Mt. Edith Cavell Is Sort of a Hike On Which You Can Go

Or I went on a hike at least. The hike is to Cavell Meadows and is in Jasper National Park and pretty well encapsulates why hiking in Banff and Jasper is kind of counter-productive. To wit: (1) there are a lot of people on it; (2) it’s very steep; (3) it offers the same view for its entire length; and (4) the view gets less interesting the higher you get.

It’s not the mountain’s fault. Or the glacier’s or the marmots’. I mean not as such.

Mt. Edith Cavell waits to swallow the unwary.

The lower part of the trail looks like this.

The One View.

That photo was basically the peak in terms of photography (lighting aside). The peak in terms of topography came two hours, five miles, and 3,000 feet later.

The view from (near) the top.

So I was walking back down and there was this family stopped on the trail ahead of me and the guy gives me the *shh* sign, so I sneak in quietly expecting to see a moose, bear, big horn, or cougar, only to find out at the family has been paralyzed by a small rodent. "Is that a marmot?" the guy whispers to me. Yes, sir, that is a marmot.

Back at the bottom, a great view of a pond with ice bergs.

And then I went back to my campsite and watched TV on my iPod for two and a half hours.

bkd