8 September 2016, Thursday
It is a 3 degree C morning, and of course it is raining. We were warm overnight in the tent and, thankfully, someone had already started a fire in the cooking shelter. When we arrive it is just warming up. We eat our breakfast. Outside it is very cold and wet. We know the only way to keep warm is to move.
No reason to carry backpacks today because we are already wearing every layer we have. As we walk uphill in the rain to the trailhead for Lake McArthur our feet quickly get warm. The hike through the wet woods is beautiful in its own right. The ground is covered in thick green moss and there are still wildflowers blooming. As we climb higher we come to a grove of larches, some of which are already turning golden.
We pass Schaffer Lake and spy several pikas in a slide of glacial scree. We take the high trail to McArthur. As we climb up the mountain we reach a striking view of the lake. Another couple who have been here before assure us the water is usually a beautiful teal color. Today, in the clouds, it is more a steel blue. We can see a few peaks through the mist, but we are sure we are missing mountains in the clouds.
Our suspicions are confirmed when we meet the same couple later and the man explains that the Group of Seven (a group of famous Canadian artists) painted here, and one of the more well-known works is of the mountain “over there.” He points, but there is nothing to see but clouds. The rain of the lower elevation has changed to snow as we climb higher. We find the snow much more pleasant that the rain. It is just sticking to the ground and the trees, but the trail remains clear. The hiking is fairly easy.
After enjoying our views of Lake McArthur we descend and stop at Le Relais for a late lunch. We purchase their last two brie and fig jam sandwiches, some hot drinks, and two pieces of homemade carrot cake. The shelter is toasty warm.
After lunch we decide to hike around Lake O’Hara again. This time we participate in the Lake O’Hara Trail Club sand bag project. To keep the trail in good shape they ask hikers to fill a sandbag and carry it around the lake to a tarp. Here we empty the bags. The resulting pile of sand helps the trail club repair worn areas of the trail. We continue around the shore, enjoying the many-colored layers of rock: white, pink, purple, gray, orange and green.
We return to camp where a warm fire is burning in the wood stove. It seems to have stopped raining. In fact, there are now large patches of blue in the sky. The hikers are all becoming very hopeful about tomorrow’s weather. We enjoy our dinner in the cooking shelter as we swap camping and hiking stories and tips with our fellow campers.
And now, time for bed again. The forecast for tonight is for below zero temperatures.