The Emerald Triangle Hike
Ten of us had booked the Parks Canada Burgess Shale- Walcott Quarry guided hike for Saturday July 28th. We awaited our guide in the Takakkaw Falls parking lot. When the Parks Canada vehicle pulled up, we gathered around our 'guide' with anticipation. "I have bad news," she said. "Your hike is cancelled because there has been an accident on the highway east of Golden and your guide, who lives in Golden, can't get here."
Our disappointment lasted only a few minutes. Someone suggested, "Well, let's do the Emerald Triangle hike today! It goes past the Burgess shale, and we are all ready and anxious to hike." We all quickly agreed and arranged rides to the starting point at Emerald Lake. The elevation gain for the Emerald Triangle hike is 880m.
Our disappointment lasted only a few minutes. Someone suggested, "Well, let's do the Emerald Triangle hike today! It goes past the Burgess shale, and we are all ready and anxious to hike." We all quickly agreed and arranged rides to the starting point at Emerald Lake. The elevation gain for the Emerald Triangle hike is 880m.
Here we are at our lunch spot. We were sitting enjoying the scenery and our lunches when Henry picked up a flat piece of shale and said, "Hey, look at this." Henry had found a trilobite fossil!!
Henry's find
Follow-up notes from Murat:
Just wanted to share a few news that you may find interesting:
We had booked the Walcott Quarry guided hike for the day after the camp and as luck would have it the roads were open and we got to see the site. During the hike, the guide stopped at the same place where we had stopped for lunch and hunted for fossils during our Emerald Triangle hike. Turns out this is the exact spot where Mr Walcott stumbled upon a slab of rock with fossils in 1909 and came back years later to start the excavation on the slopes above. Isn't this an amazing coincidence?
Another thing happened on the same hike. The guide, David, started to tell a story about a group who had decided to hike together after their tour was cancelled a couple of days ago. He got really excited as soon as he found out that we two were on that group. Apparently he was among the tour group that we crossed paths with on the trail (he remembered Angelo with white towel on his head). He said it was "so cool and inspiring" that we had decided to do a hike after the cancellation and he "will tell this story for the rest of his life over and over again". At first I thought, OK I guess it's cool and all that, but what is so inspiring? Later I realized why. By this time the story was well received and I couldn't bring myself to tell him that we were all one group and knew each other. He still thinks we came together that day just for the tour and went on to hike the triangle.
Just wanted to share a few news that you may find interesting:
We had booked the Walcott Quarry guided hike for the day after the camp and as luck would have it the roads were open and we got to see the site. During the hike, the guide stopped at the same place where we had stopped for lunch and hunted for fossils during our Emerald Triangle hike. Turns out this is the exact spot where Mr Walcott stumbled upon a slab of rock with fossils in 1909 and came back years later to start the excavation on the slopes above. Isn't this an amazing coincidence?
Another thing happened on the same hike. The guide, David, started to tell a story about a group who had decided to hike together after their tour was cancelled a couple of days ago. He got really excited as soon as he found out that we two were on that group. Apparently he was among the tour group that we crossed paths with on the trail (he remembered Angelo with white towel on his head). He said it was "so cool and inspiring" that we had decided to do a hike after the cancellation and he "will tell this story for the rest of his life over and over again". At first I thought, OK I guess it's cool and all that, but what is so inspiring? Later I realized why. By this time the story was well received and I couldn't bring myself to tell him that we were all one group and knew each other. He still thinks we came together that day just for the tour and went on to hike the triangle.