Walcott Quarry
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
With summer quickly coming to a close I realized that time was running out for me to take advantage of our partnership with Parks Canada for the Burgess Shale hikes. A quick e-mail was sent, "Hey, any chance I could get on Wednesday's hike?" without actually looking at the details of the hikes.
I get an e-mail back a few hours later, "Sure thing! We've signed you up for Walcott, see you at Takakkaw Falls parking lot at 7:15am!"
Great! I marked the date, location and time down. Later on I took a look at the guest information sheet that was put together earlier in the year with driving times and directions. And that’s when I make a shocking discovery. I'm not signed up for the short 7km Mount Stephen hike. No…I'm on the long, 22km long, Walcott Quarry Hike! Not exactly what I thought I was signing up for, but I did Paradise Valley a few weeks ago so I’m not totally overwhelmed by the distance.
Wednesday rolls around and my alarm goes off at 5:30am. I haven’t used my alarm clock in at lest 3 months and I’m pretty sure that this is the earliest I’ve been awake in at least 2 years! I crawled out of bed, tossed my lunch together, filled up my water, located my toque and gloves after a few minutes of frantic digging, stuff everything into my pack and at 6:30am sharp, head out the door...leaving my freshly brewed coffee sitting on the kitchen counter.
I arrive a few minutes after 7am at the Takakkaw Falls Parking lot. Its a bit eerie since there is one other car and that’s it. Normally the parking lot is absolutely packed full of people who make the short stroll to see Takakkaw Falls and have no idea how much their missing by not exploring a bit further afield. (Twin Falls is one of my most favourite hikes in Yoho.)
Cursing myself for forgetting my coffee (going to have caffeine withdrawal by 10am!) I jump out of my truck into the frosty morning air. It’s COLD at 7am in September! My pack is almost empty since I now have on my toque, gloves, extra sweater, and my rain jacket. Did I mention that I’m also wearing long underwear?
Our group gathers together. On today’s trip we have a couple of geologists from the Czech Republic (They were camping at Takakkaw Falls! Did I mention how cold it was that morning?), avid hikers from Kamloops, an amateur palaeontologist from Edmonton and a couple from Canmore who are ‘finally getting around to this hike.’
A short note on Guided Hike Etiquette. ARRIVE ON TIME! We were due to depart the parking lot at 7:30, but thanks to people showing up 20 or 30 minutes late, we didn’t leave until after 8am. That’s a lot of time to stand around in the cold for!
A short stroll past the falls and the HI-Whiskey Jack Wilderness Hostel (a great alternative if you don’t feel like getting up in the wee small hours and camping isn’t your style) and we’re on our way to Yoho Lake, striping off extra layers as we head up the 290m elevation gain. The sky is overcast and we’re hiking through the trees for the greater part which lends a nice ambiance to the morning.
After a short break at Yoho Lake next to a monument showing that this is where the Alpine Club of Canada set up its first annual camp in 1906, we head out on the Burgess Pass trail.
This was when things got really spectacular. While the Yoho Lake trail is nice and peaceful and fully embraces the wooded walk ideal, the Burgess Pass is the ultimate alpine hike! The trail skirts along the slopes of Wapta Mountain with towering (and fragile looking!) cliffs of schist, zebra rock, and all sorts of wildflowers and mushrooms consistently distracting us from the stunning views of the valley below. You don’t know where to look first and there is so much to see its hard to take a picture.
I get an e-mail back a few hours later, "Sure thing! We've signed you up for Walcott, see you at Takakkaw Falls parking lot at 7:15am!"
Great! I marked the date, location and time down. Later on I took a look at the guest information sheet that was put together earlier in the year with driving times and directions. And that’s when I make a shocking discovery. I'm not signed up for the short 7km Mount Stephen hike. No…I'm on the long, 22km long, Walcott Quarry Hike! Not exactly what I thought I was signing up for, but I did Paradise Valley a few weeks ago so I’m not totally overwhelmed by the distance.
Wednesday rolls around and my alarm goes off at 5:30am. I haven’t used my alarm clock in at lest 3 months and I’m pretty sure that this is the earliest I’ve been awake in at least 2 years! I crawled out of bed, tossed my lunch together, filled up my water, located my toque and gloves after a few minutes of frantic digging, stuff everything into my pack and at 6:30am sharp, head out the door...leaving my freshly brewed coffee sitting on the kitchen counter.
I arrive a few minutes after 7am at the Takakkaw Falls Parking lot. Its a bit eerie since there is one other car and that’s it. Normally the parking lot is absolutely packed full of people who make the short stroll to see Takakkaw Falls and have no idea how much their missing by not exploring a bit further afield. (Twin Falls is one of my most favourite hikes in Yoho.)
Cursing myself for forgetting my coffee (going to have caffeine withdrawal by 10am!) I jump out of my truck into the frosty morning air. It’s COLD at 7am in September! My pack is almost empty since I now have on my toque, gloves, extra sweater, and my rain jacket. Did I mention that I’m also wearing long underwear?
Our group gathers together. On today’s trip we have a couple of geologists from the Czech Republic (They were camping at Takakkaw Falls! Did I mention how cold it was that morning?), avid hikers from Kamloops, an amateur palaeontologist from Edmonton and a couple from Canmore who are ‘finally getting around to this hike.’
A short note on Guided Hike Etiquette. ARRIVE ON TIME! We were due to depart the parking lot at 7:30, but thanks to people showing up 20 or 30 minutes late, we didn’t leave until after 8am. That’s a lot of time to stand around in the cold for!
A short stroll past the falls and the HI-Whiskey Jack Wilderness Hostel (a great alternative if you don’t feel like getting up in the wee small hours and camping isn’t your style) and we’re on our way to Yoho Lake, striping off extra layers as we head up the 290m elevation gain. The sky is overcast and we’re hiking through the trees for the greater part which lends a nice ambiance to the morning.
After a short break at Yoho Lake next to a monument showing that this is where the Alpine Club of Canada set up its first annual camp in 1906, we head out on the Burgess Pass trail.
This was when things got really spectacular. While the Yoho Lake trail is nice and peaceful and fully embraces the wooded walk ideal, the Burgess Pass is the ultimate alpine hike! The trail skirts along the slopes of Wapta Mountain with towering (and fragile looking!) cliffs of schist, zebra rock, and all sorts of wildflowers and mushrooms consistently distracting us from the stunning views of the valley below. You don’t know where to look first and there is so much to see its hard to take a picture.
After a quick lunch, the final push to the Walcott Quarry section of the Burgess Shale was next on the agenda. Unfortunately by the time we got to the final push up the hill to the Quarry (lots of signs telling you that you’re in a restricted area and on camera!) , the weather had started to deteriorate. Nothing like hiking in snow! Poor weather, plus the fact that we had been late to start and had some very slow hikers in our party, meant that we didn’t have much time at the Quarry itself.
The guides who lead you into this area are well prepared. At the Quarry, there is a locker with excellent fossil examples and more detailed information up there as well as little magnifying glasses for you to get right up close and personal with the fossils. We were able to spend 30 minutes exploring the Quarry and its treasures and while you cannot take any souvenirs with you, the guides have tracing paper and pencils for you to take an impression of your favourite trilobite.
I am NOT into fossils. I was more interested in taking pictures of mushrooms and the views than I was of the fossils, however even a non-paleo-person like me was amazed by the shear quantity of specimens that were up there. Pick up a rock, there is a fossil. Pick up another, there is another fossil. And so on.
After our short but exhilarating (well, the geologists and the amateur palaeontologist were exhilarated – I was mostly cold and going through caffeine withdrawal) visit to Walcott Quarry we descended back down to the Burgess Pass trail, the temperature going up about 4 degrees as we lost elevation, and back towards Yoho Lake.
Most of the elevation gain on this hike is right at the beginning on the way to Yoho Lake and the other big chunk right as you arrive at Walcott Quarry. Going up is fine, but after 20KM, those last 2 km can be murder on the knees and feel like an eternity, but that’s just the proven rule for most hikes.
If you do have the chance to do this hike, I highly recommend it. I’ve never hiked with a guide before and was delighted to discover that even with a subject matter that I wasn’t overly interested in, I left feeling well informed about the history of the area and a bit about the uniqueness of this special place.
You can do the Burgess Pass hike without the benefit of the guide, but if you do decide to head up there without an organized guide from Parks Canada or the Burgess Shale Foundation, please do not attempt to go up to the Quarry. This is a highly sensitive area and is precious to all. Unsupervised visits will lead to theft and vandalism, ruining this UNESCO World Heritage site for future generations. Plus, you won’t get the full experience that you would with a guide. (And did we mention the security cameras? The RCMP and Park Wardens will meet you at your car.)
Ironically, I found myself in Drumheller at the Royal Tyrell Museum looking at their Burgess Shale exhibit. The real life adventure is vastly superior to looking through a piece of glass as a pack of children go screaming past.
What is with all these fossil related activities I’m doing lately? Okay, maybe I’m a bit interested in palaeontology…not a lot, just a bit. A trilobite sized bit.
Thanks, and happy hiking!
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