Castleguard Meadows (Day 4)

Day 4. What would be the day we would finally get the answer we were looking for: where was this damn trail up to the meadows?? We woke up at 7:00AM and skipped breakfast to get an early start. Our main concern was the steep waterfall we crossed on our way in just because loosing the trail. What if we had to cross it again? If so, our safest bet was as early as possible before the increased afternoon flow would make it sketchy again. We went through our morning packing routine and off we were.

I had mixed feelings about leaving the Castleguard Meadows. I wish we could’ve stayed here one more day, but I also wanted to leave to close the books on this miserable section between the Meadows and the vanished trail. We went down quite fast and soon enough we were at the point where we caught up the trail after our bushwacking session. We kept going down and I noticed rapidly how far away we were from the actual trail on our way up. The trail brought us all the way down on the Castleguard river flats! That was it!

No wonder why we lost the trail… It got washed out by the Castleguard River a long time ago! This section had to be walked on the flats, crossing the Castleguard River and a few tributaries a couple of times. It all made sense… If we only knew… Marty told me about “following the river a little longer before going up to the meadows” but on the trail, it was easier said than done. From now on, going to the Meadows was easy if I was to do it again. We saw both waterfalls we crossed… but from the bottom this time! What a relief. The crossings of the Castleguard River and its tributaries were the “hardest” we had to deal with because of how fast the flow was. I also understood at this point why some hikers had previously been looking for an alternate route up the hill when the water levels were too high to attempt multiple crossings.

We reached the river bank at a spot we remembered crossing on our way in. There was indeed a big cairn clearly indicating the exit to the river flats. But funny enough, when we got in, the only way to see it would’ve been to turn our heads 180° at look behind us. I created a waypoint on my GPS app to share this precious location with future adventurers.

Note: Crossing the Castleguard River was challenging even in mid-September during the lower water level period. Do not underestimate the difficulty of this fording.

Cairn showing the way out to the flats.

After stopping for breakfast on the river bank, the sun was shinning and so was our mood. We were in good spirits. What was left in front of us was nothing more than a mostly flat trail with a few easy crossings. We were done with the unknown and it was a relief. While walking cheerfully we started to focus on the dozens of different mushrooms and plants we now had time to look at. Some of them were bigger than my foot. Too bad I didn’t bring any book about the flora.

We stopped for lunch at the exact same spot from a few days earlier. The sun was hot and it was quite different from the wet day we had last time. From this point it was a 3-hour walk to the old cabin where we again decided to camp for the night.

I always like to see the same landscape in two different weather situations. The first time we walked here it was raining hard and the sky was foggy and the visibility quite poor. We were now experiencing the opposite side of the weather spectrum with a bluebird sky and it was like we were passing here for the first time as everything looked new under this different perspective. It always amazes me how the light can change a mood so dramatically.

The cabin was reached by 6:00PM. With a couple of hours of daylight left, we boiled some water to “shower” ourselves and wash our clothes. Finally, we had time to enjoy the evening, starring at the surrounding peaks through binoculars and just relax around the fire.

This night would be our last in the backcountry and the conversation around the fire was mainly about the food we would be getting tomorrow night in Banff. Although I like the homemade dehydrated meals we always bring with us on our adventures, I won’t lie and admit that I usually need a greasy burger to replenish my body after a multi-day hike! We went to bed late, chatting about our morning routine under the lantern’s light in the tent and probably about burgers too…