I made a quick overnight trip to Waterton with a group of friends this past weekend. We stayed overnight at the Cameron Lake Backcountry Cabin.
I had been anxiously checking the forecast all week, and it called for awesome conditions each time I checked up until Thursday night: partly cloudy skies with a high of around 7 or 8 degrees Celcius on Friday (about 45F), and sunny with a high of 15C on Saturday. It wasn't until Friday morning that the forecast turned to rain for Saturday, but I didn't hear about that until we were on our way to the Park. I wasn't quite prepared for rain but not too worried since our trek out from the cabin was only 2 kilometers.
We arrived at Waterton on Friday afternoon around 3:00 and decided to first hike up the Bear's Hump. There was lots of snow and ice on the trail with a few bare spots, but we all had spikes or yaktrax and made it up without any trouble. The walk back down was a bit dicier, but not bad. We encountered 2 parties, a girl and guy on the way up, and then a solo hiker on the way back down. They were the only people we saw in the Park for the whole trip.
Beautiful views from the top of the Bear's Hump.
From the hike down:
It was already around 5:00 pm when we finished the hike, so we headed out on the Akamina Parkway for about 13 kilometers until we reached the gate at the Little Prairie Day Use Area. We parked our cars in the parking area there, then headed up the trail to the Cameron Lake Cabin. We weren't sure how the conditions would be, so most of us brought both cross country skis and snow shoes. Two of us headed out on snow shoes, the other four on skis. I was really, really happy with my decision to snowshoe in to the cabin. The snow was not great and the skiiers made it but did not enjoy their ski as much as we did our snow shoe. And once we got to the cabin, they were post holing everywhere they walked in the Cameron Lake area.
We hauled in way too much food so enjoyed a feast that evening. The cabin is really well stocked with pots, pans, dishes and utensils. We had a propane stove for cooking, as well as propane lights and heat. Dishes were a bit of a chore since there was no indoor plumbing, so we had to melt and boil snow water and deal with a grey water bucket. But it added to the experience.
This photo shows the sleeping area. The cabin sleeps 8 and mats are provided. The upper bunk was very warm, almost sauna-like. I knew this in advance so came prepared and slept in shorts with a light blanket.
We listened to rain fall all night long, which was bizarre since it was just -15C last week and I haven't seen rain since last fall. A steady drizzle continued for the rest of our trip. In the morning, we made the short trek to Cameron Lake despite the rain, then packed it up and headed out for our two kilometer return to the vehicle. We were soaked by the time we got to the car, but I wasn't cold until we stopped moving. The temperature was 5C (about 40F).
Found a note under my wiper blade from Parks Canada stating that the Akamina Parkway had been closed and we would need to call a certain number so that someone could open the gate for us. Since there was no explanation as to why the gate was closed, we assumed maybe it was something they did each night and then reopened in the morning, so surely it was no big deal and we would find the gate open back in Waterton township. Sure enough, at the end of our 13 kilometer drive, we found ourselves trapped as the gate was down and the road closed. We made our phone call and didn't have to wait long for someone to come and let us through. Turns out they had closed the road due to high avalanche danger. No wonder we hadn't seen a soul! So glad we made it out of there without incident.
It was an easy trip to the cabin and I would recommend the experience to anyone. In fact, we'd like to go again for two nights next time. The only problem is that you are really rolling the dice on the weather when you book far in advance. I think we lucked out despite the rain. No photos of Cameron Lake (which was beautiful) or the trek out because I didn't want to get my phone wet.