Kayla and I decided to challenge ourselves after an August of calmer, smaller hikes and take on our first 1000+ m elevation gain. The weather was excellent in every direction, however we figured that Caribou Mountain would be close enough and not an absolute grind like other options would be.
The morning was cloudy and a little wet, surprisingly, so we took off a little later than originally planned. Along the hike, you get views starting just as soon as you are above the main treeline. Here we are looking south towards Carcross and Lake Bennett.
The views open up
more as your climb continues:
You also get a fantastic view of the neighbouring peaks as you walk the ridge up.
The trail itself is definitely a grind. We wound up taking 30 second breaks after every 25m elevation gain and a 2 minute break at each 100 m. This helped us keep a good pace and maintain breaks, but without too much rest where it gets tough to get going again.
Further up, you can see Spirit and Emerald Lakes.
We stopped at the 500m gain mark to eat the amazing donut we got in Carcross and pick some crowberries.
Just up the trail we came across a black bear who had the same idea! He looked at us, wandered across the trail, and went into a different berry patch. Unbothered and in his lane, with a good amount of fat on him. We took the bear spray into our hand, but never felt like we were close to having to use it with them.
After a long and lengthy climb, we made it to the top of the mountain. I have read some people say the hike all the way to the top isn’t worth it, but I can’t disagree more. It was amazing seeing into the backcountry beyond the closest peaks, plus the meadows up top and the panoramic views were outstanding. In the first picture you can see Lake Bennett, Carcross, and most of the desert.
Here are the views to the north from the subpeak at the end of the trail over the meadows along the tableau.
We hiked down to the ridge after eating a quick lunch. In this picture you can see Golden Horn and Grey Mountain.
As is tradition, we propped my phone up on a rock (photobombing in the bottom right) and took a summit picture.
As is also tradition, we stopped by Lake Bennett for a swim post-hike. It felt much colder than it had been after our hike up Mount White!
