Pyramid Lake Area and Old Fort Point Hike

"Keep close to Nature's heart...
and break clear away once in awhile, 
and climb a mountain...or spend a week in the woods.
Wash your spirit clean."
    ~John Muir

It was 35 degrees this morning and overcast so we began our day with breakfast in front of the fireplace with the TV news. 

Our current rental is VERY nice. We have no complaints! We also have a second bedroom if anyone wants to visit and a game room. We are partially below ground but have lots of light. When we come in, we only go down 4 steps. Here is our living room - notice the windows.

Today we headed towards Pyramid Lake. Our first stop was Patricia Lake. When we first got there, the reflections were great.

I think some elk were there before us.

This group of four photos shows one of the ranges left to right.

Ray was thoroughly enjoying himself.

I sat on this bench for awhile

with this view. Wow!

We went to Pyramid Beach on Pyramid Lake. 

There was lots of sand.

We headed to the other side of Pyramid Lake on Pyramid Lake Road. This is Pyramid Mountain.

When we got to the other side, we crossed the bridge to the island.

The scenery was awesome.

After taking the above shot, I zoomed in and it took 6 photos to cover the same area.

Ray was still loving the reflections.

I was too.

We left the area and went to find lunch. The restaurant at Pyramid Lake only serves breakfast and dinner so we had a picnic. Yesterday's lunch also involved a closed restaurant so today we brought a picnic in case it was needed. We dined at a picnic table on Pyramid Beach.

After lunch we decided to hike near Patricia Lake. We missed the turn to the parking lot but eventually were able to turn around and find it. We had to hike from the lot to the trailhead. I had my pack and bear spray. Our hosts gave us bear spray which was very nice.

When we finally got to the trailhead, the trail was closed as a Fire Hazard Reduction. We're not sure if it is because the area is so dry and/or there are lots of pines affected by the pine beetle. Anyway we hoofed it back to the car.

We headed to Old Fort Point on the other side of Jasper. It's a popular spot so Ray suggested I leave the bear spray. Good idea! We thought we were going on a 4 km walk/hike. Our walk turned into a climb pretty fast and we went up and up and up and just when we thought we could see the top, we went up more. We started with a FEW flights of steps and then went up rocks and gravel and once in a while grass. The views were amazing! That is Pyramid Mountain and the water is the Athabasca River.

Near the top of this climb, Anna and Dillon caught up with us. They are from Edmonton, AB. They were talking to us as we kept ascending.

Doesn't that look like you'll soon be at the top? Ha!

Shortly before we got to this area, a girl hiking the other way said she had heard and then seen a bear up ahead of us. A bear? We don't have the bear spray. Oh NO! I do have a whistle It's a Junior Park Ranger Whistle and it works well! Dillon and Anna had some bells. We had a discussion and decided to continue. 

Dillon and Anna were ahead of us and all of a sudden turned and came back. They had heard something and were quite sure it was a bear. Another discussion. I might have mentioned I really did not want to go down some of those slopes we had climbed. We again decided to go forward.

Dillon and Anna

We knew there was safety in numbers - you appear much larger to the bear. So we went on, visiting and making noise the entire way. Anna is a school photographer and Dillon is doing an internship as a heavy equipment operator. He had lots of questions - he rarely visits with someone from the states. It was fun, a bit strange, and quite refreshing to be hiking with 20-somethings. As we neared the end of our trip down, we saw some fresh bear scat. So yes there is a bear moving around there somewhere. As much as we wanted to see a bear, none of us wanted to meet one on the trail. 

We did meet a few deer. This is the last one we saw. 

So today we climbed a mountain, 

we met some interesting people-

Anna and Dillon, the couple from Germany staying at the hostel, 

the ladies from Hong Kong and Toronto and others,

we saw the sun, 

we washed our spirits clean, 

and we will ALWAYS take the bear spray from now on.