I'm new to the hiking and wondering what some good beginners trailers are. Hoping thos community can point me in the right direction. Calgary and area.

Hey folks!

I'm curious - when you're out enjoying Alberta's beautiful trails, do you ever track your steps or routes? Or is it more about getting away from all that tech and just being present in nature?

If you do track, what tools or apps do you use? Do you find step counts or route maps helpful for staying motivated or reviewing your hikes later?

I recently developed a simple step-tracking app called Simple Stepper, which I mainly designed for everyday walks. But I'm considering adding features for route tracking and hiking-specific metrics.

Would love to hear your thoughts on whether that’s something hikers would actually use. Thanks for sharing, and happy hiking!

Looking to do the Moose Pass/River route late August. Looks like there is a horse trail as been cut. Can anyone confirm this?

Hi Everyone! Do you have any empty or almost empty butane canisters that you don't know what to do with? Big or small we'll take them all! Let us take your unwanted canisters and turn them into something beautiful! We'll be happy to pick them up in the calgary area.

Hey hikers, I’ve been wondering if there are any natural hot springs in Alberta that people have not found yet and how hard would it be to find one? I know of the more local famous tourist ones but I want to find an excluded one in the middle of the woods does anyone have any experiences with this? I know Alberta is an okay place for them BC is a bit better cause of their more volcanic activities but still wondering. Let me know!

Hey,

I got lucky this morning and got into the Maligne lake booking like first place in queue, panicked and booked the wrong dates and i have a wedding that weekend :(

I have July 19th for 4 nights.

I'm wondering what i can do? I'm hoping someone could swap with me i could take any days in august weekdays included.

NO LONGER AVAILABLE 😃

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Free to a good home. It has no service plan, so no worky. I upgraded to a two way Spot so I have no use for this old one but I'd like to give it to someone that will use it.

The Spot Gen3 is one way only. You need to purchase a service plan for it to work.

https://www.globalstar.com/en-gb/products/spot-for-business/spot-gen3

I thought the parks booking was pretty smooth this year. How did everyone else do? Good experiences? Bad experiences? Anything you're particularly proud about snagging? I got some nice dates on the Brazeau Loop that I'm already looking forward to.

Hey all,

I was hoping to get a campsite at Floe lake today, but I didn't have the luck of the queue today. In a quick panic, I did get a chance to snag a spot at Numa Creek without knowing much about it.

Now that I've looked into it a bit, I see there is a trailhead there, but also it looks like my access point is at Floe Lake Trailhead, so I assume parks Canada wants me to park there overnight. The issue with this of course being that we would need to hike a lot further doing an out and back, with all our gear.

I am wondering if it would be viable to do something along the lines of, drop my partner off with the gear at the numa creek trailhead, park at floe lake trailhead, and bike down to the Numa creek trailhead?

We would plan to basically hike in and set up camp, then either that day go see floe lake without all of our gear and then the next day explore a bit leave the same way we came, or we could consider maybe hiking out that way back to the floe lake parking lot, depending how that hike would look.

Is this worth doing? I'm going to try and keep an eye on the reservations and hoping for Floe lake, but if it comes to it i'd love to be able to do this!

Hey I wanna try and do some multi day hikes this summer. I tried to get west coast trail reservations but didn’t get any so maybe next year.

Any recommendations for beginner typa stuff that does not get booked up fast or places I can go with no reservations

Thanks!

We just moved to Calgary and will have a dog for this hiking season. What are your personal favourite 1 or 2 night routes that permit dogs?

I’ve always wanted to try random camping but haven’t had the chance yet. Any recommendations on good spots people have random camped within a 4 hour drive of Calgary?

I’m just looking for ideas people have done and would recommend within 4 hours of Calgary.

I will try my luck on booking a campsite at Egypt Lake on Monday. I would like to stay 2 nights but you can only choose one date on the reservation site. Do you need to book the second night extra? I feel like that would slim the chance of getting two consecutive nights quite a bit.

Will it be the same as Lake O'hara? I was number 1300 in the queue but everthing was booked within this 3 minutes of waiting. I hope it will be easier at Egypt Lake, because there is no bus shuttle to the campground.

One more question: I'm going solo, so i'm a little worried that there could be this 4-person group rule active. Was this the case in the past for the egypt lake area?

I noticed that most Meetup groups are dead. Are there any other apps or sites similar to Meetup?

How to book online

Got my sites booked for section A of the GDT this morning! I've been planning for a while, but now that its officially booked it feels real! I'll be doing A & B this summer, C & D next summer, and so on..

Anyone else have any exciting trips planned for 2025??

Is opal ridge doable in mid February or is it dangerous ?

I'm trying to decide what reservations to aim for in 2025, and I can't find a clear answer on how bad the fire was with respect to the area that Skyline travels through and looks out on.

Can anyone clarify how different the experience might be hiking it in 2025 vs pre-fire? Is it still worth choosing Skyline over other options? Are there certain campgrounds I should avoid?

Anyone backpack the Avion Ridge route in Waterton? Looking for an opinion on whether it’s better to go clockwise (ascend by Lost Lake and descend by Goat Lake) or counterclockwise. Planning to camp at Goat Lake and Snowshoe. My plan was counterclockwise because I’ve ascended that way before but I’ve never done the loop. Thanks!

Any recommendations for Waterton Lakes Backcountry trips? They don't seem to get as much attention as Jasper/Banff so I can't find much info on them. I've done frontcountry in Waterton and a ton of backcountry in Banff/Jasper, but never backcountry in Waterton. Bonus points for trails with a decent portion above treeline.

In my old(er) age and the infrequency I get out backcountry camping, I find my preferences have shifted from light and fast to a more relaxed paced while lugging some luxury items.

My last trip was to Glacier Lake and it was sublime(albeit a little too easy of a hike). Lake front camping, small picnic table, decent outhouse, fire pit and day hikes.

I’m looking for some suggestions for something similar - an out and back that’s a decent hike, guaranteed to get a spot with a view, modest amenities and day hike options.

Tall order?

Hey everyone,

I’m planning a trip to the Rockies during the first week of July, and I could use some advice on back country routes given the possibility of snow.

This will be my third visit:

First trip: Also during the first week of July. There was reports of snow on my planned route to Shadow Lake / Egypt Lake, Pharaoh Creek, forcing me to adjust plans on the spot.

Second trip: Later in the summer. I did the Skoki loop which was great.

This time, I booked the first week of July again and can’t easily change it. I was considering some classic options for this trip:

• Iceline Trail
• Lake O’Hara (if I can get a booking)
• Egypt Lake area (via Sunshine parking)
• Floe Lake
• Potential routes in Jasper

But now after reading up online, I’m worried these might still be snowbound that early in the season.

I’m looking at alternatives like Shadow Lake again (via Redearth Creek, which was snow-free last time) or lower-elevation sites closer to roads.

I see on Parks Canada Reservation website there are back country sites along Lake Minnewanka which should be at low elevations. Also sites like Brewster Creek which are potentially snow free? These might be less epic, but could be a solution.

Otherwise I was thinking of booking sites closer to the road than I'm used to hoping they're at lower elevations like Mosquito Creek?

Questions:

1. Are any of my initial choices (Egypt Lake, Iceline Trail, etc.) typically snow-free by early July (first week)?
2. Would you recommend any lower-elevation or snow-free back country options for that time of year? Most info I find is about big trips that go through high mountain passes.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

I am heading to the Banff area this weekend just looking for some hike recommendations that are not in avalanche terrain. Some safe options that can be done with just spikes would be great (elevation with a view at the top is more what I am after). Thanks!

Trying to set some goals for myself and struggling to find maps showing what peaks are part of what ranges. Any good tools to find the names and what peaks they contain?

Trying to log all the peaks I have done for a project of mine. It one of the first hikes I have done and not sure to count it. It’s categorized as a peak on all trails but is called hill…