Winter Hike Up Bears Hump

This past weekend I was finally able to drag Ryan on a hike! Its funny how I couldn’t get him to come all summer when the weather was nice but in -6C and snow he was willing. I think he just felt obligated to go because I bought him a new winter coat and boots JUST for winter adventures.

Driving into the park we watched five or six elk try to make a break for the road and stop when they saw a car coming. I love the elk in the winter. Often you’ll see a huge herd of hundreds on those plains, not just a handful. Unfortunately my stupid camera took blurry pics.

We stopped at the winter camp ground at the creek for a bathroom break. You can winter camp there, it has outhouses and a camp kitchen.

After doing a photo shoot for some clothing (recap to come soon) we pulled into the Bears Hump parking lot. There wasn’t a single car there which I found surprising because it was a warm day compared to the past week. It was only -6C instead of -18 (-35C with the wind). But that made the hike nice because we had the trail all to ourselves.

And if you think Bears Hump is tough in the summer, try going up in the winter when the steps and rocks are slippery.

But the scenery was gorgeous and the trees sheltered us from the wind.

Peek of Upper Waterton Lake through the trees

For a non-hiking, smoker Ryan hikes at a fast pace. My Runkeeper clocked my fastest hike ever at 16:46/mile.

When we got to the top the wind was howling so we didn’t stay up there very long. The clouds were covering the sun too so the view was dark compared to most other times we have went.

This hike wore little Apollo out. He slept the whole drive home (even when Ryan was pulled over for speeding) and when we got home he passed out on the couch and didn’t move except to pee the rest of the day.