Originally Posted By: Teslinhiker

The Kananaskis area and Peter Lougheed Provincial Park covers a vast area and although there are plenty of streams,creeks, accessing the water is not always easy due to terrain etc. For those not familiar with the area, this is very rugged, mountainous country.



I'll add a bit of personal perspective here as I have hiked in this area a couple of times. The trip from the Upper Kananaskis lake day area to Three Isle lake or the branch up to Turbine Lake are both very popular hikes. In fact the area north of Turbine lake has a glacier that is used by the Canadian ski team for their summer conditioning. (I literally bumped into them on a training run!) There is a ranger cabin on the east side of the Continental Divide not far from the campground.

But once you get over the North Pass you are in territory where few people go. It is more rugged and the trails are almost invisible. In fact if you try to backtrack and climb back up the pass you are in for an ordeal because the trail is a lot harder to climb than to descend. The best bet is to head for the river in the valley where it opens up into some meadows and easier hiking. The west mountain side is pretty disorientating and easy to get lost there because the west side gets more rain and thus also a denser growth of trees and bushes. The mountains are pretty steep on the west side too. This trail isn't used nearly as much as the east side. However there best route on the west side is actually at the bottom of the valley near the river -- this is part of the Canadian Continental Divide trail.

This is grizzly country -- the last time I was there, there were 2 juvenile grizzlies recently kicked out by mama bear in the area and another grizzly south-west of Three Isle lake and another around Mt. Indefatigable. The area they were lost in is occasionally closed due to their activities. I never saw the bears myself but a nature photographer I passed 2x was basically going back down as fast as he could because he encountered them and was a bit scared.

I can see how they could get disorientated in this area. They would not have had an issue with water as there are meltwater streams everywhere from the snow peaks. Giardia is probably not much of a concern, certainly not in comparison to being lost! The search teams were probably searching the obvious east side of the divide which is where they hikers thought they were on and thus didn't spend as much search time on the west side.

Canadian Rockies Trail Guide