Christina Lives Freely

In mid-July, Victoria, one of my dearest and best friends, and I embarked on our fourth annual friend-venture in the Rocky Mountains. What started out as a casual girl’s weekend camping trip way back when we were rekindling an old and forgotten friendship has blossomed into a celebration of our love for adventure, the mountains, and of course, for each other! 

To briefly recap, Victoria and I met when were 15 years old at Crowsnest Lake Bible Camp where we were both in their “leadership” training camp program for 6 weeks. As you can imagine, spending 24/7 with a small group of teenagers out in the wilderness makes fast friends. We stayed friends after summer camp for a couple years, but then life took us in different directions for a while – I moved to the East Coast for university studies, while Victoria had her hands full raising two amazing little baby girls. Fortunately, our paths managed to cross again after I moved back to Calgary for work upon graduation. Since then, she has been a steadfast and true friend – the kind of friend who you know will never judge you and will also love you no matter what, but will also give you the stone-cold, hard truth when you need to hear it the most, but always with a warm hug and a smile.

Ok – so before I get too sappy about our friendship (maybe I’ll save that for another post) – this is really supposed to be a trip report about our summer friend-venture! Our trip boiled down to three parts (which will be written up in three separate blog posts, including this one):

1. Borgeau Lake and Harvey Pass
2. Bow Hut & ‘The Onion’ & Bow Falls
3. Cline Lakes and (maybe) Mount Owen

We really managed to packed it in for this trip (as we do), and despite having to change some plans around (it’s the Rocky Mountains – you always must be flexible and prepared!), we had an amazing time and shared lots of laughs and good times.

Borgeau Lake & Harvey Pass

We started the day with the intent of summiting Mount Borgeau, which is a “easy” but extremely long scramble about 14 km west of Banff. By extremely long, the round trip distance is around 25km and nearly 1500m of elevation gain!

There is a small parking lot at the trailhead which can fill up quickly on weekends. From the trailhead, it is a relatively easy and well-trodden trail for 7.5km up to Borgeau Lake. Although the trail is simple to follow, there is quite a bit of elevation gain just to the lake, around 750m! The trail meanders and switchbacks mostly through forest – the kind of forest that looks like the perfect refuge for a family of bears – so make sure you pack your bear spray and holler “Hey Bear!” every now and then!

Along the way to the lake, there are a couple lovely waterfalls and creek crossings that you will encounter. Lake Borgeau itself is nestled in a lovely alpine meadow, and the real treat was the marmot colony that was scattered all over the large boulders surrounding the lake!

After Borgeau Lake, it is about 2.5km and 300m of elevation to reach Harvey Lake and Harvey Pass. There are a handful of little tarns nestled in the pass before the ridge that you take to reach the summit of Mount Borgeau. 

At this point however, what was a gentle rain at lower elevations turned into snow/sleet at the pass, and we were somewhat unprepared for wintery conditions! It was a good reminder that even on a “easy day hike”, to always pack more layers than you think you need (I had an extra jacket and wind layer which helped a lot) and gloves (which I TOTALLY forgot) and a hat (my poor ears were frozen!). The wind was also making things rather unpleasant, so after a few quick photos, we decided to turn around and hike the ~10km back to the car. 

If one would want to continue to the summit, the ridge is obvious and easy to follow, but still around 3km away with another 400m or so of elevation. The summit was by now hidden in a large cloud of swirling snow, so we didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything by heading back early.

Finishing our hike earlier than expected however left us some time to play “tourist” in the town of Banff, and we got hand and heart-warming Americano’s from Evelyn’s Coffee bar, and bought matching toques from Monad Sports (really awesome sports gear store in Banff!). I do have to caveat, we didn’t intentionally set out to buy matching toques, we both just have excellent taste in head-wear, obviously. 

We rather surprised ourselves when we realized what we initially wanted to be an “easy” hike still clocked us in at nearly 20km 1000m of elevation gain!  No wonder my legs were a bit sore… we camped at Lake Louise for the night and found protection from the rain under one of the cooking shelters, where we did some stretching and drank some delicious mulled wine (super half-assed recipe below)!

Camping Style Mulled Wine Recipe:  

1. In a pot, add your spices of choice. I like cinnamon sticks (3-4), cloves (~8-10), star anise (3-4) and a pinch of nutmeg. Toast for 30 seconds over low heat.
2. Pour 1 bottle of a fruity, dark and full-bodied red-wine into your spice pot. Keep the heat really low! A Merlot, California Zinfandel, or Grenache would probably be a good pick – and don’t spend a fortune; a $10ish bottle will do the trick just fine.
3. Add a 1-2 tablespoons of raw cane sugar or honey.
4. Add ½ a fresh orange, cut into thin slices. 
5. Stir together and let warm over low heat for 20-30 minutes – just make sure it never actually simmers or comes to a boil! You want the flavours to meld together slowly and you don’t want to alcohol to all burn off either!
6. Pour into a camping mug and enjoy with your friends and family! ❤