Hidden Lake Shoreline
Today was August 7 - a bit past mid-summer. We weren't entirely sure if the lake level would be low enough, but we felt it would be worth a shot. With all of the horror stories about a tiring and tangled passage on the bypass route, we wanted to avoid that if possible (although to be fair, based on the section we just walked on from Upper Kananaskis Lake, it wasn't too bad).
We therefore did not take the bypass route, but instead walked down towards the lake, which soon came into view. We emerged onto the lakeshore at a small cove where a huge mass of driftwood had accumulated.
Hidden Lake
There was indeed shoreline visible - a strip of grassy land between water and forest. It didn't look like it would allow passage along the entire distance to the lake's south tip, but it looked good enough for a while.
As we walked along, we could see a little section or two of what must have been the lower-water path, emerging from and then disappearing back into the water. Perhaps in another week or so (i.e. mid-August), the water level would be low enough to allow one to walk along its entire length.
We made easy and good time along the lake, but eventually we came to a spot where the water lapped up against a steep stretch of shoreline, one clogged with deadfall, driftwood, and branches. We had to pick our way carefully through this, before reaching another easy stretch of grassy, low-angled shoreline.
courtesy JInnes
Flood effects, Hidden Lake forest herdpath
A second stretch of rough shoreline (narrow, steeper, and cris-crossed by deadfall and other obstacles) forced us to bushwhack back up to the bypass trail. We stayed on the bypass trail for about 300 metres before noticing that nice shoreline had once again emerged down at the lake, and so we bushwhacked back down to the lake for the final stretch to the southern tip of the lake. Again, we did not find the 300 metre stretch along the bypass trail to be especially tedious.
Vertical Symmetry, Hidden Lake
At the southern tip of Hidden Lake, we stopped for a break and took some nice, still-water shots of mountain reflections in the lake's waters.
From here, a very well-defined path (trail, really) starts uphill. After 7.5-ish km of mostly flat walking, the real elevation gain of the trip to Aster Lake starts here. The mostly blowdown-free trail gets steeper as it ascends, and soon (perhaps 350 metres along) starts to break out of the trees and onto an open talus slope below Mt Sarrail.
The transition from forest to open talus slope is fairly abrupt, and soon we were in a completely different scene: ahead was a wide valley, forested on the right-hand side and open, bare talus slope on the left-hand side. In the center of the scene was the water of Aster Creek, pouring over a couple of sizeable dropoffs and forming very pretty Fossil Falls.
The trail we'd been following through the trees continued diagonally up the talus slope, primarily in a southerly direction. The trail switchbacked once briefly, but then resumed its generally diagonal, southerly, rising course.
The general objective of the trail in this section was to skirt across the massive lower flanks of Mt Sarrail, while still managing to climb out of the valley. To this end, the trail ascended up the talus and then traversed across it, not far below where the piles of talus end and the solid rock of the mountain begins. Eventually the trail climbed up onto lower-angled parts of this bare bedrock, choosing the least steep side-slope across it. There was some steeper terrain below the trail at this point, resulting in a bit of exposure, but with a bit of care, it was fairly straightforward to hike across this section. We could now see that the trail aimed to arrive at the low-angled terrain above and to the left of Fossil Falls.
courtesy JInnes
Making elevation from Hidden Lake
Across solid but steeper slopes
Skirting low-angle cliffs
A brief return to some scree path and then an easy, non-exposed bit of scrambling led up to a grassy bench. From here, a steep and earthy (but totally enclosed) gully led up to a 3-metre chimney scramble that definitely required hands. But again, it was easy, and over in perhaps 15 seconds of climbing - literally two or three moves. Above this we emerged onto a grassy slope with a nice-looking path heading off into some trees.
Overview, ascent from Hidden Lake
