26
BEARS AND BEARS AND MORE BEARS
The skies had been clear for weeks but when Elizabeth and I left at 8:00 a.m. it was foggy. A light drizzle turned to steady rain after Lake Louise and as we neared the Sunshine Area turnoff, voluminous white clouds allowed brief glimpses of blue. At the trailhead a park employee cheerfully told us about a bear that had been seen on Healy Pass where we were headed. She wished us luck and hoped we caught a glimpse of him.
We had decided to spend a few days at Egypt Lake, one of the most beautiful and popular areas in Banff National Park. The trail gradually ascended the Healy Creek Valley through dense Engelmann spruce and alpine fir and after four miles of steady uphill hiking, we saw scattered earth piles in the meadows where the bear had been digging for roots. The last alpine larches were left behind as we reached 7,650' Healy Pass at 5.7 miles, and an unforgettable view of 9,376' Mt. Bourgeau, 11,578' Mt. Assiniboine, 9,293' Monarch and the long ridge extending from its flanks to Healy Pass known as the Monarch Ramparts. West of the Pass, the flat steel-blue contoured cutouts of Egypt and Scarab Lakes were nestled in the forested valley beneath the Pharaoh Peaks. We dropped our packs and enjoyed lunch lost in a landscape of shadows and shapes. A passing warden informed us the grizzly was around, had followed some hikers, but hadn't bothered anybody yet. I brought out my bear bell! The trail dropped rapidly until we reached the campground. After checking the empty sites, we picked the last one, set up our tent, stashed our stuff, and hung our food on the high bear bars, an ingenious device that had a number of cables onto which you could clip your food bag and hoist it about twenty feet, well out of reach of mountain marauders. After filling our containers with water from the creek below, we cooked dinner just as it started to drizzle. Here we were again, by ourselves, together, catching up on mother-daughter stuff we didn't deal with down below in our preoccupied society of survival.
A shelter cabin built in 1969 that could sleep sixteen backpackers was located in the middle of the campground and I thought how safe I would feel sleeping there, although I didn't really like being indoors in the wilderness. The wind, rain, and night noises are soothing, although the hoarse snorting of a grizzly wasn't. We retired early and relaxed as a light rain lulled us to sleep.
A cold morning was alleviated with a breakfast of hot oatmeal and a climb up the steep, difficult switchbacks to the cirques above Egypt Lake. We passed Scarab Lake and continued through light hail, scrambling up a rocky track towards Mummy Lake, rimmed by tundra and talus. We sought cover under a tree and had lunch while snow fell around us. On our way back, a rocky gorge overhanging Egypt Lake sheltered us from the wind so we could enjoy our homemade oat bars and watch cloud shadows crawl over a treed landscape. We bushwhacked down to the lake, ready for a dinner of quinoa, vegetables and lentils, and then walked to the shelter cabin and, sitting by the wood stove, talked to a young French couple who were hitchhiking across Canada.
In the early morning hours of our third day, the wind rose and picked up in volume as the sun filtered through the trees, creating an evergreen pattern on the tent. I meditated. It was cloudy and cold when I finally got the courage to slip out of my comfortable cocoon and look outside. After cooking breakfast and warming up in the shelter, we left for a fifteen-mile loop up Whistling Valley, a staggering gap between the Pharaoh Peaks and the precipitous slopes of the Great Divide to Shadow Lake and back along the creek.
We climbed the switchbacks again and continued the steady ascent to rugged, rocky Whistling Pass, where marmots whistled their warnings to passersby. In the distance heavenly Haiduk Lake nestled in the dell far below the cliffs of the Ball Range. The steep trail twisted down to marshy meadows alongside the lake and then quite steeply through subalpine forest to Shadow Lake below. A light rain continued as we hiked the muddy path to the backcountry lodge and ate our lunch on the porch. We returned to Egypt Lake at 6:30 p.m. and were able to dry our boots by the wood stove after dinner. It suddenly turned very cold and we decided to remain in the cabin that night. After hot tea we climbed into bed, a plywood platform much less comfortable than the ground. At either end of the main room that housed the stove, tables and benches, there were two smaller chambers, each with four bunks, upper and lower. We were lucky to have one of these rooms to ourselves until six in the morning when a cold camper stumbled into the cabin.
Elizabeth and I got up to pee, started a fire in the stove, and quickly got back into our bags - a soft thank you from one of the sleepy occupants in the end room floated out to our ears.
After breakfast we hiked the short but steep few miles to Pharaoh and Black Rock Lakes. Finding Sphinx Lake proved impossible and we returned to Black Rock for lunch in the sun. A hiker passed by also unable to find the lake. Back at the shelter the warden ticketed us for having spent the night inside, $5 each, cheap lodgings but then they were far from luxurious. We left for our cold tent under clear skies and Elizabeth fell asleep quickly while I listened to the outside.
It was very cold during the night. Towards morning as black turned to grey, I awoke to the sound of footsteps and froze in my bag. It was a long few seconds before I realized that somebody was packing up to leave early. We enjoyed tea and oat squares on the cabin steps in hot sun while our tent fly dried. Everybody who was walking out that day had already left. Just before 10:00 a.m. we started the two-mile climb to Healy Pass, which took just under an hour. The rest of the hike was downhill, dry and refreshing, and arriving at the bottom at 1:30 p.m., we soaked our sore feet in the creek while waiting for Steve. He and Elizabeth went on to Calgary and I returned to our cabin. Valerie and her family were coming the next day and because of all the recent arguing and confusion, Elizabeth and Steve didn't want any part of their visit. I guess a mother will put up with anything.
Still on a high from our hike, I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. cooking, cleaning and preparing for their arrival. I was excited but anxious, knowing it would be strange for them to find just me at the house. Much to my surprise, they arrived early in the morning, having slept in their car on the way. Shocked and suspicious, they couldn't understand why Steve and Elizabeth weren't also there to greet them. I tried to explain that it was because of her recent behavior but Valerie couldn't seem to understand. Most people don't do what they want but what is expected. Not Steve and Elizabeth. It was somewhat upsetting not to have them with me for this family visit, but as a mother I felt differently about seeing my kids - no matter what.
The weather was beautiful and we were able to spend the next day by the creek where an enjoyable mud fight left us covered from head to toe. We warmed water on the stove for a bath that night. Valerie and her husband left for home on Sunday leaving Caroline, now four years old, with me for the week. We slept together, talked from morning to night, finished a whole quart of yogurt while sitting at the kitchen table gabbing about girlfriends, played in the creek, made clothespin dolls, baked cookies, colored, painted, and bottled sour dill pickles. She scrubbed a box of pickling cucumbers, stuffed them into jars and added the salt, while I poured boiling water over them. I loved being with her. It brought back those early days when Valerie was little and we were alone together.
Even though feelings of impatience arose when she wanted to do something other than what I had planned, I realized my feelings were from old pictures of my mother and me and I found it easy to change. I missed doing my writing, not being used to setting my needs aside anymore, but I had decided to give this time to her. I loved this little being, so innovative and unfettered. Steve and Elizabeth returned a few days later and