Four days into the Banff backcountry, our horses got a day off. So did we, technically. Halfway Lodge treats the middle of the six-day trek as a rest day, and if you’d rather spend it on the deck with a book, nobody stops you. But there’s also an optional hike out to a lake at the end of the valley, and taking that option turned into one of the better decisions of the entire trip.
I keep saying “optional” because it genuinely is one. This isn’t a mandatory leg of the itinerary dressed up as a suggestion — some people in a group like mine would reasonably choose to stay back, especially given what the weather looked like that morning.
Not the Weather You’d Pick for a Hike
It was wet, cold, and actively raining when I woke up. The horses had earned their break the day before, covering serious ground on demanding terrain, and now they were getting fed and left alone in the corral while the rest of us figured out what to do with a day on foot. Huddled around the fireplace with coffee, watching the rain through the window, this was not a morning that made hiking sound appealing.
Our whole group decided to go anyway.
The route starts easy. The first stretch runs mostly flat alongside a creek, easy enough to talk without losing your breath, past a waterfall that, as far as I could tell, still doesn’t have an official name. Then the terrain flips completely. The final push up to the lake is steep enough that our group started calling it “the SFU,” which, if you want the polite version, stands for “straight the double fudge up.” I’m not proud of the joke. I’m also not taking it back.
That climb is where the weather almost won. Cold, wet, working uphill on legs that had already put in three days of riding — there’s a version of that morning where the group turns around before the top, and nobody would have blamed us for it. We pushed through instead, and it was the right call, though I’ll admit that’s an easier thing to say in hindsight than it felt at the time. A little more rain, a little more wind, and “the right decision” probably becomes “a bit of a slog” pretty fast.
The Lake at the Top of the Climb
The rain stopped right as we crested the final push, which is either good timing or good luck, and either way I’ll take it. Waiting up there is a small, glacier-fed lake tucked into a basin that feels almost aggressively remote — the kind of place that looks like it should require a secret trail or a helicopter, not a couple hours on foot from a backcountry lodge. It reminded me a lot of some of the more untouched lakes I’ve hiked to in Patagonia, and that’s not a comparison I hand out casually.
The lake does have a name, in the most fitting way possible for a spot like this: someone carved it into two rough wooden boards and nailed them to a tree at the water’s edge. By the time I stood in front of it, the weather had already knocked a chunk off the top board, so what actually greets you now reads “AKE MATTHIAS” rather than “LAKE MATTHIAS.” I’d heard the story before we set out — an employee named it himself and made it stick just by putting up a sign, no paperwork involved — and having seen the sign in person, I believe every word of it. Some current write-ups of this same hike still just call it “the unnamed lake,” which only makes the hand-carved, half-broken reality of the actual sign funnier.
We spread out for a picnic once we arrived and stretched out legs that had earned the rest, and a handful of us, myself included, scrambled up above the lake to a higher vantage point. That wasn’t part of the plan going in. It’s the kind of thing you do because the terrain invites it and your legs, against all odds, still have one more push left in them. The view from up there ended up being one of the most rewarding of the entire six-day trip — backcountry lake below, peaks on every side, nobody else around for what felt like a very long way.
What a Day on Foot Actually Gave the Trip
I love being on a horse. Riding through this terrain is most of why I signed up for six days in the first place. But there’s something to a day where your own two feet do the work instead, where the rhythm of the trip shifts just enough to notice. By day four, that shift was worth more than another day in the saddle would have been.
The horses clearly agreed, judging by how content they looked getting fed and left alone in the corral while the rest of us went off chasing a lake with a sign that can’t spell its own name properly anymore. Everybody came back tired in a different way, which on a six-day trip is its own kind of useful.
If you find yourself at Halfway Lodge on a grey, unpromising morning wondering whether the optional hike is worth it, my answer is yes — take it, unless the weather turns genuinely dangerous rather than just uncomfortable. The lodge and the book will still be there next time. And when you finally reach that lake, do yourself a favor and read the sign twice before you decide what it says.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Lake Matthias hike a required part of the six-day Banff horse trek?
No, it’s optional. Day four at Halfway Lodge is a rest day, and you can just as easily stay back and relax instead of hiking.
How difficult is the hike from Halfway Lodge to Lake Matthias?
The first portion is flat and easy, following a creek past an unnamed waterfall. The final stretch up to the lake is steep, and our group jokingly nicknamed that climb “the SFU.”
Is the hike worth doing in bad weather?
In my case, yes. It was wet, cold, and raining when we set out, and the group pushed through anyway. That said, I’d only push through discomfort, not genuinely dangerous conditions.
What is the lake actually called?
A hand-carved wooden sign at the water names it Lake Matthias, though part of the sign has broken off, and some current write-ups of this hike still just call it an unnamed lake.
Do you need to be an experienced hiker to do this?
Not based on my experience. The main challenge is the steep final section rather than technical difficulty, and it’s manageable if you’re already handling multi-day horseback riding.
Why does a horseback trip include a hiking day at all?
The horses get a genuine day off after several demanding riding days, and the optional hike gives riders something worthwhile to do with that same break.
This article is also available in Spanish. [Leé la versión en castellano: Caminata al lago Matthias desde Halfway Lodge: el día de descanso de los caballos]