True to the predictions when we picked up pur permits, our third day out was finally sunny. We had been counting on this as we had to cross through Stoney Indian Pass which was purported to still have a lot of snow requiring ice axes and spikes. We also knew we would have some fast and deep water crossings.

The climb up was consistent, but didn’t feel too hard. I kept stopping to gape at the beauty all around me. We had to cross a few raging creeks en route to the snow fields. At the first crossing, I took off my socks and removed the insoles from my boots so my feet would still be relatively dry. Sometimes I cross barefoot, but not when the water is moving as quickly as this was. When a second crossing appeared less than quarter mile from the first one I realized it didn’t make sense to keep stopping so I waded across socks and all. By the time we reached the snow our shoes were already soaked through.

We put on spikes for better grip on the snowy climb, and a few times we had to scout out which direction the trail was going in under the snow, but in general it was not a difficult nor scary ascent.

We had a lovely break at the pass, believing we had escaped the worse of it. Little did we know that as soon as we turned the corner for the descent we would encounter our first holy crap snow field.

We sat there for a bit contemplating the best way down. We again donned our spikes and pulled out our ice axes. Trashalope jumped ahead and made his way down. After studying the steep pitch I decided I could glissade down it. I sat on my butt, raised my feet off the snow so the spikes wouldn’t catch, readied my ice axe across my body to be able to use it to slow my descent, and managed a safe slide down. Sarah quickly followed my lead, while Mary chose to cut steps across and down the pitch.

We followed this routine a number of times before reaching the lake at the bottom. The ranger had told us this lake was covering the trail and might be a waist deep wade. While it did require wading, it barely got above my ankles.

After making it around the lake, we stopped for a lovely lunch break in the sun. Sarah jumped into the fidgid lake while the rest of us fought off the ground squirrels determined to get to our food. One was so perstent she walked off with a sock that had been spread to dry. Luckily we recovered it from the bold rodent.

Even though I had broken in my boots before I started the hike. Both of my feet were hurting. I was used to the left one hurting from something called Morton’s neuroma. I figured out a way to tape across the insole to take the pressure off it, but it wasn’t working with these boots and I wasn’t sure what was happening with the right foot it was hurting from the first step away from the Canadian border and the top of my foot Was pretty swollen. During our lunch break, I experimented with a number of ways to pad my insole to take the pressure off the troublesome spots, but mostly all I managed to do was to cause my feet to rub the boots in new ways so that I started to get blisters.

I had to stop a number of times on the way down to take a break from the pain in my feet. I kept trying to tell myself the pain was in my head or to convince myself that what my body was registering as pain really felt good. I can’t report that I had very good success doing this.

After more than seven miles we came to Waterton Lake, which was a bit over one mile from where we were supposed to camp that night. It is such a beautiful place. Waterton Lake spans from the US across the border into Canada and inspired the first ever international peace park. There is a lovely pavilion there and I decided I would eat dinner in that pavilion on the edge of the lake. I was glad to have Sarah join me.

I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of having to get up and walk more on my painful feet. Nor was I eager to leave that beautiful spot. Since there. was a ranger there I asked if it would be possible to change our permit to allow us to camp there for the night. After checking for available spots, she said we could. So while Trashalope and Mary went on, Sarah and I stayed and had a lovely evening at Waterton Lake.