I arrived in Lake Louise in the mid afternoon and wanted to get a hike in before dark.  I selected a shorter hike that was rated as strenuous but short, which meant a straight uphill climb with some scrambling at the end.    There were also several bear warnings in the area which made feel really nice about doing this one alone.  I thought there would be more people on the trail since the trailhead is straight off the lake, but since it was a bit more than a walk in the park, I think most people skip it.

I started to climb and was greeted with great views throughout.  It was much better than my previous walk as far as the views were concerned.

The last little bit of the hike was pretty steep and full of scree, and there were some sketchy moments.  I made it eventually and was greeted with the ultimate views.

When I was at the top there was another guy up there but I hadn’t seen him come up.  Turns out he was walking around the lake and saw a scree field that looked “climeable” so he started up and told me he was scared for his life in several instances.  He had to do some rock climbing and there was snow and he said it was one of the sketchiest things he’s done and yet he was in the Norwegian military.  Anyways, we took some photos of each other and then headed down together along the marked path.  He was very glad to have someone to be with because he hadn’t really told anyone what he was up to.

On the way down we saw a Marmot just chilling on a rock.

The walk down was uneventful but the bus had stopped running from camp so I was going to have to walk about an hour down to my campsite.  Luckily Alex had a car and offered to drop me off.  I went into the supermarket and town and bought some overpriced food, which I went back to the campsite to cook.

I give you my best culinary creation.  Rice, Tomato sauce and Bacon! The best food ever????

It ended up being enough for two meals, so I had it for breakfast as well.  I only planned to stay in Lake Louise for one night, so I got up decently early to pound out one more hike before heading to my next destination.  I figured that today, I would head to the other side of the lake and do a seemingly common hike up to a lake called Lake Agnes.  It wasn’t that bad of a hike but was still very enjoyable.  I also spent some time at Lake Louise, getting the typical Lake Louise tourist photos.

It was a great morning and great views.  I then took the shuttle back down to town where I waited for the Greyhound bus that ended up being over 2 hours late.  I was off to Golden BC, only a few hours down the road.  How I decided on golden was that it was a town that had a brewery that was recommended to me and it was somewhere I had heard of before.  So off I went.  I arrived in town and initially I was planning on camping everywhere, but in most cases the camp sites were the same price as the hostels and I wasn’t comfortable just wandering into the woods and camping anywhere.  So I decided to stay in a hostel.

Upon arriving, there were a few guys checking in at the same time and were talking about going to get some drinks and so i suggested the brewery.  The beers were delicious and one of the guys was driving through hiking his way through the rockies.

He was planning to do a hike at a lake only accessible by shuttle bus that needed to be booked a few months in advance.  He had read that you could get a standby seat if you go and wait around, but when we arrived, they were saving the seats for those who might be late, due to increased construction in the area.  So we ended up driving back to Lake Louise and tackled the Devil’s thumb hike as well as head over to the plane of 6 glaciers tea house.

The weather was not ideal and visibility was at a minimum, but we pushed on.

We made it to the tea house and were cold and wet and in need of some chilli.  It was delicious and really hit the spot.  We even saw a helicopter deliver them a new oven!

After our food break, we headed into the plain of six glaciers for a bit of a better view.

After the hike, we headed to Morraine Lake which has a small parking lot and is often closed once full.  We were lucky and were able to check it out.

It was beautiful.

We even made friends with the local wildlife.

We returned to Golden and had a chill night at the Hostel.  The next morning I got ready to head to revelstoke which was my next destination along the Trans Canada.