Somewhat out of the blue, Alex decided we should go for a hike. Now, to be fair, we’d been saying things like this for years, including some planning to go out into the Kananaskis and try some of the trails.
I think we’ve done two, maybe three.
It’s not that we’re not the hiking type – I do enjoy them – it’s that the family doesn’t rise until after 10:30. (I’m up by 7:30 at the latest on weekends, but that’s because my back usually hurts too much to let me sleep any longer.)
Today, though, we were going. To Radium Hot Springs.
Why Radium? I didn’t ask specifically, but I think it’s because Alex used to hike the Juniper Trail on her weeks at Fairmont Hot Springs as a kid, and she remembers it fondly. And we haven’t done it in years, because the kids are usually whining about not wanting to go.
So we went without ’em.
The drive out was rather nice. It’s a lovely early August day and, surprisingly, not smoky. I’ve been expecting bad forest fire smoke this year, and we’ve had maybe a few days of it, despite huge fires wreaking havoc further to the north, including losing a third of Jasper townsite barely two weeks ago.
We slid into our usual parking spot at the south entrance to the trail, suited up, slathered on sunscreen, and headed down. Almost immediately, we were beset on by mosquitos hiding in the shade. We would be blood bags until we started climbing out of the Sinclair Canyon up onto the ridge.
Before we started the climb, we went looking for the wedding trees. 19 years ago, we planted a pair of trees, favours from our wedding, in the shade of larger ones, hoping to add to the cover. We know roughly where we planted them, but be darned if we can figure out which trees are which, any longer. It’s been so long since we came down that we can’t tell, and we didn’t mark them in any way, so it ended up being a bit of guess work. We think we found them, but … it’s hard to know for certain. Regardless, even in the dryness, the trees there seemed to be healthy.
Thus we started the climb, which zig-zags up the side of the canyon wall to the top of the ridge, which itself winds around a couple of small drops into the precipitous gap that Highway 93 occupies, before dropping back down towards the hot springs proper.
I would like to say that the hike was fun and we laughed and joked and remembered old times, but in all honesty it was more a reminder of how old we’re getting. I might be a sprightly 52, but it’s a far cry from when I first hiked this in my 30s. And Alex’s medications are of no benefit to her, having to stop a few times to let her breath catch up.
And then there were the grasshoppers. Hoo boy, I’ve not seen this many since I was with the CBC in Melville over 20 years ago. When we first started climbing, it sounded like one of those ratcheted sprinklers that you hear in the height of summer across so many urban lawns. It was, however, a small army of insects, which thankfully are vegan.
Descending the hill is much easier than climbing it, and we got back to the car about two and a half hours later. From there, we headed into Invermere for a late breakfast/brunch/lunch-like thing at our old favourite, Huckleberry’s.
This place is an institution and has been there for decades. (I say that as I’ve been eating there for decades, and it’s been there a lot longer.) It had been for sale for years, looking for a new owner to continue the place as it’s always been. Clearly someone finally bought it, as the For Sale signs are gone … and the prices have gone up.
One of the reasons I liked going to Huckleberry’s was that it was cheap. Decent food at a decent price, the best combination. But those days are also behind us, as we were staring at a “classic” breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast) for over $20 – it used to be half that.
I grumbled to myself over the cost of breakfast, silently vowing to find another place that might be of better value, should we return.
It’s not that I don’t like the Columbia Valley. I’ve been there many times and it is very nice in the summer – in many ways, I prefer it to going to Banff (which is perennially overcrowded), it’s just that it always seems to draw us out for no real return on the investment.
Today was an exception – we went out, we had fun, we returned. It was a bit far for such a short day trip (we didn’t do anything else after breakfast, save for a geocaching attempt), but it was a big improvement over staying at home all weekend.
