Lake Magog and Wonder Pass

 Today we woke early, enjoyed the sunrise while we aired our tents, and took a short jaunt to Lake Magog to enjoy the eating shelter, outhouses and views. 

After our extra long day hiking yesterday, our feet were sore and we were slow moving. Despite the lack of sleep, the children were happy! 

We hit the trail with full tummies and stopped to enjoy Lake Magog and the view of Mount Assiniboine. It was crazy to think how far away we were just a few days earlier.

Joe was fascinated with the jumping fish, and Camilla caught a Toad! I think we named him Oggy.

This pointy mountain is Mount Assiniboine, the one that can be seen off in the distance on day one and two.

After the kids had had their fill of skipping rocks and watching fish jump, we wound our way around the lake and headed on to Wonder Pass.

We followed the trail through some valleys, over some streams and up through Wonder Pass.

We took a nice long rest and snack break at the top of the pass and enjoyed the panoramic view of the mountains. 

Afterwards we carried on through the pass and took another break to admire the view or Marvel Lake. The water looked incredible and pictures don't really do it justice.

Our feet were sore and I still had shin splints from our earlier descents, so I wasn't really looking forward to the climb down. We walked the switchbacks slowly, scaled some ridges, and wished for shad as we followed the edge of the lake to our final campground.

Every tall tree became a place for a quick break from the sun and our water was running low due to dried up streams. It made for a difficult last push for us in the rear. Mr. Stannix had taken the three older kids and trucked on ahead, so my parents, Fin and I were left at our own pace. Fin's feet were moving pretty slow at this point, so I had to walk ahead of him and set a pace for him to keep. 

With a lot of breaks, we eventually made it to Bryant Creek where we would spend our final night camping. Mr. Stannix and the older children were desperately waiting for us as we had the water filter. We all sat by the waters edge, filled our bottles, and then hobbled a bit further into the woods to our booked campsite to set up and cook some dinner. 

We were all thoroughly exhausted (some of us slightly dehydrated) and looking forward to being able to sleep in our own beds the next day! 

Porcupine to Sunburst Lake

The second day of our hike was a long day! After breakfast, we hiked from Porcupine Campsite, through the valley of the rocks (this part took forever), and finally arrived at Og Lake around 4pm. Ideally, we would have loved to have secured a campsite at Og, but when we booked online, they were all reserved. We had hardly stopped to eat all day and survived mostly on granola bars and trail mix. We were exhausted! 

We took a break to dip our toes in Og Lake, replenish our water bottles, and swim. 

When we finally had enough energy to walk again, we made our way up to the firepit area and cooked up some lunch. There was a bit of a stove mishap which resulted in a bad burn. By now it was almost 5pm, and we knew we didn't have much daylight left.  

After resting up, treating blisters, and eating food, we pressed onward to find our campsite for the evening. The sun was just starting to fall behind the mountains and our shadows stretched wide across the meadow. The shade and coolness were much welcomed as we had spent most of the day dealing with the sun and head through the valley of the rocks. 

My mamma lead the way and kept a good pace as the rest of us followed.

Fin's feet were starting to hurt and he was feeling pretty tired, so Mr. Stannix and I (and even Hyrum at one point) switched off carrying his pack so we could keep pace.

 

We hiked until we couldn't possibly hike any longer and ended up at Sunburst Lake as darkness settled around us. 

This is the smile of someone who was very happy to be done hiking for the day!

These guys ditched their packs and skipped some rocks for a bit before helping us set up camp in the dark.

It was a night of hardly any sleep as hikers with headlamps kept going past (some waking us for directions) in the middle of the night. 

It was definitely an adventure!