*Recommended Listening During Reading
Whitney – Light Upon the Lake – I played this album a few times during the trip, and while writing this post.
 Summer is rocketing by. It’s the end of July, and this is the time of year where I feel this last minute pressure to squeeze out every last drop of warm weather activities that I can.  Two weeks ago, Mike snagged the last reservable campsite at Wapiti in Jasper National Park for this weekend. Last minute camping gear additions were made, equipment and dog (Stryder) were piled into my Fiesta on Friday evening, and we made the drive out to the park after work. We got to the site just around 10 pm, with just enough time for a quick fire after the tent was setup.  My fire building skills are top notch all of a sudden and I’m relatively proud about it.
About two minutes from our campsite. Athabasca River
Saturday morning we started with breakfast, scrambled eggs with veggies, lots of coffee, all made over the fire. Mike had the plan to do a hike to Geraldine lakes on the recommendation from a coworker. It sounded like a challenging hike, but we figured we’d give it a try.
We drove out toward Athabasca falls, at which point we had to drive up a fire road for about 20 minutes. The road was narrow, rocky, full of deep holes; it made slow going for my little sub-compact but we made it without problems. The hike promised a nice walk through a forrest, muddy paths along a breathtaking lake, and not one, but two waterfalls.
Geraldine Lakes – Trail Head
Muddy trails along the river.
The first section of the trail was easy and really enjoyable. A fairly well defined path lead steadily uphill. We crossed a few muddy sections, often using rocks as stepping stones and logs to get across the worst sections. I kept yelling out randomly to make any wildlife nearby aware of us, and yelling parts of Carly Rae Jepsen songs (no shame, don’t care). I noticed no one else was doing this, but I’ve had enough walk ins on bears while walking through the woods and didn’t care to have another one.
After about an hour of following the trail, and a creek, we made it to the first Geraldine Lake. This is where the trail gets muddier, winding in and out of the trees along the rocky bank of the lake. The water colour was incredible, a real rich turquoise/blue, with an an amazing mountain peak on one side. The lake is fed by a really dramatic waterfall on the opposite side.
Waterfall off in the distance.
The waterfall at the other side of the lake.
After snaking our way along the lake, avoiding the mud as much as possible, we made it to the edge of the waterfall. This is where my first real hesitation came in to what lay ahead. We found ourselves looking at an incredibly steep, muddy hill. Not really a hill, it felt like we were climbing a ladder, or really wide stairs, grabbing onto rocks and trees for stability. My main concern was Stryder, I figured we’d make it up easily enough, but coming down might be a real test. We ascended approximately 90 meters vertically in about 150 meters of horizontal distance (so steep). We made the ascent pretty quickly, only realizing we missed the main trail a ways back and took a really difficult way up. The trail isn’t heavily trafficked and it’s quite easy to stray off of it. *Made a mental note to take the easy way down.
The next portion is where things got interesting…
The talus fields… ultimately the deal breaker on this hike, or the ankle breaker. We read in the description of the hike that we would cross several talus fields, without bothering to look up what they are. Talus fields are stretches of large rocks, boulders, after rock slides occur. Our walk started to slow down at this point. Mike and I probably would have had no problem, but Stryder really struggled at this point. Four paws having to navigate the large boulders, often with huge gaps in between made it really tricky for him. We passed through three of these sections, following little piles of rocks to mark that we were going the right way. At one point we went completely in the wrong direction for about twenty minutes, before heading back down to find the right trail markers again. Twice, Stryder turned around and was like, “guys, I’m done, I can’t do it.”  With a little encouragement, and occasionally carrying him over the really tough sections, guiding him rock by rock, we made our way over section after section. He was a real trooper, all the while reminding me he’s still a pup, making my dog dad concerns kick in. A few more hikes like this, maybe another year older, and he could handle it.
Eventually, we had the second waterfall insight and made it across another talus field that had the river flowing beneath it. This is where things became questionable. One section looked particularly difficult. We had to keep in mind the next sections promised to be even more challenging, and we will still had to make our way back. I was nervous about having to carry Stryder over this portion, not wanting to injure him, or ourselves as it was a long, difficult hike back if something went wrong. Our trail guide said that next section was more talus fields, except going steeply up hill, this time with no trees to grab onto, only your steady footing to assure you. At this point, we decided to turn back. Feeling a little defeated, this was probably the right decision. Going downhill, we made it back to the waterfall pretty quickly.
Relief after the last talus field is behind us.Â
Avoiding the super steep hill we took on the way up, we took the easier route down. Halfway down, things got a little scary. There was a particularly steep section where you used tree roots and rocks as steps to go down. Stryder walked in front of me and brushed a branch aside, and INSTANTLY we were swarmed by a ton of small black bugs. I’m just going to emphasize here, I’ve NEVER experienced bugs like these. They swarmed, they stung, incredibly painful stings, repeatedly, aggressively.  They were all over Stryder, he was panicking, and crying trying to get them off. I swatted them off of him while getting bit myself. Mike in front of me, Stryder in the middle, and me behind, all of us were being stung in a literal slippery situation. I tried to ignore the bugs biting me, picked Stryder up, and Mike grabbed Stryder from me, lowering him down while getting a few really nasty bites, leaving huge welts. As soon as we made it past, the bugs left us alone. We assessed the damage and carried on.
We made it down the side of waterfall and travelled back along the lake.  At one point, we crossed paths with what Mike thought was a large Marmot. I wasn’t so sure it was, but either way, after the bug attack, I was pretty done with the wildlife encounters and was not taking any chances of being attacked by a large rodent. I kept yelling, “HEY. GO AWAY. WE’RE COMING TOWARD YOU.” Slowly, we crossed the rocky section, crossed the muddy trails, and made it to the other side of the lake.
River flowing out of the first lake…
We made good time on the last section back to the trail head, feeling the burn from walking down hill.  At last we made it back to the car, had lunch, and made the drive back down the fire road and back to camp.  This was my first real hike that wasn’t easy, that wasn’t geared toward tourists, and it was amazing. Having to work to reach certain views, visiting places that not everyone can just drive their car to was really rewarding. Also, knowing that we only walked about 7 km round trip, taking about 4 hours, knowing that we were in a fairly remote location, and only crossing paths with a few other people was really surreal. I absolutely want to finish this hike at some point and will be back. We would have likely completed this a lot faster without Stryder, but it was really nice to have him on the hike with us. Good job pupper.
Stryder – slept for hours after this hike
Pupper… completely exhausted after the hike
Pizza Pops over the fire ;)
Sunday morning, we packed up fairly early and made our way out to do the Valley of Five Lakes hike. Our legs were still a little rubbery from the day before, and we didn’t want to be completely exhausted for the drive home. The Five Lakes is approx 4.5 km, circling around five lakes, and not too difficult. It was a much easier hike than the day before, well defined trails, not too much climbing, but offered some amazing sites.
  The trail had us winding through open valleys, along creeks, switchbacks up and down hills.  There was a lot more traffic on this trail, being a fairly friendly hike for anyone willing to walk. It was definitely less rewarding than the day before, but was a welcome change of pace for tired legs, both human and canine. At one point, we made it to the largest lake of five, which offered some of the most crystal clear, turquoise water I’ve ever seen.  I’ve typically only come out to Jasper to go snowboarding in the winter, and these summer trips make me really wonder how I haven’t done this sooner. We spent the most time taking in the views at this lake compared to the other four. Stryder has become a huge water loving dog in the last month or two and nearly pulled me in at one point.
Lake from the top of the trail
The trail continued on, snaking it’s way along a handful of other lakes, up and down the side of the mountain.
The hike wrapped up with a fairly steady climb out of the valley. At this point, we were all happy to be done and rest our legs, grab some food, and take in a few other sites. I absolutely recommend the Valley of Five Lakes hike for anyone who wants something thats fairly accessible, and offers some amazing views. A lot of families were out and hiking the trails, and there’s a shorter circuit for anyone who doesn’t want to complete the full 5(ish) km. The entire circuit took us about two hours to finish.
Not quite ready to head home yet, and not wanting to do anything too taxing before the drive home, we drove out to Pyramid and Patricia lakes for some site seeing.
Pyramid lake would have been a great place to set out for a kayak, the lake already filled with dozens of paddlers. Feeling surprisingly tired we decided to head back to Jasper, made a quick stop at Bear Paw Bakery, and made the drive back to Edmonton.
All of us made the drive home feeling a little like Styder in the photo above. Saturday’s Geraldine Lake hike only makes me want to do more back country hiking. The experience was incredible, surreal, and rewarding. I also feel really lucky that I get to do things like this, that so many people don’t take advantage of what’s right here, that Jasper is practically in my backyard, that I can just escape for a weekend and experience an incredible national park, that I can have experiences that make me learn more about myself, the people that I’m with, and put things into perspective.
I’m exhausted, I’m content, and I’m leaving for Montréal in two days… and that sounds like a future post.
Jasper – Geraldine Lakes, Valley of Five Lakes *Recommended Listening During Reading Whitney - Light Upon the Lake - I played this album a few times during the trip, and while writing this post.
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