Snow Shoe Trail

Fri. 17 December: Taylor Lake

Talk about a good work-out. Try snow-shoeing up 2000 vertical feet of wintry, snow-covered, forested Canadian mountainside in minus twenty degrees C!

Taylor Lake had been on my list for a hiking trip this summer, but due to the massive road-twinning construction works between Castle Junction and Lake Louise, the trailhead was closed. Now a new trailhead has been built, a couple of hundred metres to the east, and once more the trail is open for business. Not that I was expecting to see anyone today, as the Taylor Lake trail is not on the Banff Park list of winter trails.

It was overcast and snowing lightly as I left the city, in the early rush-hour. By the time I reached the Kananaskis turn-off on the Trans-Canada Highway, there was enough light to show me that I had left the clouds behind, and was heading into a sunny day in the mountains. Canmore was mostly hidden in a low mist, and the mountain scenery was spectacular and wintry. Several elk stags were grazing by the side of the highway, as I passed the Banff airstrip. There was a good flow of traffic, probably a mix of the Banff rush-hour and ski-hill employees heading to work.

There’s now a brand new sign about 8 km west of Castle Junction, marking the new trailhead, and a large area beside the highway has been ploughed. To reach the trail, you make your way through the fence into the forest. It was a cold morning, with mist hiding the lower slopes of the towering Castle Mountain. Checking the temperatures later, it showed that at 9 a.m. it was minus 26 degrees C in Banff, and minus 17 in Lake Louise, so I reckon that here below Taylor Lake it was in the low minus 20’s.

I was well dressed for this trip, and had soon strapped on my snow shoes and was heading through the fence into the wintry wilderness. I could tell that nobody had been along here since the recent light snowfall this week. But I was glad that there had been an earlier traveler along this trail since the first heavy snowfall, as they had packed the snow down on the trail, making the journey much easier. Whenever I strayed off this narrow path, I would find my snowshoes sinking into deeper snow. It was a demanding trail, after the first kilometer or so of gentle slopes meandering through the trees. The trees were all snow-covered, and it was a very pretty scene, although wintry and remote.

After crossing Taylor Creek on a small bridge, the long uphill test began. The lower section of the trail twisted uphill, with some blind corners. At this time of year, I wasn’t worried about meeting a bear head-on, and I knew by the undisturbed snow that I was alone on the trail. But nevertheless, I speculated, there just might be something unexpected around the corner. I did meet a snow-covered bush which as you see I turned into a happy snowface – now at least I had one friend on this lonely trail.

The trail, although steep, did not try to head directly up the mountainside. There were several switchbacks, making it a reasonably straightforward, but long, journey. I kept thinking that I must be near the top, but I wasn’t even close, as I kept finding yet another section of uphill trail ahead of me.

This was not a trail for good - or any - views. Nor did it catch very much of the low sun, until I was much higher up the slopes. The trail and lake lie on the northern side of the mountain range, and so, with only 3 days to go until the shortest day of the year, there was very little sun to be had, even when the skies were, as today, clear.

Finally I reached another small bridge, across Taylor Creek. The lake lay ahead of me, hidden behind the trees. First, however, I turned right, climbing some way up a gulley, in deeper snow. A mountain skier had been this way before the last snowfall. I think this is the summer route up to Panorama Ridge – a possible future trip. Turning around, I came back to the trail, and plodded the last few hundred metres through foot-deep snow to the edge of the frozen lake.

Taylor Lake is a magnificent, and large, mountain lake, in some ways as impressive as Lake Louise. It is ringed by towering mountains. In summer I would be standing in gorgeous wildflower meadows, not deep snow. To my right was a small back-country campsite, romantically known as Ta-6, which was buried under the snow. In fact, I couldn’t get off the trail to sit down, so I just had a brief snack where I stood, then started back down the trail.

There was a sign pointing towards another lake, about 2 km away, above Taylor Lake. It is called Lake O’Brien. I knew at once that this would have to wait until another time, as the snow was deep and I had taken enough exercise slogging up through the snow as far as this.

My return journey, as is usually the case, was a lot easier. Snow shoes work really well down the slopes, as long as you remember to keep a slightly wider gap between your feet! Otherwise you can get into a terrible tangle. I noticed with surprise that a skier had come up the trail behind me and was now, I suppose, somewhere higher up the mountainside. The ski tracks were wide, being made by a pair of rugged mountaineering skis. I never saw the person.

It was a long way down the mountain trail. If I had known it was this far, I may not have been so keen to attempt it today. On my way up, I had thought I was near the top when in fact I wasn’t even halfway up. I made great time down the hill, and so back to the car. Here the temperatures had risen to perhaps around minus 13 degrees C and the sun was shining on the high ridges of Castle Mountain across the valley. My balaclava and jacket were coated with ice.

I was glad to get back in the car and warm up. It was an easy journey out of the sunny mountains The Bow Valley around Canmore was full of smoke from some controlled burns on the hillsides below the Nordic Centre. Not far east of the Kananaskis turnoff I was back in the cloud. In the city, people had been suffering all day from low cloud and snow flurries. As for me, I was ready for a good night’s sleep.


Statistics
Taylor Lake
Fri. 17 December

Total Dist. 13.8 km (snow-shoe)
Height Gain 2020 ft.
Max. Elev. 6880 ft.
Time on Trail 4 hrs. 39 mins.
Temperature around minus 20 degrees C