Blogpost 16

Woensdag 27 juli 2016

​​In mijn Youthhostel lag ik op een kamer met twee gevulde stapelbedden. 
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​​​Lake Louise Youth Hostel.

 Ik werd wakker, bleef wakker en besloot op te staan…Zonder licht met al mijn spullen (hoop ik) de kamer uitgeslopen. It seemed to be 4am… Beuhhhh. That was only 4 hours sleep then. I decided to leave and go to my next stop: The Berglake Trail, 365 km verderop

Berglake Trail

It was so crowded at the parkinglot yesterday in Lake Louise, next to the trail, I stood over an hour in a que before I could park. Apparantly in the back of my mind I had decided to leave early. 

Mount Robson

Ready for my first background trial

Parked 2km from the Visitorcenter at Berglake Trailhead. It is now 10am and I am ready to go. I do not know why but it took me six hours…. My rucksack weights exactly 20kilo (no surprise) with 2,9 kilo food and 2,5 kilo water. My left knee hurts a bit because of the hike yesterday. I am so excited to go finally! Do not want to think of any disturbtion. 

The highway from Lake Louise to Jasper (270km) was astonishing. 

From total dark till the sun hits the top of the mountains. I stopped every 10 minutes to take pictures and my battery went flat. I was yelling in the car…for exitement. Being on the road, all by myself, between this huges huges rocks, sun coming up, music playing..singing out load! 

I thought of one of my sons who told me once that he was very moved after seeing “Into the Wild” (not to be confused with “WILD”), specially because of the fact that this guy found out that he wanted to share in stead of being alone, that the meaning of life in a way was the sharingpart….and …the rest you know.

I was screaming in my car that is was só fucking beautiful….for me&myself. Sharing in my blog is enough for me …till now.
I saw a dear today, an elk!! Just beside the highway, which is just a two-stream road, also cyclists there! Of course I stopped the car and made 300 pictures.
It took me some effort to fit everything in my rucksack, but i managed. Registered in the visitor centre, got my pass which during walking is on the outside of your rucksack and during night at your tent. Rangers are hanging around to check this, they say..if i do nót show up at the campground i don’t think they would notice, cannot imagine that they sneak around tonight to see if everybody is in. You hád to look to a 13 minutes informationvideo i the visitorcenter before you could go, haha. They show you how to behave in this World Heritage (Wereld Erfgoed). 

And there I went. Youhahhh!

Kinney Lake

The first 5,5km went easy…no much height to take, and a lot of wild water in a big river besides me, very refreshing. The first big lake showed up after 7 km. Then came a véry tough part, straight up..and this 20 kilo bitch on my back was screaming for attention. But my only concern was my knee. “Let me please walk on!” was my mantra! 

I took a “wrong” path
(“Because you can do it now! It has just opened!”, said a person I passed!!) It seemed a 3kms extra loop before entering the main trial again
Pitched my tent on this 12m2. Bit risky without footprint, hardly dare to sit on my new Exped Downmatress, what if this one goes flat now? I just wanted to test it..and fell asleep on my down sleepingbag. After an hour I waked up, and could dó something again. I settled in….went to the shelter, boiled my water straight out the river for my dinner, made a tea…a coffee…This shelter is a roof where they put 4 picknicktables so you can sit and cook dry in case of rain. My first background camping experience was awesome! Again pretty many people there. A lot of talking. Up till now I met only Canadian Hikers. And the bearstories came again…

“Yeahh Kèrowhh, you know…there were two bearencounters in Alberta lately…you don’t have to be scared but they cán be dangerous, Darling”.

The behaviour towards bears is very various. It is in fact the same as in every behaviour, you have the “scary” and the more “relaxed” types. You put every moment éverything that has a smell in this iron lockers away from the campsite or…. you don’t. In fact I was too lazy to walk all the way to this iron foodstorage. Some said that you not only lock all your food but also your suncream, deoderant, any waste and everything that smells away in the iron box. Well Darlings, than Í should crawl in that box, with my socks! 

After dinner, without wifi&wine, I went straight to “bed. Food was safe, i was not! 

I cannot read or write properly sitting or lying in my tent..my body hurts too much. Hope this will change soon!