Our only full day in Field was filled by advice from the hotel staff, who said we should go to Moraine Lake (back at Lake Louise) and go canoeing then hiking up to other lakes in the area. Before that, breakfast – best so far.
After collecting our hiker’s (packed) lunch from the hotel reception we go into our transfer bus – a Transit minibus driven by New Zealander Will, a marine biologist who had ended up in Canada enjoying himself climbing and other fun things. We had a good chat about travelling for the 30 minute journey to Moraine Lake, made better because it was free!! Our hotel is owned by the same company who own the only hotel at the lake, so they have the ability to come and go for free as “residents” – other minibuses pay $700 a trip to access the long private road leading to the lake.
Once at the lake we used the hotel’s facilities and headed over to the canoe hire. We were treated like VIPs as we were waved through the queue with our free canoe hire tickets (courtesy of our hotel), with others receiving slower treatment with lots of safety briefing information (we got very little!) We were also allowed unlimited time on the lake, with everyone else getting an hour for $160 per boat.
With a length of the lake and back complete, we headed off for our hike to Lake Consolation. We chose this as a shorter route because the weather didn’t look ideal, and had a nice walk through the bottom of the scree slope and into a dense pine forest. Just as we arrived at the lake it began to rain. A lot. We sheltered under trees and ate the hiker’s lunch to see if the rain might stop. It didn’t. So we had a quick look at the lake (normally spectacular) and headed back through the forest and to the hotel, where we waited for Will to return to collect us.
Once back at the hotel we installed ourself in front of their fire. Whilst some of us updated the blog, others did other things.
To end the day we went to a popular local (and the only) restaurant in Field, Truffle Pigs. With 28 covers it’s not the biggest, but the food was excellent.
To get back to the hotel we had to cross a railroad track – sadly one of the really long trains blocked our way, so we headed back the long way round along an avalanche-prone dirt track. For once we were back at the hotel at a good time of day (7pm vs the usual 9 or 10) – and listened to other trains crawling past.
