My brain’s about to explode. Moreover my eyes are about to pop out of my head, and my lungs threaten to rupture at any moment. I can barely stand what I’ve seen today.

OK, so we slept like babies, got up at 7, had some breakfast, got ready and set out to meet the bus at Lake O’Hara. It’s a controlled access area, and they only let in about 40 people a day. We stowed our bags and climbed on, shivering in the cold. It was about -1, and though we were all wrapped in layers (there were forecasts of wet snow and a high of 6) it was still pretty chilly.

A long bus ride later, we’re at Le Relais, the small cabin run by the caretakers. We unload and go our separate ways — experienced hikers toward the more challenging alpine circuit, less experienced hikers toward the simpler plateau nearby or just around Lake O’Hara itself. Nellie and I opted for a hike considered easy, but very rewarding, by our guide book: the hike to Lake Oesa.

The trails all start at Lake O’Hara, and within the first five feet we both stopped, awestruck: the view of the Lake and the surrounding mountains was unreal. We joked that we didn’t need to hike anywhere, that this view alone was worth it. We were only half kidding. Have a look for yourself.

After an easy stroll half a mile around the lake we saw the trail to Lake Oesa. It went up. It went way up. We thought “easy” would mean a few hills, but after the fifth long, steep switchback we were already tired. It took us a while to adjust to the thin air; Lake O’Hara itself was at an elevation of 6700 feet and we’d just climbed another 800, so we were puffing a bit. But you recover quickly and press on. By this point, though, we were quite warm and removing layers.

The walk now went up and down through small clumps of trees, over rock fields created by yearly avalanches, alongside streams and waterfalls, past a few small lakes and many little inukshuks. When I saw a third lake I thought we’re reached our destination, and was a little underwhelmed, until I realized by the geography that we weren’t quite there yet. At that point, Nellie was about ready to punch me in the mouth. Fortunately, just a short climb later, there it was.

I was awestruck. It was this incredible blue lake surrounded by huge mountains all around, with glaciers covering their slopes. I’d seen Moraine Lake and Emerald Lake, but this was in a class by itself. It was partly because of the size and grandeur of these mountains — we learned later that they were part of the actual continental divide — and partly because there were no tourists around or signs pointing to parking lots. It was just us. One Australian couple showed up and we said hello, but they were soon off as well. We sat there had some lunch, gawping at the incredible sight before us and fending off tiny chipmunk-looking animals (which may well have been chipmunks) who were practically crawling on us looking for food. Unfortunately Nellie had some technical difficulty with the video, and none of the pictures we took really captured the setting, but it’ll be burned into my mind for a long time. Finally, we decided to head back down the trail we came up.

On the way back down we took many more pictures, encountered lots of little pikas (which look like a cross between a mouse and a small rabbit), and Nellie suffered an injury when she fell and banged her shin on a sharp rock. But, like a trooper, she carried on down the hill. Eventually that pain went away but a new one — in her knees — started up and climbing down all the steep switchbacks was pretty difficult for her. But she made it, and we set out to do the last little bit of the journey along the edge of Lake O’Hara.

We walked past a waterfall, got a great picture of a pika, sat by the lake and admired the view and eventually got back to Le Relais for some amazing carrot cake and hot chocolate. We still had about an hour to kill, so we walked back to the trailhead for Lake Mary; I ran up over the hill and snapped a few quick photos before coming back down and we returned to Le Relais once again to catch our bus. Half an hour later we were in our car and happily on our way home.

Well, not quite; we decided to stop off in Lake Louise. We pulled up, bypassed the Chateau, took some pictures of the lake and surrounding mountains — all undeiably beautiful — and then jumped back in the car. We just couldn’t take being around all the tourists taking pictures of themselves in front of a hotel dining room. Fortunately, when we returned to our hotel at Moraine Lake most of the tourists were gone, so we were able to take pictures from the lakeshore and atop the rock pile in relative peace. The valley around the lake — called the Valley Of The Ten Peaks — is incredible too, and we couldn’t leave without getting more shots of it.

And now we’re back, resting our tired feet and cleaning our wounds. In a little while we’ll have dinner here at the lodge and then probably collapse into bed. We are tired little beasties and have a long drive up the Icefields Parkway ahead of us tomorrow, not to mention five more days of this! I can’t imagine I’ll ever see anything more beautiful than Lake Oesa, but the week is young.

It’s killing me that nobody can read this yet!!

[tags]lake o’hara, lake oesa, lake louise, moraine lake, pikas[/tags]