After weeks of just paddling and no epic trailrunning
trips, Lisa was beginning to feel hyperactive and too
full of energy, so we decided it was time to do more
huck-a-lung adventures. During a July 17 run over
Harvey pass to Egypt lakes, Natalco lake and back via
Sunshine we decided to plan a more ambitious project
for 2 weeks later. We considered that a run from Nigel
creek to Jasper over the Glacier and Skyline trails in
36 hours would be a nice epic to do.

So the planning was on. While Lisa was out partying
with the kayak boys, Istvan went off on a long drive
to Jasper and Maligne lake to set up food caches and
leave a car at the north end of Skyline trail.

On July 30 at 4am we were ready to start our KGDR
(Kiwi Goat Death Run) from the trailhead at Nigel
creek. The KGDR would be a total of 134km and over
12,500ft of climbing over Nigel pass, Jonas pass,
Maligne pass and the Skyline trail. Our packs for this
daytrip were about 10 pounds each.

We reached Four-points camp and junction by 7am - 14km
from the start. Here the climb starts to Jonas pass,
which we reached by 9am - enjoying the sunrise on the
way.

We followed the alpine to Jonas shoulder for the next
2 hours, while taking many photos of the alpine and
the colorful flowers. After going over the shoulder at
11:15 am we headed down to the valley towards
Waterfall campsite.

So far we only met 2 women hikers who did the Brazeau
loop. They told us of 2 women ahead of us also going
to Jasper. Waterfall camp at 40km was reached at
1:30pm after a long hot march through the valley.

Here we met the 2 women who turned out to be hiking
the entire Great Divide trail from Waterton to Robson
in 5 weeks, with light backpacks and trail running
shoes. Their 1000km journey made our own KGDR look
rather miniscule in comparison. We had a lot of fun
talking to them but finally continued to the next
campsite and our food drop at 45km mark.

We repacked our bags and set out after 3pm from
Poboktan creek camp. The next 20k of uphill to Maligne
Pass was slow going with the extra food supplies. The
pass was reached after 6pm and we met up with the 2
extreme hiking ladies who were munching away on
granola and cooking up some tofu for dinner. We sat
with them for a long time, admiring the views, taking
photos and swapping stories of adventures.

After 7pm we continued to the next camp, where we met
a German hiker from Edmonton. He had a nice campfire
going, and we warmed up and rested a bit here. We had
9km to the Mary Shaffer camp which we did in over 2
hours to stop there around 10pm. We needed to cross
the Maligne river next, which we reached at 11:15pm.
The bridge has been washed away so we had to cross the
cold water that was almost 1 meter deep. No problems,
the current was slow, so we easily walked across and
warmed up with some dry clothes on the other side.

Now we had 11km to go to the next food cache at
Maligne lake. This was slow at night, as the trail is
full of overgrown bushes and we were getting tired by
now. Lisa's right foot was very painful from the
previous injury of Plantar Fasciitis. Downhills were
painful to manage even with 2 ski poles. With a lot of
silly jokes and good laughs we managed to stay awake
and reach Maligne lake area just after 3am. Here we
had to look for the well-hidden 2 bear-proof
cannisters full of food and extra clothes.

Total distance to here was 90km and 8000ft climb, the
Glacier trail was finished in 23 hours. We needed some
sleep at this point and a rest for the feet. We headed
to the obvious place, the Shiteau (the womens washroom at the
parking lot) and slept on the counter which had no
sinks (the mens washroom is too noisy with urinals
flushing regularly).

After a couple of hours of sleep and some hot soup and
drinks we felt better, but not quite fit to continue
the Skyline trail with Lisa's sore foot.

Postscript from Lisa:
It was a really fun trip, many kilometres of redlining (I don't
know if you use the term here, in Kiwi this means covering new
ground) and a chance to meet some very interesting people. And
carrying the OldGoat flag (or T shirt anyways) on yet another trip!
Since Rick is taking his shirt to the top of the most peaks, Dave
Stevens & Blair are taking theirs to the top of the knarliest
peaks, Doug & Sandra are taking the most amazing photos I guess
Istvan and I are going for the longest distance in the shortest
time! Or maybe just the most fun in the shortest time! Anyways our
challenge is to come back next year and finish what we started!

Istvan & Lisa