Thursday, July 24, 2025
End: Meadow on the Approach to Paxton
Route (km): 22.1
Total (km): 124.4
Hours: 12.6
Total (hrs): 66.7
Weaver Shoulder Obstacles
I had thought that the hike up to Weaver-Limestone Pass would be pretty easy. While it wasn’t that bad, the large rock fields posed a bit of a challenge, and there was even a bit of bushwhacking. Nothing out of the ordinary for the Great Divide Route, but if you’re hoping to be completely free of problems after finishing with Framstead Creek, you might be disappointed.
Limestone Lakes High Alternate
It was recommended to me to try the alternate which climbs high up above the Limestone Lakes, and thus avoids the difficult bushwhack around the first and second lakes. I missed the spot where my alternate track deviated from the main route, and so I go pretty close to the first lake, and then started climbing straight to the North.
The climb itself was tough. I believe it took me a full 1.5 hours to do the whole thing, and that is a long time for me, as I’m typically strong on the climbs. I do wonder if that time would not have been better spent bushwhacking along the North edge of the first Limestone Lake. It seems to be a little over a kilometer in a straight line to pass the first lake. I might have been able to finish that in the time it took me to climb up so high.
Once the climb was done, I felt that the terrain, while much better than bushwhacking, was not quite as straightforward as I would have liked. There was a considerable amount of hopping from rock to rock, which in my mind carries the slight danger of a sprained ankle. There was also considerable ice. I fell twice, once on the rocks, once on the ice. Other than that, it was atleast a unique experience to be up so high on that barren terrain.
The descent was my real problem with this alternate. I’m quite wary of injuries on the descents, and this one actually went down a ravine which I wasn’t comfortable descending. I opted to go South and belay down willows and other troubleseome plants. It wasn’t easy, but it was less dangerous than what I felt the rocky ravine, which was also quite wet with running water, provided. I should also note that there is no need to cross the inlet to the sinkhole pond when rejoining the main route from the alternate. I just walked around the sinkhole, and the route circumvents it a bit from the other side anyway.
All in all, I would have liked to have seen the main route around the lakes. It may have been less enjoyable, but it may have also used less energy and been less dangerous. That was atleast my feeling as I spied the third lake with its simply grass banks from up high on my tricky descent.
Great Hiking
One of the most enjoyable parts of hiking in the Canadian Rockies is weaving in and out of the small trees, spaced perfectly apart to allow me to see farther ahead, and hike through almost untouched. The route from Limestone Lakes on to Paxton Pass has a good amount of this, and it is a nice morale boost after dealing with the hardships of the Great Divide Route up until that point.
No Water
In a bit of a hilarious tragedy, I got dehydrated after four wet days of hiking with abundant water. On this day, I lost a water bottle, probably on one of my falls on the Limestone Lakes High Alternate. I then didn’t pick up any water from the lakes, as I didn’t want to treat it. From that point on, there was no water. And it was a very sunny and hot day. I was getting pretty thirsty, and the streams on my GPS were merely rainwater drainages, completely dry.
I was thankful to come across a hole in a meadow with clear water. I treated it and slept in the next meadow on the approach to Paxton Pass. Without that water, I would have had to continue later into the evening and struggled to find a good spot to camp closer to Paxton Pass.