Conrad Kain Hut

We had a big troop for this one and they are as follows (Morgan, Gerald, Jesse, (friend of Gerald), a couple that Morgan Gerald Knew, Brad, Gillian, Alex & Morgan 2) If you count I believe that brings us up to a total of 10 people. We headed to Radium for the night right after work on Friday and pulled in around 8PM (we were a little late due to some serious off-roading that was taken care of by none other than Alex and Dave who simply could not resist a certain run away lane on the highway.

We of course had to hit the local pub for dinner “Horsethief Creek Pub” it was to be expected for a one horse type of town and the local musicians broke it down all evening for us. Once Gillian and Brad showed up and had some dinner we decided it was time to retire for the evening in preparation for the hike.

Bright and early the next morning we all gathered ourselves together, grabbed some breakfast around the corner from the hotel. Waited about 10 minutes for (Morgan 2) to show up and headed off in a caravan for the trail head. It was about a 1 ½ hour drive and about an hour of that was on gravel roads. Which was perfect in the trusty jeep we brought up. Just as we arrived at the trail head the rain started to come down and we quickly wrapped our cars with chicken wire…. Yup you heard that right all vehicles must be wrapped in chicken wire as apparently the Porcupines will just eat your tires through. I had never know that to be a problem but apparently they are relentless – to tell you the truth I was convinced this was a practical joke that someone had started years ago and somehow it has stuck. Anyway moving on we strapped our packs on- rain covers- and rain gear and off we went!

The first 1.5klm of the trail are delightfully easy and flat and I happily munched away on my 5cent candies as per usual in true hiker style. All of a sudden you come to the base of the mountain and this is where the climb begins… and in this case so does the rain… I’m not talking about any small drizzle nope it was torrential and it was not going to let up. We were drenched but somewhat refreshed. Aside from adding a bit of fun to the trail that had now become a rushing waterfall we were just fine. The climb continued through the rocky ridges of the mountain and on through beautiful hills covered in mountain wild flowers. There was even a ladder portion and chains that helped you get up. The hike was only 5klm but I promise you everyone’s thighs were burning by the end of this journey to the hut (well except for Alex/beast mode & Morgan2) those two were insanely fast and I am quite sure they didn’t take one break. In all the trip took us about 2.5hours to complete and we made it to the hut.

Let’s talk about this beautiful back country hut for the moment. For hikers you would call this a five star for sure. There is running cold & hot water and electricity which is insane for a back country hut but we thoroughly took advantage of it and enjoyed every bit of it. Starting with laying claim to our beds located in the upstairs portion of the hut and then changing everything down to our underwear in exchange for some warm and dry threads. After a few cups of tea and lunch we decided to make the journey the glacier. In my opinion it was just a quick (80 feet)… Let’s just say 1.5 hours later and a change from sandals to hikers and we finally got to touch that glacier. It was a stunning little trek and we made it back just in time for a little more rain to settle in.

A solid game of “Things” and “Telephone Pictionary” commenced and we spent the evening babbling about who knows what during bites of our guilty pleasure (KD & Smokies ) paired with mountain apple crisp, 2 bottles of wine and Flor De Cana Rum . We slipped outside after being told to hush around 9pm and star gazed before heading to bed.

Note: in the torrential downpour on the hike up Dave’s sleeping bag had been soaked so we opened up my bag and shared for the night. Surprisingly quite a warm alternative.

We knew rain was coming again in the morning and planned to beat it back to our vehicles. We hit the trail head for about 8AM and pretty much ran the 5klm back to the parking lot, just as the rain drops started to join us. Luckily our chicken wire had saved our tires from those pesky porcupines and we were off and on our way home after a few goodbyes. It was a rainy trip home but we were happy to just relax and drove in satisfied silence reminiscing on our successful hiking weekend in the bugaboos of B.C.