Karst Spring (August 8, 2013)

Where: South of Canmore on the Smith-Dorien-Spray Lakes Road
Distance: 9-10 km
Recommended Time: 3.5-4 hours
My time: 3.5 hours
Recommended Rating: Easy
My rating: Easy until moving uphill to the spring, but it's a short section

We left on a super rainy morning from Calgary, but the skies cleared as we were driving to the trailhead. There was a short sprinkling of rain while we hiked. Mostly, it was sunny, and warm, and a little bit muggy.

The only downside of this hike is that is starts on an old logging road. Which means you get to hike on it twice when returning from the spring. And there's not much to see, save for a few creek crossings. In fact, the trail doesn't get really pretty until you reach Watridge Lake.

The trail is very well marked. There are several times when you can already see the next trail marker even though you're at one. I still don't get why there are so many - the trail itself is very straightforward.

 

Watridge Lake is very small, but lovely. Apparently people can portage their boats to do some fishing here.

After we passed Watridge Lake, we came to a boardwalk section. Well, everything I read described it as a boardwalk. It's . . . not exactly what I envisioned.

At about this point, we could hear the roar of the spring in the background. The path becomes significantly more narrow through this section, and definitely more rooty. There are also some limboing sections to get under the deadfall.

 

All of a sudden, there is a tonne of water. It spills down the mountainside, and the surrounding area seems almost like a rainforest due to the moisture. Moss grew on everything, and it was a lovely, vibrant green in any direction we looked.

While there are several benches at viewpoints along the creek, we hiked to the very top of the spring. The view was fantastic.

My pictures from the top didn't turn out the greatest, but I did get some video of the water spilling out from the rock.

Returning to the car was a slog, since we were back on the not-very-scenic logging road. But we didn't run into too many people, even though the trail can be used to continue on to Mount Assiniboine for backpackers and long-haul hikers. And if you need an easy path, it's very flat - I didn't use my hiking poles until we were climbing to the spring.