Odaray Grandview at Lake O'Hara September 23, 2023

I have had no success since 2018 with getting seats on the Lake O'Hara bus through the lottery nor with the new system that was put in place this year.  But, on that April 12th day of this year my friend was successful in securing two seats on the 8:30am bus for the first day of Autumn, September 23rd, which is also prime larch tree time.  She asked me would I like to join her and I was happy to.  She suggested hiking Odaray Grandview and I was game to go for that.  It is a special trail with regulations in place so we made ourselves aware of what was required.   As we waited to board the bus, I noticed the new white gold on the mountain top at the middle right between the trees in the photo.

After the eleven or so kilometre bus ride up the dirt road, we took a little time to have a quick snack, use the facilities, and decide what attire was warranted.  It was go time, we hit the trail first aiming for the Elizabeth Park Alpine Hut.  Odaray Grandview is up the side of that mountain in the background.  

leaving the greens behind and.....

.....arriving at the golden larch trees.

(some were a tad orange and a few others still a bit light green)

The forecast for today was clouds, showers and light rain, we got that plus at times it poured.  I did what I could to keep my camera lens dry but for a good stretch along here I was not successful with doing so.  There is the odd blur in the photos here and there. 

larch trees bookending Mount Odaray

We arrived at the junction where it splits to go to either Lake McArthur or to Odaray.  This is also where the kiosk was with the rules and the sign in book. A couple where waiting here and we joined together to be a group of four making up the second group to enter today.  Four groups are permitted to hike here each day between the hours of 9:30am and 4:30pm. I signed us in.   

This is from the Parks Canada website.  

From this point forward we stayed close together in our group of four.  It was a slow go with much beauty to behold.  Every few meters of elevation gain, grandeur views came into play.  The larch trees lined the trail and they were incredible to see and to almost feel hugged by.  

As we climbed higher, we could then see Lake O'Hara down below at middle left which was where we started our hike, and Schaffer Lake in the middle of the photo which we passed by before reaching the kiosk.

along the trail

looking down and zooming in on Schaffer Lake

The clouds came and went and came and came and came, they came more than then went.  

When an opening appeared, I quickly snapped photos because those clouds were doing a fast dance.  In this photo once again you can see Lake O'Hara in the middle and Schaffer Lake to middle right, each very distinct in its colour.  

pointing to Lake O'Hara

We reached tree line and this is where the alpine route section started marked by two white lines on a blue square.  It involved switchbacks, steeper terrain, easy scramble sections where a bit of hand placement was necessary.  At this point the two people with us went ahead yet we were not far behind. Then picked a turn around point soon afterwards and began the hike back.

Even higher now, we could still see Lake O'Hara and Schaffer Lake but now we could see Mary Lake which is that small green patch in the forest just to the right of Lake O'Hara.

Higher still, we could now see Lake McArthur.  Its in the middle of the photo, a darker blue just above the tree line.  We carried on up through the scramble section and attacked more steep parts.  At this point sprinkles turned to showers which turned to full on rain.  The wind became a bit wild and the temperature dropped.  Conditions changed rapidly with full on cloud cover and visibility was now next to nil.  We were ready to escape the conditions in favour of a sheltered location where we could dine.  

We found a good spot right at tree line a few inches off the trail.  The requirement is to not stop below tree line to eat.  The trees sheltered us from the pouring rain and wind.  I hung my jacket to dry and layered up with my down jacket.  Between my down jacket and my hot Maple Chai Tea, it was not enough to stay warm.  I very quickly felt the chill and from experience knew to deal with it immediately.  

This is always in my backpack. It's a blanket that is windproof, waterproof and creates warmth wth wrapped in it.  As I was getting it out of my back, Adventure Designer suggested we get into her bothy bag.

This is a photo of a bothy bag in use that I clipped off the internet.  It packs up small in size and very light weight.  That's what she carries in her backpack.  It holds four people.  We had loads of room with just the two of us.

Once we were inside, in a matter of minutes I began to feel warm and the shivering stopped.  We enjoyed more of our lunch and our tea.  There is a very small window at the front and this was the view out it. 

toasting to our day

Time came to leave the warmth of the bothy bag behind.  It was windy and it was still raining and it was time to once again don our technical rain ponchos.  Along the way the clouds lifted and we could see that the rain we had was snow higher up.  That's a close of Wiwaxy with lots of new snow. 

The majority of the descending was over by now and the rain stopped.  

It was time to quickly capture more beauty while we could.  

It was also time to take our group photo!

We arrived back at the bus location, with a few minutes to spare, for the ride down the eleven or so kilometre dirt road back to our vehicle. There was much talk between us on the bus ride up and early on in the hike about how far we would go or even what direction given the weather conditions.  We decided to take each little bit at a time and decide as we went.  We were happy to continue to push through and pleased to have accomplished Odaray Grandview! All of the Lake O'Hara area is a special place to have the good fortune to get to, then on top of that to gain access to Odaray makes the day that much more special!  Days like these are treasures and the memories made are to cherish!  

our route in red