Forum Lake

Another post about hiking! We here at the Bear house sure like our hiking, and this one was my current favorite. The trail head for Forum Lake is just north of Cameron Lake, this trail has several branches that can be hiked. One can be done over the course of 3 days, doesn't that sound like fun! The entire trail is called the Akamina Pass, and it goes a long way.

This trail was quick rocky, compared to others we have been on. It gets steep pretty quickly, and is a steady uphill walk for about a kilometer, then it is kind of an uphill/downhill for a while. One of Little Bear's favorite things about this hike was hiking all the way to B.C.! 

That's right! You cross the Provincial boundary on this hike. Not long after passing this sign, the trail forks, we took the main trail. The trail we were on on also leads to Wall Lake and continues the Akamina Pass. Further along there is a second fork, this time we took the smaller trail and boy did it get tricky after that. 

These 2 are so funny!

Once you branch off on the Forum Lake trail things get super steep, for a long time. I would like to do this hike again with a GPS of some kind to measure how much elevation you gain. You are in the trees from here until you nearly get to the lake. One thing I liked about this trail is, there's a ranger station! Which means a bathroom! Which means, an outhouse, but that sure beats a tree in my books. Just past the ranger station there is a little trail that forks off and takes you to Forum Falls. It is only a few dozen meters, and well worth the few minutes,

We took our time on this hike, partly because there was so many pretty flowers and other vegetation to look at and mostly because it was really steep! Little Bear was a champion on this hike, it was taxing for her, but she pushed to the end. When you get to the end you can see this

It was another successful hike, and we had a lovely picnic on the shores of this little lake. It was cloudy when we were up there, and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lake when the sun came out for a few seconds. The lake turned this incredible shade of turquoise, It was breathtaking. If you ever feel like taking a hike that will challenge you, this is a good one. It is about 4km each way, and should take you 3-4 hours depending on how fast you can scale those inclines.

Looking down from above the falls

On the way back down we decided to hike the cut line along the AB/B.C. border just to see what we could see. Papa Bear always the surveyor noticed this. It is the official marker of the border, or something like that, ask him, he knows all the real words. 

True to our luck, we saw a Mama Bear & 2 cubs while driving out of the park. Un-lucky was that I was not camera ready! But that brings our bear count to 10 this summer! 

Summit Lake

At the end of July Little Bear had the chance to go visit her cousins for a week. During this week Papa Bear and I stole a quick trip to our mountains to hike. We also packed, moved, un-packed, and laid a tile floor during the week. I really wanted to make sure we spent some time at a higher elevation, so we set out on one of the nicest days this summer! We chose to do Summit Lake, it was the hike I had been wanting to do all summer and it was worth it!

This hike take you up the south/west side of Mount Carthew. You are in the trees for the majority of the time, but if you look back now and then you can catch glimpses of some very impressive scenery. This is a view of Cameron Lake.

This trail starts out nice and easy, and is only that way long enough to fool you into thinking that this hike will be a piece of cake. It's not. Not that is it super hard, we have hiked harder, but this one will definitely get you breathing. I am sure, had Little Bear been along, she would have been able to do this hike no problem. We say younger children that her on the trail, as well as some older people. 

First glimpse of the lake

Summit Lake

 This hike took us a solid 4 hours to do, I am sure it could be done quicker, but why? You would miss so much if you sped along the trail. This trail does continue onto the summit of Mount Carthew, and will eventually take you all the way back to the town site. 

Rowe Creek

We took another trip up to Waterton before Papa Bear left for another work stint. We wanted to hike to Summit Lake, but decided that we should try something a little less intense, because we were all feeling a little under the weather. We hiked the Rowe Creek Trail, which runs along the north side of Mount Rowe, and leads to? What else, but Rowe Lakes. This hike starts out semi steep, and only gets steeper. While not as consistently steep as say, Bears Hump, it does give you a good cardio work out with a steady uphill climb. Little Bear was able to handle this hike quite well, there were only 2 spots where she remarked on the steepness of the trail. 

The first third or so of the hike in entirely in the trees, with the occasional glimpse of Rowe Creek. The photo above shoes the first time you really see the creek, the water is running quite high and fast still. After you break out of the trees, you will see some spectacular views of the upper elevations of Mount Rowe and Mount Lineham.

This picture was taken just after we broke through the trees, it was a beautiful mountain meadow rising to the north, with a steep valley to the south. The trail at this point runs right along the edge of the valley, and at some points a rocky cliff. Beyond this point we started running in to snow drifts, Which got bigger as we got further along, and made the walking slower, but still manageable. 

This hike a a good one if you prefer a less traveled path, and have some time to stop and just look around. There is some prime Grizzly Bear areas along this hike, though we did not see any. If you are not up for walking the 4km distance to Rowe Lake, this trail allows horses.

After the climb, as we were again, heading to the town site we saw another little Grizzly! He walked right in frount of our car and then along side it, right under my nose! 

Cameron Lake

We took another hiking trip up to Waterton Park on Saturday. We decided to go up to Cameron Lake, since we had never been up there, ever, to our recolection. It is a gorgeous fresh water lake, on the east end of Forum Peak, the very southern part of Cameron Lake is actually in the U.S. The photo above you can see a wide view of the lake, and Forum Peak on the end.

Papa Bear and I cannot recall ever going up to Cameron Lake before, so we decided to start our summer hiking season here. We walked the shoreline trail, along the west side of the lake. It is a flat, easy hike that runs right along the edge of the lake. It takes about an hour to walk this out and back trail. While we were there, there was still quite a lot of run off coming down the mountainside, and quite a bit of ice still floating on the lake. We weren't able to make it to the end of the trail because there was the remains of the avalanches that occur in the area most winters.

This is the perfect, quick hike if you are going with young children. We enjoyed our quick trip up to the lake, on the way back down to the town site, we happened upon this little guy! It was our second Grizzly Bear sighting that day!