I had my earliest start yet, at 7:45.  I was awake but it still took some mental convincing to get out of my warm sleeping bag into the surprisingly cold air. The tent was soaked with condensation again and my attempts to dry it with no sun nor breeze were futile. As I set off, I enjoyed that there were no cars on the road yet so I didn’t get any dust clouds and was soon off the road anyways and heading up an ATV track. It was a good climb, but it was still cool out despite the sun now hitting the trail and felt a lot more manageable than some of the climbs. Until out of the blue I felt a searing pain in the front of my left ankle. Each step hurt a lot although landing on the ball of my foot seemed to be somewhat less painful. At the top, I took a break to adjust my shoe and put some Voltaren on it. I didn’t stop long as I was swarmed by these little black flies that didn’t seem to bite but were all up in my face and just driving me crazy. The terrain flattened out along the top, which seemed to help the pain a bit too. It was deforested and the views to the west of the Continental divide across the valley were stunning.

After descending, the rest of the day was all about just getting to town and trying not to think about the pain in my ankle and how hot the day  was. The walking was fast since it was all on ATV tracks and then on gravel road and I got into Coleman just after 3.

I headed to my bed and breakfast and was warmly welcomed by the owners, a Quebecoise and an Albertan. They rehydrated me, got my feet up and then offered to take me into the next town to resupply and get anything needed at the gear shop. Not certain I would even be able to continue, we agreed to postpone the shopping trip to tomorrow and I showered instead while Anne got my laundry going (I didn’t even have to ask). After resting a bit, I headed out to dinner.  The closest restaurant was still a good 30 minute walk at my hobbled pace since the bnb is on the outskirts of town.  I got there to find it closed so headed to the next closest option, the pub. I found Marian there, one of the GDT hikers I had camped with at Akamina, so it worked out well in the end to have his company and share our stories of the trail while a bachelor party was going on at the table next to ours.  After devouring a massive burger with bacon and cheese, I very slowly made my way back to my bnb as my ankle had really stiffened up.  I called it a night, but didn’t sleep well and was hungry again at 3 in the morning, so ended up eating my left over almond butter straight out of the jar. I also started to think about possible plans since I clearly wouldn’t be hiking again in a day. In the end I came up with the idea to take an extra rest day before trying to continue.  To make up the extra rest day and be able to do easier days than originally planned, I found a place to exit the next section early. This would allow me to keep my reservations for when I get to Peter Lougheed provincial park and beyond. I messaged the woman who drove me to Waterton and she’ll be able to pick me up at my early exit point and take me up to PL. The part of trail that I’ll miss is mostly a dirt road so I should still see the best bits of section B.

I then had a lazy rainy day after delicious eggs Benedict for breakfast. I did get driven by Ken into Blairmore for my chores and then to see this massive slide that happened nearby. It dates to over 100 years ago but it is still extremely impressive to see the massive rocks all around the bottom and how far they spread. It sounds like it was pretty tragic because there was a settlement that got wiped out by it.

Then it was napping and reading all afternoon until I headed out to dinner at a Greek diner with an eclectic menu from all over. I had fish and chips. My ankle is feeling so much better than even this morning, so I’m feeling hopeful that it will be ok to hike on again. It’s a bit ironic that I was worried about my Achilles and knees heading into this hike since they’ve been bothering me on my prep hikes, but they’ve held up ok while this new thing is just completely out of the blue.