Michele Lakes & Kink Peak (GR154693)

I first heard of Michele Lakes, located in the Job/Cline PLUZ on the eastern border of Banff National Park, south of the White Goat Wilderness. from a fly fishing buddy at work 15 years ago. The lakes are named after a young Michele Coombs who lost her life on July 6th 1979 at age 11 — this according to a plaque located at the lakes. The lower lake is teeming with rare Golden Trout and is a destination spot for many avid fly fishers who either hike into the area, or more commonly charter a heli ride.

I’ve wanted to visit these lakes and see their beauty for myself for many years already. On September 19 2024, Doug Lutz and Ephraim Roberts completed a long day trip into the area and managed to bag a couple of peaks nearby. Their trip reports inspired me to add it to my sooner than later list. With a family summer vacation to Vernon, BC planned for the first 10 days of August I knew that I’d be taking a break from the mountains and wanted to do something physically challenging before I left. I figured I’d have lots of time to recover on the beach. (Naturally I then rode my bike over 300 kilometers while supposedly “on vacation” — the Okanagan is great for cycling, what can I say?)

I wanted to duplicate Doug’s day, where he and Eph ascended an unofficial peak above the Upper and Lower Michele Lake, creatively dubbed “Michele Lakes Peak”. Doug continued to their original objective, given the moniker, “Kink Peak” on Bivouac. I don’t love the name because I already have a Kink Peak from the Ghost Wilderness Area, but I’ll use it since the only other option is “GR154693” and I find that name even less appealing.

Doug took 17-18 hours to complete his day in less-than-ideal weather conditions. I was hoping for a much shorter time frame with a calm, sunny forecast. I’ve been in the general vicinity of Michele Lakes a few times including a long day trip in 2019 with Phil up Minster Mountain and a much shorter trip in 2023 with Wietse up the Gates of the David Thompson. Of course I’d also ascended Mount Cline with Ben in 2013 which overlooks the lakes from afar.

I booked a Tuesday off work since the weather was not ideal any other day of the week before my vacation. The summer of 2025 has been a strange one in southern Alberta. Everywhere else in Canada is experiencing wildfires and heat warnings and we are getting huge dumps of rain and much cooler-than-normal weather. A blessing (no fires) and a curse (no scrambling) I suppose. With t-storms the night before I knew the approach was going to be soaking wet (again — normal this year) but there wasn’t much I could do about that so I planned an early start. After a very familiar drive up hwy 93, I left the Owen Creek parking lot at around 06:30 and proceeded to the trailhead nearby. I was delighted with the clear sky overhead, but less happy with the soaking wet willows.

Even though the Owen Creek Trail is part of the Great Divide Trail system (Section E), I knew that it can be manky in spots. Doug mentions this in his trip report and I remembered it from an ascent of the Gates a few years earlier. In trying to be optimistic for my long day ahead I might have underestimated just how tough this trail would turn out to be.

The first few kilometers felt familiar. Owen Creek plunges through an astonishingly deep and narrow canyon near its terminus only 1.3 kms from the trailhead. This landscape feature is worth a short hike on its own — you can literally straddle the canyon in several places — just don’t slip! I didn’t linger despite being tempted, as my day was just getting started at this point. Birds were chirping happily and the creek was raging thanks to the recent rains as I continued winding my way up the undulating trail.

I was very happy to note many freshly cut logs along this early section of the trail, hinting at some recent maintenance. I was absolutely soaked within minutes of the trailhead — including my camera lens which impacted photos from the first part of my day. Maybe I should have donned rain gear head-to-toe from the parking lot, but then I would have been soaked with sweat. It’s hard to “win” in this situation. You have to pick your poison and live with it.

Needless to say I was pretty chilled in the early morning air being so drenched and still in complete shade at this point. Fun times. I tried to concentrate on the fact that Vernon would be 35 degrees and way too hot in a few days, but it didn’t make me feel much warmer for some reason. I realized at some point that I had to walk all the way past the massive Wilson Icefield and that would only take me part way up the approach. This is NOT a short day!

Despite the photo above, to call the track up Owen Creek a “trail” is a disservice to all the other actual trails in the world. It’s much more of a “track” or “route” in places. Even the horse trail up Coral Creek is much more defined and easy to walk than the one up Owen Creek. Thanks to the 2013 floods and subsequent runoff events, the trail up Owen Creek is pretty seriously f’d up. I know that you will underestimate it like the rest of us, only because you think it’s a trail and you know it’s part of the GDT and somewhat maintained.

The freshly cut trees stopped soon after the Gates junction, only because the trail dips almost literally into the creek and avoids as much of the forest as possible. Again — this sounds like a good thing but didn’t make my travel any easier. The banks of Owen Creek are a mixture of hardpack mud, dirt and loose rocks and boulders. Travel isn’t easy and there are consequences to a slip or fall. After nearly 6.5kms and 2 hours of hiking the creek steepened significantly ahead and I got off track somehow.

I followed a very obvious track up a steep, muddy bank on the east side of the creek that quickly gained height away from the creek. The trail continued in light forest and I happily followed it, thinking that this was a nice way to avoid the mank in the creekbed. Unfortunately for me, the trail grew more and more faint until it disappeared completely! I was not happy when I finally glanced at Gaia and realized I was way off route. Dammit. Even with a GPS track I manage to get lost sometimes. I was so happy to be out of the creek and on an obvious trail I didn’t even think I was off route until it got obvious. Rookie mistake! I spent the next half hour bushwhacking back to the creek while trying not to lose precious height. It mostly worked out and I was relieved to be back on the main track after 40 minutes of thrashing around like an idiot. 🙄

At this point I finally realized that no matter how unlikely, the GDT follows the immediate east side of the creek 95% of the time, only crossing to the other side for brief periods to avoid steep banks or debris. As my odometer rolled over 9 kilometers and 3.5 hours into my day I finally started up gorgeous, open alpine terrain under Owen Pass. Even better? The bushwhacking stopped, the sun finally poked into my valley and I even warmed up. Glorious. Maybe today wouldn’t be only a sufferfest after all.

Four backpackers passed above me as I finally started truly enjoying my day under a clear blue summer sky. Marmots screamed at me as I passed their homes and gained serious height up towards Owen Pass. Rock walls to the west provided dramatic views and turning around showed me the results of hiking for almost 4 hours — I had gained over 1100 meters of height already as I finally crested my first pass of the day.

This is what I’d come for! Views into the alpine bowl between Owen Pass and the unnamed pass forming the highest point of the GDT were stunning — and I couldn’t even see the lakes yet. I happily started down the north side of the pass on easy, open terrain.

I quickly forgot the first 4 difficult hours of my day as I enjoyed perfect summer alpine hiking to my first glimpses of the Upper Michele Lake.

I knew I didn’t have time to walk right to the lakeshores, and I also knew that my best vantage would be from the south ridge of Michele Lakes Peak. After following an obvious trail up the lower south ridge, I kept going on short alpine scrub and grasses until the whole upper Michele Lake spread out under my feet. Wow!

The view of Mount Cline rising over the lower lake was sublime. The south ridge slowly turned east to upper south facing slopes and before long I could see both of the lakes, shimmering in brilliant morning sun far below. A short traverse over a precipitous east face and I was on top of my first peak of the day.

I was now 5.5 hours into my day and over 15kms from the parking lot and I had a decision to make. Would I be tagging on another peak? Going even further from the parking lot in order to attain it? Of course I would. Did you really have to ask? 😉 The weather was simply too nice and I was feeling too good to pass on the opportunity of Kink Peak, rising dramatically over the GDT’s highest point. I descended soft and easy scree on Michele Peak’s west face, back to the GDT, before continuing off trail ahead towards a headwall that Doug had navigated.

Mount Burwash and its NE outlier loomed impressively over scenic falls plunging over the headwall granting access to easy scree slopes NW of Kink Peak. This is part of the headwaters of Waterfalls Creek and my camera stayed very warm as I picked my way easily up a mix of staircase rock and goat trails through the headwall.

Once above the headwall I travelled over countless fossils up a rubble draw towards a high col to the south.

The weather was continuing to hold up as I enjoyed finding many pristine fossils on the easy and fast terrain. Unfortunately it was almost too easy and fast…

As I topped out to stunning views of Mount Wilson at the first high col, I made a navigation error.

Yes, I had Doug’s GPS track, but in a demonstration of why a GPS track is only part of the puzzle, I immediately started up a rubble slope east of the col. Why was this in error? I didn’t find out right away, but soon enough I was very puzzled indeed. There was a HUGE cliff to my right (south) off the rubble slope I was on! Wait! What? Doug didn’t mention this feature as far as I remembered!

Should I continue up or go back to the col and up rubble slopes below the cliffs? The route ahead looked OK for a bit, but then it looked too narrow and peaked out dramatically. Was this the summit or simply a false peak?

The cliffs looked impenetrable for descent if needed further ahead. I either had to return to the col now, or quite likely have big regrets later. Unless this really was the summit slope? I hummed and hawed and zoomed into Doug’s track on my iPhone for several minutes before deciding that I was just enough meters off his track to have him underneath my current position at the base of the cliffs rather than on top of them. Somewhat dejectedly I turned back down to the col.

Thankfully I didn’t have to lose as much valuable height as it first appeared. I found a neat little scree ramp escape which led very neatly to a traverse along the base of the massive cliffs I was so recently looking down from. Instead of breaking down like many such cliff walls do, these only grew higher and steeper as I ascended.

Views of the Wilson Icefield and the north side of Mount Wilson were stunning as I topped out at a high col under the nose of the towering cliffs. Thank goodness I’d turned back, because there’s no way I would have been down climbing that mess!

The summit was still a short distance away, I even had to lose some height along the broad SW scree and slab slopes before finally ascending the highest point.

As expected, the views did not disappoint. This area is extremely scenic and I was happy to be here on one of the clearest days of summer 2025 so far.

I snapped photos of distant peaks from Cline to Minster to Stewart and Amery. Many 11000ers snuck into view as well. I was now over 8 hours and 21kms into my day and didn’t have a lot of time to hang out before starting the long trek back.

Descent was quick and easy — the hardest thing by far was putting the darn camera down long enough to get some distance under the feet. I picked my way back down the headwall before traversing easily back onto the GDT and preparing myself for the endless plod ahead. It continued to be scenic (which helped me ignore my aching body) as I grunted and swore my way back to the highest point on the GDT.

From the GDT high col I quickly descended loose shale and dirt to some of my last views over the upper Michele Lake. From there I made a slow ascent back over Owen Pass where more dramatic landscapes awaited my camera lens.

As I stood at the pass, watching a dust devil dance its way through dying sunlight high above near a vertical stone wall, I pondered my fortunes to be in such a place. All alone, enjoying a peace and calm that so few humans can appreciate or even experience if they wanted to appreciate it. I realized many years ago already that I’ve won a sort of “life lotto” that has positioned me in so many of these beautiful places.

I didn’t feel like a lottery winner for long. 🙂 As I hiked my way down from Owen Pass, the manky route down Owen Creek slowly ramped up.

Before long I was back to traversing loose, hardpack rubble slopes dangerously close to the rushing creek below.

The potential for cheese grating down the steep slopes is quite high and wouldn’t feel as good as you’d think either. You might not actually die in such an event, but you might wish you did with the after effects. Despite some very pretty waterfall scenes, the overall impression of the long exit is one of marginal conditions.

I managed to stick to the route on descent, not deviating like I did that morning. This meant I got to experience some of the steepest hiking of my career, including a section of hardpack that had several pieces of climbing cord to assist folks getting up and down it! It was brutal in runners, I assure you!

Thankfully, after the incredibly steep and ill-maintained section along the steepest drop in Owen Creek, the route stabilized and once again became easy and mindless.

I stopped for several minutes along the narrow canyon before finishing off my day with a final, dull plod along hwy 11 to the parking lot in dying light.

The views of the Michele Lakes and panoramas from the summits rising over the GDT’s highest point more than make up for a long, somewhat dull and manky approach up Owen Creek. This trip is very highly recommended for folks who want amazing Rockies landscape views and are willing to suffer a little for them. If your name is “Edna” and you are someone’s elderly (and presumably wise) auntie, you should hire a helicopter into this area to experience the same views for a lot less suffering.

Of course, as I always say — suffering is what I believe makes the views as good as they are! YMMV, but IMHO there is always something lost when beautiful things are attained too easily. Somehow it’s the hardships before and after that enhances the beauty in between. But maybe that’s just me.