45 mile backpacking trip
On July 10th, 2023, Andy and I started our much anticipated 45 mile backpacking trip from Mount Norquay to Lake Louise in Canada. Here is the route via AllTrails route link. Since this route is point to point we had to figure out if we would leave our vehicle at the start or end of our trip. We decided it would be nice to end our travels with less of a hassle by having our vehicle waiting for us but that meant we had to figure out how the person who dropped the vehicle off would get back to the start of the trail. Since this trail is around BANFF National Park, there apparently aren’t any ride sharing services like Uber to assist us, and to make things even more complicated, most (if not all) transportation services we looked into were not dog friendly.
We planned on Andy dropping me and our two fluff butts off at Mount Norquay the morning of our hike and he would drive our truck to the Lake Louise trailhead, walk 2 miles into town to catch the public bus to the town of BANFF, and then hop on another public bus to meet us at Mount Norquay. Andy dropped us off around 7:30 am and the lodge at Mount Norquay opened at 8 am. I was slightly worried the staff at the lodge wouldn’t appreciate me hanging out with two dogs on their patio and I definitely didn’t think they would let me come inside with them but I continue to be blown away by the friendliness of everyone we meet in Canada. The staff at the lodge let me come inside with the doggos, said “OH MY GOD, YES!” when I asked if they would watch the dogs while I went to the bathroom, and even gave them a little pep talk about how awesome they were going to be on the hike.
The visitors I saw at Mount Norquay while waiting for Andy
Day 1 Hike - Mount Norquay to Mystic Lake Campground - 6 hours 31 minutes - 12.29 miles
While the dogs and I enjoyed watching morning visitors of the mountain (bear and coyote), chatting with all the guests, and getting attention from the staff, we were also happy to start our hike to our first campsite. We had a long way to go that day and we wanted to get there before it got dark. Our campsite was 12 miles in, we stopped a few times while hiking to Mystic Lake Campground to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and take in the mountain views when we could see them. Much of our hike was fairly forested which had me nervous about running into wildlife but thankfully? the only wildlife we saw was a spotted looking toad that Owen tried to eat which led to me pouring water into his mouth to try to rinse his mouth out in case it was poisonous.
We were making pretty good time but around mile 10 I started to get a little hangry and I kept checking my watch to see how much distance I had remaining. When my watch said I was at mile 11, I began telling myself positive affirmations to help make the last mile more bearable. When my watch said I was at mile 12, I was suspicious of what sort of campsite we were walking into but this is when I found out my watch was lying to me and I actually had one more mile to go. When we finally got to camp, my energy was restored because someone from our campground had started a fire and I didn’t feel so deep into the wilderness now that we were around a few more people. We found a campsite pretty quickly and didn’t waste anytime getting our things set up because we were excited for some dinner and a fire to sit around. While walking to dinner, we were a tad slap happy from such a long day which is why the only emotion we could experience when we saw the lightning illuminate the valley surrounding us was laughter. It wasn’t funny that it was about to storm but it felt like nature was making a very pointed attack on us. Not wanting to get our sleeping clothes wet, we settled for a quick snack, fed the dogs, and crammed our food in the bear lockers before heading back to our tent for the night. We hoped the rain wouldn’t last long but in the continuation of our story of a series of unfortunate events, it was still raining 12 hours later. At this point, we weren’t surprised to find out that our rain fly didn’t work throughout the night because everything inside of the tent was soaked when we woke up. In my gingerbread man voice from Shrek, I was thinking “NOT THE CLEAN, DRY SOCKS!” when I discovered even my socks got drenched throughout night. One positive of everything being wet was not having to wash my face in the morning because Owen stood up at my feet as soon as I opened my eyes and shook himself off right before he started his morning stretch routine.
We planned to stay at Mystic Junction Campground for two nights but the rain looked like it had no plans of letting up which got us thinking about hiking out early. We knew we didn’t want to go back the way we came and if we kept going on our original path we could exit through a popular tourist area called Johnston Canyon. There was also another campsite called Larry’s Camp right before Johnston Canyon in case we decided not to hike out that day. We knew Larry’s would have availability too because two groups at our campground that morning said they were going to hike out despite having reservations at Larry’s. Campsites along this trail needed to be booked in advance and while looking for campsites when putting this trip together, it was apparent that campsites were typically full but occasionally 1 night would open up here and there at different sites throughout the trail so we were relieved to know we could at least move closer to our exit and would have a spot to pitch our tent.
Pictures from Day 1
Panorama of the view from Mystic Lake Campground the morning of Day 2
Day 2 Hike - Mystic Lake Campground to Larry’s Camp -5 hours 3 minutes - 7.48 miles
When we first started planning out this hike I was excited about the open valleys and mountain vistas we would have but apparently all of those views are on the parts of the hike AFTER Larry’s camp. Our second day of hiking had some glimpses of openness while we were going over Mystic Pass but they were short lived. Our hike was mostly through thick forest which meant hiking over tree roots that stuck out of the ground a good, two-tree inches. Most of the day 2 hike involved saying “Ope, be careful!” whenever I heard Andy trip over a tree route or singing “Ay bear, what do you say we don’t use no spray today, eh?". After 5 hours of playing would you rather games with Andy and wondering what the sun looked like, we arrived at Larry’s Camp. We found a nice campsite next to the river and took advantage of the sun trying to peak out to attempt at drying our sleeping bags and tent. Pro tip: If you want it to rain, set out something you don’t want to get wet and I promise you, rain will come. Queue crack of thunder. We quickly shoved everything into the tent as soon as we felt a couple sprinkles and pulled the rain fly as tight as we could before throwing on our rain jackets and heading down to the bear lockers/food area to try to eat dinner before it started to really rain.
I can’t quite explain the feeling I had when I saw that God had delivered a Saint named Mark to our campsite to create the most glorious fire I have ever seen. Naturally, it stopped raining as soon as we got down by the fire but we weren’t going to test our luck by putting our wet things back out. Instead we spent the next couple of hours drying the clothes we were wearing by the fire and getting to know a cute little Canadian family. Our new camp friends had come from the other end of the trail that we were still contemplating on doing and we learned they had encountered a bear, as did everyone else they spoke to while on the trail. We told them about our dilemma of not knowing whether or not we wanted to continue for another 3 nights with wet gear and not knowing what the weather would continue to do. But we also weren’t sure how we would get to our vehicle if we hiked out early and we were worried we might get stranded. Our new friends told us they were also planning on hiking out through Johnston Canyon the next day and they would try to squeeze us in their van to drop us off at Lake Louise if we needed a ride. We decided we would make a decision in the morning of whether or not we would hike out.
Pictures from Day 2 Hike
Day 3 - Larry’s Camp to Johnston Canyon - 3 hours 20 minutes - 6.09
It rained on and off throughout the night but we woke up to a mostly dry yet damp tent, at best. We guessed either our rainfly actually works when you pull it very tight or it didn’t rain enough for it to come into the tent overnight. After some breakfast around the fire and talking with our new camp friends again, we made our decision to hike out. Our new friends said they were still happy to give us a ride if we were still at the parking lot when they got there but we were really hoping we would be able to catch a bus to town. We only had to hike a short distance until we reached a very popular hiking area called the Ink Pots and suddenly we were surrounded by all the tourists. The dogs were enjoying all the attention they got from passerby’s, Andy and I even started a little game of counting good people vs. bad people (people who smiled, pet, or talked to the dogs, vs. people who didn’t’ even look at them). I think we got like 75-5.
Once we got to the parking lot, we located the bus stop and were pleased to know the next bus would be arriving in an hour. An hour went by and I started to think it was odd the bus was late. When the bus was 20 minutes late, we realized the bus only runs on weekends which definitely explained why we were the only ones waiting for the bus. Face palm moment. We hoped we didn’t miss our friends while waiting at the bus stop and we quickly moved to the entrance of the parking lot from the hiking trail. After waiting there for an hour, Andy noticed there were two parking lots and there was an earlier trail people could take to get to the other parking lot. Hoping we didn’t miss our friends by waiting at the wrong spot, I went walking to the earlier trail that leads to the other lot scanning for some familiar faces in a sea of people. I spotted our family friends right as I approached the junction of the two trails and fate would have it that they were parked in that lot so I intercepted this blessed family with whatever drops of luck I had remaining.
It was so sweet to hear the kids missed Andy and I so much they told their parents they hoped they would get to see us again. We all piled into their van and listened to the kids tell us stories on the drive to our home on wheels. Once we got back to our vehicle, we were in desperate need of a hot shower. so off to the hot springs we went! Dipping into the hot springs felt like a rush of comfort to my aching muscles, to my mind from all the problems we faced the last few days, and to my soul. As we walked through the center of the hot spring pool looking for a place to sit on the edge, I immediately recognized the voices of the little girl we were just sharing a van ride with 30 minutes prior. We chatted with the family who we were so grateful for again and finally exchanged names since the only known names prior to the hot spring were the dogs’ and the kids’ names. After the family left the hot spring, they said one last good-bye from the top balcony of the facility looking down on the pool as the young boy yelled “BYE! I HOPE WE SEE YOU AGAIN!”.
Even though we didn’t finish our whole backpacking route, Andy and I both feel that one day we will come back and complete the rest of the trail we didn’t get to see. Our journey had some parts that might not be categorized as fun but it was a journey I wouldn’t want to do with anyone else. Overall, I would rate the trail 3/5 stars on AllTrails because all it did was rain but at least the clouds looked pretty neat.
Pictures from Day 3 Hike
