22. Sentinel Pass

Distance: 20 k
Elevation gain: 726 m

Saturday, September 15 the forecast was warm, sunny weather in the mountains so we excitedly prepared to hike from Moraine Lake over Sentinel Pass down Paradise Valley. Not even the thought of the crowds milling around Larch Valley held us back. We went with a group so we could leave one car at the Paradise valley trail head.

After the switchbacks, the trail opened up into sunshine, blue skies, almost yellow larches and wonderful views of mountains including these ten peaks. I had totally forgotten how beautiful this was, last time was about 20 years ago with the kids.

Maybe I am more mature now and can appreciate the beauty better.
The trees were not quite at their peak for colour but the variety of yellows, greens and red plants made this as good as anything Ontario brags about.

Too soon we came to a small lake at the base of Sentinel Pass which with its gentle switchbacks invited hikers to climb up and look over the other side.

We hadn't expected this crowd on top of the pass but with sun and little wind we shouldn't have been surprised. The large rock wind shelter was evidence that this day was exceptional.

After lunch, we prepared to descend. Unfortunately this picture can't show the steepness of the rock and scree
we had to negotiate.

But others had done it safely before so who was I to chicken out. Besides, I could see a little bit of a trail at the bottom.  There was some snow on the rocks making them slippery but slowly and carefully we make our way safely down. Actually, it was fun.

Looking back, Herm got a good picture of some of the sentinels guarding the pass.



Down below we detoured to visit the Giant Steps - worth a trip in themselves.

As on other fall hikes, the woods
were full of a variety of colourful
mushrooms of all shapes and textures.

During the course of the hike, we kind of walked around three sides of Mount Temple. From Annette Lake we saw the crown of snow on top and reaffirmed our intention not to climb it.

One of the highlights of our day greeted us near the end of the trail - a large porcupine with all his quills on alert. After staring at us for awhile, he walked away.

This was such a glorious hike, I look forward to doing it again. We'll see.