It has been an unbelievably busy four years. But it seems like with another life transition, I am revisiting my hefty goal of documenting ALL of my travels - which now includes places in Canada and the USA that I have had the pleasure of visiting throughout the last three years.
My last blog post was halfway through my year working and living in Hong Kong, and time has literally flown by. In the last three and a half years - I have moved back to Canada, set a goal to hike in all of the US National Parks, started teaching at a highschool in my hometown of Edmonton, got a dog, and now I am moving to a different province amidst a pandemic and a societal revolution. It's been a wild time.
My life has gotten in the way of my life. What does that mean exactly? Do I place more value in certain aspects of my life versus others? It's been very difficult to find my true place of comfort, of learning, of excitement - but I know now what brings me the most happiness in the world and I am finally ready to share some of the things I've learned along my journey to discovery!
Hiking surfaced in my life on my 25th birthday. July 29th, 2017. I had always known that the mountains were beautiful- and I credit that to one of my sister's, Angie, for ensuring that I had a well rounded experience in nature growing up. Though she provided an everlasting interest in nature - hiking was not a part of my outdoor experience. Angie focused on teaching me sustainable ways to camp, how to seek out information, how to stay safe, prep & cook camp meals - but never hiking.
The year that I turned 25 was one of the hardest of my life because of the emotional trauma that I had been tasked to endure. All of the hardships of life just hit me at once. But - it was also the year that I discovered my love for hiking, nature, and the outdoors. What I had never experienced before was absolute solitude. After living in Asia for two years - have nothing but the sounds of nature surround me was unmatched. My first "real" hike was set to be the Kinney Lake trail at Mt Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. This hike was my first alpine hike, first hike in the Rocky Mountains, first solo hike, and thus - my first unprepared hike (out of many!)
The lead up to this hike was not a very pretty one. No organization, direction, or actual understanding of gear, water, food, or physical exertion. Now, the hike itself was not extremely strenuous, but what happened on this hike gave me such inspiration that it sparked my joy for hiking forever!
The trail itself is 13.4km roundtrip with about 433m gain in elevation. It starts off following the Robson River and soon hits an uncovered hill, then again, loosely following the river, which flows to the right of the trail. By the time you get to Kinney Lake, you have walk across a bridge above the forest floor, another crossing at the mouth of the lake, and then finally the trail spits you out on the east side of Kinney. There are picnic tables and some spots to dip your feet in the water, but you're actually not quite there yet. You have some more forest to go through. Up and away you go! It seems like you are getting further and further away from the lake the higher you climb, but eventually the banks get shorter and you start to descend on the north side of the lake. When you hit the bike racks, you know you're close! There might be some small creeks to cross with glacial wash as the backdrop, but when you get there, you know. The azure blue water is a mix between being clear and holding it's beautiful hue.
So - the hike itself, once again, was not the life changing part for me. It was what happened along the way. As I was first reaching the bridge right before the lake, two women who had passed me trailrunning were taking a selfie with the bridge and river in the background. I stopped and offered to take a photo for them. They obliged and we got to talking for a moment - turns out they are from a suburb just outside of my city! They mentioned that their husbands were hiking instead of running and then they asked this fateful question. They asked if I was running for part of the trail.
Such a simple question with such big implications! It made me feel SO good about myself. It seems kind of silly, but this was the moment that made me feel welcome in nature. Essentially they had seen me start the hike about 10 minutes before them and they only passed me at the end of the end of the trail. They said that I was fast if I was just walking. Now, I was never a slow walker, but it was quite a crowded trail - so I think my pace was faster than normal to avoid the crowds of people on the trail.
So here I am, being asked by two trail runners if I was one of them. I was dumbfounded. I was "good enough" in their eyes. Fast enough, fit enough, experienced enough...even though I still felt impostor syndrome - that simple question boosted my confidence! Eventually they continued running, but I took my time checking out the east end of the lake. I ran into their husbands and trailed them to the north end of the lake.
When I got there, I immediately looked for a spot to change into my swimsuit because the water is what I live for on summer hikes (as I would grow to learn about myself). The two couples were very amused that I was swimming. The water. Holy smokes. Unbelievable. Cold, blue, and sooooo deep! About 30 cm from the shore there was a drop so deep that I could not touch the bottom of the lake. It felt like I was hanging onto the edge of a pool in the deep end. I continued to chat with them and eventually let them know it was my birthday and that this was the first hike I had ever done in the mountains!
What happened next made my experience go from good to great! They invited me to keep hiking with them. Their goal was to make it to Whitehorn, the next campground and water station. That would end up double my distance on my very first hike. By the end I managed to wrack up 25kms for my 25th birthday! And since then it has been a goal of mine to hit every birthday!
The extension to Whitehorn was only about 4 kms further - but it was all switchbacks on an incline, I went very slow compared to them, but not once did I feel like I had to pick up the pace. I was doing exactly what I needed to be doing in that moment. It was a definite struggle, but I would not change that day for anything. They supplied me with snacks at Whitehorn when we finally made it and they are just kind and amazing people!
On the way back we ended up skipping Kinney Flats and taking the actual forested trail - which I would not recommend. There is a lot of elevation change than what anyone wants to do when descending from a hike. We also ran into a couple that were hiking skis up to the glacier in July! So interesting.
Back at the parking lot, the couples invited me out to dinner, stating that no one should ever be alone on their birthday. We went to the Jasper Pizza Place and they ended up buying dinner for me unprompted. Literally the best birthday ever! I felt so welcome - and these were four absolute strangers!
So the story of my first hike was a long one, but let me impose for a few more lines. As unprepared, uninformed, and distraught I was, this turned into a life changing hike. It ignited small seeds in my mind - that I was good enough.. that the scenery was amazing... that the hard work did really pay off. Finally, I had my new muse. I had found a new calling. I needed this.
