headed to Calgary, where we stayed two nights and caught up with friends.  First night was a legendary evening of smoked meat, homebrew and craft beer with Neil, Corey and Chris of the Calgary Yeast Wranglers (homebrew club) - and being in the SW of Calgary it also allowed us to miss the hailstorm in the NW that broke car windows!  The second night was with my law school friend KJ, her husband Mike and new baby Paasha.  Unfortunately, we were having too much fun to take any pictures!

So let's skip directly to my first overnight backpacking trip to Deception Pass and the Skoki Valley, which is just behind Lake Louise Ski Area.  We stayed at a Parks Canada site called Merlin Meadows, which is about a kilometre past the classic backcountry Skoki Lodge.

If you know me, you know that for most of my life I have been more of a city girl.  So how would I fare on my first backpacking trip?  In short, it was awesome, but not without adversity in the form of bears, bugs, and rain.

Geared up and ready to go.  We were lucky enough to skip bit of the hike - four kilometres on a dusty, boring, steep dirt road - by hitching a ride with the folks heading to Skoki Lodge.  (Thanks again K Lo!)  Only 11 km to go!  We weren't going to let a few occasional raindrops and ominous black clouds get us down as we headed out.

Backcountry trails.

The Halfway Hut, which is not at all halfway to Skoki.  I guess "Third of the Way Hut" didn't sound quite as catchy.

Beautiful Ptarmigan Lake.  By this point the sun had come out, I had conquered some uphill with my pack on, and I was feeling pretty damn good!

Looking back on the lake.  Those pesky dark clouds seem to be following us...

Atop Deception Pass, just over 8,000 feet!

Looking down over the Skoki Lakes.

Just after we got over Deception Pass and headed down into the valley, the dark clouds finally caught us and an electrical storm replete with thunder and lightning passed directly overhead.  Luckily we were able to take refuge under some trees and hadn't been caught on the barren alpine pass where there is nowhere to hide.

Skoki Lodge was built in the 1930s by the local ski club, and was apparently the first ski-specific backcountry hut in the Canadian Rockies.  It is now owned by the Lake Louise Ski Area, and provides beds and meals to hikers who want to carry less gear (but only to overnight guests).  In other words, hikers with more money than us!  Will and Kate (the UK royals) also stayed here when they came to Canada last year!

This is the McFrothy Lodge, built in the rain in 2012 at the deserted Merlin Meadows campground.

Given the small size of the McFrothy Lodge and the continuing rain, we headed back to the Skoki Lodge to wile away a few afternoon hours.  We sipped peppermint tea, chatted with the friendly hosts, and Chad played the piano, which was airlifted to the lodge in 1982 in -40 degree Celsius weather.

Alas, we couldn't stay at Skoki Lodge forever, so we headed back to Merlin Meadows in the rain.  Chad cooked me dinner in the downpour while being eaten alive by mosquitoes; the campsite has no shelters.  The rain started around 4 pm and continued throughout the night until about 6 am.  To add insult to injury, it didn't even keep the bugs down!  Luckily my camp chef is a hardy outdoorsman who prepared me dinner without complaint, even in his wetted out Gore-tex jacket.  And there's the small matter of the bear, but more on that later.

Refreshed (somewhat) the next morning and ready to hit the trail!  Thank heavens the sun came out for the hike down.

Looking towards Merlin Lake.  We didn't make it there as we wanted to catch the Skoki Lodge shuttle at 3 pm.

As I mentioned before, there's the small matter of the bear...  This is a fresh grizzly print on the trail between Merlin Meadows and Skoki Lodge in the morning on our way out.  On our way in the day before we ran into some people on the trail who said they had heard that there was a grizzly in the Merlin Meadows campground the night before.  Apparently it ran into the camp, snagged a ground squirrel, and ran out.  It's fair to say that this story freaked me out.

But, sadly, that's not all!  There was only one other tent at Merlin the night we were there.  Those campers (parents and their ten year old son) were on their way to Merlin from Skoki Lodge when they encountered a grizzly on the trail.  They retreated to Skoki Lodge, and the grizzly followed them all the way back.  Eventually (from the safety of the lodge) they saw it go the other way, and they headed back to Merlin.

After I spent a somewhat sleepless night listening to every crackle of the bushes and drop of the rain, we saw this print on our way out.  Chad stopped to take a picture while I readied myself to sprint to Skoki Lodge with my pack if necessary!

Goodbye Skoki Lodge.  We will be back one day when we have jobs and can afford you.

So they weren't joking about that bear thing...

Looking back toward Skoki

Heading up Deception Pass.  It was apparently so named because you keep thinking you're almost at the top, only to find out that you've been deceived and there's farther to go.  This wasn't the case on the way in, but definitely was on the long, slow uphill on the way out.

Horses carry supplies up to Skoki Lodge.  So every second step you're dodging horse doodoo, but it disperses quickly in the sun and rain.

Lunch on the shores of Ptarmigan Lake.

We made it down!

Celebratory Thai curry dinner at K Lo's place - well deserved after conquering the rain, the bears, and the mosquitoes.  Despite those bits of adversity, we had a fantastic time on our hike!  It was a great practice trip for our longer Mount Robson hike to follow. (Stay tuned.)