On Saturday I did my first really serious hike this summer with the good people of the Calgary Outdoor Club. Our destination was Helen Lake and then Cirque Peak, a hike that is regularly listed as one of the premier day hikes in the Rockies.

Whoever writes the guidebooks certainly has a point. This one had it all: an actual summit to attain, panoramic views of glaciers and turquoise lakes, alpine meadows dotted with wild flowers, sunshine, marmots and to cap it all: bears! More of the bears later....

The hike itself was probably about as long and as steep as I'd want to do, especially on such a hot day. The final scramble was quite hard going but at least the day proved the value of having hiking poles which up till now I suspected were a gadget freak's affectation. They certainly helped on the way up through the scree and going down they made things much much easier. All the effort was certainly worth it as the view from the summit (9,819') was spectacular.


More photos here. So anyway - the bears! I was so excited to finally see a Grizzly. Not just one but a family actually: mother and two cubs. It managed to be exciting and not terrifying as they were about half a mile away! Near enough to see that they were brown shapes moving around the hillside but not near enough for a decent photo (or lamentable goring incident). Which has given me a useful backcountry rule of thumb: "If you can see bears in this photo, you are too close!"