GDT kms: 0

Daily kms: ~30

We got up bright and early at 5am and had a bit of a slow start as we sorted out final things with our gear before we hit the trail at 6:20am.

The first part of the day was beautiful, easy walking that had us ahead of schedule. Our route today was a mixture of sidewalks, trails, dirt roads and bushwhacking. The sidewalks and trails through Waterton were beautiful, easy walking. The wildflowers are blooming right now and they were beautiful to walk through.

The second half of the day was pretty rough though. We hit our first dirt road just before lunch and it was blazing hot – it was over 30C without a touch of breeze for much of the day. Since it was so hot, we took a long lunch at the first patch of shade we were able to find along the road for almost an hour. After lunch we continued on the roads and were pleased to discover the route we had planned was indeed a road/public access when we bumped into a couple workers. A highlight of the day was seeing over a dozen horses grazing on the road and slowly making our way through them.

Finally, our nice roads ran out and the bushwhack started. At first it wasn’t too bad, but then the remnants of the road got harder to follow, the hill got steeper and the brush got taller. I was definitely regretting my choice to wear shorts when plants with those tiny spikes began attacking my legs. After a few false summits, we finally reached the top of the hill and the view was well worth the effort.

We were totally spent from the bushwhacking and hill and the rest of the day we were very slow. Thanks to our early start and faster than expected morning though, we made it to Yarrow Creek trail a bit after 5pm and we found a campsite shortly after in the first kilometre or so.

Looking forward to walking on more actual trails tomorrow and connecting up with the official GDT again!