Giants and Bears in Paradise

I went for my first hike with the Alberta Adventure Girls a few weekends ago! What an amazingly talented, smart, funny and active group of women. I first met the Girls when I was doing a fun overnight camp with a friend at Elk Island National Park, they had arrived for a snow shoe around the frozen lake and mistakenly thought that we were there to join them. After introducing ourselves and explaining that we were just “having fun” camping in the sub zero temperatures they went off on their hike and I joined the facebook group. That was back in February. I’ve been wanting to join them for an event since then.

The August 27th hike to Paradise Valley, Lake Annette and the Giant Steps was the first time I was able to make it to an outing. I found myself meeting with Niki and Roxy on Friday evening and carpooling down to Calgary with them! Road trips are always more fun with friends and these two are entertaining!

Our alarms went off just after 5 am Saturday morning and we dressed, packed, and after a quick Timmies run, met up with Karen just west of Calgary.

The four of us arrived at the trail head to Paradise Valley and met the rest of the girls there just after 8 am. After quick introductions, debates about the amount of rain gear needed and forewarned apologies for forgetting names, we were off.

The sun was hidden behind clouds but it wasn’t raining, the forest was damp and cool, not wet. Excellent hiking weather! 1 km into the hike we stopped at the “Group Access” advisory. The sign was flipped to Recommended indicated that due to bear activity, or lack of, groups of four or more were recommended though not required to hike the trail that day.

Fortunately for me, there isn’t much elevation gain in the 6.7 km to Lake Annette and the trail is well maintained. My knee felt great and sturdy, still, I was hesitant about my first hike post surgery. Due to the size of the group there was always someone who was going your pace so my concerns were unnecessary. I chatted (as much as I could while trying to hid how woefully out of shape I was) with a few of the girls and eavesdropped on some conversations. The, ease of the trail, chatter of the Girls and the feeling of the mountain air giving me all the motivation I needed to press onward and upward.

Entering Paradise Valley, you can see where they got the name from (though, were it up to me, literally every valley/mountain/stream would be named paradise). We briefly paused to marvel at the Highwood River cutting through the mountains and we were off again, climbing a short distance more and stumbling out through the trees to the emerald Lake Anette.

Packs were thrown off and food devoured, what a beautiful place for a rest, the deep green of the lake contrasted against the grey rocks of the scramble; the cloudy sky made for a beautiful backdrop for our break.

Having refuelled and caught our breath we were off again - hiking up and through an old rock slide on the west side of Mount Temple, offering up a beautiful view down Paradise Valley and a quick peak at one of the sentinels (the trail forks and you can choose to hike Sentinel Pass from this trail as well – we did not). By this time the chatter had settled down and we had split into two smaller groups. Myself and Stephanie were at the back of the lead group and when I stopped and asked her to tuck something into my pack for me we fell behind a bit, creating our own little group of two in between the larger groups.

At the entrance to the Giant Steps (10 kms from the trail head) Stephanie and I met up with a couple who were hiking with their Dachshund, naturally we stopped to give the dog some love and chat with the people. At the boardwalk we stepped up to head towards the rest of the Girls and the couple wandered towards the edge to see the view. Two steps onto the boardwalk I heard the girlfriend (didn’t catch her name) yell back at us, voice slightly elevated, trying to catch our attention and not alarm us at the same time “Girls, there is a Grizzly”.

“Nope. NOOOOOPE. No.” I thought to myself

Yes. Damn it, yep there was a bear

We reconvened at the edge of the boardwalk, the dog in her arms and the four of us grouped together, she pointed out his light brown back behind the rock they had just been standing beside. He was foraging and mostly hidden, blending in perfectly with the rocky surroundings…as bears are bound to do. As we watched, he lumbered out from behind the rock into the bushes and headed right to us, head down, obviously unaware of the humans in his area. I tapped my walking poles against the wooden walkway and raising my voice slightly said “hey bear…”

His head shot up and he bounced back a bit onto his hind legs then down again, getting a better view of us. It all happened in an instant and he quickly realized we were human and obviously determined that the four of us (5 including the dog) were:

a) no threat to him

b) a large enough group that he didn’t care to bother with us

c) alone

With that brief observation he changed his direction and continued foraging for berries or whatever it was he was eating on the rocks. This gave us enough time to grab our cameras and try to alert the other groups around us without startling Mr. Grizzly. With his obvious decision not to bother with us and his change of direction we were pretty relieved and no longer felt threatened… but the directional change put his new path straight towards the other group of girls…good for us, bad for them as we didn’t know if they had heard our tentative shouts of “Bear!” “Girls there is a BEAAAAR!”

We made the decision at that point to use the bear banger…angled it upwards and towards the clearing. It let loose with a quick “pop” followed by a much larger “BANG”. It had its intended effect. The bear looked up at it and paused for the briefest of seconds before he lopped up the clearing and out of view. (I later learned that this was the direction of the Paradise Valley backpacking campsite…woops) The girls in the lead group had heard our shouts but were unable to make out what we were saying. When the bang went off they gathered together and had bear spray at the ready…un-needed, fortunately, as they saw him running through the thick and up the clearing. (Again, my apologies if you were in the camp and experienced a rather sudden bear encounter)

After some time, and explanation, everyone in the group made it to the Giant Steps, the bear story was recounted and lunch was had.

Giant Steps is stunning, the hiking trail is well maintained, and easy to navigate. It was a great first hike back, not too much elevation but long enough to make me feel like I actually did something and I could conquer tougher hikes soon. I would love to go back to Paradise Valley and hike through the Sentinel Pass…although not without a group and some bear spray.