We had a grand day out, enjoying a lovely hike, lots of conversation within our small group, and thrilling lunchtime entertainment (spoiler: bear!).

We arrived at Rummel Lake in about 90 minutes, taking the summer trail which showed the first hint of summer flowers (valerian and paintbrush). The upper forest and meadows, however, were still firmly stuck in early spring, with some glacier lilies that hadn’t even opened yet. The show of glacier lilies, trollius, spring beauty, etc. has been on for at least 6 weeks now.

The upper tarns were beautiful with huge snowbanks, and the bank at the second tarn was so large that we had to walk up it to its shallowest depth and clamber down the loose rubble. While waiting for the rest of us to arrive, Evan kicked a solid return route up the snow wall... but more on that later!

The pass was swept by howling wind, but there are broad ledges on the lee side where we set up for lunch. After just a few minutes, Cristina noticed a grizzly on the slopes below, making its way up a snowfield. After watching it for a few minutes - including a very funny bum slide down the snow - we guessed that it would probably come up the pass. We relocated into a tighter group higher up the rocks, leaving the bear ample room to get by us, and had a short refresher on arming/disarming and using bear spray (although in retrospect the wind direction was not amenable for bear spray). Sure enough, the bear effortlessly strolled up the pass (way faster than a human could) and passed by. We were all thrilled by the experience and settled down for the rest of lunch to give the bear time and space to get far away from us.

On our way back, we admired the prints in the snow, and saw that the bear had used Evan’s snow wall steps! The cloud and wind eventually gave way to warmer conditions on the return trip.

It was surprisingly quiet on the trail, especially given the bear closure at neighbouring Chester - only 9 other hikers. Thanks to a great group who made the day fun and memorable.

Rummel Lake summer trail

Rummel Lake

First tarn in upper Rummel valley

Evan cutting our return route... which the grizzly also used!

Rummel Pass

Young grizzly crossing the pass (photo Cristina)

Finishing lunch on the pass while giving the bear time to move on

Participants: Teresa,Evan,Cristina,John, coordinator Ingrid.