7-30-2015
Abbott Ridge – Glacier NP, British Columbia

I’m officially “Where the Wild Things Are.”  Bear country.  Or so the not-so-subtle signs written in English and French tell me.  If anything, the signs should be warning of bugs, not bears.  Geesh!

In actuality, I feel like I’ve entered a liminal zone.  A place where I can put society behind me for a while, and let myself be free.  Well, up to the extent the park rangers allow me to be free (are they even called park rangers here, or do they qualify as mounties?  I feel like they might be mounties, but I didn’t want to ask and sound like an American idiot).

I got up here from Revelstoke first thing in the morning, eager to tackle my pre-planned routes along the Glacier Crest and/or Perley Rock trails.  However, I quickly learned that wouldn’t be happening.

“Too much bear activity in the area,” the ranger said to me.  “Four or more persons to a party needed for those trails.”  But I wasn’t four or more persons.  I was one person.  A single Rob.

“Anything I can hike alone?” I asked.  “I drove up here all the way from California,” I whined.  The ranger looked at me slightly annoyed, with the kind of face that said he had dealt with people like me one time too many during his chosen career.  “Take the Abbott Ridge trail,” he said.  “It’s one of the few trails we have here without party restrictions, and, in my opinion, its the most beautiful trail in the park.”

“Great, the guy’s slipping into hyperbole,” I thought to myself.  I left the registration office not quite sure whether or not I could trust the snake oil I was being sold.  “Abbott Ridge?  Doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as Glacier Crest.”

I drove over to the Illecillewaet (say that three times fast) site where most of the trailheads and campgrounds are located.  Before starting the hike, I picked a campground (#30) and self-registered.  As I’m writing this, I’ve now come to learn that I picked horribly.  Had I simply drove another few spots down, I could have been living it up next to a well-sunned, fast-moving river of pure glacial runoff (i.e. – a relatively bug free location).  Instead, I chose some marshy, vegetative filled hell-hole of a campsite with enough bugs to fill the entire State of California and keep its citizenry swatting away for a month straight.  End of rant.

Having made the kind of claim to property that would have made whoever it was who tried to colonize the Congo proud, I started towards the trailhead allotted to me by Canadian regulation.  As soon as I’m about to take my first step on the trail, I hear a voice.  A pretty voice!  The kind of voice that comes from a girl with a European accent.  “Hello, where are you hiking?” the stranger asks.  I turn my gaze to see two girls staring back at me.  “Abbott Ridge,” I reply.  “Oh, we are going there, too,” the girl says, and then asks, “would you like to tag along with us?”

Thank you, you wonderful park ranger man who has probably always done the right thing in this world, and who I’m sure is well-liked at all social-gatherings and parties.

“Um, yeah, sure,” I say.

As we hike the steep ascent, I make acquaintances with my new found friends for the day.  Beatrice (the girl who spoke to me originally) is from Spain, but working here in Canada in the government sector.  Her friend Anna is French, but working here in Canada in the banking sector until she can find a job in her area of study which was marine biology.  They are both on sabbatical.  “Wait, like…that thing professors get to take?” I ask, confused.  It turns out, here in Canada, for ever so many years of work you do in the public sector or in any heavily regulated area of the private sector (like banking), you can take a 1-year, paid sabbatical.  For example, Beatrice has been working for her job for 3 years.  On year 4, she squared away with her supervisor the right to take a paid year off to travel.  She is currently on month 10 of that sabbatical.  During that time, she has traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, home to Spain, all over Asia, New Zealand, and now she’s back in Canada touring around Vancouver Island and British Columbia.  Her and Anna had actually just met  a few months ago in New Zealand – two Europeans working Canadian jobs bumping into each other on the opposite side of the world while both on sabbatical.  Suddenly, my 3 week road trip doesn’t seem so impressive.  “Maybe you should move up here to Canada, so you can take sabbatical someday?”  Beatrice offers with her perfect European accent.  Maybe I will.

At this point, we work our way beyond the pitiful lake…

…past the treeline, and the views become like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Note the stratification on the glacier.  Just amazing.

I’ve seen a lot of mountains in my day.  Nothing like this.  Anna and Beatrice were equally impressed.  For a while, we turned into tourists, snapping photo after photo, before sharing lunch together on the rockway, and then again turning into tourists and snapping photos like fiends.

We couldn’t help it.  The views were too perfect, too pristine.  I think we all felt that kind of wonder with the world, Garden of Eden feeling that we all have as kids, but lose somewhere in adulthood.  For a while, I was no longer jaded.

Thank you, park ranger guy, thank you again and again.

The three of us hiked down the mountain fairly quickly.  We got back to the trailhead just before 3 p.m.  We said goodbye, and they let me know that they were heading onto Jasper and would be there until Tuesday.  As I headed back to my campsite, I realized I hadn’t given them my contact info or gotten theirs.  It felt kind of foolish having this great day with two people, and then seeing them poof disappear forever, but sometimes moments like that have their place in the world too, and maybe it was all for the best.

When I get back to my campsite, I walk around a bit more, learn the lay of the land (as well as what an awful campsite I chose), set up camp, have an early dinner, and well, write down most of the material that became this blog post.  Tomorrow I attempt the most-anticipated part of this trip – a 20+ kilometer trek through Kootenay NP to Floe Lake and the Rockwall, ending with me camping in the backcountry up there, and then hiking out the next day another 20+ kilometers.  No four person teams or front country campsites to get me through that trek.  Oh, and, though it was warm today, I’ve noticed that when the sun goes down, I can immediately see my breath, and things get pretty cold.  I have some cold nights ahead of me.

Cheers,

Rob