We sometimes winter camped back in the days. We made do with warm sleeping bags, a hot water bottle and a cold tent. Staying warm at night was usually not a problem, but I will say it was a pain to get up and get dressed in the morning. To pursue this kind of recreation is not very convenient, and to be honest, not very safe with young kids. Alberta winter temperatures can easily dip below -30C and it seems like stupidity to risk the kids' fingers and toes and your own sanity. But now we have a tipi tent and a packable tent stove. Yes, a packable titanium tent stove! We (6 people and 2 dogs) put it to the test during a two night trip to the Kootenay plains on a chilly October weekend. To be more precise, we camped within the Upper Clearwater / Ram public land use zone within the Bighorn Backcountry, located just east of the boundary of Banff National Park. No permit is needed to camp there. The camp spot we keep returning to is a wonderful oasis, with a clean creek, grassy meadows and snow capped peaks all around. We had large, heavy packs when we set out. The 10k, mostly flat hike out went well. Fabian and Helaina's little dogs made it so much more fun to walk, especially for the kids. Here we are crossing a snowy meadow just before camp: We cleared a spot for the tent by making big snowballs into a snowman. Then before setting up the tipi, it needs to go flat on the ground and be pinned down: And then up it goes, with the 3 meter tall pole on in the middle. The wood stove then...It packs down flat, like this: The parts slide together and are secured with the long screws. And then it looks like this: And how did it work? Well, quite wonderfully. The evening got chilly pretty fast, so after dinner, hot chocolate and marshmallow roasting, we retired to a warm tent! Of course, a few things were required for that to be possible, such as gathering and preparing fire wood, properly attaching the pipe and protecting the tent from heat with Andreas carefully thought out and tested heat shields, and letting it burn for while. But then! It was warm in the tent! We could dry our mitts and socks in there! There was no smoke! It was so nice. It was a pleasure falling asleep. In the early morning, Alma and Andreas woke up to go to the bathroom. Andreas then stoke the fire and when we all woke up some time after, the tent was warm again! The challenge was not to get dressed, but find the motivation to leave the cosiness. The dogs loved the heat and we had to keep a close eye on them so they did not burn. One of them did go too close at one point and had some fur curl up in the heat. Here's one of them enjoying the radiant heat. We eventually went outside to have breakfast but kept the stove going on low most day. Without it, the day could have been quite miserable. The snow was wet, but the kids would play in it and their toes in less than adequate shoes for this weather needed frequent heating up. Socks and mittens needed drying. Alma had a sore leg from a fall during the hike in and Arthur had a cold. So to be able to go inside and relax kept us quite comfortable. We did go for a little walk also. Two hunters on horse passed by and then we found this trapper camp visited by a hungry bear... In the afternoon we made some popcorn on the campfire, had dinner and some marshmallows again. After a second warm and comfortable night it was time to break camp. But first, we had breakfast inside the tent, and that felt like luxury!
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Just north of Jasper National Park in Alberta lies Willmore Wilderness Park, a 4597 square km area of mountains, forests, rivers and even glaciers. There are 3 access roads, and beyond that 750 kms of trails for those willing to travel by foot or horse. No motorized vehicles allowed... No developed camp sites or facilities, with the exception of some remote historical cabins and scattered outfitter camps. This time we went into this pure and raw gem via Sulphur Gates close to Grande Cache (this town has a great tourism interpretive centre with helpful staff, I recommend a visit!). We were excited because this is the longest we have spent in the back country with the kids. They can now carry some, Alma's backpack weighed 6 kg on her 29 kg body. Arthur carried 3 kg. We adults split the other 40-45 kgs of gear, food and water, more or less according to body weight and pack capacity. It was not bad at all. We didn't have the time to stop to see the main attractions, Sulphur gates and Eaton falls, instead we headed out along the rather easy, but sometimes hilly and muddy trail. There was a bit of complaining the first few kilometers, too heavy pack, sore feet and such. After the regular adjust and overcome process things got easier and after about 8kms the views opened up to pretty Kvass flats: Found a good place to camp after some searching around. There was a couple there already but we had to stop as it was getting late. It worked out well, they had the cutest dog so the kids were happy (they bonded quickly with Tuck and missed him when they left the next day). With this as basecamp, complete with kitchen table and outhouse, set up by outfitters, we spent the following 4 days hiking, playing, dipping in the river and relaxing (under a tarp by the fire a rainy day or in Alma's case, reading in the tent). Best and worst Arthur B: playing at the rocky beach and in the streams. W: bushwacking! Alma B: bathing in the river. W: the thorns while bushwhacking Irene B: wildflower filled alpine meadows. W: The mosquitoes and to have to see them attack Arthur already suffering through the waist high brush (complete with prickly raspberry bushes and a wasp nest on the ground...). Andreas: B: to see the kids play all day without one single toy and that they slept so well in the tent, even through a massive thunderstorm and heavy rain. W: nothing... Wildlife We spotted deer, an eagle and groundhogs. Grizzlies, black bears, cougars, big horn sheep and mountain goats also live there but we did not see any. Food It can be a bit tricky to pack food for 4 people for 5 days out. Kids need to nibble almost constantly, and no wonder, they work hard and don't have any big reserves to use up. Food is where we can save some weight, so tried to think calorie dense. Here's an approximate list of what we brought, and we ate it all:
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Just listen to that...Whitehorse Wildland....it evokes thoughts of rushing rivers, rugged peaks and wild animals. And that was exactly what we got during four May days in this protected area bordering Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.
This was the first time we went on a family hike without a stroller to push equipment in; instead Alma carried all her stuff. This is big for us, as it opens up possibilities of hiking in areas we have not been able to reach in the past 7 years. Alma was quite proud, equipped with new hiking boots, pants and of course a brand new back pack, as we set off along the Whitehorse creek trail. After just a few hundred meters, a bear crossed the stream a short distance ahead of us. We stopped and waited to see where he might go. After what felt like an eternity he came walking towards us on the trail. Despite our lectures on how to behave in bear country, Arthur ran the other way while yelling "I see the beeeeaaar"! The animal just wanted to avoid us so we could soon continue, just with our hearts beating a little faster. We crossed the stream a couple of times, passed a small lake, dense forest and when we started to suspect that we had missed the campground we had in mind, around the 5km mark, it appeared right in front of us. Open forest with a few gravel tent sites, an outhouse, a bear pole, it could not have been more convenient. But the night was cold, and some of us shivered all night despite having put on the extra clothes. The next day, after going straight from frozen to roasted when the sun started to shine on the tent, we broke camp because we wanted to reach an impressive looking water fall and a small camp site next to it. But the trail soon turned into a muddy/snowy/bushy nearly impassable mess so we turned back and put our tent back up in the original spot. The following day we explored the area close to camp, found an old abandoned cabin, and took a skinny dip in a calm spot in the cold river. It was a very pleasant day overall. We took the lower, more picturesque, trail on the way out and enjoyed the views of the land of rushing rivers and rugged peaks. But, to the kids relief, no more wild animals came our way! Western Canada is a pretty cool place to live in the winter. Not only does everyday become an adventure, if you let it; with a bit of imagination a walk through the neighbourhood feels like an arctic expedition, as you navigate sidewalk ice fields, snow all around, face hurting from the howling winds, perhaps you spot a coyote straying from the river valley below..
Winter is also a great time for "real" adventures, they just need to be scaled down a notch, or 20, to fit the whole family. This winter the kids learnt to cross country ski. Not in a very structured way, but by going on frequent "walks" on the skis in local and mountain parks. Hopefully, by keeping it fun for the kids and giving them feel for where skis can take you will keep them motivated to keep practice. Next winter, that is... My better half, and one part of me, have been eager to get out to the mountains ever since we came back from our bike tour. The adventure bucket was running low... The first weekend we were back at home, the other part of me, on the other hand, was not feeling quite ready to pack the backpacks and drive for 4h to spend a night in the tent we still had not unpacked. All of our equipment was also in need of a deep clean. A few weekends later all parts felt quite ready, but the evening before departure I was a party pooper. Something about too much hassle and too many other things to do. So we did not go.
But finally, this past weekend, the last in October, we made it out to one of our favorite places on earth. Had to rip out most things in the basement before we found the sleeping pads still in a suitcase. And yes still dirty. But all those little annoyances blow away with the fresh mountain breeze, once we got there early Saturday afternoon. Kootenay plains, just on the edge of the Rockies. A place once sacred to the natives. Still sacred to us. After an easy 8km hike into the backcountry there is this place that we keep returning to. Where the kids immediately find the bone "necklace" they made last year, where their imagination come to full glory and where they fall asleep in the dark night feeling safer than at home. A sacred place where just one cold fall night hugged by two bright days fills your little adventure bucket and makes the hassle totally worth it. |
AuthorHi, I'm Irene. I'm from Sweden and live in Edmonton, Canada, with Andreas and our two kids. We love to share our passion for the great outdoors with our kids and hope to inspire you to get out there too, kids in tow or not! Archives
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