Good Times, Riches and Sons of Bitches, I've Seen More Than I Can Recall

fireplace. Most of the morning was shot before we finally set out on this, our final hike of this trip.

At the Visitor Center in Field, a young park ranger looked up from reading the mountaineering thriller “Touching the Void” and asked if she could help us.

We sought her advice on best hikes in the area and she suggested the Iceline Trail in Yoho National Park. It sounded perfect and we fueled up at the Truffle Pig. A charming French girl with a killer accent brought us delicious egg salad sandwiches on homemade bread.

To hike the Iceline, we had to park at the Takkakaw Falls parking lot and then walk a quarter-mile to the trailhead. A very cold rain started falling and we donned all our fleece and raingear. As seems typical of most hikes, we began by switched-backing steeply uphill. A steady rain like this typically dampens all noises, so to make sure we didn’t surprise any bears or other large carnivores along the trail, we found things to talk about – loudly. I recapped to Gail the essence of the book I’d been reading (David McCullough’s 1776). It must have worked – and really, who wouldn’t head the other direction if they had to listen to me recap an entire book!!

We started pulling off layers of clothing as we continued uphill, warmed from the exertion. Far across the vast valley, the immense Takkakaw Falls was still visible and we could even faintly hear the distant roar from the nearly 1,000-foot tall, stunningly beautiful waterfall. Takkakaw in Cree means, “It is magnificent,” and it truly was.

After climbing 1,300 feet, we entered the alpine zone and gained mountain views in all directions. Now we could even look down onto the glacier that fed Takkakaw atop the far side of the valley. As we hiked along, we drank in the superb views of perfect alpine lakes and admired beautiful wildflower-filled alpine meadows before periodically plunging into deep forests.

Gail’s SI joint in her lower back had been troubling her, so instead of doing the entire loop, once our altimeter read 6,900 feet, we turned around. We never really minded out and back trails, as the vista in the opposite direction gave us, for the most part, a completely new perspective. We made good progress and retraced our long journey back down the mountain.

Back on the valley floor, the weather had cleared beautifully. With Takkakaw Falls beckoning on the other side of the valley, I asked Gail if we couldn’t extend our hike a wee bit and follow the trail to the base of the falls. Since it would be a mostly flat hike, she agreed as she didn’t think it would aggravate her back.

At the bridge leading to the trail that would take us to the falls, we noticed two large trucks parked, an oddity for such a remote place as this. Nonetheless, we pressed on down the trail, resolved to reach the base of the falls.

The roar of the falls grew noticeably louder the closer we got. After hiking 30 minutes or so, at a turn in the trail, we caught our first unimpeded glimpse of the base of the falls. But we couldn’t comprehend what we were seeing. I pulled out my 307