Another Side of this Life: Canada 2024: A Lost Day and a Snowy Lake

July 8th, 2024, began well with an excellent catch-up breakfast at the Malcolm with Bob and Valerie Knowlden, our B&B hosts for many years until they "retired." (Click on any image to enlarge.)

The pigs are Bucky and Poppy.

Eventually, it was time for Joan and me to check out, and I went down into the basement garage with our luggage. Today's goal was a hike to either Sherbrooke Lake or Paget Lookout. (They share an initial stretch of trail.) However, this time I could not get the trunk on the Nissan Versa to latch. Joan and I tried combining our strengths, but it was no use.

We had signed up for "roadside assistance" with Enterprise, and now phoned them, reaching the Canmore office. "No cars here," he said, "but give me a couple of hours. I'll keep you up to date." Joan and I walked around the development, inspecting the flowers, and sat on benches to watch ducks and the other tourists. We waited for 3½ hours with no word from Enterprise. We called again, but the voicemail was full. Joan reached Brandon at Enterprise's Calgary office, who said he would escalate. We received a call from the area supervisor, and stated forcefully that we needed to be in Field this evening, not tomorrow! After another while we got a call from Jake -- he has a car for us, but needs to clean it first.

Jake and a helper arrived with a buzzy subcompact Mazda CX-3; it was a hatchback (no trunk) and could barely fit us and our luggage, but it was a car! One item of business was documenting the numerous existing window chips to make certain we would not be billed for window damage.

We headed out five hours after our first call to Enterprise, reaching the Cathedral Mountain Lodge in time to register, unload, splash our faces, change shirts, and show up for our 6:45 dinner reservation. It was not the hiking day we had planned, but we were wrung out nonetheless!

July 9th dawned, and post breakfast at Cathedral, we drove up to the Lake O'Hara parking area after squeezing ourselves, two duffels, and two daypacks into Mozzie, as we'd dubbed the car -- Moz for short. We joined the morning lodge bus for the 11-kilometer ride up to O'Hara (private vehicles are not allowed; it's a protected fragile Alpine area.)

At the lodge we checked in, picked up our lunches, pulled out our hiking poles and binos, and began a hike. (Rooms and cabins aren't available until later in the afternoon.)

The sky was almost cloudless, and the temperatures cool; the lake is at 6630' (2020m) altitude. Spring had arrived late, and we were told some higher trails weren't yet clear of snow and ice. All Souls was closed; the Yukness and Huber Ledges warranted a caution. Recent rains had created shallow pools in spots along the Lake O'Hara shoreline.

Joan and I headed out for the Opabin Plateau on the scenic West Opabin trail, which began as a gentle walk in the woods.

Here the lichen and fungi were abundant.

In the Cladoniaceae family of fungi ...

The vegetation rapidly changed as we ascended the plateau's west flank.

We kept our eyes and ears open for pikas, and spotted two marmots down along the shore of Lake Mary.

Binoculars helped us identify them!

Then we passed a group of young women from Chile, Japan, and Peru, who were working in Canmore. How lucky they were to have grabbed seats on the morning park bus (not the lodge bus); those usually disappear within hours of the seat lottery's opening.

In this image, the narrow trail threads through boulders that have fallen through the ages. Squint at the middle (click on the image to enlarge), and you'll see a blue-shirted hiker ahead of us.

Joan and I reached the level edge of the plateau and stuck to the west-hand side rather than take a side trip to the overlook right away.

Western anemones were gorgeous in the bright sunshine.

Water features abounded as we hiked up the length of the plateau.

Passing by Lake Hungabee, at the foot of the final climb to Opabin Lake.

Looking back at Hungabee, having almost reached the top. Note the pockets of snow.

The Opabin Lake panorama (altitude 7,470') was entirely different, dominated by snow and ice. The peaks that ring it block direct sunlight in the mornings and late afternoons.

The varied windblown snow was deep wherever the ground beneath was uneven. Joan and I postponed any visit to the lakeshore for a later day, and tramped over to the east trail. A few times one of my boots landed in a couple of feet of snow, and some got inside. As we descended on the east trail, the snow petered out.

Along the plateau, the series of lakes, ponds, and cascades for which it is famous were showing off in the sunlight.

On the east side, the descent to O'Hara became a series of switchbacks buried in the forest, with the tumbling stream on our left for company. Suddenly, the closed tunnel opened up on the breadth of Lake O'Hara.