Gear List

Mileage: 10.7 km

At the Icefields Campground, we pack up the Jeep and then drive the 10 minutes to the trailhead. The parking lot is pretty full, so I wiggle the Jeep between a pair of vehicles on the side. Kyle and I go through our mental checklist to ensure we have everything, then head out down the trail.

The first few kilometres of the trail is actually an old road, which should have made walking easy. Yet, it is a different story with a distracted toddler like Toothless. He prefers to use the whole space on wide trails to wander around, spin, and dance.

After some time on the road, we finally make it onto a single-track trail. The only option is forward now, and Toothless makes steady progress punctuated by regular snack breaks. He takes a nap in the carrier and wakes up as we reach the pass and descend toward the crossing of the Brazeau River. After the crossing, he walks most of the remaining distance with a few short shoulder rides.

In the past, the height of shoulder rides scared Toothless and he wanted down immediately. This time, the backpack seemed to make him feel more secure and stable as there was something for him to lean back on.

Toothless’ many snack breaks mean we run out of the allotted snacks for him, so I share my peanut butter cups with him. He loves them and takes to calling them “peanut butter muffins”. He has not been eating the dinners we have, so Kyle and I will make up our stolen snack calories by eating his dinner portions.

There’s one other group at camp when we arrive, but by the end of the evening, all the sites are occupied. I’m thrilled we managed to book all our sites for the trip and don’t need to hope for a no-show to avoid taking a reserved spot. (Shout out to Schnerp for making it possible to snag cancellations!)