Wanting to know what it’s like to backpack through one of the most beautiful places in North America? Well, these pictures really don’t do this trip, or this place, any justice. What you’ll find here is only the beginning and end of the journey. You won’t see the incredible mountain pass, the countless blisters or the scars that, despite returning home months ago, still mark my sides from rubbing against backpack straps. These photos don’t capture the feeling of battling five days of constant rain that came and went at intervals just long enough to make drying out our clothes and equipment impossible. Or the two bouts of hail that arrived conveniently during the rare times when we weren’t under tree cover. Also left not pictured: the gratitude I felt towards that spontaneous thrift store trip we took in Calgary just before entering the wilderness, when I bought the rain pants that SAVED me.

You won’t see the young couple that capsized into a glacial lake that we stripped and donated all our clothes to in an effort to prevent hypothermia just before – you guessed it – the skies opened up and poured on our freezing bodies.

Or the relief of finding the remains of a book and firestarter some kind stranger left behind in a bear box after two hours of trying to start a fire with waterlogged wood.

You will, however, see the moment I ate hot ramen (in the middle of another sudden downpour of course) as my body smiles with warmth after days of eating cold lunches.

Cutting this list very short, no amount of photos could ever accurately summarize this trip, but the unrelenting rain that kept my camera tucked away in my waterproof sack for 90% of the trip didn’t help either. 😉 Enjoy!

And for those of you thinking “Man this is a lot of pictures “for only the beginning and end of a trip”, yeah, I take a lot of pictures okay?! It pained me to not take more.