..aka the Cathedral Park Beach tour...
Preamble/Travelogue: Some excitment in Manning.
I was determined to get Alexa on a backpacking/camping trip into the Alpine this year. The challenge: she's a nearly 30 lb toddler and I'm on my own with her making the proposition a good deal more challenging than last year. A little daunting to be sure but I was also pretty sure that once I figured out the strategy around logistics and necessary toddler gear; with a little patience and a whole lot of creativity, the rest would fall into place.
And it would be incredibly rewarding.
So with all of those things pulled together and the gear, supplies and the kiddlett loaded into the car we set off in the evening to see how close to Keremeos we could get before the little miss needed to stop and settle in for the night. Little did I know our evening was going to have a few little unexpected turns in store.
On the way though Manning we slowed as we came across a spot on the Hwy where people had stopped and were getting out of their cars. To the north side of the road, an SUV was on its side in the ditch. People were walking cautiously toward it. I pulled over, turned off the car and told Alexa to hold tight. I then got out of my vehicle and asked the forming group if anyone had been sent for help/ambulance/rcmp etc. Nobody had a quick answer. I rushed over to the vehicle to check for passengers/driver calling out "Hello in the truck, are you OK, I'm walking around to check on you". Which seemed to startle a few in the gathering crowd, at least one of them who had been walking gingerly towards the vehicle attempted to answer me themselves. "Ya we're okay just checking the truck..". I nodded politely and answered quickly - So was I. My question was meant for
them. (motioning towards truck)
When I got to the other side and could see in the Vehicle, I let out a bit of a sigh of relief. It turns out there was no
them both passenger and driver seat were empty there were hand prints on the driver side door (the most reasonable escape route from the vehicle) seeming to indicate that whomever was in the car had managed to extricate themselves on their own. Another of the onlookers had joined me and he'd moved in closer to check the vehicle more carefully, we had a quick consensus that the SUV was empty of potential victims.
Satisfied that my assistance wasn't required I headed back to my vehicle and announced to the group of onlookers that I would stop into the Lodge and report the overturned vehicle and that I needed to keep moving as I had a child in the car. At least one of the women from a car nearby smiled at me and nodded obviously feeling the same level of relief as I that the situation was a whole lot less concerning then it might have otherwise been.
As I drove away the thought did occur to me that the driver (and passenger(s)) of the vehicle might be walking the hwy, so I kept a lookout while on my way to the lodge but didn't come across anyone. At this point in time Alexa was letting me know she was almost done.
I reached the lodge, told Alexa to hang tight again and ran to the lobby to report I'd seen an overturned SUV on the north side of the HWY about 10k west of the lodge. He nodded and pointed to a small group of people (4 in all) using the lodge courtesy phone. “That would be their truck - thanks for reporting.” I smile and nod even more relieved and run out quickly to my waiting toddler and give her a big kiss on the forehead before jumping into the driver seat and continuing on.
Well with all of this excitement; my hope that she would fall asleep in her carseat on the way and we would reach a campsite on the Ashnola faded into the reality that she had had enough excitement for the evening. She started to signal this fact to me again just around Mule Deer camp in Manning. Getting creative; I was able to squeak on over to the Sunday Summit brake check and park round back and convert the back seat and hatchback into a bed; which confused her at first but soon she thought it was great fun. And there we "car camped" till morning.
Day one in the Park
The next day we were pretty much up with the sun. I got our breakfast of bite-sized cut fruit, yogurt and cheese out of the cooler and we had a snack before continuing onto Princeton for cowboy coffee, a muffin and then onto the Cathedral Park Lodge base camp to catch our morning ride up.
Last year we'd camped at Lake of the Woods. This year Alexa is bigger and heavier and not yet quite hiking on her own any distance that would give me confidence that she could do the walk to Lake of the Woods on her own without needing "up". Which I was not really keen on attempting on the trip in with big
FULL pack. Quinescoe also presented us with the convenience of being able to have a handful of lodge meals at our disposal, so camping there made most sense.
I'd never camped at the site but was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly prime spot overlooking the lake in fairly close proximity to an outhouse and the food cache.
If it was a purely adult camp trip this would not be a concern; but when camping on your own with a toddler, you want to maximize convenience as much as possible.
. Alexa actually walked most of the 300 nearly horizontal metres into camp on her own with some Smartie prompting and I discovered I could in fact hip-carry her while carrying my fully loaded Briza 75. Another kind backpacker carried the fully loaded Sherpa child carrier as far as the Ranger Cabin but not without giving me a "what the heck did you pack in here?...rocks???" kinda look as he sat it down and carried on with his group to Lake of the Woods. I just gave him a sheepish grin and thanked him for the help.
Logistics!
Once I managed to get all the bags into camp with Alexa in tow. I offered her a snack as I worked on setting up the tent. She did pretty well, while I unpacked.
Once the tent was up she immediately went inside to check things out and proceeded to walk around in circles and "all fall down" onto the sleeping bags as mom went to work inflating the thermarests.
Once camp was up, the agenda the first day was pretty lax. I really had no idea how long it would take to unpack while trying to also keep Alexa occupied so I had given myself a big window. It was hot and lunch by the lake (complete with a well deserved beer for mommy) seemed like the best idea.
Ahhhhh.
Of course Alexa was tired, she'd slept in the truck on the way up but that was an hour tops. I tried getting her to nap in the tent but she was way too excited in her new environment for that to work at all. So I decided to take her on a little walk to Lake of The woods to see how she'd do. Lesson one: Alexa is a much better hiker when she isn't tired.
But it was still pretty golden.
As for the rest of the day; not much more to write about. I did manage to cook dinner. (Mountain House Meal)<--- K.I.S.S. principle applies. Alexa played in the shallow water near camp until bedtime.
Day Two: Glacier, Pyramid and Ladyslipper Lakes.
Starting off fresh; the plan today was to actually do a bit of hiking! I'd booked a lodge breakfast and packed lodge lunch. Lesson Two: Lodge Lunches are heavy and every ounce does count when packing a toddler plus food plus gear for a 5-6 hour day.
Our first snag. Alexa wanted no part of the Sherpa Carrier. No way - no how! Thankfully I'd packed her soft carrier as backup. However this means I'd have to shoulder carry the day pack while piggybacking Alexa all day. Okay! Best to stick to easy terrain with readily available water sources.
We headed up towards Glacier Lake via the little plateau separating Quinescoe and Glacier lakes.
Didn't take long for Alexa to fall asleep...
It was a beautiful day and there were other groups enjoying the trail on their way up to the RIM via the pass above Glacier Lk. Bah...we did that last year. Overrated!! [
)][B)]
I spent a bit of time taking photos and enjoying my surroundings before deciding it was best to tackle scurry off toward the second little bit of elevation gain to Ladyslipper while Alexa was still asleep.
And she stayed asleep just until we reached the plateau above Lady slipper that is part of Pyramid's east ridge. This is actually one of my favourite spots in the park.
The view of Macabre, Matriarch, Dentures, Boxcar et al. is stunning from this vantage. I let Lexie out to explore the rocks, lichen and grasses of the alpine while I set us up with some lunch.
She seems happy to be here.
We talk about the mountains and I name some for her, she eats half a sandwich I have the other half (plus whatever she chooses not to eat). Then I ask her. "Should we go down to the lake and see if we can find a spot to go swimming?". She thinks for a half a second, obviously processing what I've just said; "BEACH"! comes her smiling reply and she's off like a shot down the trail before I can even gather up our stuff and race down after her. Of course she can only go so far, so fast on those little legs.
What then transpires are a few hours of throwing stones, looking at flowers and fishes, wading in the cold shallows and hiking along the lake shore to find the best "beach". Eventually we do.
We eat the remainder of our packed lunch by the shore. I watch a group descend the east ridge of Pyramid (ever so slightly envious) and we linger just as long as I think we can before packing up and making the journey back to camp.
I manage to cook a slightly more involved (chicken and mushroom marsala on jasmine rice with snap peas.) dinner and enjoy my second bevvy of the trip and Alexa is out like a light by 7pm allowing me to get camp cleaned up and enjoy the star filled skies. A rarity for me these days.
Day 3: Goats and Goat Lake.
So yeah, forgot to mention; the first few days we enjoyed the treat of having goats in camp. This morning was no exception.
Generally it had been just a nanny and kid who were both pretty good at keeping a reasonable distance from camp; which when you have a toddler along with you, is generally a good thing. Alexa liked the goats. I'd told her yes they are beautiful and nice to look at but be careful they are "big animals with big horns that could hurt!". and "Stay close to momma, momma's nervous!". To which she echos "Momma's nervous!". All in all, she was pretty good at staying close to me and camp with just a little reminding.
This morning there was a young male who seemed a little too curious and gutsy. So I had to wave a camp towel to startle him away. Hmmm something to watchout for.
A simple breakfast of oatmeal and we were off to Goat Lake. It seemed like a good destination for us today. Just a quick stop at the ranger cabin to let him know where we were going and away we went.
Again Alexa had fallen asleep by the time we reached Pyramid lake. The trail to Goat Lake has you following the centennial, dropping down to the valley bottom and then a slow rise over approx 3.5km to the cirque. I'd forgotten how nice this little hike really was once you rise out of the willow at valley bottom into sub alpine terrain.
The trail follows a clear running stream with pill-granite bed. There are wildflowers and low lying vegetation covering the ground under a sparse spruce and fir forest.
The Spruce beetle has run a course though Cathedral Park and hiking through this area gives good example of it.
Alexa wakes a good 15 minutes from our destination. She's in good spirits. We talk about the wildflowers and the "waterfalls" the trees and the mountains looming over us. I tell her to let me know when she sees a lake.
We arrive and again I'm struck by how beautiful this area is.
We cross the creek to the "beach" which is actually an old gully run-out that looks as if it hasn't seen action in a very long time. I've spent time here before.
There is an Osprey atop a spruce not far from us. As I'm unpacking I notice him take flight, circle the lake and dive. He surfaces with a trout in his talons and flaps his wings repeatedly to gain some air while searching for a place to perch on the other side of the lake with his prize. "Alexa look! That bird caught a fish!". ..I'm not sure she saw it.
We have lunch on the beach. I tell Alexa to wait here, mommy is going for a splash. She complies and I do some prep and jump in. The water is COLD, I can't help but let out a screech and move quickly back to shore. Alexa looks at me and blinks a few times startled. I smile to reassure her and say its COLD! She breaks into a smile and says "Again Mommy Splash!". "No way!" I respond. "That's enough for Mommy."
We have our snacks, she throws rocks and gives rocks to me to throw and we watch a few fish rise and its time to head back. Turns out there were no goats at Goat lake. We talk about waterfalls and rainbows. (She recognises that rainbows sometimes accompany the water spray from falls and associates the two.). She starts getting a bit testy as we near the point where the trail gains elevation to the core area of the park. Lucky I had the foresight to bring smarties along. We're going to Smartie hill! I say. I give her a Smartie at each switchback giving her the choice of which colour she prefers; this game gets us back to camp happy and in time to clean up for dinner.
Later with Alexa asleep in the tent I stretch out on a nearby flat boulder and take in the luxury of watching the stars slowly light the night sky. New campers arrived tonight and they are a bit noisy. As I listen to the chatter I also pick up the sound of crashing though the scrubby fir around camp and the clomping of feet. I look down to see a ghostly white ungulate starting up at me. It bleats and takes off into the darkness only to go crashing a wide circle around my boulder and look up at me again. I stare back at him, amused; Sorry bud, this is my spot for the moment. He reluctantly slinks off into the night. I didn't linger much longer, Alexa had woken and was starting to make some noise herself so it was off with me to go settle her and turn in for the night.
Day 4. Goat Party and heading home.
Last day in Cathedral park for us. The big focus of the day was to do breakfast and pack up while caring for Alexa and keeping her occupied. I did have a misbegotten notion that we might take in the short trail around Quinescoe but I soon realized that just packing up and transferring our packs to the pickup spot at the lodge would pretty much take up all the time we had available with just enough time to spare to throw rocks in the lake and enjoy a Lodge lunch before catching our ride back down.
It seemed the goats had gathered
en masse to see us off. There were 9 in the meadow below our campsite. Alexa and I sat on a picnic table and watched them chase each other and climb rocks from our vantage point above the action. Alexa shouting "Oh yes chase!" whenever their antics were amusing enough to her.
Why did I write this up in so much detail? Just to let other parents out there know; though certainly it was alot of work and prep, it was a rewarding trip with the most rewarding moment of all to hear my daughter say;
“I luf you Mommy.”
GOLDEN
A Toddler in the Cathedral.
Your Privacy Choices