johnovey wrote:Great report Chris and fantastic photos! You have a great life over there
We have just got home from visiting relatives in Kelowna where we did a few low level hikes.
We are coming our again in August 2016 and plan to travel for 7 days in an RV between Banff and Jasper. We have the Sentinel Pass hike on the hit list and would appreciate any other similar hikes that you can recommend. Not too ambitious though as I will have the wife with me! I have started to look through your previous reports to get some tips!
Also, I use Memory Map to plan my hikes in the UK and to upload to my gps. Do you know of any Canadian mapping that would be compatible with this software or is it down to map and compass to navigate?
Hi John, thanks for your comments
Just a word of advice on Sentinel Pass - that time of year it is very often closed to groups with fewer than 4 hikers (they prefer 6) due to the grizzly population in the area, this is the case with many hikes in Banff National Park. Parks Canada have a list on their website which changes frequently in tourist season, you'll find it here:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/mtn/ours-bears/miseajour-update/miseajour-update-byk.aspx Always have bear spry with you even if going on a very short hike
Most of my hikes are well off the tourist trail and lack facilities of any kind so might be a bit useless for you guys
there is one hike that stands out more than any of the 'tourist trails' and that is the iceline trail, you would need to turn off the Banff - Jasper corridor just a little but it would be very well worth it. I haven't done it because I hate the crowds but it is considered one of the best in Canada, there's a post here
http://www.hikebiketravel.com/19599/hiking-spectacular-iceline-trail-field-bc/ that doesn't really do it justice but gives you the basic details.
In the same area if you want an easy day then you must go to Emerald Lake, Sarah and I love it there, a nice hike around the lake, great restaurant & bar, canoe rentals etc, there's a post on my own website about it with pics here
http://onejourney.weebly.com/a-weekend-in-the-mountains.html There are so many places along the Banff-Jasper corridor including some wonderful short hikes to places like peyto lake which is one we see often
The short hike to the Athabasca Glacier is worth stopping for too (you can also go out onto the glacier on a huge bus type thing)
You can take the gondola to the top of the mountain in Jasper and hike a huge area without the slog of getting up there
Another nice short one is the hike to Mt Edith Clavell and Angel Glacier
Athabasca falls are pretty good too, a bit busy in tourist season but very nice all the same
You can roam around our website and see what we get up to here
http://onejourney.weebly.com/blogThe good news is that you can download Canadian maps on Memory map there's some instructions here
https://www.memory-map.co.uk/support/695156-Downloading-and-activating-USACanadian-maps-via-Digital-Map-Shop Feel free to ask anything else John I'm only to happy to help, and if you fancy dinner with a couple of brits while you're here just say the word
