Our last hiking trip of the season was the Heather Trail in Manning Provincial Park. Eric, one of our hiking friends from the Bugaboos did it shortly after we came back from that trip and said it was a beautiful trail, lots of alpine flowers and the trail itself was not too difficult. So when Glenda asked us if we wanted to go on an overnight hike on Labour Day weekend, we thought why not. It might be a little late for the flowers but the views from the alpine would be magnificent. Not once when I was packing up my stuff did I think, Oh there might be snow. I knew it was going to be cold and I knew there was a chance of rain but if you told me there was going to be snow, I would have not believed you. Well, there was snow, and it was wet and it was cold and it was windy and if it wasn't for Glenda and Eric, I'm sure I would have had a meltdown and made Tim turn around and go home. I was cold and my feet were soaked (I foresee a trip to Mountain Equipment Coop in the near future) and I was really doubting if I would be able to make it all the way to the Kicking Horse campsite.
Time: 9:54:56 (just made it under the 10 hours that my Garmin usually lasts before the battery dies)
Distance: 27.25 km (doesn't include the 1 km we walked after supper to get more water and to hopefully warm up)
Minimum elevation: 1785 m
Maximum elevation: 2132 m
The beginning of the trip - Glenda packing up her gear. Notice the snow on the ground and on the trees. The temperature wasn't too bad then and I was hoping the clouds were going to break up and bring us some sun.
As you can notice from this picture, the clouds were not breaking up and the sun wasn't coming out.
The clouds did break up later on in the afternoon but by this time, my feet were soaked, my pants were wet from rubbing against the grass on the side of the trail and I was not a happy hiker. I think it was at this time I said a few not so nice words to Tim.
I perked up once we got to the campground and I was able to wring out my socks and wrap my feet in garbage bags. Plus a cup of hot tea certainly hit the spot. I eventually relented and put on my down booties. I didn't want to put them on because I was afraid they would get wet and ruined but let me tell you, my feet were toasty warm when I put those on.
It was a rough night. I couldn't get comfortable and was cold, even though my sleeping bag was good to -18 degrees (and it certainly wasn't that cold). So needless to say, I didn't sleep well but I was very proud of myself in that I didn't whine to Tim or wake him up when I had to go outside in the middle of the night. I got a good couple of hours sleep close to the morning and when I woke up, I was looking forward to a hot cup of coffee and packing up and going home. I had rewrapped my feet in plastic for the hike back and for the first little while, it seemed to work. My feet didn't feel that wet and they weren't too cold. However, there must have been a breach in my system because as time went on, my feet were getting wetter and wetter, but the good thing was they weren't getting any colder. There wasn't any view hiking out but since Eric had done the trail before, he told us what we could see, if we could see it. Sounds like it would be magnificent and I hope to do the trail again in the future (but earlier in the season).
It started to rain the last part of the hike and I was so happy when we reached the parking lot and was able to change into semi-dry clothes and get those wet boots off my feet. The warm dry truck felt like heaven and the trip to Cowboy Coffee in Princeton ended the trip off on a high note.
Oh, Tim just informed that this may not be the last overnight hike of the season. I think he has some ideas up his sleeve for our trip to Utah this October...
