Baker Lake in Banff National Park

This past summer, we went hiking up to Baker Lake. It’s a hiking area near the infamous Skokie Lodge in Banff National Park. Our three day hiking trip started with a challenge – a huge rainfall after 3 weeks of wildfire smoke from B.C. We got 5mm of rain throughout the whole day and everything, clothes, backpacks, shoes, socks, were soaked when we arrived at the Baker Lake campground. We ended up pitching out tent and hanging all our clothes inside as it was still raining. It was humid!

The next day was clear skies for the first time in weeks. We did some fantastic day hikes from the campground. We fished. I painted. And a porcupine foraged our camp in the middle of the night and ate a bit of Billy’s hiking boots. What is your most memorable animal encounter while hiking?

In my paintings this trip, I experimented with a more traditional style and the abstract mountain style that I’ve been playing with for a year or so. Also, for ease of travel and weight, I only brought a small pad of postcard-size watercolour paper, my BEAM paints, and two waterbrushes. This is becoming my go-to hiking set.

Here’s a pic I snapped after I laid the majority of this painting. I later went back in with some watercolour pencils to add some texture. I especially like to to do that for the mountain rocks and shale and to add some depth to water.

Nature gave us a show with some amazing sunsets, which felt absolutely heavenly after weeks of forest fire smoke this past July. A nice reminder that we have to get outdoors and soak it all in.