Carthew - Alderson, Sept. 1st, 2012



Photo. View of Mt. Crandell and the bear's hump from our tent (Waterton village campground).

Photo: N. on the Summit Lake trail. He was absolutely happy-as-a-clam being outside in the forest.

We camped in the Waterton townsite and planned our day around Nico's nap. We had the vague idea of hiking a portion of the Carthew - Alderson traverse. The plan was to hike to Summit lake for lunch, then do the big push to the high point of the trail (as the locals call it, Carthew summit) during naptime. If all went as planned we would have a 6 hour day and be back at the cars by 4pm.

We did a few big hikes with N. last year when he was a yearling. Those outings for the most part went spectacularly well. He would frequently fall asleep for prolonged periods of time in the backpack. Now that he is 2, he doesn't nap as much and can walk quite strongly on his own. Overall, he doesn't like to be in the child carrier for more than 15 minutes at a time (unless he is asleep). Hence the importance of the afternoon nap, which, in the best case scenario can last for a couple of hours! He is heavier now that he is 2, of course, so the plan to haul ass while he was asleep was a nebulous scheme with holes like a leaky boat, at best.



Photo. Nearing highpoint of the trail ("Carthew Summit")

The morning went pretty well. Nico and I would play a game where he would shriek at me to go faster, and I would comply by taking off at  a running trot for a few seconds. After the first couple of switchbacks, he started to say "marcher!" (i.e. walk, in French). We would let him out and for the most part he would hike hand-in-hand with Kristien, but he would frequently stop to play with rocks and sticks, so progress was slow. He also wanted the hiking poles (half the time to hike with and the rest of the time to assault unsuspecting bushes and trees.)

We made the 4 km distance to Summit lake (slowly but surely) and had our lunch. The day seemed too short to turn around already, so rather than quit while ahead, after our meal we decided to try for the pass. Best case scenario, our little guy would fall asleep again for a couple of hours, but we were not holding our breaths too hard (lightning rarely strikes twice and Nicolas had already taken what we figured was his daily nap in the car in the morning). As luck would have it, he did indeed fall asleep again and we hauled our tired butts to the Carthew summit.

Photo. N. asleep in the child carrier backpack

When we reached the high point of the trail, I clearly had my ballcap on too tight, as I convinced K. to continue on to another false summit on the ridge. It was hurricane conditions up high and not only did we freeze, but the ridge walking added a bunch more time to the day.


Photo. Ridgewalking towards a false summit. Mt. Cleveland on the left.

 Photo. Merged shot looking south. Lake Wurdeman below Chapman peak (left), Lake Nooney and Mt. Custer to the right. My summit pics came out terrible (image touched up in picasa but the brown tones are overly accented).



The ridge was a cold, wind blasted place with the only respite being a big rock to hide behind at the false summit. Nicolas woke up because of the wind so we had a big snack on top. We were worried about him catching a chill ( my hands were cold) so after a brief break, off we went. Took us 2.5 hours to cover the 7.7 km back to the car, including various play breaks and toddler paced hiking.

We left at 10:30 and were back by 6, so it was a 7.5 hour day. A great day but a bit long for hiking with a toddler, though. Had supper at Waterton Lakes lodge and camped again under hurricane force winds at the townsite.
_______________________________



Photo: Who needs to go fast when there are huckleberries.

Photo. K. doing a shift with the backpack

Photo: Moonrise above Vimy Peak from Waterton Campsite. 1 second exposure at ISO 1600 taken with my canon 1100 point and shoot (I brought along a better camera for doing low light photography, my canon EPL1 pen camera but the batteries were dead!)

End notes:

* Being the long weekend and Carthew-Alderson being a popular trail, we saw dozens of people on the trail. Some bear scat.




Photo. The Waterton townsite campground is crowded and not the place to stay if you want a wilderness experience (especially if you are like me and prone to fits of rage from people making noise after quiet time at night). And holy hell, is it windy. But there are some pros: it is handy if you have a toddler and need to make the odd trip to the store or to the playground/pool. Close to the beach as well.



Photo. Classic view of Mt. Cleveland. Near the beach, just past Waterton Campground. This view almost makes up for the noise and cramped conditions at the campground. Almost.



Photo. Clouds above Vimy, Waterton Campground

NOTES TO SELF

Next time:
* Hatchet for tent pegs
* Powdered milk or carnation milk
* Instant coffee!
* Charge camera batteries


"If all went as planned we would have a 6 hour day and be back at the cars by 4pm."

Nicolas had other ideas. He fell asleep during the 15 minute ride over from the townsite. Rather than wake him up, we decided to let him sleep in his baby seat in the car (with mum in the front seat and the window cracked). He napped for about 40 minutes and we finally got going at about 10:30. Oh well. If that was all he was going to nap for the day, it was going to be a grumpy toddler kind of day