Takakkaw Falls TH to Twin Falls CG, 6.7 km, 189 m elevation gain, 48 m elevation loss, 1 hr 25 min.
Yoho National Park has become a go to location for me for doing short and simple backpacking trips. The main trails in the park make a natural loop providing numerous options for combining different campsites. This trip was to be a short two days but in fact we were only gone from the house for 23 hours. Every trip presents some challenge and for this trip it was the heat. Margaux does great at temperatures between +20C and -20C. When it is hotter Margaux pants a lot and we have to worry about dehydration when colder than -20C Margaux needs a light jacket on. For the two days on this trip the expected highs were nearing 30C. With the first day only being 6 km I compensated for the heat by starting at 5 pm. To avoid the heat on the second day I set my alarm for 5 am with the aim to be back at the car before noon.
Margaux and I have done this hike before. The hike is fairly flat with only a few opportunities to take in the views which Margaux does not really appreciate. The goal for this day was to simply get to the campground. The obvious place for a break is Laughing Falls CG which comes after 4 km. On dog walks Margaux can be very sniffy but she switches gears when it is time to hike and literally charges down the trail. On this day I was happy to do some charging.
There was another dog in camp, a husky, and Margaux very much wanted to say high. I let Margaux drag me over and as we approached I asked if we could meet and Mikey’s mom said yes. After a little sniffing the two of the them played bowed and had a brief but intense play. Margaux was reluctant to leave but I did not want to overstay our welcome so we headed back to our little bench. Little did I know at the time that Mikey’s mom is friends with my daughter and we both were already following each other on Instagram.
I left the fly off the front of the tent to keep the airflow into the tent at a maximum. With the fly off it took a long time for Margaux to settle down with the different campers passing by the tent on their way to the biffy. We slept with the fly off until about 1 am when some thunder rolled in. I got up dashed out to quickly peg the fly and zip it up. Margaux was pretty happy when I rolled back into the tent. Margaux is very good in the tent but definitely prefers to be on the outside of the tent. It never did rain.
It was a pretty short first day. I do enjoy getting out on these shorter trips. The trips are easy to plan and sometimes it is good just to get a way and spend a night in a tent.