Traffic leaving Calgary was quite heavy (maybe because park entrance was free on Canada Day) and it became a problem at the Bow River Bridge near the 1A turnoff. The bridge reconstruction currently has only one lane westbound so traffic was backed up 3 kilometres resulting in about a 15 minute delay. Lowered speed limits on the twinning project also slowed things down. But we eventually got to Lake Louise for the start of the hike:

Like all savvy hikers we made sure we were hydrated:

There was thin cloud and it was not too warm which made for a nice hiking temperature. We went up to Mirror Lake before making the traverse over to the Plain-of-Six-Glaciers trail, there were a number of flowers bedecking the hillsides:

Marmots serenaded us as we progressed up the trail. After the teahouse, three of us continued on to the lookout where we had views up the Death Trap and we could just make out the Abbot Hut at the top of Abbot Pass.

Then it was back to the teahouse hordes and down the trail to the lake; there were lots of rock climbers at the west end of the lake. Back at the Chateau the views of Mount Victoria’s summit were becoming obscured by lowering clouds, but no precipitation bothered us on this day.

Thanks to Madeleine for coordinating the trip. Welcome to new members Louise and James; Jean and Ron (S,P) also participated, as well as Skyler who was happy to get four rolls in snow.

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