Fryatt Hut!

Let's start with the amazing group that joined us for this adventure. Alex, Brenda, Trev, Steph, Aaron, Dave and myself. We had read all about this hike and knew we needed mountain bikes for the first 11klm and the following 11klm would be on foot. It was supposed to be a flat fire road that would be an easy ride for everyone (riders old and new…) turns out about 2 minutes into the bike ride it turns into a mostly single track experience. Most of the crew actually loved the ride and had an amazing time, however myself and Steph found ourselves slightly in over our heads. Needless to say I managed to fly over the handle bars back pack and all but nothing broke and by the time that 11klm was over you could say Steph and I were close to throwing those bikes into the river.The hike itself was a stunning trek into a beautiful lush valley along riverbeds and boulder fields. Time seemed to fly by and in no time at all we had reached the Fryatt headwall. It’s a 1klm final trek to Fryatt hut and you gain about 6000 meters in elevation in that single klm. Half way through the nearly vertical hike up whilst grabbing branches to stay on the path, we dabbled with the idea of leaving our 5 liters’ of wine behind… nah that was a crazy thought we of course eventually took those last shaky steps up the climb and reached the cabin literally as the first of many raindrops began to fall.Our cabin mates were a lovely crew from Calgary and our night was spent cooking supper, yabbering and playing card games over endless wine and 5 cent candies. We were determined to drink every last drop and by 11PM we finally managed. Trev may have had a few to many as sometime late into the night he managed to fall out of the top bunk and woke the entire cabin, but after a few you really loosen up muscles and he walked away unscathed. The next morning, we hiked around and checked out the upper valley as much as possible before we had to start our trek back to civilization. Packs were much lighter and there was a lot more down then we remembered. The hike back flew by and the bike ride was much better on the way home as well. by 3pm we were back in our cars and headed home. Steph and Aaron headed for Edmonton and the rest of back to Calgary. A quick bite to eat was had in Canmore, some much deserved beers and ciders went down and we yelled ab it about the crazy tourists we saw nearly get charged at by a grizzly all for a photo they wanted on the side of the road (some people are just nuts). All in all a fantastic and much to fast of an adventure but it’s another one for the books and we couldn’t have been with a better crew J.