8 Days in the Canadian Rockies - A Great Divide Trail Section Hike (Sort Of) - Part 1

Here we go again. Red Earth Creek Trailhead to Kananaskis Lakes. Eight days, probably 200 kilometers. Our original plan kind of lit on fire. When that happens, you just roll with it. It's going to be awesome. What's up, everybody? I'm Evan. I'm Dani. That's Dani. We're adventure happy. Here we go again. What are we doing? Another little two-day trip in Kananaskis or something like that? Yeah, plus six days. Okay, we're on the trail. Eight days, Banff to Kananaskis. It's going to be pretty amazing. Had to change it up a little bit because our original plan kind of lit on fire. But when that happens, you just roll with it. So here we go. All right, the road noise from Highway 1 is fading a little bit in the background. So here's what's going on. We're leaving from the Red Earth Creek Trailhead, and we are hiking to Kananaskis Lakes. This was not our original plan. Our original plan was to start over by Field, British Columbia, hiking the Rockwall Trail, then through this area, through Cinnaboy and the height of the Rockies Provincial Park to Kananaskis. But unfortunately, that first section, the Kootenay section, no go. It's been a really dry summer so far. When things are dry and you get lightning, you get forest fires. British Columbia is getting pounded with fires this year. And unfortunately, one of the fires is right where we were planning on walking through. Or just south of that, I should say. So they closed the whole area. The whole Rockwall section is closed off. So we had to switch it up, change it up on the fly. We already had the time booked off. So pretty much we changed around the first four days of our trip to just turn it into an exploration of the Egypt Lake area. We were at, for the infamous, what, 60 kilometers in 36 hours or something? It was 56 in 36, if you haven't seen that video. Or Egypt Lake video. We did kind of a quick one day in and out to Egypt Lake. So this time, we're going to spend a couple of days in that area and actually have some time to explore. And hopefully see some cool stuff. So our new trip plan starts out on the Red Earth Creek Trail. Pretty much going to be a solid 11 kilometers of fire road. And then a few more kilometers of treed-in, not very exciting hiking. Until you hit Shadow Lake. We're going a little bit past Shadow Lake to the Ball Pass Junction Campground. That's where we're staying tonight. So, yeah, not expecting to film much on the way up. Because like I said, it's pretty much just going to be a bit of a trudge up the old fire road here. And it's 1230 already. So we kind of want to just focus on moving quick and getting to camp pretty early. But I'm going to put you guys away for now so we can just focus on crushing these miles real quick. There really haven't been any views on this hike so far. So when you do get one, I figure you should stop and appreciate it for a second. That's Red Earth Creek in below us there. Pilot Mountain over there, I believe. She's there. Let's keep going. More fire road, yay! Alright, about 11 kilometers in, something like that, 10 and a half, 11. And we hit the first major junction here. So up ahead this way continues on to Farrow Creek, which we took last time we were here. It's kind of your most direct route to get up to Egypt Lake. Not the most thrilling hike in the world. So we're not going that way. We're going up this way instead, which is going to take us past Shadow Lake Lodge up to Ball Pass Junction. Campground where we're staying this evening. How's it going so far? Good. Ready to get out and do some looking at other stuff. Yeah. Food storage area means we're at Shadow Lake Campground, which I've never stayed at but seems like a mosquito bog. But it's a good sign. It means that we're almost at Shadow Lake Lodge. Which means we're almost at Shadow Lake. Which means soon we're going to have something pretty to look at for the rest of the way. Shadow Lake Lodge. Established 1928. Someday, someday we'll come and stay here. It's not super affordable. We have some friends who came out here and they said it was pretty amazing. They said it was pretty much like summer camp for grown-ups with really, really good food. Yeah. Food is right. It's not right on the lake. We'll be there probably in about, I don't know, 10-15 minutes. How's the view, buddy? Not bad. Not bad at all. Well, this is peaceful. Shadow Lake. Alright. Actually have things to look at from now on, which is good. Because it was getting a little monotonous. Probably about, I don't know, 18-19 kilometers in. And finally getting to be up to a place where I really want to be. Nice open meadow next to a beautiful stream. Some amazing peaks off in the distance there. I think that's Haddock Peak right there. Which would mean that ball path is just right over here. That's the general direction we're going anyways. Just got to be getting pretty close to the junction and the campground here. It's been tough going. Tough going so far. The original Red Earth Creek section was pretty boring. Slog up the fire road. Even once we got to Shadow Lake. It was beautiful at Shadow Lake, but then you kind of duck into the trees and it's all muddy roots, sloppy trail. Until it starts opening up here. Now we're getting into the good stuff. While today hasn't been the most exciting day of my hiking life, I'm really looking forward to waking up here tomorrow and having all of this to play with. There's a happy sight. Ball path junction. Campground. Made it. Okay. Five sights to choose from. Some people are set up over here already. Let's see what else we can find. This is two right here. Everything else must be over this way. Perfect. Did it. So that was 18.71 kilometers. According to yours. According to mine. Mine says like 19 something. Yeah. Felt harder than that should have. And here come the mosquitoes. Yay. How was that for you? I'm hungry. Let's get his bag off. Site number two. I don't think we're going to pick this one. Let's go this way. See what we can find. Site number three. Eh. Still not loving it. So over that way to the food area probably. Ah. Site number four. That's a little better. Got a nice little rock. Yeah. Site number five. Camp back here. It's the last site. No one will be walking by us. Yep. This feels like home. Someone forgot a bandana. Womp womp. How was your last night? Pretty dry. Good here? I'm good. Take off my backpack. Yeah. Alright. Let's do this. Get camp set up. Kozzy's had his supper. Now it's our turn. We're sitting at a weird table. Yeah. Like the lowest benches ever. It's kind of silly actually. Whatever. Um. Got the water boiling. Doing a little sidekicks. Honey garlic I think. Some sausage. We're clearly very organized right now. Kind of everything's just on the table. If people come join us we will tidy it up. Get our stuff together. Air lockers over there. Freaking pterodactyl sized bugs flying around all over the place. But they're not mosquitoes. They're hormones. So it's good. Kozzy's chewing on some dehydrated pig skin I made for him. Yum. He seems to like it. So, good time today? It's moments. Yeah. GPS was reading out around 19 kilometers overall. I didn't check the elevation but it was a long 19. But like I said this first day was expected to be kind of a yeah, just a set up for everything else. So now we get to wake up here ready to rock. See some cool stuff. We might even do some adventuring this evening if I'm feeling energetic after dinner. Maybe not. We'll get through dinner first. Yeah. Right now I'm not energetic. I'm starving. I can't. It's like 6 6.30 time after 6. And yeah, I'm just like famished. So it's entirely possible that we'll eat and then go to bed at like 8 o'clock. Yeah. Save our energy for important stuff tomorrow. Anyways, gonna get dinner going here. Just got done with dinner. Probably about 7.30. Hanging around chatting with folks. Figured we'd come out from the back of the campground here and check out our pile of rocks. Alright. Think we'll wander up towards that gully there. Look around. See what the view is like. Heh. Oh wow. See the kents? Way down there. That's where we're camped. Well, this may end up being a little bit more interesting of a walk than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, me too. Try and get right up there. Yeah. Let's see. Maybe scramble up into the little sun. So we came up a little further. The objective hazard is getting a little bit too high for my comfort level for this point in the day. After a long day without any supplies. So we're gonna turn around here. Although, uh, looks like we're getting pretty close. Added to the list of things to do someday in the future. Scramble the rest of this. Save it for another day. Maybe we'll do this tomorrow morning instead. Who knows. Ah, sun's starting to dip down behind Mount Ball over there. Mount Isabel. Isabel Peak. Awesome to both have these beautiful hanging glaciers. Well, that was a little bit more work than I was expecting after dinner, but worth it. Definitely a highlight of the day, actually, probably. Just coming up here and playing on the rocks a little bit. Mount Ball's just around the corner here. In between this peak and this peak. Um, so we're gonna head over there and have breakfast. Sorry, Mount Ball Pass, thank you. Rain's going to sleep already. We're gonna go up there and have breakfast tomorrow. It's only five and a half kilometers return from our campsite. Yeah, should be pretty cool. And from there, on to Egypt Lake. And maybe just a chill afternoon at camp. Maybe some other kind of adventure. Guess you're gonna have to stay tuned to find out. Alright, goodnight everybody. See you tomorrow. Morning everybody. Morning of day two. We are at Ball Pass Junction Campground. Had some breakfast, filtered some water. Tried to dry some stuff out because it rained quite a bit last night. So, yeah. Things got a little bit damp, but not a big deal. That, according to the weather forecast, was supposed to be the worst of the rain that we were supposed to get. And there's blue sky. There's blue sky. Coming up over Ball Pass right now. Which is nice because that's where we're heading next. Finish our coffee. Get some stuff organized and then go for a little hike up to Ball Pass before we head on to Egypt Lake. At least see Ball Pass and we were supposed to come into this area originally. Yeah, I guess I didn't really explain what happened there. So this trip was supposed to be a 200 kilometer section hike of the Great Divide Trail. Starting with the Rockwall Trail, kind of by field. Coming in over a good surf path, doing the Rockwall Trail. Coming up over this way. But, fires in Kootenay National Park closed that section. So we were just kind of stuck with four extra days. Three extra days? Three extra days. Yeah, so we changed up the plans. Just came straight into the Egypt Lake area here. And we're just going to be exploring around Egypt Lake for a few days. Just to do some fun stuff before we head on through Mount Assiniboine and out towards Kananaskis Lakes where we're finishing up. It will still be amazing and we'll still see a good chunk of this section of the Great Divide. And fires happen. Unfortunately, yeah. It's kind of a bummer. I was really looking forward to seeing the Rockwall. But hopefully we'll be able to at least glimpse it in the distance when we get up to Ball Pass. Because it's just on the other side of the highway from there. Anyways, I'm going to finish my coffee here and I'll get going pretty quick. So far, Ball Pass Trail is a very pleasant walk. Got a nice little stream running next to you. Tons of gorgeous wildflowers. You can kind of see the ridge off in the distance where we're headed. Very nice. Alright, just opened up onto the rubble field here below Ball Pass. Looks like we're going to be pushing up through this. Getting a little steeper. Glacier on the back side of Mount Ball. Down there. Does not like it when we're apart. Yeah. Awesome. I thought there was going to be more views going over the other side. We'll keep going for a little bit. See if it opens up. This is pretty beautiful though. Yeah, it's awesome. Alright, Ball Pass, what do you think? The view out this way isn't as awesome as I was expecting, but it is pretty cool. You can actually just see some of the water tail formation out there. That's what makes up the rock wall. Unfortunately, a little bit south of the pass that we're at right now. There were some forest fires. We got started by some lightning just earlier this week. So that whole section is closed right now. Kind of a bummer we had to change it up a little bit because I really, really want to see the rock wall up close. It's supposed to be one of the most amazing sights in all of the Canadian Rockies. Maybe next year. Doesn't really matter because we're still going to have an awesome time. Still going to see some cool stuff. Still going to rack up a whole bunch of kilometers and a whole bunch of elevation. We have a really far distance so far today of 2.6 km. Not bad. Definitely worth the trip up here from Ball Pass Junction Campground if anyone's in the area. So we're going to stop, do a little snack, start working our way back down, and then move on to Egypt Lake Camp for tonight. And then, who knows, from there maybe go do some more exploring. Depends how we're feeling. Off to a great start. You look good. Thanks. Are you referring to the tights? Mhmm. I like how tight they are. You know why I wear them? The tights. Because you look super cool in them? Because heroes wear tights, Dani. Heroes. Spiderman, Superman, Robin Hood. All the best heroes wear tights. So, what's your superpower? Honestly, I don't have a superpower. Who needs superpowers? I could be a superhero. That's true. Alright, well, let's go fight some crime then. That seems like a lot of work. Let's go climb some mountains? Perfect. Alright. Ball Pass Junction Camp all stripped down. Got some Pecor Margarita pizza wraps. Rehydrating. Oh, almost forgot the towel. Good eye. Only reason I realized was because his pack was upside down. Crazy. Alright. Yeah, so we're going to hike over to Heyduck Lake and then stop there and have some food. Shouldn't be too far. I think it's just a couple of kilometers. It's certainly getting scenic. And we haven't even made it to the pass yet. I'm assuming that's actually the pass right there. Looks like a pass to me. And it's in the right general direction, so... Okay. The lake should be just around the bend here on the other side of these trees. And then we're going to stop for lunch. Which is... It's about time for lunch. It's like 1.30 right now. You know what that is? That's where we're stopping for lunch. Very excited. Because... I'm starving. But also... This is beautiful. You know. Beautiful waterfall across the way there. Nice cooling breeze. Yes. Eyes are stinging a little bit. The smoke's coming in a little right now on this breeze. I've been surprised how good the air quality has been actually. This trip because the fires that they're fighting are kind of just right over this mountain range. So... Overall, the air's been pretty good, but starting to feel it a little bit. Yeah, I hope this doesn't mean that that's changing and that the smoke's going to be blowing in over the next few days. Hope not. Anyways, beautiful, beautiful lake, but we do have to keep moving. That's Whistling Pass sitting up right in there. That's where we need to get to. Sadly, have to leave Hadoop Lake behind. We said this the last time that we were with her, but I'll say it again. There should be a campsite at that lake. I love that lake. It's beautiful. It's pretty awesome. This looks like the start of the climb up to Whistling Pass. So we can kind of treat in for the next little while until we break up and get some elevation. It's been nice hiking so far today. I've really been liking it. Nice view back the way we came. A little bit of haziness from the smoke blowing in. I can really start feeling it in the last little bit here. Breath's a little short. Eyes are a little itchy. Faro peaks up this way. We're just crossing this rubble field up towards Whistling Pass. Another field of wildflowers. Certainly getting spoiled on the flowers this trip. Cosley, go on. Oh yeah. Oh, he sees us. That guy right there is where Whistling Pass gets its name. Whistler. A.K.A. Whistle Pig. A.K.A. Horry Marmot. And he seems to enjoy eating flowers. Cosley is very interested. Alright, bud. Let's leave him alone. Leave him to his lunch. Come on. Let's go. I had to stop for one last look down at Haydrick and the direction we came over top of Whistling Pass. Start dropping down to Egypt Lake where we're going to camp tonight. Good hiking today. Really good. Not been in the longest or the fastest day we've ever had. When we're moving, we're still moving at about 4 km an hour. We've been taking a lot of breaks. Enjoying the surroundings. Yeah, just hanging out and taking our time. Seems like some rain's coming over this ridge here. Hopefully it gets a bit on. Hopefully it doesn't pour again tonight. That's why you just never know when you're coming to the mountains. True enough. Just see a glimpse of Scarab Lake down in below there. They call it Whistling Pass too. There he goes. Scarab Lake down in below us there. We're not going to go down and see it just yet. Just because we are hanging around in this area again tomorrow. We're going to do some exploring. Either we might go up towards the Sphinx, which is this guy here. AKA the Sugarloaf. Via that little pass in between. And Talc Lake on the other side. Or maybe we'll go up and see the Pharaoh here. I think this is Greater Pharaoh. Yeah, maybe something like that. I don't know. Either way, we're going to come by this general direction to the point where we can duck down and see Egypt Lake and Mummy Lake tomorrow. So right now we're just going to head onward. Get to camp. Because I am ready to take my pack off. That's pretty much what the descent from Whistling Pass is like. Steep and rocky. Steep and rocky. Kind of a pain in the butt. We're almost there. We're at like 8.5km. Something like that. We should be there within another 10-15 minutes. I would hope. There's a little teaser glimpse of Egypt Lake down below us. Which means we're just about there. Because that's only a few miles from the campsite. Party! Alright. Let's do this. Come on, Cosmo. Up. Come on. Take a look at the old tarp tent. Double rainbow. Nice to be breaking that sucker out again. First time in a while. There's a sleepy puppy wrapped in his blanket. There's our view for the evening. It's not like Kalis Lake, but it's not bad. It's a great spot for a happy hour. Good ol' packet gourmet. Salsa. Chips. Moonshine margaritas. Today was what did it end up being? 15km or something like that. It's not an insane mileage day. Sometimes you don't hike to crush the miles. Sometimes you hike just to get to happy hour. It's only like $5.50 or something like that. We got some time to hang out and relax and maybe do some exploring after snacks. Well, happy hour's done. It's like 5.30, 5.45, something like that. I have no idea. Anyways, pretty early, so figured we'd go do some adventuring. Is it really? How'd that happen? It was a long happy hour, I guess. Anyways, we're gonna go try to find Farrow Lake. Shouldn't be too hard because it's a lake and it's on the map, so as long as we go in that direction, we should find it, right? Gonna head up there and that is where we're gonna have dinner. Cook area here was pretty crowded. Not feeling the crowds right now, so we're gonna go find us our own personal lake where we can sit and enjoy ourselves, have a little dinner, chili mac, our favorite. But this chili mac is different. It's better. Because it's craft dinner and chili that I made. It's an adventure happy original. Yeah, it's gonna be a nice night. Alright, here we go. Farrow Lake. Lesser Farrow, Middle Farrow, Greater Farrow. This is where we're gonna have dinner. Not bad. Not bad at all. You can follow this trail up to Black Rock Lake a little further on and beyond that is Sphinx Lake. But this might be the end of the line for us because it's supper time. Got the pot going. A little water boiling for a little chili mac. Enjoying the sunset. Great way to cap off a great day. This day is waiting, hopefully. Praying that we drop some food. Can't say I blame them. It's pretty delicious. This is Dani's creation, chili mac. Homemade chili. Craft dinner, mac and cheese. Dehydrated. Some room for improvement. Always is. You can see there's some bugs flying around. Fortunately, not a lot of mosquitoes, so we're not getting eaten up. It's a great spot for dinner. Yeah, I'm really glad we came up here. Got a nice little sunset, a little bit of privacy, cooking areas down at Egypt Lake. Not the greatest. It's very communal. Which is fine. Just not always my cup of tea. And we'll get a little bit of exercise on the way down to burn off a few more calories. All in all, a really great day. One for the booger. Definitely having a lot more fun than our last trip to Egypt Lake. And we've got like six more days out on the trail, so plenty more awesome adventures to come. Night number two. Including tonight, we have six more nights. Wild. Alright, goodnight everybody. See you tomorrow.