Fri. 1 November: Banff
Award Winners: Tunnel Mountain, Sulphur Mountain, and lots more
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| My valuable geocaching coin from Parks Canada! |
Parks
Canada is into this geo-caching craze. The
lady at the Banff Visitors Centre, handing J and myself each a sheet of paper, told
us that, if we could find the five geo-cache sites and answer five questions, we
could each win a special coin. “No
problem!” J & I replied, with confidence. Six hours later, we were back at the information
desk ready to claim our awards!
Tunnel Mountain was our first destination. The upper Tunnel Mountain Road was closed off at
both ends for some reason, so we did a bit of driving around the base of the
mountain before parking at the lower parking lot for the trail up the mountain.
The parking area was full of cars, but
no other hikers were to be seen, apart from a couple of young women with
several dogs in tow. Our first cache was just a few yards from the bottom end
of the trail, hidden behind a bush. Inside
the small box was the answer to a question, and a tiny log book to sign. This first box gave the reply to the question:
“Is there a tunnel in Tunnel Mountain (NO)”.
It’s
a nicely graded route up the mountain, and is the most popular trail in Banff. As a result, even on this cool November
weekday morning, we met a dozen assorted people along the way. Several people seemed to know each other and
were probably regulars on this short journey. At the top we stopped to admire the views down
into Banff
townsite, but did not linger as the wind was biting. There was some blue sky above, but off to the
west the clouds were starting to gather ahead of tomorrow’s snowstorm. Part way down, there were impressive views
down to the Bow River and the golf course below the sharp
edge of Rundle.
Our
next cache was along the road below the Tunnel Mountain
campsites, opposite the Hoodoos. These
sandstone outcrops stand about thirty feet high, beside the Bow
River downstream of Banff. Again, hidden under a bush, this box contained
a surprising answer: the oldest tree in Banff is a 695 year old
Douglas Fir!
Driving
west along the Bow Valley, we stopped at the semi-frozen Vermilion Lakes, where there were two more caches. One was under a pile of rocks beside the third
lake, and the other under a bench along a forest trail. The sun shone directly across the water, as if
the lakes were filled with silver. The National
Parks have been doing a great job over the past year putting up new signs
everywhere, and building little boat docks along these Vermilion Lakes.
For
the final cache, we could simply have driven up to the Upper
Hot Springs and walked a few hundred yards up the Sulphur Mountain
Trail. This was far too simple. Instead, we paid for tickets on the Banff
Gondola and made a swift ascent to the top of Sulphur Mountain. There were just a few people at the gondola
base – very different from any typical summer’s day.
The
boardwalk along the summit, up to Sanson
Peak, was mostly snow-free. A few well-wrapped-up tourists were enjoying the
views, although up here the wind-chill must have been several degrees below
freezing. The tiny stone cabin at the
summit would be a lonely place to live. We could see inside to the bunk, table, chair
and stove; hardly room to stretch out.
Returning
to the summit restaurant, we relaxed inside to warm up before heading down the
steep mountain trail. The surface was
snow-covered and we were glad of our MICROspikes or equivalent. I almost bet J that we would not see anyone
else on this descent of over two thousand vertical feet. I’m glad I didn’t do so, as we must have met
thirty or forty people coming up or going down the slippery zig-zag path. Nobody else, as far as we could see, was wearing
spikes, making their journeys precarious at times. We picked up our final cache near the foot of
the trail and rushed into town to claim our prizes. These colorful coins, depicting a Canadian
beaver clutching a GPS device, were well worth the effort!
Our
final destination was the Cave and Basin, reopened this year after major
renovations. The original “basin”, a hot
pool discovered by the railway builders in 1883, became the start of Canada’s
National Parks. It was certainly
impressive, but I wonder whether they might have found a way to turn these back
into working hot pools, not just a large museum.
We
thought there might be a final cache in this area, but were out of luck. But who cared?
We were already Banff
award winners.
Statistics:
Total
Distance: 11.4 km (hike)
Height
Gain: 950 ft.
Max.
Elev.: 7,449 ft.
Time
on Trail: 3 hrs. 59 mins.
Tunnel
Mtn:
Distance: 4.8 km
Height
gain: 800 ft.
Max.
elev.: 5,544 ft.
Dep.
car: 9.36 am
Summit: 10.25
am
Ret.
to car: 11.11 am
Sulphur Mtn:
Distance: 6.6 km
Height
gain: 150 ft.
Height
loss: 2,370 ft.
Max.
elev.: 7,449 ft.
Gondola
Top: 12.53 pm
Observatory: 1.09 pm
Top
of trail: 1.53 pm
Ret.
to car: 3.17 pm
Temp:
Ranging from +1 C to
around +6 C, summit wind chills well below zero.
