We started this adventure of hiking the Assiniboine Trail by slogging 13 miles through rain, snow, and lightning. But on this final day, we traversed the trail in warm t-shirt weather and clear sunny skies. It is amazing how fast things change in the Canadian Rockies. Today’s journey would take us 8.5 miles with only…
Category: Backpacking
Assiniboine via Wonder Pass – Backpacking the Assiniboine Trail Day 4
After spending the morning hiking nearly 7 miles and over a thousand vertical feet, it was time to say goodbye to our Magog Campsite and continue our backpacking journey of Mount Assiniboine via Wonder Pass. Our destination for the day was the Marvel Lake Campground. To get to Marvel Lake there are actually two choices….
Exploring Mount Assiniboine – Day 3 & 4 Backpacking the Assiniboine Trail
In January, when I started booking our summer plans for the Canadian Rockies, this journey to Mount Assiniboine was a dream. We had intended to spend the better part of two and a half days exploring the heart of Mount Assiniboine and hiking many of the side trails. This would have included The Nub, Windy…
Magog Lake Campground from Og – The Assiniboine Trail Day 2
I eagerly awoke early from our cold, uncomfortable slumber at Og Lake and poked my head out to see that the cloudy conditions of the evening before hadn’t changed. I ventured down to the lakeshore and snapped off a few images of Magog Mountain reflecting in the water, but much like the night before Mount…
Backpacking the Assiniboine Trail via Sunshine Village – Day 1
I want to tell you about a 36-mile journey through the most gorgeous, mountainous terrain we have ever laid our eyes on. Complete with perfect summer mountain weather that revealed the beauty and majesty of the place in ways that boggle the mind. This is the journey that I envisioned when we set out backpacking…
Guide to Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park
Hidden deep inside the Canadian Rockies is an entire provincial park without a single road. This oasis from the modern world has one of the most stunning landscapes capped with a peak that is often compared to the iconic Matterhorn of the Swiss Alps. This Matterhorn of the Canadian Rockies is called Mount Assiniboine. Even…
The Skoki Loop Trail in Banff National Park – Day 3
I was awoken in the black of the night by Jennifer pushing on me and whispering, “what is that?” I peeled open my eyelids and sat up in my mummy bag barely able to see out of the small opening and struggling with my foggy brain to remember where I was. It hit me that…
Backpacking the Skoki Loop Trail – Day 2
Having returned to our campsite from our morning day hike to Lake Merlin we went about preparing lunch and tolerating yet another meal in the mosquito-laden bog with bug nets on. You have to take the good with the bad when backpacking the Skoki Loop Trail but it is tough to eat when so many…
Hiking Lake Merlin – Backpacking the Skoki Loop
Our second day on the Skoki Loop started at the Merlin Meadows campground, 10.5-miles deep into the Canadian Rocky Mountains. If you missed our 1st day’s adventure on the Skoki trail click here to catch up. Our second day’s itinerary wasn’t as challenging as the first but with nine total miles of ground to cover it wasn’t…
Skoki Loop via Packer Pass – Day 1
The night before our journey, Jennifer and I stayed at the Lake Louise campground. This way we could arrive at the Fish Creek parking lot early the next morning to start our backpacking journey of the Skoki Loop via Packer Pass. The first day is our longest and most challenging day with 10.5 miles ahead…
Skoki Loop Guide – Banff National Park
Any trip into the Canadian Rockies is going to be full of wild animals, rugged terrain, and surreal mountain beauty. Glaciers are still abundant here. There are places that if it were not for the nearly 90-year-old well-beaten pathways cutting through the terrain, they would feel extremely remote, as if no one else had ever…
The Teton Crest Trail – Day 5 Holly Lake to String Lake
On our fifth and final day on the Teton Crest Trail, we awoke late in the morning. It had been a very windy night that battered the tent and woke us both often. The night had been cold but we merely zipped up our warm sleeping bags and kept toasty. I crawl out of the…