Parker Ridge

Wed 17th Aug. Well we finally got to use our duvet that we brought in Kamloops last night, temperature got down to 5°C, however the day has just been stunning. Firstly we hiked across the road to do the Forefield Trail which lead onto the "Toe of the Athabasca Glacier". It certainly sad to see how much these great rivers of ice are retreating. There were bus loads of people going onto the Glacier to do ice walks, we will hopefully do this in Alaska. Doug then enjoyed his first coffee since leaving NZ, at the highest Starbucks in Canada, at the Icefield centre which is at about 2000 m altitude. We then drove a couple of kms down the road for our second hike, The Wilcox Pass. This took us up and back towards the Icefield Centre, so we were looking towards the Athabasca Glacier again. A good trail. Stats are: 9.36 km, 2 hrs 8 minutes active, and 476 m elevation gain. After a sandwich for lunch it was onto the next hike, 6 km down the road. The Parker Ridge trail, this was a steep track with switchbacks to the top, which then flatten off and could walk along for views of the Saskatchewan Glacier. Hike stats are: 6.69 km, 1hr31 active, 341 m elevation gain. It was then carry on south down the Icefield Parkway admiring the mountain views a long the way. Stopped at what we thought was the Bridal Veil Falls, there was a rocky track about 300m along a river to where we thought the falls were, on the way there a couple walking back told us you couldn't get to the falls unless you clambered up and around a rock face. Anyway we got talking to this couple from San Diego, the gentleman initially said he was 31 - on questioning his age he revealed it was 92, (his partner looked about 25 yrs younger) and he is still getting out and about in the outdoors. We decided to do this trip now while our bodies were still able - maybe we still have 30+ years of adventure left in us - let's hope. Anyway we didn't see the falls and carried on to our campsite for the night at Waterfowl Lake. This is a first come campground and we thought we were out of luck but managed to find probably the second to last site. The lake as we drove passed it on the road looked so inviting and even at 6.30pm it was very warm and sunny, so it was togs on and down for a quick dip because the water was not so warm. On the way back to the van we were stopped by a Belgium guy at one of the campsite asking if we would verify he was at this campsite as he was going for a Guiness World record for the fast time to handpedal bike from Anchorage to Mexico. That's what is so neat about traveling you meet some amazing people. Anyway Doug suggested we start recording our daily steps, so today's is 36189 / 37814 (Doug's/Vicki's)Read more