CR-2010: Truffle Pigs and the Emerald Lake Triangle

Our first stop on leaving the Canmore helipad was Le Chocolatier, an independent maker of gourmet chocolate truffles, chocolate bars, and chocolate novelties. We bought a small box of truffles as a thank-you for Valerie and Bob at Canadian Artisans B&B, who had graciously stored our extra duffels during our sojourn at Talus Lodge. (We would stock up at Le Chocolatier a week later.)

We began our drive to Field, British Columbia, where we would spend the next two nights at the Kicking Horse Lodge and Truffle Pigs Bistro. On the way we stopped at the tourist mecca of Lake Louise, parked in one of the sprawling lots, and I took this classic photo (taken by many others in better light) looking down the lake.

We needed a leg stretch and had the time, so we walked up the trail to Mirror Lake, about 1½ miles each way. As we started out, the canoe livery launched a photo opportunity for the swarms of tourists who stroll short distances along the lakeside.

Closer up,

After our walk it was on to Field. As we checked in, I took a photo of the original Truffle Pigs Café sign from 1999, when it was a small shop across the street.

The bistro displayed this chalkboard above the bar (click to enlarge to legibility):

Joan particularly recommends the soups and desserts at the bistro.

In the morning we set out with a specific plan. In 2004 we had taken one of the guided hikes to the Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This highly recommended outing involved parking at Takkakaw Falls, in the parallel Yoho Valley, climbing up to Yoho Pass from the east, and then taking the Wapta Highline, with fabulous views of Emerald Lake, to the Walcott Quarry. Return was the way we came. In a later year we parked at Emerald Lake, walked the west and north shores, and climbed to Yoho Pass from the west. Again we returned the way we had come. Having used these routes meant that we still had an fresh, unexplored trail to try, up to Burgess Pass from the east side of Emerald Lake; from there a short stroll to the Quarry spur would add up to the accomplishment of a complete loop around the lake, albeit in sections on three different hikes.

Emerald Lake is a destination that attracts crowds, so we arrived by 9:00 to find a good parking spot. We quickly reached the Burgess Pass trail, which shoots up from the lakeside in a series of switchbacks through the forest. There are no views for a long time. The climb to Burgess Pass from Field is famous for its forty-eight switchbacks, but the trail from Emerald Lake has at least ninety. I counted them. (Depending on whether you count gradual curves as a switchback; I reached ninety-four.) This climb gains 2750' in about three miles. The trail was wet and root-strewn, with lots of dripping vegetation, so we had to keep our rain pants on even though we were soon down to T-shirts otherwise, despite the chilly air. Our boots got rather wet.

Downed timber created occasional nurse logs along the trail. Here is a close look at what was eagerly sprouting on one of them.

Looking up ...

As we climbed higher the air grew colder and eventually, near the top, we reached a snow line.

At this point a small group passed us; we would see them again soon. Hiking in a gloppy mud-snow mix we reached a fork and took the left-hand path. This was not the route to Burgess Pass, but to a small cairn and viewpoint on a shoulder of the ridge. It was worth the brief detour, because it gave us good views, including this one down to Field, the Kicking Horse River, and the Trans-Canada Highway.

Zooming in on the fossil beds across the way, we saw a group approaching the Walcott Quarry. Always carry your binoculars on a hike.

We would encounter several guided groups hiking to the quarry today, which struck us as unusual. The schedule we were acquainted with from 2004 was just one group per day. Now, Parks Canada as well as the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation offer trips to the quarry (limited to 12 per group; I think it was a few more than that in 2004). We speculated that there might have been a larger group visiting the quarry which had been split into several 12-person groups, spaced about an hour apart.

The remaining trail to the pass trended downhill. I kept putting my hood up and down as light snow squalls passed through. Just beyond the pass we met the small group that had gone ahead earlier; they had intended to climb to the summit of Mt. Field today, but given the conditions, with Mt. Field wrapped in clouds, they decided instead to finish the Emerald Lake Triangle: they would continue on the Highline trail to Yoho Pass, descend to the lake, and close a long loop when they returned to the Emerald Lake parking area. It's about a 12 mile trek -- different sources will add or subtract half a mile.

We felt the urge to continue at least to the quarry spur, which would complete our collection of new trail. Once there we debated our original plan to return directly down the steep, wet, closed-in trail we had just climbed. Although it meant extending the hike, we decided to keep going and complete the Emerald Lake Triangle ourselves.

From the spur Emerald Lake began to reappear, as did some mid-day sunshine.

Another twenty minutes down the trail conditions had become cheerful, and we declared it lunch time.

This picture shows how the outflow from the Emerald Basin, below Mt. Marpole and Michael Peak, has filled the northern half of the original lake.

With a bird's-eye perspective, it looks like this:

View Larger Map

Looking closely at the outflow, you can see the hiking trail cuts across it like a ruler for about a mile and a half.

After a gradual descent along the Highline to Yoho Pass, and then a steeper descent to the lake, we arrived at the outflow. It was as if we were in a garden that grew bridges, for the spring floods both damage existing wooden footbridges and recarve and reroute the streams that cut across the delta. Half the bridges we encountered this September were high and dry, remnants from previous years, but there was always a bridge where we needed one. It was a very boring mile and a half, flat and gravelly.

On completing the loop we were tired but pleased with our efforts. We could now say that we had done the Emerald Lake Triangle in one day instead of in three parts. Our evening activities were dinner and repacking; we intended to take only two duffels up to Lake O'Hara the next day, and to leave two behind in the trunk of our Mustang. So yet again we repartitioned our belongings, focusing on what we would need or not need at O'Hara, and certainly not taking the previous eight days' worth of dirty laundry up to the lake.

Next I'll report on five nights at Lake O'Hara, the linchpin of our trips to the Canadian Rockies since we started in 2003.