The Skyline Trail, Jasper – September 2018

This was the start of it all really.  My husband (Stu) and I had been planning a trip to Canada since we got married in 2017.  We saw it as our ideal honeymoon destination, but decided to delay it so that we could have more time to plan and save – turns out weddings are quite expensive.  When I say ‘we’ were planning, what I mean is that Stu was planning and I was making positive sounds now and then.  That makes me sounds lazy, but really Stu is just a top-notch planner.  I’ve just opened up his ‘2018 – Canada’ folder to remind myself of the logistics, and have found a 9-tab planning spreadsheet with 26 accompanying documents and confirmations.  He’s also an Actuary if that helps paint the picture (well actually we both are, but his love of spreadsheets spills over into his home life).

So anyway, part of Stu’s grand plan for our Canadian adventure was the Skyline Trail in Jasper, a 44ish km hike with some ‘backcountry’ camping.  This took a little while to sell to me, since I thought it definitely sounded like it was beyond our expertise.  Our Lonely Planet guide rated it ‘moderate difficult’, and also there are bears.  I don’t really remember agreeing, but I must’ve done because we packed a tent (borrowed from my mom), roll mats and sleeping bags.

We chose to go in mid-September, since this is near the end of the season and promised to be less busy.  Having said that, you need to book into the campsites in advance and they were already so full that we ended up reserving a spot at the Watchtower campsite for the first night, which was way off the main route; and Signal for the second night, which would only leave around 8km for the final day.  The trail can be done in two days (or apparently one if you have completely lost it), but three sounded like the most sensible option.

We were expecting it to be chilly at night, but pleasant during the days.  It wasn’t.  Winter arrived early that year and it’s safe to say we were not prepared.  Now may be a good time to mention that Stu’s sleeping bag was £10 from Tesco (i.e not suitable for -7˚C camping).  Here’s a couple of photos in Jasper the day before we left on the trail; can you tell it was a bit nippy?

There was maybe one upside to the early winter conditions; we needn’t have worried about the campsites being full.  There were two other people on the shuttle bus from Jasper up to the start at Maligne Lake.  They were two Canadians called Nick and Josh, and they would prove to be wonderful human beings who were kind to us Brits who had no idea and very little gear.  They told us that a lot of people have monthly or annual passes to the national park and that they book up lots of the camping spots on the off chance that they feel like a hike at the time.  Given the weather, they didn’t turn up for our dates and we had the pick of campsites.  Nick, Josh and two older troopers were the only people we saw on the whole trail.

After maybe an hour bus journey, during which we stopped to check out a mother moose and her little ones while the bus driver chatted about how ignorant tourists could get themselves killed, we set off from the Maligne Lake trailhead.

I don’t remember the hiking itself being too difficult at the start.  We had pretty big packs on, but I think I was wearing 90% of the clothing I brought, so they didn’t feel too heavy.  Or maybe the cold and the fear of bears were good enough distractions. 

Speaking of bears, the woody bits at the start and end were definitely where I was the most jumpy – just because it feels like they could be behind any tree or turn in the trail.  We had bought a bear bell (something to fasten to your bag that rings while you walk to warn of your presence), but promptly put it away after being told that the bears are more likely to be curious about the ringing than they would be about humans.  We had bear spray too (like a super-strength pepper spray), but to be honest I can’t imagine how adept we could have been at using it if actually faced with an angry bear.  Thankfully, the closest we came to seeing one was spotting these prints near the path on day two:

This was close enough for me and disappointing for Stu.

Back to the trail.  Even though it was snowy, there was a clear path while we were still below the treeline.  We soon got our first look at a backcountry campsite.  It consists of cleared pitches, a few picnic benches, some lockers, a nearby water source (stream) and some facilities.  Before you go picturing a loo block, this is what I mean by facilities:

I’m so glad that this is the first picture you get to see of Stu on here.  Don’t ask why he is only in a t-shirt; I have no idea.

The purpose of the lockers is to store food or anything with a scent (e.g. toothpaste), so that you are less likely to be disturbed in your tent by animals (e.g. bears) in the night.  The loos are similarly situated away from the pitches for this purpose.

All-in-all, the campsites are basic, but beautiful.  If I remember correctly, we stopped at Little Shovel for lunch.  We had done a food shop in Jasper the day before leaving, and our lunches consisted of bread, cheese and a lot of trailmix.  Nick and Josh stopped here too, and they taught us about ‘trail magic’.  This is the tradition of previous hikers leaving goodies in the lockers for people to find.  The result of a quick search was a spot of whiskey to warm the insides before setting off again.

We arrived at Snowball, the recommended first night stop for a three-day hike, with plenty of daylight left.  Not wanting to sit around and allow ourselves to turn into icicles before bed, we decided to plough on to Curator, which would give us a good 20km ticked off before day two.

It was very snowy and cloudy on this stretch, and we were darn lucky we had footsteps from the others in the snow to follow.  I’m sure the view would have been lovely.

We arrived at the campsite to find the two old troopers I mentioned earlier already set up.  I call them old troopers out of utmost respect; they were two elderly gentleman who had hiked the trail numerous times and were in much better shape than us late-twenties. 

Here was our home for the night:

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And here were the facilities:

I’m still not sure if there are three seats next to each other here to allow for communal loo-going, or just to provide additional buckets when they fill up.

And now we come to the dinner debacle.  Stu (being Stu) thought that we would get on just fine without a hot meal in the evening.  With fond memories of pasta dinners on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions at school, I argued that we’d definitely need some.  Our compromise was to buy one large enamel mug, a gel fuel cell and some tortellini.  Stu reckoned we didn’t need a stand or stove; we’d be able to prop up the mug with some rocks.  And to be fair, we almost succeeded, except the fuel cell was pretty pathetic and after a good while of faffing we only had mildly lukewarm water and uncooked pasta.  At this point, Nick took pity on us and offered to boil us some water in his JetBoil (which rapid boils in about a minute and yes, we have since acquired one). 

We filled up our water from the nearby stream, using water purifying tablets which probably didn’t dissolve due to the cold.  After a snow face wash and brushing teeth, it was time to try survive the night in the tent.

It was really quite cold.  I am not a warm person in general, but normally I can rely on Stu to be my hot water bottle.  But what with his wholly inadequate sleeping bag and paper-thin roll mat, he was of little use in this regard.  I double layered with leggings and socks and jumpers and coat and beanie, but in the end I don’t think either of us were warm enough to get much sleep.  All part of the experience though eh?

We set off the next morning to tackle the Notch, the highest point on the trail.  The walk to get to it was the worst bit of the trip conditions-wise; we couldn’t see a thing for a while.  We were following the old troopers’ footsteps again, but we got lost when they disappeared near what looked like a small frozen stream.  We did circles in the snow until doubling back and realising that the stream was in fact the path, just with an icy layer covering it.  We found the footsteps again a little way along.  We would absolutely not have managed the hike in these conditions without them.  The worst thing was, Nick and Josh started after us on this day, and our loopy footsteps threw them off the path too.

Mercifully, the sun started to break through the clouds just as we ascended the slope to the Notch.  This was a steep and tricky bit of the path, but the view from the top was stunning.

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It was much easier going from here, and being able to see more of the scenery was lovely.  Here’s a montage of Stu pulling off the ‘dashing adventurer’ look and one of me pulling off the ‘orange roll matt so that I can be spotted in the snow’ look.

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Our lunch stop on this day was just a spot on a slope in the snow.  Still running on cheese and trailmix, we were definitely feeling like we were on the home straight.  There were some landmarks to look out for on the next section, my favourite of which was the rocky mountain Tekarra.  What a great name.  I think I might name a future cat Tekarra if we ever get another one, although our darling Elsa might have something to say about that.

Re-entering the treeline gave us a beautiful change of scenery for the rest of the walk to Signal, our next campsite.  It was around here that we spotted those bear prints, and I was not best pleased about their proximity to where we were spending the night.  Aside from the nerves, it was a beautiful patch.  We fell in step with Nick and Josh at a great time for a photo opportunity too.

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As far as I can remember, the night at Signal campsite went much the same as the previous one, but with the added fear of knowing a bear had been close by recently.  I think we must have been feeling pretty chuffed though, having made our way through the conditions and knowing we were only a short 8.4km downhill track away from civilisation.  We did take a detour in the morning to check out the view from Signal Lookout (another great suggestion from the Canadians).  This was a short walk up the track and gave us this scene:

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Yes, we have matching coats.  Stu was sending one back to exchange it, but I liked it so there we are.

The walk down from here was more of a race and did nothing for my Achilles heel.  I think all the layering of socks coupled with frozen boots and a constant slope gave me a minor injury, but nothing lasting.  We were knackered when we arrived at the car park where we had left our hire car for the shuttle bus a couple of days before, but in a content way.  We followed Nick and Josh into Jasper town and joined them for a drink (or a tray of beer tasters in Stu’s case) and a pizza (unbelievably heavenly).  Pretty high on the list after that was a shower, which feels incredible after being on a mountain trail for a few days: try it.

And there you have it.  The start of Stu planning activities which he says will be fun, but which are guaranteed to involve an endurance test and a healthy dose of putting me outside my comfort zone.  You may be pleased to know that since this trip, Stu has acquired a new sleeping bag, roll mat, a lighter tent and a JetBoil.  I have acquired new walking boots and a promise to vet his plans more thoroughly in future.