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You aren't likely to get reservations on the Skyline Trail south of Jasper at this point - in summer that is a very popular hike and the campgrounds fill up weeks in advance. Still, Jasper to the Crossing is beautiful if you can get reservations. <BR> <BR>As you may know, in the national parks, you have to reserve your campsites and have a backcountry and parks pass. Expensive, but worth the money. In the Provincial Parks you can sometimes show up at the campground and get a site - though some require advance reservations. In the national forest areas you can camp freely, but the trail is much less defined - often following logging roads. <BR> <BR>South of the Skyline section, hiking through Jasper NP, Banff, Assiniboine, etc. is some really lovely hiking, and reservations should be possible on short notice. Don't worry about the linear nature of the hike, as there are buses that go up and down the parkway, and hitching isn't that difficult. Kananaskis to Field is a good section. Waterton to Coleman is an interesting section, but transportation would be more of an issue. <BR> <BR>We have information on our website about camping on the GDT - where all the campsites are and the distances as given in the guidebook (though reality is somewhat different.) <a href="http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/">http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/</a><br> <BR>Another option is to rent a car and do short loops. The Assiniboine area is good for a loop hike, especially if you include Egypt Lake. Tonquin is a lovely short loop. Nigel Pass leads in to a lovely loop as well. There are a lot of good options in the mountains there. The book, "Don't Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies" gives a lot of info if you choose to do that. OTOH, as beautiful as that area is, you won't go wrong on any section of the GDT. Some are pretty rough (especially north of Jasper, and some of the cross-country sections), but if you get decent weather, the beauty makes up for it. <BR> <BR>Have fun.<BR>Ginny<BR><div><div id="SkyDrivePlaceholder"></div><hr id="stopSpelling">Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:31:35 +0100<br>From: briansolar1@yahoo.co.uk<br>To: cdt-l@backcountry.net<br>Subject: [Cdt-l] Canada GDT question<br><br><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;">Hi folks, </span></div>
<div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;">This is a bit of a long shot but Martina and I are coming over to the Canadain Rockies next week for 4 weeks of mountaineering and hopefully a backpack. For the backpack, does anyone have any suggestions for trips up to say 9 days long giving us the best of Canadian Rockies scenery? We are quite happy including scrambling and ridge walking and can probably still do about 20 miles per day -on CDT territory at least!</span></div>
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<div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;">I have the Great Divide Trail guide and trips that look good from that are from Jasper down to Saskatchewan Crossing, from Field to Assiniboine/Spray Lakes and north from Waterton to say Castle Mountain.</span></div>
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<div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;">These are all point to point though and would involve some buses or hitching to get back to the start if we left a car there. Any thoughts on these trips or does anyone have other suggestions, even ideally some loop hikes with the same start and finish ?</span></div>
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<div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;">thanks</span></div>
<div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;">Brian from Scotland</span></div>
<div style="right: auto;"><span style="right: auto;"><a href="http://www.pbase.com/briansolar1" target="_blank">www.pbase.com/briansolar1</a></span></div>
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