31 Aug 2023
I was very excited to take this hike, but after a while on the trail I had some issues. First, it was very strenuous, uphill trekking. I was prepared for a slightly challenging, mostly level path. It is not any of those things. Second, the views are mostly blocked with trees, so not so much to look at but the roots, rocks and dust ahead. It's only 3k or so, but there are no markers on the trail to let you know how far you have come or (huff-puff) how much further to go. 3k of demanding hiking feels like a 10k road race. Now the audio tour was excellent, and my husband and I learned a lot about Lake Louise and the flora and fawna. But the audio would have been better if it was linked to some visual, numbered markers on the path. After about the first 5 episodes, we didn't know where we were on the trail relative to the audio speaker, especially since some of the views we were supposed to be having were blocked now by trees. Needless to say, we never made it to the Tea House because we turned around. We could have been within 100 yards of the finish, but without any feedback via trail markers, we just gave up.