The Skoki Lodge/Skoki Loop Story
Quick disclaimer: I am not sure I would do the same route if I go back to this area again. Hopefully this report will arm you with enough information to make your own decision on route. Overall Skoki Lodge and the Skoki Loop trails did not disappoint!
This all started with a share in the Edmonton Run Community Facebook group. Dave, one of the members posted his trip up to this area. I reached out and asked him for his GPX file so I could see his route, which he graciously shared. I did a little more research and found routes on AllTrails as well as SkiUphill, RunUphill (a local Canmore run store) website.
The route I ended up following was the one from Skiuphill | RunUphill. You can see their page here.
I loaded the track on my watch and blindly followed it. I did not realize that it was substantially different than what Dave had sent. The good news is that there are a ton of trails, peaks and lakes in the area so you really can choose your own adventure. I went out past Ptarmigan Lake and Baker Lake around Fossil Mountain and then had to backtrack a bit to go see Skoki Lodge. I then followed the Skoki route up over Deception Pass. This meant I did not run by Myosotis Lake and Zigadenus Lake. Nor did I get to Lake Merlin which Dave’s route would have taken me on.
The route I did was beautiful, however I would have liked to have seen the other lakes up close rather than viewing them from the top of Deception Pass.
Below are the map views of both routes and links to the routes in GaiaGPS. You easily create your own route in Gaia if you want to customize your run.
Mike's Route
| Distance: | 35.79 km | Average speed: | 5.85 km/h | |
| Total ascent: | 1227 m | Avg. moving speed: | 6.50 km/h | |
| Total descent: | 1224 m | Maximum speed: | 35.36 km/h | |
| Total time: | 6:07:23.0 | Moving time: | 5:29:19.0 |
All of the GPX report generators I used produced slightly different statistics. I am not sure why that is, however, you can use this link to view my route on Gaia for a more interactive experience.
Dave's Route
| Distance: | 37.11 km | Average speed: | 4.76 km/h | |
| Total ascent: | 1471 m | Avg. moving speed: | 5.85 km/h | |
| Total descent: | 1444 m | Maximum speed: | 12.61 km/h | |
| Total time: | 7:47:43.0 | Moving time: | 6:19:20.0 |
I have also added Dave’s route to Gaia as well. You can see the live map with his route here.
Runnability
The first 4km from the trail head are up a gravel road. The grade is fairly steep so not very runnable. If you are lucky like I was you can hitch a ride with one of the Lake Louise maintenance crew and shave off a couple of kilometres of boring road trudging.
The elevation profile tells a pretty good story of runnability. Once I got to Ptarmigan lake there were lots of runnable stretches all the way to Skoki Lodge. The climb up Deception Pass was fairly steep so most of that was a power hike for me.
Most of the descent back to the trail head was at a low enough grade that it was runnable. There were a few technical sections that required slowing down but most of the run back to the car was great.
Supplies
I took a 2l Bladder and my 500ml filter flask with me. There were lots of creeks and lakes to fill up the flask so I did not use much of my bladder at all.
I took my poles in my quiver but did not take them out.
I went through 11 pieces of nutrition, made up of a combination of Gu gels and Exact bars. I also brought a PB and Jam sandwich that I ate at the lodge.
As always, we would love to hear from you. Is there more information that you would find useful in these reports? What about your own experience on these trails? Please drop a comment below.
