More Adventures in Banff

Thurs. 29 September:  Sundance Canyon

Time for a short adventure around Banff townsite on a gloriously warm Fall afternoon.  The forecast suggested that this long extended summer might finally be coming to an end.  How could I waste such perfect weather?

Parking at the Banff Pleasure Grounds, I biked up the paths leading to the Cave and Basin – except that several trails were closed due to the major renovation work taking place at this historic site.  Before the end of next year, the Cave and Basin will be reopened for use.  I could see from the extent of the work that this is a major undertaking.  As I passed below the hot springs, there was a strong smell of sulphur.

The trail leading to Sundance Canyon follows the Bow River, with great views across to various mountains. This used to be a paved road, but now closed to vehicles, so it makes for a perfect biking trail. Pulling away from the river, the road heads up into a forested valley, and ends at a bike rack.  From here you follow a two kilometer loop up though the canyon and back down the hillsides.  Sundance Canyon is gently spectacular, with tall cliffs to your right, leaning at dangerous-looking angles.  Bridges and steps allow you to clamber up beside the creek as it tumbles down the narrow canyon.

The trail meanders around the forest, and since I had not properly checked the map, it seemed much longer than I had expected.  There was one nice viewpoint westwards up the Bow Valley, before the trail twisted and turned down the hillside back to the bike rack.  Somewhere down this section, I passed a young lady who was wandering slowly down the path.

The return into town by bike was an enjoyable fast descent followed by a picturesque ride alongside the river.  A girl on a horse, and a boy on a bike were the only other people along what is usually a very popular pathway.

Tonight I was camping at Tunnel Mountain, in readiness for my much more ambitious trip tomorrow.  It was a clear night, and the temperatures were heading down to zero in a hurry.

Statistics
Sundance Canyon
Thurs. 29 September
Total Dist.	2.1 km (hike)  +   9.0 km (bike)  = 11.1 km
Height Gain	450 ft.
Max. Elev.	5,070 ft.
Time	1 hr. 46 mins.

Other Stats.
Start bike:       3.53 pm Start hike:      4.34 pm Bikerack:        5.06 pm Ret. to car:      5.39 pm	Temp: warm Cloudless, fall colors

Fri. 30 September:  Shadow Lake

Yet another spectacular outing in the mountains – making this a summer to remember.  Here it was, the last day of September, and it might have been a mid-summer day.  Except that the sun took a long time to rise.  A red sunrise brought a quietly spectacular start to the day.  But it wasn’t until I had started to climb up into Redearth Creek that the sun finally appeared over the mountain tops to the east, at close to 9 a.m.

W had told me how great Redearth Creek was for a mountain bike trip, and he was so right.  Apart from the first fairly steep sections rising up from the Bow Valley, I was able to pedal for a good three-quarters of the ascent up the valley.  And as for the descent, more later!  A younger, more experienced mountain biker would have had little difficulty pedaling the whole way up the trail.  This was a well-graded access road, with a good bikeable surface.  It climbed up Redearth Creek, from the Bow Valley, towards Shadow Lake, far up in the valley. 

After just over ten kilometres, I reached the junction with Pharaoh Creek, and the end of the biking section.  There is a bike rack here.  Here the road ends, and Shadow Lake trail – now just a rocky, muddy hiking trail, heads up a short steep section of hillside to the valley above.

It is only two kilometers from the bike rack to Shadow Lake Lodge, but it seemed much more than that.  I met my first person of the day, a middle aged lady who looked as if she did a lot of hiking, and  who was making her way carefully down the trail.  Several hours later, as I raced down to the car, I caught up with her at the very bottom end of the trail.

There are sections of boardwalk along the path, between muddy areas caused by the passing of many horses.  Crossing a bridge, I reached Shadow Lake Lodge, a series of well-kept cabins in a meadow, with views of the snowy Mt. Ball ahead.  I relaxed in front of the cabins at a picnic table but saw nobody around.  This was the final day of their season, and they close down tomorrow.

Shadow Lake itself is another kilometre up the trail, and so I continued up the valley.  The trees thinned out, revealing a spectacular lake stretching away to the towering wall of Mt. Ball (10,863 ft.).  The best viewpoint is reached by crossing a long footbridge over the wide creek which exits from the bottom end of the lake.  There are many such breathtaking scenes in the Canadian Rockies, but this was as wonderful as the best of them.  The duck-egg blue waters glistened under the clear blue skies and warm sunshine.  Suddenly a crack as of a rife sounded across the water.  I could see an avalanche of snow drop like a waterfall from one high ridge of Mt. Ball to a lower section of the cliff-face, followed a few seconds later by a long rumbling sound.

Being in no hurry and wanting to make best use of this day, I decided to take the lakeside trail to the far end of the lake.  The trail in fact climbs up into the trees quite high above the waters, and does not come back down until about two-thirds along the shoreline, where the lake narrows down a little.  From here it was a spectacular stroll to the far end of Shadow Lake, with increasingly dramatic views of the towering cliffs of Mt. Ball directly ahead.  Two tiny waterfalls were flowing way up on the mountain wall, and every so often there would be a loud crack as a rock or some ice broke free and crashed down.  At the foot of the mountain, at the far end of the lake, was a huge pile of rocks which had fallen from the heights above.

I discovered a path beyond the end of the lake which headed through the bushes and up into a valley to the right of the mountain, but it wasn’t on any map and might just have been a climbers access route.  So after following it a short distance, I turned around and retraced my steps.  The blue-green waters were sparkling in the sun, and a warm breeze made this a perfect hiking day.  Earlier, on my journey up Redearth Creek, I had come across puddles with ice, indicating the temperatures had dropped below freezing last night, but now it felt more like mid-summer rather than the last day of September.  As I returned along the trail above the lake, I met a young woman coming up the trail.  I think we gave each other a bit of a shock, as neither of us had expected to see anyone else along this remote end of the valley.

Having stopped once again at the Lodge to soak up some sun – there was just one couple relaxing by their cabin and no other signs of life – I returned down the trail, which under the warm sun had now become a little muddy and slippery.

Back at the bike, I strolled a few hundred yards along the Pharaoh Creek trail to a bridge over the creek, where there was a corral and a warden’s cabin.  This was not the traditional Canadian Rockies cabin, but a small hut with an arched roof.  It was all boarded up for the winter.

Now the fun began.  Having carefully tied down my gear, I jumped on the bike and enjoyed a ten kilometre free ride back down the mountainsides to the car.  Well, there was one short section which was slightly uphill, but the rest was a gentle, or not so gentle, cruise down the road.  I had to keep an eye out for any hikers or horses coming up the trail, but there were just a small handful of hikers, and right at the bottom end a cowboy with two packhorses heading up to the lodge.  There was also a strong woman who stopped me at a point where a tree had fallen across the trail, and we hauled it out of the way.  She did most of the hauling! 

It was a fantastic ride down the hillsides, where I could go as fast as I felt comfortable going.  No doubt a more daredevil biker would have made it down in about twenty minutes, but I took about twice that length of time, and was reluctant for it to end.

But finally I raced down the final slope to the finish line, where a number of people were preparing for the trip up the hill.  Tomorrow Shadow Lake Lodge would close for the season, although this trail is also a popular cross-country skiing route, so it probably never falls completely silent for very long.

Back at Tunnel Mountain, the RVs gradually drifted in all evening, and by the time the light failed, the campsite was almost full.  There must have been close to a hundred mostly large, modern RVs, with a few smaller ones.  They were generally rentals, containing couples from all over the world.  Since only a small handful of campsites remained open in the National Parks at this time of year, Tunnel Mountain is a magnet for anyone still touring – and there were more than I had expected. 

Later, the clouds suddenly appeared on the western horizon, under a strong west wind.  I suspect the days of warm summer weather may now be finally over for another year – but not before I had enjoyed yet another spectacular day in the Canadian Rockies. 

Statistics
Shadow Lake
Fri. 30 September
Total Dist.	12.0 km (hike) + 21.0 km (bike) = 33.0 km
Height Gain	1,600 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,200 ft.
Time	6 hrs. 47 mins.

Other Stats.
Start bike:       8.43 am Bikerack:      10.30 am S L Lodge:     11.15 am Shadow L:     11.39 am Far End:       12.41 pm S L Lodge:       1.27 pm Bikerack:        2.19 pm Start bike:       2.36 pm Ret. to car:      3.30 pm	Temp: warm Cloudless, light breeze