Kids

Kids

Friday, July 21, 2017

Big Bertha

WE DID IT!!!

On Saturday July 8th, we climbed to the top of Bertha Peak.

Doug, the kiddos and I went to Waterton on Friday afternoon and camped at Crandell Lake campground. Within 3 minutes of being there, we had a bear in our campsite, right next to our tent. We just piled the kids up with us in the van and waited for the bear to mosey on along. The conservation officers were out watching it, so it was being taken care of.

The next morning, I was up early and getting ready for the hike. We met at the trail head at 9am and were off at 9:30. Melissa, Jen, Alisha, Deanna, Laura and Dani all came. (I met Alisha, Laura and Dani for the first time at this hike) The hike to Bertha Falls was easy and we all chatted along the way. From Bertha Falls to Bertha Lake it got more intense. It was switch backs all the way up and I was already starting to feel fatigued, but I just kept climbing.

We made it up to Bertha Lake and stopped for lunch. It really is so beautiful there!

To be completely honest, I was like 'Yup, this is good enough. There is no need more me to climb that peak,' especially after I saw what peak we were going to climb...

Yup...all the way to the top of that.

We headed around the lake looking for markers on where to start climbing up, as there isn't a trail. We found it and started our ascent. For me, this was much better than the way up to Bertha Lake - I much prefer hiking off trail, even if I get a little disoriented. Within the first half hour of our ascent to the peak, we came across some pretty sketchy areas, but instead of my normal, fear-filled self, I tackled each one and felt really good about it.

Unfortunately, Deanna has bad knees and had to make a judgement call as to whether or not she should continue. The way up was one thing, but coming back down on bad knees would be awful. She, Laura and Dani decided to head back down. This was a pivotal moment for me. I had an out...I could turn back and not have to do all the work to get to the top. I said a little prayer and felt strongly to continue up, so I did. We climbed and climbed and climbed some more. We ran into a couple following the same markers and saw them a couple of times here and there. We got to one spot in particular and I was wanting to head back down, but then we looked over and saw this couple ascending a peak! We were so close!! We had to first hike down into a basin before we could begin the steep climb to the ridge. Leah, Melissa's sister, warned us that there would be false peaks and boy, she was not kidding. I swear, there must have been five of them! This brought on HUGE mind games for me. This was it...the final ascent, and I literally wanted to lay down on those rocks for dead. Melissa, my dear Melissa, stuck with me and pushed me on. 'One foot in front of another' she would so lovingly remind. Gosh, how I absolutely adore her!! As we came up one of the false peaks, I looked to my right and saw the edge of the peak. I walked over to get a better look and realized how high we were. We were climbing to the sky, I am sure!!

Then we saw Alisha and Jen sitting down (they were ahead of us) and we knew what that meant. Immediately, Melissa starts shouting, hollering and cheering!! WE DID IT!!! This, right there, was my favourite part of the hike - seeing Melissa. Watching one of the people who is most dear to my heart push, strive and then reach their goal is the MOST beautiful thing in the world. Gosh, my eyes just filled with tears. SHE did it! I did it! WE did it!

We had a nice little break at the top of the peak, ate some snacks and then started our decent. The descent goes much faster and for me, it was WAY easier. I think it was a little harder for the other girls. The slayed it on the way up while I was struggling, and then I think it was a little bit reversed on the way down. I was having a blast sliding down the shale. To be truthful, I think I was just so happy that I made it to the top and that it was also almost over! Haha! Again, typical Jess would have been freaking out coming down - its so easy to get hurt - but I was just going for it. Things got interesting when we realized we had lost our markers on the way down. After humming and hawing about where to go, we said a prayer and decided to bush whack it to the lake. And bush whacking indeed it was. We all loved the bear grass on the way up, but after coming down I think we all had some second thoughts.

I know I said before that I prefer to hike off trail, which is true, however I was SO relived to finally find that trail around Bertha Lake after our bush whacking. Once we made it to the lake front, we kicked off our shoes, soaked our feet and then Jen and I dived into the water. It felt SO GOOD!! We then got geared back up and made our way down to the town site. This is what my shoes looked like when I kicked them off at the lake.

We made it to the town site at 8:30pm. We had done it.
16kms
11 hours
3800 ft elevation gain
WE DID IT!!

I have A LOT of thoughts, feeling and insights about my hike, however that will be another post. I may have had to sacrifice my heart sunglasses and 4 toenails, however this was an adventure of a lifetime. Hooray for doing hard things!

1 comment:

  1. Good for you. That's awesome. That bear would have scared the crap out of me.

    ReplyDelete