Hiking Trails and Grizzly Bears and Broken Feet, Oh My!

 

Picture it: a girls’ trip….long overdue; where it is only the girls and NO KIDS attached to our hips. To say we were excited, would be a huge understatement. For some people, this might be an every weekend or so occurrence but for us, it sure is not. Actually, it has been years.

We were so excited to just be together and enjoy one another’s company and to do so hiking in one of the most beautiful, picturesque mountain parks in Alberta, Canada – Banff National Park- was just an amazing opportunity to make great memories.

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We set out at 7 AM and after a long three-hour drive through the mountain pass on Highway 93, we arrived at our destination: Lake Louise. Our excitement, our adrenaline, our motivation to climb that mountain was at an all-time high.

Much to our dismay, all of the parking lots were full and to further add to the disappointment we were turned away from our final destination of Lake Agnes Tea House, due to Covid-19.

I was crushed.

I so badly needed this hike. I so badly needed to sit with a cup of tea and embrace the fact that we just conquered a mountain with switchbacks. I felt shafted. I sat in grief. I grieved the thought of not making it up my trail.

Instead of brushing off these emotions, I embraced it for a moment or two. I felt it go through my heart, down to my core and my toes. I named it. It was grief.

You see to overcome any emotion we experience we need to acknowledge it, we need to own it, we need to pick ourselves up and keep moving.

And moving we did. We had a choice to make. Turn around and go home or find another trail and just see where it leads us. Collectively, we girls chose the latter and it was a choice that we will never forget. One that almost cost us our life…….and one we will forever remember…..

We stumbled across a trail on the side of the highway called Taylor Lake. A 14 km round trip hike to a beautiful secluded lake. Not many people travel here as the hike is rated as moderate to hard.

I won’t sit here and lie to you. Going to the gym lately helped prepare for the steep incline and switchbacks up to the Lake. One of the other girls, on the other hand, is on the journey to self-discovery and weight loss. All of her life she struggled with extra weight and she has a bridesmaid dress to fit into soon. She sweated, and cried, and cursed at that monstrous mountain trail. We stopped, gathered our breath, adjusted our packs and took a few more steps forward before taking a small break. We stopped often, at the next switchback, after the next dip in the trail, after the next big tree. We stayed together, cursed together and cried together.

After about 4 hours, we finally made it to Taylor Lake.

We couldn’t believe it, all five of us girls made it up a steep (well to us) hike and conquered another trail to put in our books, yay!

It was about 4:00 when we left the lake and we had another 7 km to hike back down to our vehicle. The one girl who struggled to get up the mountain regained her strength, and committed to herself and made the whole trip down. Another lady, (might I add she is 62 years old) struggled to get down. Her legs were not used to that workout, her legs gave out and became like jello. Leaning on the two of us, we helped her down the very trail we cursed at.

Phew – we almost made it. Only 10 minutes away from the parking lot. Almost time to celebrate our triumphant adventure. What could go wrong now?

Oh you know, just a MAMA GRIZZLY BEAR AND HER CUB…no big deal! It’s amazing how something so big and dangerous can also be so majestic, strong, and protective at the same time.

I have experienced black bears on my hikes before, but never a grizzly. And never a grizzly with her cub. As we slowly backed away and raised our hands to appear larger, the momma grizzly hoofed at us. We started to yell and make as much noise as possible. We girls stumbled across to the other path all while screaming, hollering, and making tons of noise.

As if this wasn’t scary enough, in our quest to escape this life-threatening situation, my sister, in the process of taking a tumble, gets a stick jabbed into her leg, leaving a trail of blood (‘cause that’s what you need when running from a bear), and because this wasn’t quite enough trouble yet, BREAKS BOTH HER FEET.

My sister couldn’t feel the pain right away and I also didn’t recognize the severity of her injuries, perhaps due to our adrenaline rush of trying to get away from the grizzly and her cub. We just wanted to get back to safety, to comfort.

Once the grizzly turned away and wandered off, we made our way back to the car in the parking lot and off to the emergency room in Banff. We made it. Safe and Sound. Phew!

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Though this story is true, looking back I can’t help but recognize the metaphorical symbolism in this journey.

I want to share with you some highlights of what I learned and how you can apply it to your self-confidence and goal achievement journey.

Check it out:

• If you really want something, sometimes you need to try something new and step outside of your comfort zone.
• Take a break if you must on your way to achieving your goals. Revise your strategy but don’t stop for too long. Regroup and keep moving forward.
• Celebrate little successes. One more switchback, one more hill, one more tree. Each step of the way deserves recognition and celebration of your efforts!
• It doesn’t matter how you get there, as long as you get there.
• Lean on those you surround yourself with in times of need. Ask for help if you need it.

And finally, and this is a big one,

No one but you know how brave and strong you are until that’s the only option you have.

I want to thank you for reading my story and I hope you are inspired to persevere with any challenges you face in your own life and adventures.