A rainy morning as predicted, but that didn’t sway me. I discovered my tarp set up still needs work as I cooked an omelette for breakfast. The tarp just needs to be a few inches wider. I shall investigate. I couldn’t see any rustling from Christian and Melissa in their van so I head off just after 8am.

Disappointedly, the backcountry permit office was closed, so I went straight to park headquarters. I spoke to the same girl as yesterday and she knew what was coming as soon as she saw me. The guy was in a meeting until 1pm. Useless. No one else had “training” for backcountry permits. What a joke. Anyway, I wasn’t too upset, I said I’d try to get back by 4:30pm and if not, I would try again the next morning.

I drove north along the west side of the park to get to Bowman Lake. It took a solid hour to get there, mostly because most of the roads were unpaved and horribly rutted. I cringed at every unexpected lurch of the van. Poor thing. By the time I parked, the Astro was absolutely covered in mud and looked sad. I left her after I packed a bag with water, food and some essentials for my hike. It wasn’t raining, but the sky was completely grey and it was drizzling. A big group parked just after I set off, so I wasn’t the only crazy person braving the weather.

I stood at the edge of Bowman Lake (which is huge) and could only wonder what was hidden behind the low clouds. As the rain started coming down, I head into the forest, on my way to Lower Quartz Lake. The trail wove through dense forest and started with a decent climb, switchbacks and all. I was wary of my surroundings because of the numerous bear warnings at the start of the trail, and also to take it all in. I dropped two of my four layers a few minutes into the climb and left them off the rest of the walk. I was going fast enough to heat my body a little but I kept taking my gloves on and off.

There weren’t any views to be had for the forest, so I was lost in my thoughts as I stepped on pines, through puddles and over fallen trees. At one point I was high enough to be amongst a spattering of snow, but even stepping on it dissolved it away, it just wasn’t quite cold enough. I was startled when I saw a white rabbit in front of me on the trail. Of all the wildlife I expected to encounter, this wasn’t on my list. He sat, assessing me expectantly, then hopped off the trail. The poor thing was soaking wet, it didn’t look very happy, but he made me smile at least.

After 5 km, the trail eventually trended back downwards as I came up on Lower Quartz. Another large expanse of water, the clarity of the water was dulled by the grey clouds above, still not giving anything away. My imagination was left to create the mountain ranges that lay beyond the veil of poor weather. There was a campground here right by the lake, which would be a beautiful spot on a sunny day.

Onwards, it was another 5km to The Quartz Lake. This section was more flat but the forestry remained the same. It had stopped raining so I sat to have lunch on a log that was stretched out into the river. I sat on a small towel I’d brought to prevent my ass from getting wet. Even though my pants, socks, shoes and feet were drenched, I figured I would save what I could.

From my spot, I could see the snow line on a mountain behind the lake, but that was my only hint of the Continental Divide and it didn’t last long, nor did lunch since it started raining again. I was back on my feet and walking again, finishing off a banana as I went. After the Lake was out of site I picked up the pace. More forest, while beautiful, didn’t offer much for looking around in awe. As I climbed the last ascent I plugged my headphones in and listened to music to keep me entertained. This climb was nice because it was in sight of the lake below, not quite hidden by cloud, and it was a steady rise. My legs started to ache a little as I descended the last 5km. My wet feet squelched in my shoes as I walked to the beat of my music, singing along to keep the bears at bay.

After another hour and a half, Bowman Lake came back into view. It had been five hours of walking and I’d managed 20 km. I wasn’t freezing cold so I considered that a win! At the lake, the clouds had lifted slightly so I was treated to a view of some of the mountains behind Bowman. While I couldn’t see most of their peaks, I could see their rocky faces and the beautiful snow caps. I sat at the bank of the lake just admiring the view, knowing no photo would do it justice, even though I tried. Rain drops still made impressions lightly on the lake, allowing some reflection of the mountains in the disturbed surface.

Looking forward to dry clothes, I tore myself away from the view and back to the car. I got some dry pants on and put some layers back on my top before I head off. I was happy to be back in a warm car. I wasn’t going to make it back to the permit office by 4:30pm so I took my time driving back, taking extra care on the potholes. Looking back at where I’d come from, the skies cleared and sun was shining down on the mountains. It was absolutely stunning, even from a distance. The clouds still partly shaded the range, tantalising me into wanting more. I would stay until I got to see the whole show. I stopped a few times just to look back and admire. I seemed to be driving into blackness and away from the sunlight as I drove back to camp. It was pretty much dark by the time I’d got back and Christian and Melissa already had a fire going!

I joined them and found out they’d done the Avalanche Creek trail (one of the most popular in the park) and it sounded like what I’d experienced – a hike through dense forest without many views. We all saw a lot of clouds. Thankfully the rain held off long enough for us to stand around the fire and talk for a few hours, swapping stories and travel advice. Christian and I even got under the rear wheel of his VW van because it was making a clicking noise at certain times. We both deduced a wheel bearing problem. Even though it had just been replaced – can’t trust a mechanic! I was astounded to learn that Christian had paid $6,000 for his 1991 VW and it seemed to have huge reliability problems (surprise, surprise!) and was without the common luxuries like a radio or any type of insulation on the inside. He bagged my Astro, but I was happy with my ride.

We had an early night when the rain started coming down properly near 8pm. We concocted a plan to do a day hike together tomorrow and set our alarms for 7am. I am letting go of the idea of a multi-day hike after spending today being wet and a little cold, it was very comforting to come back to the van which is not only a good shelter but relatively warm. Not that I have a choice really because I can’t get a permit!