At Wall Lake, we had reached the lower end of the Bennett Pass Trail and had now started walking along the Wall Lake trail. This excellent multi-use path (foot and bike traffic allowed), connected back to the Akamina Pass trail. As we hurried along, with the sky becoming more overcast by the minute, we began to meet many other day-hikers coming up to Wall Lake from Akamina Pass (for the entire day until Wall Lake, we had only encountered two other people).
The situation was dry and slightly breezy until we were almost joined with the wide, almost road-like Akamina Pass trail. As we arrived at the junction, it began to spit a few drops - enough to make us decide to put on our rain gear and pack covers. A handy tarp had been set up near the Akamina Creek backcountry campsites (just a few metres up the trail from where we were), and we donned our raingear as the rain increased in intensity. Now and again a boom of thunder would roll through the forest.
We continued up the Akamina Pass Trail, heading east towards the pass itself. Reaching the pass marked the point where we had turned left to follow the provincial boundary cut-line hours before in the morning, and thus we had completed the "loop" portion of our outing. From here it was an easy - perhaps twenty minute - descent down to the Akamina Parkway and the trailhead.
The Heavens Open
As we started our descent from the pass, it was starting to look like our wearing of rain-gear had been a mistake. The rain had mostly let up, and we were toying with the idea of putting it all back into our packs. A wave of heavy rain soon started, however, and those thoughts were reversed. Soon we were hiking downhill with muddy rivulets of water on the wide trail underfoot, and it took all of my efforts to keep my camera case and gear out of the streams of water pouring off of my rain jacket. Other hikers with much less raingear than ourselves (and there were many such hikers on the trail at this point), just gave up and let themselves get soaked.
Finishing in the wet
We arrived back at the trailhead at 4pm. A muddy little river of water was now flowing vigorously along the trail beside us.
The rainstorm was clearly going to be short-lived. Already we could see shafts of bright sunlight starting to work in from the southwest, and by the time we had stuffed all of our soggy gear into the car, it had stopped raining. The sun had come out, and mist from evaporation began rising off of everything in sight.
That had been an excellent outing - surpassing even the experience of the previous day's excellent Carthew-Alderson traverse. If only we had returned twenty minutes earlier, we would have managed it entirely in the dry....
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Akamina Ridge Loop - click map to view
Akamina Ridge (Forum Peak Variant) - Hike Data
Start Time:
7:08a.m.
End Time:
4:02p.m.
Duration:
8h53m
Distance:
19.53 km
(12.13 mi)
Average Speed:
2.2 km/hr
(1.4 mph)
Start Elevation:
5567ft
(1697m)
*
Max Elevation:
8464ft
(2580m)
*
Min Elevation:
5530ft
(1686m)
*
End Elevation:
5533ft
(1687m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
3434ft
(1047m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
3477ft
(1060m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
On the way back down the Akamina Parkway, I stopped briefly to examine the national historic site commemorating the first oil well in Western Canada (1902-1904). Some of the drill tools that became jammed in the well were still visible at the top of the wellhead.
First western oil well monument
Feeling unenthusiastic about returning to a wet camp to make dinner, we decided (once again) to head to the Waterton townsite, this time for a pub style dinner.
courtesy JInnes
Final evening at Crandall Campground
The evening after our Akamina Ridge marked the end of our stay in Waterton Lakes NP. We returned to our campsite to get ready for our next outing, down in Glacier National Park in Montana. We would be meeting up with my work colleague Chris and his Wife, where we'd be doing one of the most popular sections of trail in that park.
