Waterton Lakes Day 2: Goat Lake

 Thursday rolled around and I got an e-mail from the hiking transfer company. A few weeks before we arrived, Waterton Lakes saw an unusual amount of rain and a landslide/mudslide cut off Akamina Parkway, the access road to Cameron Lakes, which is the trailhead for the Cathrew Alderson trail, which is the trail I really wanted to do this time, having failed to do it the last two times I visited Waterton Lakes. Tamarack suggested that I do Bertha Lake or Goat Lake instead, and the kids picked Goat Lake just because of the name.

We pulled into the Red Rock Canyon parking lot early in the day, with not a lot of parked cars though some tour buses had already pulled in despite the early hours. It was nice and cool but sunny, with not a cloud in the sky --- in California there was no way it would rain but here the forecast still called for a 30% chance of thunder-showers.

The first 4km of the hike was relatively flat and easy, with barely any climbing or descent. I noted that the trail was open to bikes, so the smart thing to do would be to actually bike to the Goat Lake intersection lock/leave the bikes there and hike to the lake, whih is only 2.5km each way.

The climb started in earnest once you got off Snowshoe trail, and the climb was relentless and warm. Because the park was so recently burnt there wasn't a lot of shade, but the flip side of that was that we also had great views. Once past about the first km, we could see the waterfall coming off of goat lake, which seemed impossibly far away. Boen was doing great but Bowen and Xiaoqin were flagging, so Boen and I let them travel at theiMy  own place and walked on ahead.

I spotted the mountain goat high up above us, and pointed it out to Boen. It had either
come from the lake or was going to the lake, and as we encountered hikers coming down we pointed it out to them and they said they hadn't seen it! So at the very least Goat Lake lived up to its name.

My 2 water bottles were empty by the time we reached the stream from the lake, so I stopp




ed to filter water and refill them, and Bowen and Xiaoqin arrived soon after. They slaked their thirst and then we went on up the last 200m before we got to the Lake, where we found a quiet area and had lunch, a foot long sandwich I'd bought at the Subway.

After lunch, we circumnavigated the Lake. The views were gorgeous, with a meadow that opened up and into the mountains --- we were not quite above treeline, but you could clearly see the distant mountains. It would make for an idyllic campsite, and in fact, Parks Canada does issue backcountry permits for the area.

We descended the trail, this time with Bowen and Boen leading the way. Xiaoqin felt the descent in her knees so went a little slower. We got back down to the intersection, stopping for pictures every so often. We spotted lots of bikes at the intersection, some of them not even locked, so clearly others had the idea to do the smart thing.

The return to the car was straightforward, interrupted by cyclists over-taking us. The next day, one of the other hikers who recognized us told us that they saw a bear along the snowshoe intersection a little before we'd arrived. I'd hoped that we would make it back to the village by 4:00pm so we could take the evening boat tour, but that was not to be --- it was 5pm by the time we got to the car.

We had dinner at the grill. Given everyone's condition it was unlikely that anybody would want to do the crypt lake hike, which was even longer than what we'd just done, and had the problem that if you missed the return shuttle you were stuck with an extended hike back. I'd done the hike before with plenty of time, so didn't feel obliged to do it again --- I proposed that we do the Waterton Lake International Cruise the morning, and then do Bear's Hump after that, then have lunch and relax in the afternoon before visiting Cardston for dinner for our last full day in Waterton Lakes.