CR-2010: Lake O'Hara (part 1)

Day One

The parking area for Lake O'Hara is a short drive up Kicking Horse Pass from Field, and just off the Trans-Canada Highway. We had plenty of time to meet the morning bus in; the access road, about 7 miles long, is for use only by lodge or Parks Canada (camping and day-trippers) buses. Or cross-country skiers in winter!

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It was a drizzly day, but we made good use of it. Our lakeside cabin would not be ready until early afternoon, so we took off for Lake Oesa with the bag lunches supplied by the lodge. It was familiar territory, but rewarding to see again. The weather made it a photo-free hike, but you'll see plenty from the next day. We returned to our cabin mid mid-afternoon to unpack (a slow-motion explosion) and clean up for dinner. Here's an exterior picture of our cabin taken later in the visit.

Here's the interior before we redecorated with the contents of our duffels.

Today's easier hike was welcome after the long Emerald Lake Triangle trek the day before. Joan and I discussed options for tomorrow, all dependent on which kind of weather would blow in.

Day Two
The weather promised to be decent, at least at the start of the day, although there would always be the possibility of a squall blowing through. Our pigs were ready to go.

Our first stage was to climb from the lake to Wiwaxy Gap. While still at the lake level I grabbed this photograph of the cabins on the north side of the peninsula, including our own.

The climb to Wiwaxy is steep, starting with tight switchbacks up the side of a gully, then working through ledges and the last of the trees, including an old giant (which I must get a photo of somehow next time), and then more slogging above the treeline to reach the gap. Our previous week of hiking clearly had a training effect; we reached Wiwaxy in 1½ hours, a good time for us.

From the gap we took the Huber Ledge alpine route (blazes painted on rocks rather than a clear trail) towards Lake Oesa. Shortly after setting out, but not strictly in the gap any more, I took this panorama. You can see the peninsula with the lodge and cabins jutting into Lake O'Hara at far right, and Lake Oesa at far left.

The Huber Ledge route is a gentle downhill towards Lake Oesa, and we stopped for lunch just short of Oesa. (The cookies available to put in your sack for lunch are one of Joan's top 5 highlights of these trips.) Here's a view coming up on Oesa.

We would be just passing by Lake Oesa and continuing on, this time on the Yukness Ledges alpine route. While passing through the greenery at the lake we encountered a thrush.

Here's a snapshot of a couple starting out on that route ahead of us.

Looking forward as we started on the Yukness Ledges we could see Wiwaxy Gap (the low spot in the ridge) and where we had been.

Near the first "corner," before the trail drops a couple of levels and starts to head west, we encountered a pika who felt so secure in his tiny valley among boulders that he munched contentedly even as we watched. They are usually reluctant to be observed for long. The white ear liner makes a strong fashion statement.


The midpoint of the Yukness Ledges trail offers long vistas, looking down the length of Lake O'Hara and, to the left, Mary Lake, the entrance to McArthur Pass, Odaray Grandview, Duchesnay Basin ... many, many landmarks.

The Yukness Ledges trail ends at the Opabin Plateau, and here we began to descend back down to the lake (on the East, not West, Opabin trail). On the way we were observed warily by a hoary marmot. There was also another pika, but I won't overload you with pika pictures. Yet.

Then a cleanup and another great dinner at the lodge.

Day Three
We decided to hike up to Lake McArthur, and see then what we felt like doing next. We started up the Big Larches trail, perhaps a bit less direct than the trail that starts at the Elizabeth Parker Hut, but we enjoy the combination of boulders (with potential for marmot and pika sightings) and larches. The morning started out with an extremely low ceiling.

The marmots and pikas were not awake yet, and we climbed higher. At McArthur Pass you decide whether to go to Odaray Grandview (a limited number of parties is allowed each day, to respect the bears), Lake McArthur by the high trail, or by the low trail. This year we saw something new: near the sign-in box for those going on to Odaray Grandview, there was an automatic camera. Now, is that for the humans or the bears and cougars? Or both?

We decided to go out the low trail and back the high trail. Wait, are those mountains?

We walked on and the pockets of clear air grew larger and more frequent.

One pika clearly had been assigned guard duty.

We arrived at Lake McArthur, which Joan reports was her father's favorite spot.

Here we rested, ate lunch, and enjoyed an interactive floor show with the ground squirrels and chipmunks. They are accustomed to humans, and to check out your crumb-dropping or morsel-tossing tendencies, they adopt one of two approaches. Some will approach you directly in fits and starts, moving a few feet at a time, pausing after each burst to strike a pose that has proven adorable in the past. If you don't do anything, they come closer still. Others prefer the indirect route; they will walk around behind you, still some distance away ... nothing to see here, just a browsing rodent ... and then sneak up on you when you're no longer looking at them. It grows into quite a game. If you poke at one with your walking stick to discourage it, it will first nibble on the tip of the stick to see if it's edible. When your location becomes too popular, the alpha squirrels will chase away the chipmunks and squirrels of lesser status.

Eventually we began climbing back down. From one shoulder we spied Schaeffer Lake from above, smack in the middle of the pass.

Down near the lake level, we saw this fellow. His presence explained a lot. We had heard other hikers speaking of a "marmot in a tree." It was hard to imagine one of those chunky tail-twitchers climbing a tree, and here was an explanation: a chubby squirrel.

There was a pair of diving ducks on the lake itself.

We chose to return by the Big Larches route -- it is much more interesting -- and the view was much brighter than in the morning.

The light and warmth had brought our furry friends out of their stone hideaways. In particular, there was a pair of marmots that we observed for several minutes. They were busy harvesting greenery and carrying it back to a burrow not far away; they would disappear into the trees with a mouthful of vegetation and reappear just seconds later, ready for more. Here one scans the clearing. You don't want to divulge the location of your winter burrow by being observed!

I don't think they were concerned by this pika on a nearby rock.

Our long lunch and critter pauses had used up much of the afternoon, so after a brief investigation of Mary Lake we called it a day. And had another great dinner at the lodge. Speaking of which, there was a change to the system this year. Joan called it "speed dating." In earlier years, you would mostly likely be sitting at a table for four or six, your tablemates chosen by the lodge, and there would be gradual turnover as people left and people came in. Now you have different tablemates every evening, which worked very well. Some years it seemed we kept bumping into lawyers, but this was a year for doctors at dinner.

In the next post I'll complete our visit to Lake O'Hara.