Lineham Back Packing Trip, Waterton, Canada Ei

A few weeks ago my friend Wade mentioned how much he would like to make a trip up to his old stomping ground around Waterton, Canada to hike into Lineham Lakes, camp and do some fishing. Lineham Lakes is considered a very remote location mostly because of the difficulty of getting down into the lakes. Most people hike to the Lineham Ridge but don't venture down to the lakes. When buying our permit, we asked the ranger about grizzlies in Lineham and she said in a matter of fact voice, "There are always grizzlies in Lineham." Other locals made statements that we were very brave to stay in Lineham. My last bear nightmares were all Wednesday night before the hike. The following night I actually lived in the nightmare and survived. Living through the fear was worth it because you get the best fishing in Waterton to yourself, breath-taking views, challenging descents and climbs. You get a grizzly haven as there are few humans who venture there. You get a nice cozy camp spot tucked between two lakes with a creek running within a few feet from your tent and waterfall to drown out the sounds of grizzlies at night. And I have to mention that you get the company of a weird lonely deer, who we dubbed Derelicte, who circles your camp waiting for you to leave so she can rip your backpack apart and eat your underwear (so Wade claimed). This turned out to be one sweet trip that I won't soon forget. If your up for it, join us next year, especially if your a slow runner. For now, here are a few of the pictures taken on the trip along with some stories.

The panoramic picture above is a view of the Waterton Lake looking South from the lawn of the Prince of Wales Hotel. The American boarder crossing into Glacier is within a couple of miles.

Prince of Wales Hotel.

My friend Wade posing for the camera. I tried to get him to step back a few steps but he didn't fall for it (pun intended). Apparently the calm water is a very rare thing as the winds can come howling across this lake. Why does the wind blow so hard towards Canada you might ask?... Because Canada Sucks!!! Alright, I'll stop with the lame jokes.

Right at the beginning of our hike we placed two Henry Weinhart Root Beers in the frigid water for when we hiked back out. I actually thought to myself that it would be a waste if I was eaten by a grizzly bear and didn't get the chance to enjoy this nice cold root beer.

The legs were fresh at this point.

One of the great things about being on a hike is meeting other people who love the outdoors. We made the observation that nobody has as chip on their shoulder when they are enjoying the outdoors and you can talk to people for hours. I am sure our ability to sit down and chew the fat with strangers had nothing to do with the 2000 ft climb in 2 miles just across the little wood bridge. The next picture displays nicely the mountain we traversed to get to Lineham.

Lineham trail goes from the left traversing through the snow all the way to the right.

Global warming?

The tricky part about traversing this mountain was the cross slope. One slip and you could go for a long ways eventually skipping across rocks.
If you look closely up and to my left in this picture you can see a few rams sitting around enjoying the nice weather. It was pretty neat seeing so many rams close by. I just wanted to catch one and ride it to the top of the hill.

When you reach the ridge (saddle) you walk upon a huge precipice and can finally look down into Lineham Lakes. The destination that had haunted my dreams for the previous week was finally visible. These pictures don't do justice to the height of these cliffs.

This is me getting as close as I can to the 500 ft precipice without wetting myself.

This is Wade hanging over the edge of the 500 ft cliff getting ready to take a nap.

I started to climb the last 500 feet when I turned around and saw Wade standing
on this overhanging rock pushing boulders over the edge.

The picture above shows the point where we ran down the steep shale slope into Lineham Lakes. With every step you slide a few feet on the loose shale. There is an attached video showing a portion of our descent. The shale is sitting on this hill at the angle of repose so that any added weight sets the rocks in motion. Even better is the fact that there is large cliff below so you have to descend and traverse to the left at the right place.


Once we got past the shale we skied down. Now our feet were cold and blistered. Apparently I was supposed to do figure 8's.


This is looking back up from where we came down. It is the most ominous cliff when you know you are entering this little private valley and know you have to climb back out.

Time for a drink.

We set camp up in a nice little corner of the woods surrounded by water, trees and...creepy noises.

After setting up camp, we started a fire and kicked back against this log for a few hours. After a while we fished the small lake behind our camp and caught a few fish just to make our hands nice and smelly and tasty for the bears.

I mentioned before the lonely deer (dubbed Derelicte) that has no fear of man and likes to eat underwear. This is her. She found us pretty quick, entered our camp area and hung out most of the afternoon and evening. Nothing seemed to scare the deer. Wade lobbed a rock which thudded on its ribs and she didn't even budge. She kind of looked at Wade and said with her eyes "Just wait pretty boy. As soon as you turn your back, your underwear are mine." As the sun started to go behind the mountains the more I started to feel uneasy. We had been fortunate to have not seen a bear. As it got dark Wade and I heard something in the trees to the north of our camp. We both looked and saw nothing assuming it was Derelicte the dear. I looked around to the other side of the creek and saw Derelicte bolting up the hill full speed. We heard more noises coming from the other direction so we grabbed our pepper spray, bear bangers and stoked the fire as big as we could. Then we decided it was time to use the bear banger. Why wait until it comes and says hi, lets just scare the bear away? So I shot of the bear banger and it made the loudest echoing sound possible. I think we were both shocked that the noise was so loud. Fortunately, whatever it was coming near to our camp left before it could get a peice of me.

Of course we slept prepared. The safety was off of the pepper spray and I had my bear banger handy at all times. We tried to keep the fire going but that meant leaving the tent (as if it was some sort of protective barrier from a 2000 lb grizzly with teeth and claws the size of my foot.) The little gold pen looking thing with the orange end is the bear banger.

Fortunately we survived through the night as did Derelicte. She hadn't forgotten the rock throwing incident was still eying the pretty boy from behind.

Breakfast. It was actually nice to see light again because it was one of the longest nights of my life. I think I woke up every hour, listened for noises and shined my flashlight around. At one point Wade got out to stoke the fire and I stood behind him with the pepper spray.

After picking up camp we headed to the large lake to do some fishing. The hillside around the lake was covered with waterfalls and was really beautiful. From 500-800 feet above it seemed that it would be easy to walk around the valley. It was bush whacking, snow trudging and water everywhere making walking from lake to lake not so easy.

Best drinking water around.

Me fishing off the rocky shoreline.

This is probably the biggest Cutthroat I caught on the day. We each caught and released about 15 fish this day about 10 the night before.

After catching a few fish it was time to high tail it out of Lineham before the bears decided to maul us just for the fun of it. This is a picture of me on all fours climbing up the snow. It turned out to be a lot easier than climbing on shale but it was still very exhausting with the backpack.

Rest stop number 15. Usually our rest stops included removing rocks that seemed out of place. There is something very satisfying about watching boulders tumble down the hill and flying off a 200 ft cliff. At one point we spent a good 20 minutes waisting our precious energy trying to roll a rock as big as me.

In this picture you can see just how steep the climb out is. Most of the rocks you see can be moved so it is a challenge picking a path up without sliding back down the hill.

It was at this point I could have actually played dead, or slept while being attacked by a bear.


Nothing better than sitting down and enjoying a nice cold Henry Weinhart's root beer.

After camping in lineham we headed into Waterton to get a bite to eat but as you could only imagine, we smelled something fearsome. We bought a bar of soup, climbed into the 40 degree water and took a bath right in front of all of the other tourists. I thought it was appropriate that the Prince of Wales Hotel was in the background. Despicable peasants!!! I thought for sure the mighty mounted Canadian royal police (???) would come and arrest us for breaking some environmental law.

Now I'll have to do a blog to show pictures of Glacier. I can't wait to take Jenni to Glacier someday because it is probably one of my favorite places on this earth. If you haven't been there, plan a trip. If you're feeling tough come hike Lineham next year with us.