My hiking trip July 16-18.....

[recycled sixtie]

Here are some pics I took.
This is the Skyline Trail, the most popular interior hike in Jasper, about 4.5 drive west of Edmonton, Alberta Canada.
I did the total hike about nine years ago when I was in my 50's and I did it with neighbors and we had a car at each end. This time I did it by myself and went to the half way point. I stayed at the same camp spots and hiked the first day 5 miles, day 2 7 miles and the last day 12 miles.

[gprsh924]

You know you can reply to your own thread, rather than posting a new thread for each picture

[recycled sixtie]

Thanks for the suggestion 924.
It took until about the second day of hiking to get good views of the mountains. The first day was in the treeline and mosquitoes were bad. Once into the second day of hiking, some of the trail was covered in snow but it was not a problem. Some of the creeks were challenging so I had to pick a good spot to cross. This direction I did not get my feet wet but the coming back I did because the creeks were higher.
The elevation was up to 8k feet plus a 30lb. backpack made the going tough on climbs. The highlight of the trip was when I was at Curator Lake. There was another man there with his son. I hear a helicopter circling around our area and I think that anytime you year a helicopter close by in the middle of nowhere this could be bad news. Are they coming to tell us that a relative was sick or dead?
The helicopter landed and two park wardens come to us armed to the teeth with shotguns etc. They tell us that the previous night that a bear harrassing people sleeping in their tents - namely chomping on a tent and making a nuisance of itself. The campers shouted for it to go away but nobody actually saw the bear. The park warden said we have a choice - either stay here or they would helicopter us out.

I said I was here for the hike. The other man said that as he was a father of four, he would helicopter out. The wardens set up a camera to check for bear movements and set up lots of bear warning signs. I was the only person in the campground and of course to add to the drama thunderstorms started at 2am and ended about 4am. So I got up at 5 and was gone by 6. So hiking the 12 miles back took about 11 hours. I took lots of breaks.
At the end I drove to my Jasper hotel and within half an hour my wife phoned me to say that my mother(94) in the UK had passed away two hours ago. She broke her hip last year which did not help and they think that she died of a stroke. She was a great mother and a great inspiration.

[Drisump]

The Skyline has to be classified as a classic Rockies trail. My wife, daughter and I did it about six or seven years ago and it has left a lasting impression. I guess the wet spring has created the perfect environment for clouds of mossies...I can't say I noticed a lot when we did the trail, could be the choice of camp though. Good on you! But I'm sorry about your mum