7 Things I Learned at Baker Lake
Hike 6 | Even though we were disappointed to miss out on completing the whole Skoki Loop, the smoke did clear enough for us to spend two days on it. I learned a few things on this hike - from the practical to the ridiculous - and here there are!
Hike #6 | 860m Elevation Gain | 26.2km Hiked
Even though we were disappointed to miss out on completing the whole Skoki Loop, the smoke did clear enough for us to spend two days on it. We hiked out and back to Baker Lake and had an incredible trip. The scenery was stunning and constantly changing. Once we got past the long logging road start to it, the hike became more engaging and we enjoyed the streams, nearly haze-free views, and snack stops along the away.
I learned a few things on this hike - from the practical to the ridiculous - and here there are!
1. Learn from Others
I had never hiked with Corrina or met Laura. I suppose it can seem a little risky to plan a multi-day trip with people you don’t know all that well, however, you can learn so much from new people. Everyone has their own way of doing things that they’ve learned along the way. Whether it’s about what to pack, when to eat, what to do at camp, or anything else, these little tips and tricks – take them or leave them – can help you to refine your own personal backpacking program.
Pay attention, ask questions, and share stories. At the very least you will get a line on how to make decent Bloody Mary’s in the wild.
2. Pack Camp Shoes
When we decided that we were only going to do one night on the Skoki Loop, I repacked my bag and took out some unnecessary items like extra clothing and food. I also made the poor decision to leave behind my flip flops.
After a long day of hiking, there is no better feeling than taking off your hiking boots. . . and then putting them right back on. Once at camp there was still a lot of walking around to do to get to the lake, the bear-proof food cache, and the eating area. While I have tough little hobbit feet, the ground was a bit too pokey to go barefoot for long. Without comfy shoes to slip on, I ended up walking around in my hiking boots with the laces undone, which unfortunately by the next morning had led to a small blister.
Luckily, I had everything I needed on hand for blister care and it didn’t bother me when we hiked out the next day, but flip flops would have been a welcome addition to my supplies.
3. Drink Water
For the first time, I hiked with a bladder instead of a water bottle. It allowed me to carry three litres of water at a time and to continually drink it, rather than having to stop and take the bottle out. Also, the added nearly 7 pounds of weight is a great motivator to drink all your water.
As a comparison – when we hike just over 13km to Jewell Pass, I carried a day pack with a bottle of water in it and barely drink a litre of water. On the hike to Baker Lake, which was almost the same distance, I drank roughly 5 litres of water.
The bladder was especially handy for this trip as we found out when we arrived at the second stream crossing that it had been treated to kill off an invasive species of fish and couldn’t be used for drinking water. Instead we collect out water when we arrived at the lake and there I used a SteriPen to treat the water.
4. Don’t Panic
I tucked into my sleeping bag when it was still somewhat light out, so I put my headphones in with an audio book on and pulled my toque down over my eyes. I zipped my mummy bag all the way up and pulled the little built-in mittens on the sleeves of my hoodie over my hands.
When the temperature dropped, I woke up in the middle of the nigh face down in my sleeping bag with no opposable thumbs, no understanding of why I couldn’t see, and Tina Fey conversationally telling me about Saturday Night live. I panicked like a cat trapped in a sack.
I’m going to go ahead and assume that no one else wake up imprisoned in their sleeping bags, but if you do – take a deep breath and just remember that you haven’t been buried alive. And then remind yourself that you are actually sleeping outdoors, enjoying nature, and that this is something you chose to do. Then spend the next fifteen minutes trying to free your hands. Also, pick up a copy of Tina Fey’s Bossypants if you haven’t read it yet.
4. Small Comforts are Sometimes Worth the Space
I packed for this trip during a heatwave at home and somehow convinced myself that I would never be cold again. It was very clearly the end of the world and the temperature would always make my eyeballs sweat. It turns out that wasn’t true. My first night camping with the girls in the Bow Valley was fairly sleepless due to the freezing temperatures.
When we visited Canmore that day I bought a giant pair of fuzzy ‘heat’ socks from Canadian Tire. All I could think about was how cold my feet had been the night before and how much I wanted to be able to sleep. When we packed up for our hike, I looked at the socks which were roughly the same size as my uber-light and packable sleeping bag, but man, were they cozy. In they went.
And I’m so grateful to have had them. We woke up at Baker Lake to frost and but my feet were warm. That was all that mattered. It’s easy for me to get obsessed with super light hiking and packing, but at the end of the day you are always going to want a little comfort - and some chocolate.
5. A Meat Log Goes a Long Way
Cured meat is a lifesaver. With all my eating restrictions, I spend a lot of time having to prep my own meals and snacks for every hike, so when I’m able to buy something substantial to include, it’s pretty exciting. It can be really hard to find a salami that doesn’t have garlic in it, but there are a few out there – you just have to read the ingredients carefully.
One salami will cover my lunches for up to a five day hike and is great to add to protein to dinners on shorter hikes too. Just remember to hang it with your other food - I once woke up one the West Coast Trail to realize that I had slept with a salami right next to my tent. Luckily no bears came sniffing around.
6. I Can Do It by Myself
In recent history, I’ve spent a lot of time hiking with Stu or with other people who are stronger and more experienced hikers than I. Due to my struggles with energy and health, I’ve often leaned on my hiking partners (at their offering) to lighten my load. When I hiked the West Coast Trail last year, my friend Tree, carried our tent and took photos for us and on most hikes with Stu he tends to carry more weight than I do. Going in to this hike, I wanted to test myself and see how independent I could be. I carried the tent and everything else I would need to be completely self-sufficient - and found the energy to still take pictures along the way.
While having incredibly supportive community has kept me as active as possible in the last few years, there is something powerful in knowing that you are capable on your own. Not only was I happy to find out that I could manage just fine with everything I needed, I also felt like I made a big step towards my goal of completing some solo hikes in the next year while working towards my #40hikes goal.
7. Have an End Goal
While our hike out from Baker Lake was mostly downhill, we were still tired from an active few days and having something to look forward to was, not only a big morale booster, but also a great way to pass the time as we walked. Corrina and I had decided that we wanted to have margaritas when we finished, and we talked about them in so much detail that we even convinced Laura – who is a beer enthusiast – that she wanted one too. It was the first thing we ordered when we arrived to Canmore and the drinks were every bit as good as we had hoped.
A big thank you to Corrina’s mom, Kristy, who had sent Corrina money to buy us our celebratory dinner and drinks!
For multi-day hikes in the future, I might consider having margaritas at camp for some daily motivation.
Al Habrich's Trail: A Cautionary Tale About Hiking with PMS
Hike 4 | I have always hesitated to mention PMS in any of my writing because it’s a bit of a polarizing topic. Some doctors don’t believe in it. Men don’t get it. Some women have it, some claim they don’t have it, and well, there isn’t another category there. I land in the category of women who get it – and get it in an exceptionally bad way.
Hike #4 | 340m Elevation Gain | 7km Hiked
I have always hesitated to mention PMS in any of my writing because it’s a bit of a polarizing topic. Some doctors don’t believe in it. Men don’t get it. Some women have it, some claim they don’t have it, and well, there isn’t another category there. I land in the category of women who get it – and get it in an exceptionally bad way.
You know that list of symptoms that you might get from PMS? I have them all – and then some. I get everything from weight gain to nightmares, depression to joint pain, and exhaustion to digestive issues. Overnight I will gain five pounds, lose all interest in my regular activities, and spiral into a deep depression. No matter how healthy I feel physically and mentally the rest of the time, this will cut me off at the knees. It feels a lot like a tiny alien has taken control of my body; a tiny drunk asshole alien.
The experience varies from month to month, but I usually spend roughly a week struggling to survive as opposed to truly living. And that’s complete balls – or is it a lack of them? Either way, this was the reality that I woke up to last Tuesday morning and that was how I was feeling when we started to hike the very exposed, Al Habrich’s Trail at noon. I wish I was about to tell you a victory story, but really, it’s more of a cautionary tale about hiking with hormones.
Al Habrich’s trail starts at the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola and climbs steadily up through short wooded areas and longer rock slabs to offer a number of gorgeous vistas and different perspectives of Howe Sound and downtown Squamish. At the highest viewpoint, you are treated to a 270-degree view that looks back down toward the Summit Lodge where the hike begins.
BLISTERS
As Stu likes to say, "Moleskin is the biggest scam perpetrated on the outdoor community." Instead, his magical combination of non-stick gauze cut to size with white medical tape to secure it has saved me time and time again. If you are prone to blisters like I am, I highly recommend you keep some of this stuff in your first aid kit!
We, unfortunately, were forced to start our hike at the hottest time of the day during a heat wave. It was so hot that when our gondola up temporarily halted and turned quickly into a sweltering sauna, I was genuinely concerned for the two elderly couples in it with us. Within minutes they were planning a mutiny and discussing how to pry open the doors. Luckily, we started moving again before things got too desperate. Just a few steps onto the trail and it felt like a neighborhood bully was holding his giant magnifying over our little ant bodies. The trail was dusty and loose, I was sweaty and sticky. And I was having a hard time battling through my existing exhaustion just to get one foot in front of the other. I complained frequently but refused to turn around. As I’m sure you can imagine, this was a great experience for Stu.
We stopped often to drink water in the slightly less hot shade of the single skinny trees we could find on the rock slabs and tried to make light of the situation. No matter how deep I am in the self pitty pool (and that thing is as bottomless as a happy hour pitcher of margaritas), I can still laugh at myself. It's not fun having your personality, your happiness, and your health all tugged out from under you - especially when you have worked hard for them. But I also have immense compassion for Stu who still finds just the right time to poke fun at me and remind me that the sky isn't actually falling.
The fog of my bad mood hadn’t lifted at all and although I tried to will myself into a better headspace, the reality was that I needed to concentrate simply on moving forward. Eventually, my stubbornness paid off and, even through blisters from my packed out old hiking boots, we got to the top of this not-actually-that-challenging-not-actually-that-long-felt-like-death hike. While looking out from the rock bluff we were standing on I realized that I was looking down on The Chief and therefore this was the highest vantage point that I’d seen Squamish from. It briefly occurred to me that there was a message here in that idea of changing perspectives but then my hormones were like ‘screw that hippy shit.’ Instead, I used the little energy I had left to make the trek back down. The heat had completely zapped us by the time we crossed back onto the gravel road would take us to the gondola and we dragged our melted selves into the lodge for overpriced cold drinks like common tourists.
I have given up a quarter of my life to these hormone fluctuations for almost three decades. And even though I came home that afternoon and cried from sheer exhaustion in front of our fan and even though I was miserable for most of our hike, I didn’t simply pull the sheets over my head that morning and will the day away. Instead, I made a memory. It’s a memory of a shitty, dirty, struggle hike – but there’s something in there that feels a little like a win. It feels a little like I gave the hormones that were wearing me like a skin suit the middle finger. And it also feels like maybe next month around this time I might be doing solo hikes. . .
CHOCOLATE CHUNK BANANA BREAD
4 bananas 2 1/2 cups mashed
4 eggs
1/2 cup almond butter
4 tablespoons coconut oil melted (it's been so hot that my coconut oil is already melted)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt
6 oz. dark chocolate chopped (I used unsweetened)
Grease one 9x5 loaf pan (or 8"x8" square pan, which is what I used) and preheat the oven to 350ºF.
In a large bowl or mixer, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract and nut butter until fully combined.
Add the coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt to the wet ingredients and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes if using a square pan, and 50-60 if using a loaf pan. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, and when you press down lightly on the loaf, it should spring back, not stay indented. If a toothpick comes out clean but the loaf isn't springing back, keep it in the oven until it does to ensure it's baked through.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for about 1/2 hour. Flip out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
I found this recipe here and only made a couple small changes. Not only is it packed with healthy fats and natural sugars that made it a great snack on the hike, but the chocolate in it helped satisfy my cravings. I love banana bread and was so happy to find a sugar-free and sweetener-free recipe.