Mule Shoe Lake

Tue 30th Aug. After the day in the city yesterday it was great to be back in the mountains. We planned on doing the Bourgeau Lake / Harvey Pass Trail, 9.7 km one way, elevation gain of 1020 m. The trail was excellent up to the waterfall about 4 km in, good gradient and not to rocky or rooty. After that the gradient increased slightly to the lake. The lake was very pretty, set in a glacially carved amphitheater. After photo's we carried on to the Pass, a further 2.2km and 300 m elevation, this was alot steeper and walking over shingle, passing another 2 small lakes. Once at the Pass (2454m), we could see a trail going up Mt Bourgeau (2930m), and people at the top, so of course we had to climb it - who wouldn't want to do another 500 m altitude gain over 2.1 kms! It was slow going for me, Doug looked like he was on a Sunday stroll. The views at the top were well worth the effort. Yesterday I did a Facebook post and mentioned the never-ending mountains, and that was certainly the case today, everywhere you looked there was mountain after mountain, also a view of Banff to the east, and up one of the valleys to Sunshine Village where we hiked on Sunday. After a bit of time up top absorbing it all in, it was time for the quads to get hammered on the 11.6 km downhill trek back to the carpark. Arrived back at the van, please to get the shoes off and a can of cold coke. Hike stats: 23.74 km, active time 5hr 53, elevation gain 1483 m. Didn't see many animals today, but Doug got excellent video of a red Squirrel up a tree, harvesting pinecones - fascinating watching him do it - have included a small snippet of it. Steps: D 38825 / V 40018.Read more