"Magic mushrooms. Cannabis. Tequila. Lake O'Hara. All will get you high."
This is the first sentence written about Lake O'Hara in my guidebook. So ever since I've read about it a few years ago, I've been wanting to go. However, I never remember to book reservations on time, and this area is in very high demand. To protect the area, they limit access. There's an 11km fire road that leads to the Lake O'Hara area, but the only easy way to access it is to board a bus that Parks Canada runs. Only 42 day hikers are allowed in per day, 30 campsites, and an ACC Hut (which is almost impossible to get into since it has a very high demand that they've resorted to a lottery system). There's also a ridiculously expensive wilderness lodge that you can stay in, but those are just for fancy people and that's definitely not me. You can hike the fire road if you want. However, seems kind of silly to hike, so you can hike.
Reservations open 3 months in advance, and you're advised to call right at 8am because most of the spots are given out within the first hour. So I said, no problem I'll just set an alarm on my phone to remind me to call right away. Easy.
Not so easy. I started calling right at 8am. And kept on redialing all the way up to 8:41am before I could finally get through. This is what my phone looked like after that ordeal:
I hit the (100) call mark 20 minutes before I actually got through. I definitely made more than 100 calls. But luckily, we got to book a campsite for 3 nights (the maximum you can stay).
Anyway, on to my actual trip.
The Lake O'Hara area is absolutely breath taking. I think I may have found my favorite spot in the Canadian Rockies. All the hikes are fairly easy (as easy as alpine hiking goes anyways), and for the amount of effort you put in, the views you get are ridiculous. I think there are five main hiking areas in the region. We only got to do three of them (had to repeat one because we were stupid, but more on that later). The weather was really flaky, and we were really wussy and didn't want to get stuck in the rain while high up in the mountains. It's a struggle to dry clothes when it's constantly raining. I really wanted to be warm in the evenings.
Before I talk about the hikes, I want to talk about the campgrounds. It's the fanciest backcountry campground I've seen. Ever. I a little bit annoyed. I packed all my minimalist shit while everyone else packed in real food. I felt so deprived. Mind you, my backpacking food would have sufficed in any other backcountry situation, but it can't compare to the fresh apple that someone else is eating while I wait 8-9 minutes for my Spaghetti in Meat Sauce to rehydrate.
But for reals, the campground was really well set up. We not only had individually assigned food lockers, we also had a sink with running water, potable water, a garbage can and recycling bin, cooking shelters and firewood supply... they also had loaner items should you come in unprepared for the wilderness like extra fuel, sleeping bags, tarps, hiking poles, etc. It was a very accommodating campground. I think I may have trouble actually backpacking after this experience. I really liked having a garbage can.
The first night was really rough. We moved our incoming bus time from 5:30 to 3:30, since I realized that the drive from Edmonton is actually shorter than what I thought it would be. That proved to be a good decision. When we got to the campground, we pretty much only had time to set up before it rained torrential rain. I was super paranoid our tent would flood since I could actually feel an inch of water underneath it.
We woke up super early in the morning to start hiking. We really wanted to do the Lake O'Hara Alpine Route. The weather report that was posted in the shelter for the week indicated that it was going to be super sunny in the morning, and then thunderstorms will start rolling in mid-afternoon. Of course, it lied. It was raining till mid-morning, so we had to chill in the shelter for three hours till it stopped. Luckily, the backcountry attracts very interesting people who are not at all creeped out with conversing with strangers for hours. I really enjoy talking to other backpackers and sharing stories. I realize when we left that we've talked to so many people several times and exchanged so many stories, but I don't actually know anybody's names.
So as soon as the rain let up, we decided to skip the first leg of the alpine route and go straight to Lake Oesa. Maybe see from there if we can continue on with the rest of the alpine route if the weather isn't too shabby. We had our first glimpse of Lake O'Hara on the way since you have to hike the shoreline to get to the Lake Oesa trailhead.
This is Lake O'Hara.
Beautiful noh?
On the way there, there was a cliff face, and it was made of what looked like purple shale. I was very excited about this. I love purple. It's very hard to find shit in my purse since everything is purple.
The trail was great. Scenery varies from being in the trees to having a birds eye view of Lake O'Hara to trekking through boulders to several pretty alpine lakes and waterfalls. Of course, Lake Oesa was breathtaking.
When we got there, we chatted with a couple on their way back down. They've decided not to do the Yukness Ledges that connects Lake Oesa to Opabin Lake since they've read in the bulletin board at the shelter that it's still winter conditions up there. Steve and I decided to do the same thing, and just head out to Opabin Lake on a separate trip since we didn't want to risk going up to the Yukness Ledges to find snow. We didn't bring our hiking poles to the hike because there wasn't very much elevation gain (only about 250m to Lake Oesa I think), but I didn't feel comfortable walking on ledges with snow on them when there's still a chance of rain later on in the day.
Of course, the bulletin board lied again. I spoke to a group of people the following morning that said there were only small patches of snow on the ledge. Very manageable though. Irritation number two. I really should stop believing the bulletin board.
It started raining again just an hour after we got out of the trail, so we didn't have time to squeeze in another hike. We just hoped for the best that the following day's weather would be better.
Anyhoo, I'm still on vacation. This was quite long. I'm leaving to do more vacation-y things now. I'll write more about the rest of the trip later.
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