“Can we join you?” she asked directly. I hesitated, knowing we already had the numbers we needed for our hike, but I couldn’t turn her down. “Okay, but you’ll have to be willing to hike at our speed,” I said.

Larch Valley, near Lake Louise in Banff National Park, is an extremely popular dayhike in late September, early October. Everyone is on a quest to find the golden larch, but as with every good quest there are challenges that must be overcome before reaping the reward.

On the Larch Valley hike, the first challenge is to find enough people. Because the meadows of Larch Valley and the seclusion of neighbouring Paradise Valley are home to a healthy grizzly bear population, there is a restriction placed on hiking group size (minimum four people). Larger numbers of people travelling in tight groups increases noise level and helps reduce the possibility of bear/people encounters.

Now we already had four in our group, but looking at this couple I didn’t have the heart to say “sorry, we’re set.” Our challenge was to accept their company and work together to find a pace that met everyone’s needs – a not so easy task when you’ve only just met your hiking companions.

“We’re hiking slow today,” I added and immediately saw body muscles relax. “Oh good,” the woman replied, “so are we.” The hike up Larch is an easy series of well-graded switchbacks, gaining elevation without the excess huff and puff of a straight up ascent. As we climbed, we began to chat, and as we chatted, the couple from Wisconsin became Patty and Steve, retired professionals with a zest for living life.

They’d waited 15 minutes at the bottom for someone to come along to hike with and were happy to be on the trail on their last day in the mountains. General conversation turned to laughter and tales of past hiking experiences and before we knew it we were cresting out in the meadows glowing with the yellowed needles of the larch (a deciduous conifer).

The Valley of the Ten Peaks was dusted in an early season snowfall. Sun reflected off the white cover and raised temperatures pleasantly as we sat for lunch on large boulders near one of the Minnestimma Lakes (shallow alpine tarns whose name means “sleeping water”). Having hiked this trail many times in the past, the view was familiar, but we saw it with renewed pleasure through the eyes of our hiking companions.

We gazed up at the snow-covered pass with rocky sentinels that was our final destination and watched hikers slowly work their way up the hillside. Was it slippery? With a mix of skill levels, we took the decision-making process seriously. Group consensus was to start up and turn back if we felt it was too much.

Walking poles in hand, we picked our way up the rocky slope, kicking small steps in the compact snow sections and before we’d run out of conversation (or breath!) we were summiting at the 2611 m pass and looking over into Paradise Valley.

We’d set out on a quest for larch and instead found golden hours of sunshine, glorious views, plenty of laughter and some really good company!

If You Go:
Moraine Lake to Sentinel Pass: 5.8 km one way; 725 m elevation gain. A note of interest: Banff National Park is taking preventative measures to limit bear/hiker encounters, such as enforcing a minimum group size on the Larch Valley Trail. They are also improving sightlines by thinning low shrubs and trees on corners to reduce surprise meetings in order to help “bears and people more safely share the landscape.”