Most of us get away in the backcountry to avoid the plagues of society, not necessarily H1N1, but more like vacuous TV, billboards, celebrities, talk radio and the like. So here I am asking if you’ve bumped into anyone “famous” on the trail.

A few years ago, hiking in Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park in the Canadian Rockies in BC, we had set up our backcountry campsite and were day-hiking to Windy Ridge, a high point for lunch (to escape the hordes of mosquitos assaulting our lake-side tent.)

Halfway to our destination we met a couple on the trail. I snapped a photo, paparazzi-like, of the two while we stopped to chat. Here they are:


Sepp & Barb Renner, who’ve run the Mt. Assiniboine Lodge in the Park since 1983. (I came upon this image today finding an alpenglow shot for another post.)

I recognized them from descriptions in articles I had read researching Mt. Assiniboine. For a quarter-century they and their children have managed the lodge now owned by the province that is accessible only by foot, horse or helicopter (there are no roads in the park.)

On the day we met them the helicopter was flying (it flies every other day or so in “season.”) They had decided to hike the distance (28K) simply because they still enjoyed hiking.

My how I envied them. What a life. He and Barb raised their three kids at the lodge. Andre their son helps him in his guiding (Sepp was trained in Switzerland as a mountain guide before coming to Mt. Assiniboine, summitting it, and staying in 1967.) Their daughter Sara won the Silver in cross-country skiing in the 2006 Olympics. What kind of idyllic life is that? Here’s a good story on them here.

Anyone else bumped into anyone on the trail that impressed them? I'm not talking about bumping into (or getting bumped off the trail by) Rush Limbaugh 40 yards from the traihead (can you imagine him 50 yards in?)

So many on this forum have hiked so many more miles than I have, I’m sure you can recall a meeting or two. I guess what impressed me with our encounter was how nice, warm and friendly these two were. Something about being on a trail . . .