This trip involved a lot of driving. And while I don’t mind the driving so much, it’s the nights and food stops in between that generally hold the story. On the way to Calgary we stopped in Golden for the evening, and ended up in a, umm, interesting motel just off the side of the highway. The room reeked of cigarettes, which the “charming” woman with the attached oxygen tank at the front desk somehow failed to mention. Then we walked down the road a ways to a place called Legendz Diner. It was, in fact, just what it advertised-a diner. Complete with greasy burgers and a healthy layer of grease covering everything else in said diner. But they were playing good tunes, so it was all good. On the way back to the Island from Mount Robson we somehow missed the Hole-In-The-Wall Restaurant, which may have been due to us cheering for the semi in front of us to pass the two RVs he and us were stuck behind. I will also mention the Old Caboose Restaurant in Clearwater. Delicious sandwiches. Should you ever be in Clearwater and feeling peckish, I would suggest a stop there. Let’s hope they’ve fixed the ice cream machine before you get there.
On to the half marathon. It was in Calgary during the stampede, and if you’ve never been to Calgary for Stampede, go. Seriously. Straw bales everywhere, and everyone, and I mean everyone, in a cowboy hat. And I love myself a cowboy. It was a delightful droolfest. Why the Calgary half, you ask? Well, my cousins Leah & Lori were running the full marathon and I thought it would be cool to be in the same race as them. I would’ve loved to have done the full marathon with them, but with the Robson hike looming the next day, the ability to walk the next day was a necessity. Had I been informed the full marathon finishers medals were, in fact, belt buckles, I would’ve said to hell with Robson and run the full. I finished in 2:01:41, which isn’t my fastest time, but I’m fairly pleased with it. I must admit that I didn’t train particularly hard for this one, so I think that’s a fairly good time given my training effort. I will now point out that Calgary, unlike Campbell River where I run right next to the ocean, is not at sea level. It’s actually 3557 feet above sea level. Altitude makes a difference to distance runners. You don’t’ have to believe me, ‘cause I know it’s true. There’s more oxygen at sea level. For the record, Leah came in at 3:29:18, and Lori was just behind at 3:41:19. One day I hope to be able to keep up with them. I may be 80 when this happens, but I’m okay with that.
The race was good, I don’t really remember much except trying to keep up with the damn 2 hour pace bunny. I couldn’t do it. He just kept passing me. But it turns out that wasn’t so bad, since Glen said he came in about 3 minutes before the 2 hour mark. He was still my nemesis on the course, though. Damn you pace bunny, damn you! The course even took us through the Calgary zoo and the Stampede grounds. It’s not every marathon you get to see monkeys watch you run, so props to the organizers for that bit of fun. When my mom and family planned on coming down to see me run, I demanded they bring signs. I was not disappointed. There were signs. It made me happy. And as it turned out, they were pretty much the only signs along the whole course. For me! Yay me!
After Calgary Glen and I headed up to Spruce Grove for the night, and the next morning out to Mount Robson for 5 nights and 6 days on the fabulous and picturesque Berg Lake Trail. There were 9 of us in total: Glen & me, My brother Beau and his Girlfriend Christy, my sister Jana and her (as of 2 days into the trip) finacee Jonathon, Jon’s cousin Kristy, Christy’s brother Rob, and his ex-girlfriend Tamara. We hiked 11 km on the first day to Whitehorn camp, then 10 km the second to Berg Lake camp. We spent 3 nights at Berg Lake, with 2 days for day hikes and chillin’, and then we hiked all the way out. We had planned an extra night on the way out at Whitehorn to make the trip out a bit easier, but there were a few people with pretty bad blisters that couldn’t face another chilly morning of putting their boots on, so we changed our plans and hiked the whole way out in one day. It was long and it hurt, but I think most people were happy to be back in civilization a day early. Most of us ended up with pretty bad hiker’s walk, too. I shall now piece the hike into my usual sections of amusement.
Jana and Jon, or as they are known in my house, “Janathon”. Jon came to me and Glen the first night at Whitehorn and showed us the ring he planned to give Jana on the edge of Berg Lake. He planned to wait for her to do her usual dip of the feet into the lake and propose to her. Apparently everyone but Jana knew, and once we got to Berg Lake we kept trying to get her to go down by the lake, but she wouldn’t take the bait. It was killing me and Christy that we knew but couldn’t say anything. Well, we finally got her down there near the end of the day, so now I have another wedding to attend sometime in the future.
The Weather. The weather was, well, miserable for most of the trip. The clouds were low, thus covering the mountain we had all come so far to see. And it kept raining on us. At one point we even had a little snow. Yes, snow. In July. It’s the Rockies, it happens. So we were cold. And we couldn’t really hang around outside. So we spent most of our time sitting in the cabin playing cards instead of basking in the beauty that is The Robson. But then, on our last day, just to tease us, the sky cleared and we got the most amazing view of the mountain. It’s like it knew we were leaving and didn’t want us to go. So we had one day of good weather, the day we left. But it was better than getting rained on the whole way out.
Food. Generally, on hiking trips, you go a bit hungry, since you don’t really want to have to carry enough food to keep you full the whole time. Mostly since food is heavy and you’ve gotta pack it all around on your back. But this was not the case on this trip. Apparently someone decided we were going to eat like kings. And eat we did. Spaghetti with actual spaghetti sauce-they poured spaghetti sauce into nalgene bottles and hiked it up the big hills-eggs, sausage, and granola bars. Lots of granola bars. 210 granola bars, to be exact. That worked out to 5 bars a day. I’m not sure who came up with that number, but I think they overestimated. Christy actually ended up giving about 20 to a family in the cabin with a couple of young kids. And we still had leftovers. Luckily, Christy’s brother Rob is nothing but stomach. Which is weird, since he looks like he’s about 130 lbs soaking wet. But if there was food left over, Rob would eat it. It was rare to see him around camp without a half-eaten piece of beef jerky or granola bar in his hand.
The singing. A grand Damgaard family tradition, dating back to the first days of the first Robson trip. Generally, you just burst into song whenever you feel like it. On the trail, in the outhouse, while cooking dinner, or playing cards. We had a couple favourites on this trip: Carrot Juice is Murder by the Arrogant Worms, and Granny’s in the Cellar. And the whole time we annoyed Christy by singing them. Carrot Juice is Murder even got sung in full-blown harmony, with all the backup parts. We even managed to get them stuck in her head overnight a couple times. We even had a 4 year old request our rendition of Granny’s in the Cellar one more time. It was awesome. Jana and I even managed couple verses of Tomorrow. One day we’ll actually learn all the words so we can sing the whole song and not just the chorus.
Snowbird Pass. A previously mentioned, we had 2 days up at Berg Lake for day hikes. The first day I wanted to go up to Snowbird Pass, which was 26 km round-trip. No one else seemed particularly keen on going with me, so I went by myself. And it was awesome! It was uphill pretty much the whole way there and downhill the whole way back, but it was totally worth it. The trail takes you up the side of a valley with a fantastic view of Robson Glacier, then past some waterfalls and up into a high alpine meadow and even farther up a scree slope to the pass. On the other side of the pass is a huge icefield which was pretty cool to see. A good chunk of the hiking was along scree slopes, so I’ve had my share of them for a while. And it was a long way up, too. According to my GPS, I covered almost 800 m vertical that day. And it was a long 26 km. It took me 6 ½ hours, and I barely stopped at all. But it was worth it, since I’m sure there aren’t many people who’ve seen Snowbird Pass. The next day Jana and Kristy went up. They said it was worth it, too.
Mumm Basin, Toboggan Falls and “the Cave”. This was about a 10 km day hike I went on with Glen and Rob. It goes uphill for what seems like forever, but then it levels out and you get the most amazing panoramic views I’ve ever seen. If you ever want to feel small, hike up to Mumm Basin. It should put your world in perspective. Also along the same trail is a sizeable cave you can crawl into and explore. You have to stoop to get inside, but you can stand in it, and if you brought a headlight it’s interesting to walk around in it. Toboggan Falls, as always, were pretty, with all the little potholes and spots carved out by years of rushing water. Another day trip that was well worth it.
After the hike we all drove to Jasper for pizza at the now infamous Jasper Pizza. Though it was a 2 hour detour, it was totally worth it for pizza and a beer. We all toasted our success and our sore body parts then headed our separate ways. And it was pretty nice to shower after 5 days in the bush.
We have another holiday planned for July so stay tuned for details!
