PNC Days 63-65 – Canada’s Great Divide Trail

We are now heading north on Canada’s Great Divide Trail (GDT). We will hike just a section of it before cutting east towards the Columbia Lake and our canoe. We only have about a week walking to go. The last three days took us through Blackfeet and Ktunaxa ɁamakɁis ancestral lands.

Day 63 – GDT Mile 22.8 (PNC Mile 1271) – Waterton Lakes NP, Alberta

We woke up in the campground in Waterton Townsite and then went out for breakfast. We met two fellow GDT section hikers who were just finishing their trip. We stopped at the grocery store to resupply. We met a super nice woman at the grocery store who gave us a bunch of drink mixes—Starbucks instant coffee and electrolytes! Thank you! We were able to get most of our chores done yesterday, but still found it hard to get out of town (easy access to food and cell service in town plus so many nice people). We stopped for some more food, including Beaver Tails—deep fried dough with cinnamon sugar or other sweet toppings. They were so tasty that we bought more and carried them out. Finally we left town at around 1pm. Back on the trail we met a Member of Parliament, Tim Opal, and had fun chatting with him for a bit. We had a big climb out of town. The trail went up to 7,621, which is higher than the PNT high point. We saw a mountain goat and had beautiful views of lakes and mountains. We could even see into the USA and Glacier National Park. -R

Day 64 – GDT Mile 44.8 (PNC Mile 1293) – Back on the Continental Divide

The Great Divide Trail (GDT) closely follows the Continental Divide in Canada. Last year we hiked the Continental Divide Trail in the USA, which closely follows the Divide from Mexico to Canada. Hiking the GDT today it felt like we had been reunited with an old friend. On both sides of us there are towering mountains. The ones on the east are generally a bit drier-looking than the ones on the west. We did a combination of single-track trail walking, ridge walking, and cross-country travel as we scrambled up and over mountains to follow the Divide. The trail was not easy — we averaged only 2.1 miles per hour while walking and that took all our energy. But it sure was beautiful! We saw six bighorn sheep resting on the side of a mountain. We took two coffee breaks and decided we want to do more of that in the coming stretch… we only have a little while until we switch to the canoeing portion of our trip, so we want to make the walking as fun as possible. We are camped at the summit of a mountain with 360° views of mountains in every direction. For dinner we had peanut butter pasta. Yum! -T

Day 65 – GDT Mile 66.4 (PNC Mile 1314.6) – Peak bagging

We had a visitor last night. I woke up at around midnight because I heard some noises right outside the tent near me. A pika or chipmunk or some other little mammal was trying to get at our empty backpacks. Our food was hanging safely in a tree though, so there wasn’t much to find other than the salt from our sweat. I woke up Tim with my yelling (at the critter), and we put our backpacks in the tent. Tim threw a few pebbles to scare it off, and we went back to sleep. This morning we had about 5 miles of ridge walking from one mountain peak to the next. It was amazingly beautiful and surprisingly fun, but super challenging. There was no trail. It was CDT-style cross country travel on rocks with a bit of scrambling at times. (We were at high elevation and there wasn’t much vegetation, so it wasn’t PNT-style bushwhacking.) We went straight up and down super steep, so it was quite slow going. The rest of the day included some trails, gravel roads, and a small section of paved road. We were drained from the hard ridge walking for the rest of the day. Two nice people in a car saw us walking the road and offered us cold drinks and bananas towards the end of the day. We had fun chatting with them. They gave us the energy to finish the day. Tomorrow we have 25 miles into the town of Coleman. -R