Carthew-Alderson Traverse
(plus Mount Carthew climb)
Saturday, August 2
Saturday, August 2nd. Today, we were off on the first adventure of our Rockies trip: a day-hike traverse along one of Waterton Park's premiere routes: the Carthew-Alderson trail.
The Carthew-Alderson trail starts (or ends, depending on your point of view) at an alpine lake in the extreme south-west corner of the park, climbs up over a high divide between two peaks, then makes a long and slow descent past a series of beautiful tarns, before descending back below treeline and eventually arriving right at the edge of the Waterton townsite. Total distance for this hike is just over 20 kilometres.
Prepping for Carthew-Alderson
There is a backcountry campground - the Alderson Lake campground - partway along this trail. I had originally planned for us to stay at this campground, making our journey a 2-day backpack, but by the time I was ready to make the reservation, all of the sites had been taken. Since the Carthew-Alderson trail is just over 20km in total length, this ultimately wasn't a problem, and we decided to do it as a simple day-hike.
Facilities at Cameron Lake
The western start point of the Carthew-Alderson trail is at the northern end of Cameron Lake. Located at the end of the park's Akamina Parkway, Cameron Lake is a beautiful 5,500ft / 1660m sub-alpine lake with dramatic peaks forming a backdrop at its far end.
After dropping off Cassándra's car at the Waterton townsite (i.e. the eastern end of the trail), we drove up the Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake. Under rather gloomy skies, we arrived nice and early (6:40a.m. or so) at the very large parking lot at road's end. The place was deserted, save for one other fellow who seemed to be in charge of preparing the lake's canoe and paddleboat rental facilities for the day.
courtesy JInnes
This way to Carthew-Alderson
Carthew-Alderson trail start
Some well-placed signs directed us left and onto the wide and smooth path of the Carthew-Alderson trail. The trail led through shady mature forest, first briefly near the shore of Cameron Lake (of which there is only one limited view), and then gradually uphill, always on a good grade. Well-engineered switchbacks had us efficiently gaining elevation up the eastern slopes above the lake. The topo maps of the area show a whole squiggle of switchbacks along this section, but there was actually only a few of them - albeit with big, long traversing sections.
Although the forecast had generally called for partly cloudy skies, the overcast thickened slightly as we climbed and a light rain began to fall.
Limited Cameron Lake view
Great trail, mature forest
Near the top of the switchbacking section, while we were stopped for a quick break and a breather, I happened to think to ask Cassándra about where she had placed her car's keys. I expected her to reply with a "oh yeah, they're in the top of my pack" type of answer. However, without skipping a beat, she replied "in the console".
For a brief moment, my brain processed this reponse. "The console... of our car?", I replied. "Yes." Her voice was conversational, and showed no trace of alarm. After a few seconds of silence had passed without any recognition of the problem, I pointed out that not being in possession of the keys for the far-end car would make it a wee bit difficult to use said car when we reached it, many hours and approximately 17 kilometres away from where we now were.
Our predicament finally dawned on her, and after some profuse apologizing from Cassándra, we laid out the possible courses of action: - complete the hike and somehow hitch-hike back to Cameron Lake; - somehow break in to Cassándra's locked car (she had a spare key inside); - run back down and fetch the keys from our start-point vehicle (which was now 3 kilometres away and 1000ft / 300m below).
As we pondered these choices (and I was starting to strongly lean towards running back down sans-pack to retrieve the keys), a lone hiker came up the trail towards us. Being quite sociable, Cassándra suggested that we ask this fellow if he might somehow be able to help us out. We introduced ourselves, and he him - Adam, a Parks Canada staff member at Waterton Lakes National Park. He wasn't doing the traverse as we were, but was instead planning to hike up as far as Carthew Summit and then return. And although his itinerary did not match ours, he immediately and generously offered to help us out: after completing his hike, he would drive down to the Waterton townsite end of the trail and pick us up, then drive us back to Cameron Lake. Most generous indeed.
Flattening out
So, our key crisis had been averted, and we continued on up the trail. And by the way, you readers should know that this is not the first time this sort of key mixup has happened to us.... right, Brian?
Now that we had been introduced to Adam, we reflexively coalesced into a single hiking group of four. The trail, which had just gained the flats above Cameron lake's eastern slopes, led generally southward, through stands of forest interspersed with small meadows. Stands of Beargrass - characteristic of the Waterton-Glacier area - was prominent in these meadows.
courtesy JInnes
Our faster pace along the flat terrain soon brought us to Summit Lake - a round sub-alpine body of water ringed by trees. Poking above the tops of the trees on the far side of the lake were several large peaks across the border in Glacier National Park in the U.S. It was still lightly raining, but fortunately the cloud deck was quite high and visibility was not hampered by the rain.
Light Rain at Summit Lake
After taking a few pictures and donning the raincovers for our packs, we quickly continued on. We didn't want to hold up Adam, seeing as he was being so kind to help us out of our vehicle predicament.
Approaching treeline
From Summit Lake, the Carthew-Alderson Trail started climbing again - but it was at a gentle grade and the trail's tread continued to be excellent and smooth. We were now approaching treeline, and the views through the thinning and shortening trees grew better and better - expansive views south towards the craggy, rugged mountains just south of the border.
Improving in conjunction with the views was the weather: the rain had stopped, and the clouds showed some initial signs of breaking apart. Way off to the south, we could see a bright line that seemed to mark the end of the overcast. We hoped, naturally, that winds aloft would blow that clearing in our direction.
Lightening Skies
Adam turned out to be a very amiable hiking companion. We learned that had only been stationed in Waterton for a year or so, and he was employed to do Geographic Information Systems (GIS) work. Although this was primarily a desk job, he did occasionally get to do field work. And, in his off time, like today, he explored the park. This was his first time up this western section of the Carthew-Alderson trail.
Treeline
At around 2200 metres of elevation (7,100 ft), the trail emerged from the trees onto an open slope - at first grass-covered, but then simply scree. The slope was part of a large, gentle amphitheatre that formed the head of a south-facing valley. The trail angled diagonally upwards along the arc of this amphitheatre. Above on the skyline, we could see the top edge of the slope - the ridgecrest that divided this valley from the next one to the east.
courtesy JInnes
As the trail neared the ridgecrest, we briefly passed through a few patches of scrubby trees, then back and forth along a few switchbacks - here marked with official Parks Canada pole-mounted trail markers - to the ridgecrest. This was the spot known as Carthew Summit - the high point of the Carthew-Alderson trail. Not really a summit at all, but rather the low point along a ridgecrest that extended between a shoulder of Mount Carthew and a lower sub-summit.
