The Best Hike Ever?

Yeah, the question mark is there for good reason. I got talking to some random guy at Lake Louise who assured me the walk up to Wilcox pass near the Athebasca glacier was the hike to put all other hikes to shame. So yeah, I thought I would take a look. Hmmm, kinda oversold!
Tuesday 18th Aug 2009
Up well before dawn to see Venus and a very old crescent moon hanging in the gathering light of dawn. A spectacular sight over forest. Hit the road and by the time I got to the Athabasca glacier (only about half an hour later) the sky was clouding in. In the grey light I was the first in the glacier car park. Flight conditions were near perfect. The short walk up to the glacier was made more fun by the 1980 marker (about the last time I stood here) some 300m short of the present end of the glacier. Flight went well, very well. The glacier was big and open, and bar crashing on the glacier there was little that you could do wrong, although it was clear from my shortness of breath that this place was quite high. Landing was sloppy given the excellent conditions. Headed back to the Wilcox pass trailhead (it was originally the plan to do this first, but the glacier was just too much of a target of opportunity). I had bumped into some guy at Lake Louise the day before who had given the trail rave reviews as the hike to put all other hikes to shame. On the trail by 8.30, that put me at the second person on the trail. The hike was steep in the trees to begin with, and the weather cool, and increasing gloomy as the cloud cover increased. After only about half an hour I had cleared the trees and there were excellent views of the icefields opposite. However as I neared the top of the pass this was largely obscured by hills in the foreground. On what I assumed was the pass the path forked (unlabelled) with one path apparently heading on over the pass (still somewhat up) but it was difficult to contrive there would be any great views that way, or up onto one of the hills. I elected the hills path. By now it was not only almost completely cloudy but there had been spots of rain and the wind had gotten up and at times was giving exceptionally strong gusts (40 +mph). On the summit there was a good view of the icefields, although not that much better than just above the treeline. I stopped there to scoff what little food I had tossed into the backpack in my hurry to get going. Even with all the kit I was wearing, the wind was beginning to find purchase and I was getting cold (having been initially too hot when I started). The wind seemed to be lighter here, although it was still highly variable. Shortly after I got the plane into the air it got VERY windy, to the point where even at full throttle I was barely making any progress. While the recovery prospects were essentially 100% it was still a very hairy flight (even at only a couple of minutes). Indeed shortly after the wind got up it was simply a battle to get the plane back.
On the summit I had got pretty cool, but the heat soon came back as I started down. Went up to see if there was anything further up nearer the top of the very flat pass. After a km or so I decided it was going nowhere and headed back (the correct choice as it turns out, the path just looks round the back of a mountain). Back down by 11.30ish. Hit the icefields visitors center. It was a stunning place, you go through the door of this building, which is frankly like a building in the middle of nowhere and its like walking into a busy airport. I had a quick chat with one of the guys at the info desk before bailing. Took the drive back down the Icefields highway fairly leisurely, stopping frequently (the wind was up all the way back down the valley). Just driving through Banff is an exceptional experience. Set the GPS to get me to Dumheller. Stopped at a safeway just north of Calgary at about 6ish where I pugged in and made a video till they kicked me out when they shut(! Yeah they actually closed!!) at 10ish. Went about 10minutes till I was in a massive thunderstorm and could barely see anything. That was it.. I was tired and couldnt take that so I found some quiet siding (this was actually quite hard to do in Albertas flat lands where there is basically the straight road and a few turn offs for farms however fate smiled on me and I got lucky!). Kipped down for the night with trucks hammering by every 10 minutes or so. A little unsettling, but there were no sensible alternatives.