Hiking in Canada | notesonaboardingpass

The revamped school bus shuttles us eleven kilometres up a single-track mountain road. Higher and higher into the mountains, every bump of the road takes us further and further from everyday life. We’re in Yoho National Park and we soon arrive at the esteemed Lake O’Hara. Nestled below turreted peaks, hanging valleys and ribbons of rushing waterfalls, it’s a jewel within Canadian National Parks.

Once off the bus and deposited at the cozy campsite, I am in absolute wonder. This is breathtaking, it’s spectacular! And lucky me, I’m here with my daughter-in-law Trixie Pacis, a Canadian/ Filipino film maker. A screening of one of her films, Embers is only hours away.

It’s been a while since I’ve stuffed a sleeping bag and sleeping mat into a backpack and slept in the great outdoors. Yet Trixie has even more embedded into her pack and out comes our accommodation for the night as well! Once the tent is pitched and our food and toiletries are safely stored into our assigned locker – a grizzly and her cubs were spotted just down the road this morning – we make our way through the campsite across the road to the famed Lake O’Hara.

Lake O’Hara – at 2,020 metres or 6,630 feet above sea level – is in the alpine region of Yoho National Park. Nestled with Jasper, Kootenay and Banff, Yoho is the smallest of these four contiguous national parks. A trip to this area a number of years ago confirmed its grandeur, yet campsites remain elusive unless you’re lucky enough to secure one during the first few minutes they’re released each spring. Trixie’s complimentry tent site is a perk of the screening and as we meander lakeside for my first views, I appreciate how iconic and special it is to be here.

In the 1920’s the lake became the first outpost for The Skyline Hikers who wanted their own trails and camp as the first horse riders, The Trail Riders had formed. Eventually forming a site more permanent than tents, the Lodge and Cabins of Lake O’Hara became one of the darlings of alpine trail routes. The original 1920’s Lodge is undoubtably a little more comfortable than it once was and the lakeside cabins are like frontier gems along the sparkling lakeside. Intrepid climbers visited like Conrad Kain and Mary Schaeffer, portrayed in Trixie’s film Wildflowers.

After a stroll along the shoreline, we perch ourselves on the dock and soak in the site. Yoho means ‘awe or wonder’ and it is aptly named. We meet travellers from near and far. We’re told about the famed carrot-cake delivered twice a day from the lodge to the small cafe, apparently it’s not to be missed. We hear the call of the loon from across the lake and we ponder the sheer majesty of this site, the traditional home of the Secwepemc and The Ktunaxa First Nations. Trixie mentions that it’s also a winter destination and I imagine myself around The Lodge’s fireplace, wine in hand, after a brisk snowshoe. I make a mental note to reserve as soon as I return home!

Dinnertime beckons and back at camp we claim a picnic table in the convivial site. Hikers poles lean on tables. Thermoses of every colour adorn tabletops. Camp stoves boil water for freeze-dried meals. The chat is of the myriad alpine hikes either completed or planned for tomorrow. As we savour a glass of Pinot Noir after our surprisingly delicious dinner, Trixie makes notes for her film screening at 8:30. I’ve seen Embers a number of times, but this setting is certainly the most fitting.

Trixie’s independent films have all been mountain-culture driven. As an award-winning documentary filmmaker, her four films are currently on the festival circuit; Wildflowers, Ahon, Wild Aerial and Embers. As I write, our province of British Columbia is experiencing expansive wildfires (in fact last week we ourselves were on Evacuation Alert) so the film Embers is particularly poignant. About this time two years ago, a wildfire tore through Jasper, Alberta reducing the film’s protaganist’s home- aerialist Sasha Galitzki’s – to ashes. The film connects Sasha’s loss in the wildfire and glacial recession she witnessed in her creative work to highlight the common cause, climate change.

Making our way ten minutes up the road and just before the Lodge, the verandah of Le Relais is already dotted with some of the waiting audience. It’s cozy inside with a few wooden chairs, benches and stacked firewood. Taxidermy of local fauna is on display, as are postcards dangling from wooden pegs. The setting is truly Canadiana. As our host Robynne and Trixie set up for the screening, the now-full room breaks into conversation, but a hush quickly falls over the crowd as Trixie introduces the film and the dramatic opening scene fills the screen. By the end of the documentary, tears fill people’s eyes…. for Sasha’s loss, for our ever-diminishing glaciers, for the danger of wildfires throughout Canada and beyond, for the reality of climate change that is already upon us.

After a Q & A and farewells, we briefly catch the magical alpenglow on rose-tinged cliffs. Now, as night approaches, the haunting cry of a coyote fills the cool air and the loon calls again across the turquiose-blue lake… thankfully, no sign of the grizzly family so far.

The next morning we hike up into the glorious alpine meadows. Climbing steadily along the trail, a porcupine flashes its golden quills, a marmot ducks back into the woods, golden-mantled squirrels scamper beside us and tiny pikas transport flowers and moss into the crevices of rocks. Trixie points out a blaze on a tree, the visual mark chopped onto the bark to traditionally guide hikers along a trail, trailblazing indeed! The small lake we reach is surrounded by fading glaciers and castle-like peaks; we’re both awed by the serenity of it all. Trixie and our son Luke are avid hikers and last year did the full alpine hike. It’s a little too ambitious for me, but nonetheless my reward for the 3-hour hike is none other than a piece of the infamous carrot cake. We’re first in line for the 2:30 delivery at Le Relais!