Hiking Canada 2023: On to Lake O'Hara

Day 6

Joan and I awoke on July 16th, 2023, and drove up Kicking Horse Pass to the Lake O'Hara parking area. There, the AM lodge bus arrived and disgorged the departing guests. Then it took us and the other arriving guests up the 11km fire road to Lake O'Hara, where we picked up our bagged lunches and set out on hikes while rooms and cabins were being prepped. Joan and I decided on our traditional first hike, up to Lake Oesa. This map shows our outbound route in yellow, with the alternate first chunk of return in green. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

I grabbed this image from the footbridge at the outflow of O'Hara, looking up the lake setting for the cabins and lodge. The blue skies were beautiful after all the smoke we'd encountered since landing in Canada.

I didn't take many pictures at first, despite seeing a pika, a marmot, and a distant view of a mountain goat, but to honor Lawrence Grassi is mandatory.

The trail passes the shore of Lake Lefroy, the last lakelet before the final climb to Oesa.

A staircase of stones is involved, and the sedimentary rocks reveal the ancient beach-side history of this land; the altitude of Oesa is 2,276 meters or about 7,400 feet.

Lake Oesa stretches at the feet of peaks that reach or surpass 11,000', such as Mount Lefroy.

It's quite a sight.

Here, Joan and I sat on one of the congenial flat-ish rocks and consumed our lunch. Then, rather than return directly, we decided to walk a stretch on the Yukness Ledges trail before cutting back to the Oesa route. There's a spot on the north side of the lake where hikers can clamber down and across to Yukness ...

The Yukness Ledges route begins by traversing a rubble field.

Stones, slabs, and boulders from different geologic strata abound.

At the point where the Yukness trail swings to the west, there's an intersection with the Victoria Cutoff trail, which took us down through boulder fields to Victoria Lake and the Oesa trail.

At the end, I turned around and photographed the formation we'd just scrambled down, following trail blazes (two vertical yellow bars on a blue field, which we nicknamed "route 11" signs.)

A few minutes down the trail, Yukness Lake, Lake O'Hara, and Odaray Mountain came into view.

In the evening, I caught this panoramic view from Lake O'Hara, with the Oesa basin in the center but hidden.

After a hearty dinner at the lodge, it was time to hit the sack.

Day 7
The forecasts we'd seen for July 17th called for a strong chance of showers, but in the mountains, who knows if, where, or when? Joan and I packed for any eventuality and took the West Opabin trail.

Clouds darkened to the north, but to the southwest, the direction of the wind, the sky remained sunny with occasional white clouds. On Lake O'Hara, a flotilla of diving ducks swam by.

After passing Mary Lake, the trail begins a steep climb up the side of the plateau, with many switchbacks. A fat, fuzzy pika was undisturbed by our presence.

Within a stone's throw of where the trail leveled out, Joan and I turned right, onto the trail to All Souls Prospect. It started with a daunting but manageable rock and boulder hop-fest that led us to the stony tabletop that separates Opabin and All Souls. There we took a sit-down and drank in the view. (Alas, no photo.) But the sky had grown more ominous, so we decided to descend back to O'Hara and then take an add-on hike if the weather held.

It didn't. Thunder began to boom. Sprinkles began to fall, and the sky grew darker. We stopped and donned our rain gear: jackets, pants, gloves, pack covers. It took a few minutes. Light rain grew heavier. Therefore, we bee-lined back to our cabin and ate lunch there as waves of rain and soft bits of graupel (raindrops that freeze on falling snowflakes) passed through. The afternoon became a rest period; however, the forecast for tomorrow was promising, and with a good rest under our belts, we figured it might be a good day to tackle Wiwaxy Gap, a notoriously steep climb to 8,300'.