Jasper 2.2 - Canoe and Hike

As is always the case, the last day of any trip is never a full day. There is always driving or check-outs or waiting for planes. 

Today we had to get up early, unset our camp and make the most of our afternoon before driving home. 

Our number one plan for this trip to Jasper was canoeing. I told R that I wouldn't get back in the car to go home unless that happened, and I meant it!

We had looked up a few places that offer canoe rentals before we came so we could check prices and locations. Our first choice was Maligne Lake but since that didn't happen we settled for Pyramid Lake. 

To be clear, Pyramid Lake is by no means a 'settlement.' It is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful lakes in the park and I'm really pleased that this is where we ended up going. 

When we arrived the rental desk told us we would need to wait for someone to return a canoe so we could take it, but first-come-first-served so don't go far. 

It was only about 15 minutes before we were suiting up in our life jackets and getting in the water. 

$35 got us 1 hour in the canoe. 1 perfect blissful hour of paddling in the sunshine and appreciating the mountains towering above us. We had so much fun exploring the area from a different vantage point. 

I could have happily stayed out there for several more hours, though my fair skin would pay the consequences. 

When our time was up and the canoe returned we made the short drive to the next lake over. Patricia Lake is cold, like all the other mountain lakes, but it made for a nice swim anyways. 

Our friends were already at the lake so we joined them for some fun. Somebody brought blow-up boats and almost everyone took a turn in them. The boys took them out to float in the middle of the lake, I pulled the little ones around near the shore and then I took my turn to get pulled around by R. 

During my ride a bee was flying around and my natural instinct is to lose my cool. I just freak out. Anyway, it landed on me so I freaked out more and when R brushed it off me it fell into the little bit of water in the bottom and went under my foot where it proceeded to sting me. 

Let me just say, I haven't been stung in years but it still hurts like hell, just like I remember it. 

Partly because it really hurt and partly because I was flailing around anyways, I ended up falling out of the boat and into the freezing water. As it turns out, that water was also very shallow and I hit my knee on a big rock at the bottom. Not a great moment for me, but I'm sure it was amusing for other people to watch. 

After I scooped my dignity up out of the water and made it to the beach I had to get R to go find my Benadryl. I'm extremely paranoid that I might be allergic to stings, even though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. 

Anyway, I wasn't in much of a swimming mood anymore so we dried off, said good-bye to everyone and headed in the direction of the weekends final adventure. 

Just like canoeing was a must do, hiking was necessary as well. 

We found a few trails online but they were all too far in the wrong direction, we didn't want to make our drive home any longer than necessary. 

In the end we decided on Maligne Canyon. I've been there twice before, once with R in the winter and once with my family last summer but this time was different than both of those. In the winter we only made it 5 minutes down the trail before we had to turn around because it was pure ice and in the summer I had a 4 year old with me so we did one of the shorter loops. 

I'm not sure how long the longest loop is but I know that it would take several hours. We didn't really plan anything, just to go until we didn't want to anymore. I was secretly taking R as far as possible before he quit though. He said he nearly died, but in all fairness it was scorching hot outside. 

We guesstimate that we were out for around 2 hours and probably went around 8km. 

Some points had us way high up looking into a deep narrow canyon and other areas are low enough that we could put our hands and hats in the water to cool off. 

The canyon is such a beautiful place to hike, I highly recommend it to anyone. The trail has challenging parts, but it also has a clear path the whole way and hand rails for a good amount so it is pretty friendly to any level. 

Having survived the whole round trip we made our way to the car, air conditioning and eventually home.