Bourgeau Lake - Leaders assessment hike

April 14, 2006

Just a nice day to try out a hike in some of our beautiful Banff National Park areas.

The trial started of with a bit of snow here and there and quickly went to several feet thick.
At one point we tried to measure it and could not reach bottom with our ski poll. Open scree
slopes showed signs of avalanches. The boys would enjoy disappearing in snow off the trail.
It was just the right temperature for snowman or balls, a key ingredient for them.
Near the top it got substantially windier and almost turned into a whiteout.
The trip out went quite quickly as the snowshoes served as skis, about 2 hours and opposed to the 5 hours up.

http://www.canadianrockies.net/luminous/mpbourge.html

Distance: 7.5 km (4.5 mi) - Trans-Canada Highway to Bourgeau Lake

Day Hike: 2.5 - 3 hr one way

Elevation Gain: 710 m (2330 ft)

Maximum Elevation: 2155 m (7070 ft)

Trailhead: Parking area on west side of Trans-Canada Highway, 2.8 km (1.7 mi) north of Sunshine interchange and 0.5 km (0.3 mi) south of bridge over Wolverine Creek.

0.0 -

Sign (elevation 1445 m). Proceed into forest and begin steady climb.

2.5 -

Cross avalanche chute.

3.7 -

Cross tributary of Wolverine Creek flowing from south.

5.5 -

Cross Wolverine Creek below waterfall on rock steps. Begin steep switchbacks.

6.8 -

Trail levels out in meadows of lake basin.

7.5 -

Northeast end of Bourgeau Lake (2155 m).

Willow Park Team Members

Craig Owens, Karl Burndorfer, - Leaders

Photo Library

You are here! How do they know that?	Now we take escalators into the hike.	definitely snowshoe country	here we are on top of the last avalanche.
coming to the expiry date on leather strap bindings.	If that chunk didn't fall off we could have you thinking we are crossing a snow bridge.	Another one of those avalanche slopes. There is a few giant snowman sized balls that stopped just ahead of us.	Into the safety of the trees.
Climb gets pretty steep here.	We're thinking this would be around the last sheltered spot before the lake.	Food sure taste better out here.	So there doesn't seem to be any of those fiercely hungry birds around this time.
Looks like leather bindings arn't the only thing that's expiring around here. Our first break of the day. Just never know when that duck tape is going to be needed.	Just testing the depth of the snow, where'd my pole go???	Want to see me pull a ski pole out of my hat?	On the plateau with the lake, finally.
Winds are getting a bit extreme out here.	I'm trying to blend in with the trees.	So the lake kind of blends in with everything else that's white around here. But its just passed those trees.	Bracing each other against the really big gusts.
We meet a friend from BC.	Pointing the way those those want to keep going and get to the top.	Well time to start for home, hey wait up.	Now where did they go, these foot prints are fading fast.
Oh, there they are, I can barely make them out.	So do I really need snowshoes here?	Ok, I do now. My crotch is getting cold.	Getting on high ground is not that easy.
You have to wait up for a one legged snow shoe-er.	I can do it.	Just not going to resort to duct tapping my boot to the snow shoe.	Ok I can finally get by without the dang things.
The last scree slope, almost home	and that's all there is to it folks. Have a nice day.

Distance:	7.5 km (4.5 mi) - Trans-Canada Highway to Bourgeau Lake
Day Hike:	2.5 - 3 hr one way
Elevation Gain:	710 m (2330 ft)
Maximum Elevation:	2155 m (7070 ft)
Trailhead:	Parking area on west side of Trans-Canada Highway, 2.8 km (1.7 mi) north of Sunshine interchange and 0.5 km (0.3 mi) south of bridge over Wolverine Creek.