Lake Francis

June 29, 2018

Sorry, WordPress is still not letting me embed pics.

We never figured out what exactly was breaking sticks in the woods. There were several “Hey Bears” and fruitless probes of the darkness with headlamps. We bantered back and forth for an hour before falling deeply asleep.

It was supposed to be a fairly mild day with manageable elevation and just under 10 miles. We started out in the waist deep foliage filling the floor of an old forest. We saw a few deer who were totally unafraid of us.

As we approached Waterton Lake, I caught the Border Patrol cameras so we made some comedy sketches for them.

Waterton Lake is long and lies in both Canada and the U.S. there is a popular resort on the lake in Canada and people can take ferry ride to the southern end of the lake and go through customs. We chatted with Border Patrol (they hadn’t seen our sketches) as well as the Park Rangers. One of the rangers was from near our home.

After some border photos, we began the gradual climb to our campsite at Francis Lake. A trail crew had been ahead of us. In addition to the beautiful, rich scent of the forest, we would occasionally pass some freshly sawn lumber.

It started drizzling just as we picked our tentsite at Francis Lake. Undaunted we walked down to the shore. Absolutely stunning. About 150 feet across an almost turquoise lake rose a massive wall with a waterfall that must’ve been 200 feet high. We just sat on the beach and watched as the rain gave way to sun, revealing the shifting mist clouds high up the waterfall, catching and releasing the sunlight. This park is so astounding. I was so happy to have Ingrid there. I don’t push backpacking on anybody, but sometimes I feel like a nutjob describing some natural beauty. This time I was allowed to share the beauty in person and forever.

We ate dinner and went to bed early as the rain returned. We were both tired from the night before and knew we needed to start early for the long day ahead.