The trip was excellent! I know this post is a little tardy but I’ve been waiting for people to send me photos. The weather was great, although I bit chilly the first night at -4C. This trip was far more challenging that last years Yoho trip, both in distance and elevation gain, and hopefully it will turn out to be a good build up to the Absaroka trip later this month.

Again I was wearing my heart rate monitor to keep an eye on my heart rate on different terrain and to keep track of calorie consumption. I also took the footpod along this time to keep track of distances but I don’t think it was very accurate. Either because the stride length wasn’t consistant enough, or that it wasn’t calibrated for a walking pace, or the regular stops, or more likely a combination of all those factors. However, it should have hopefully been consistantly inaccurate and thus a somewhat fair judge of distance.

I also tested out using protein shakes and recovery drinks to increase daily calorie consumption and recovery. While the recovery aspect is almost impossible to quantify it doesn’t really matter to me because to me it felt like it was making a difference. Especially the Endurox immediately following the day’s hike. I’m quite aware that it is mostly likely a mental preception but I will say that I didn’t feel as much muscle stiffness and had more energy a few hours after making camp for the day than I remember on past backpacking trips. In addition to the Endurox I also consumed a Myoplex protein shake/meal replacement every morning after breakfast. This seemed to give me a good start to the day and on the last day I even skipped breakfast in favour of only the shake. As a result I’m planning to take only a Myoplex for breakfast on at least a few of the days on the upcoming Montana trip. One thing I didn’t learn about a shake for breakfast is it’s much better to mix the powder in a small Nalgene the night before as it’s really a pain to get it fully mixed without big dry clumps when it’s cold and you’re half asleep. The only change I’m planning to make to my menu after this trip is to vary the pasta dishes with some instant rice dishes and to take at least 2 litres worth of Gatorade powder per day to increase my daily intake by 500 calories and keep a constant supply of quick carbs for the steap uphills where it’s difficult to eat anything without losing your breathing rythmn. I also took Cliff Bars on this trip instance of ProteinPlus Powerbars. They seem a bit more like real food compared to the super compressed Powerbars, but I think I’ll take a combination of both in the future as they were both good. Mike on the other hand couldn’t seem to be able to choke one down even when he really needed to - so I hope he finds some high calorie food that he can pack down for 8 days pretty quick. This trips daily calorie count was 3200 cal/day and I was easily eating the entire extra Ichiban that Chantal didn’t eat on two occasions.

Here is the heart rate monitor data for the trip:

Day 1: Emerald Lake to Yoho Lake
Distance: 8.0km [map] | 6.9km [monitor]
Elevation: ~1200ft gain in last 4km
Time: 2 hr 44 min
Calories: 1018

Day 2: Yoho Lake to Twin Falls
Distance: 13.5km [map] | 11.25km [monitor]
Elevation: ~700ft
Time: 3 hr 48 min
Calories: 1167

Day 3: Twin Falls to Yoho Lake via Whaleback and Iceline Trail
Distance: 18.5km [map] | 17.6km [monitor]
Elevation: ~2600ft total gain
Time: 6 hr 48 min
Calories: 3048

Day 4: Yoho Lake to Emerald Lake
Distance: 8.0km [map] | 8.19km [monitor]
Elevation: ~1200ft loss
Time: 2 hr 4 min
Calories: 571

As usual there are many more photos posted in the photo section.