Peter Lougheed VC

Half good, half bad.

The first half day out of Coleman sucked. Muddy ATV trails. But then the next day just as I was packing up in the morning a fellow thru hiker walked by. Gerald from Germany was rad, and has trekked basically everywhere. Google Wild Trekking, plus Gerald or something, to find his blog (which has been in English for the last few years, he said). But I'm a little more impatient than him, so we hiked about 2/3 of the day together and then he stayed back as I went up Tornado Pass and over Tornado Shoulder, where a lot of people say the trail starts getting good. It did.

Views have been good (see Instagram.) But I also felt like I wasn't really *in* the mountains. I was on a lame rolly polly hill next to them and they (the High Rocks Range) was visible next to me. It's also weird, like the Canadian Rockies are only one real mountain wide and everything else is just foothills. And Alberta clear cuts right up to the treeline of the real mountains! I was having trouble deciding whether the provincial motto should be "just ain't care" or "meh, it'll grow back." Or maybe the High Rocks Range is so pedestrian compared to Banff and Jasper and what's coming up, that of course that's where you log and send all the ATVs. I hope it's that.

I was running out of food, and anxious to get to town, but then I read the description of the Coral Pass alternate, and calories be damned, I was going to do it. It was an extra 13km, with much more extra climbing and bushwacking, but I got it done in a day and picked up my package at the park visitor center this morning. Coral fossils at 2800 meters elevation. Beaver, porcupine, and a flying squirrel. High, glaciated pass in a called I immediately fell in love with. On par with Titcomb Basin in the winds. (Seriously, that pretty.) The bushwhacking on the north side was ridiculous. Both sides we're schwacky, but the north side was schwacky plus lowering yourself down slick mossy cliffs by grabbing on to the alder (willow?) branches and hoping they don't give. Luckily(?) there are a few tiny bits of years-old surveyer flagging at a couple of the key cliffs. And I ran into a Cal student and his friends going the opposite direction so they bailed me out of the calorie defecit. Basically, a great day.

 It's about 2.5 days from here to Sunshine somethingorother ski lodge outside Banff. Supposedly there's a free bus to Banff. I need to hit the library there to print maps, buy permits, and make sure my packraft is in order for Alaska.