Saturday, August 2, 2008

Gone Hiking

Over July 25-27 Lianne and I went backpacking into Egypt Lake. The day started off with stopping at the Banff info center to pick up our permit and to ask about bear activity in the area. After being assured that there haven't been any bears spotted we headed off.
The day was beautiful and it looked like we couldn't have picked a better weekend for our expedition. The hike in was 13km and all was seeming great until we decided to have lunch. We then found where all of the mosquitoes in Alberta have been hiding: Egypt Lake. However once at our campground we were able to borrow bug spray from our neighbours (having convieniently forgotten our own) and with a short walk to the lake we found out why it is so beautiful. We also met the local warden and the first thing she informed us was that contrary to what we were told there have been 4 grizzlies sighted in the area over the past week. Egypt Lake
Day 2 found us taking a short day hike up to Scarab and Mummy Lakes before packing up the tent and heading for our next campsite: Pharoh Creek. The morning started out just as nice but by mid-day the weather started to change. With thunder being heard in the distance we decided to hurry up so we could beat the rain to our next campground. We failed by 15 mins.
The last day was not very nice either. Not only did we have a long hike ahead of us (17km) but it was overcast and threatening to rain all day too. Overall we got pretty lucky on the hike out with only 5 mins of heavy rain while we could hear thunder all day long.
Overall the trip was excellent as we saw beautiful landscape, didn't get too wet, and the only trace of bears we saw was some scat on the hike out.
Relaxing by Scarab Lake


Creek by Campsite