On top of the world!

So This particular weekend, Tonya and I decided to venture the Kananaskis area to hike again. Most people usually go to Banff and such around this time of the year, so those hikes can be a little packed. I also just received this book online, "where locals hike". It's an opinionated guide, and ranks the hikes on difficulties, time, and worthiness. My other traveller's book gives me hikes in Jasper, Banff and glacier national parks, but this new book is good because it gives me hikes on the Kananaskis and Canmore region.

So on this particular day wed decided to go to the Kananaskis Lakes to hike to Rawson Lake and the Serrail Ridge. We left at 8am, nice and early, and got there around 9 something. Not too bad, considering we got lost a few times.

Once we got to the lake, we geared up in our hiking gear. I actually got these new hikers from my friend's mother. Apparently they didn't help with her arthritis, so she passed them on to me. They are a little big, but man they have great grip. Also, they have a gortex coating which kept me dry when I stepped into the lake a few times.



So here we are at the Upper Kananaskis Lake. We start our climb! It gets a little steep, but it's still managable. As we gain in elevation, we start seeing a bit of snow. Today was a good day for hiking. Down at the bottom it was 20-25 degrees, clear sunshine. Once we got to the top, it was snowing. We were in about 2-3ft of snow! Luckily my shoes had amazing grip. I could've easily twisted my ankle several times. Tonya was smart, she had hiking poles to provide her with balance. Look I even made a snowman!








Once we got to the lakes, there weren't many places we could hike to without falling into a snowbank, into the water, or walking to a tree. We found a spot, sat down, and enjoyed our packed lunches. By this point I already had blisters on the back of my heel. Yeah...it was painful! She then gave me a thing to put on the back to prevent further blistering (note: that moleskin band-aid is a b*tch to pull off a punctured blister). We hiked back down and once we were at the bottom, we sat by the lake. There were a ton of people fishing.




We decide we didn't want to go back to calgary yet. It was still relatively early. Why not try one more hike? Nothing too long and nothing too hard. We looked through my book is found one that was only about 1-2 hours long. The book called this "Easy". This hike was named Ptarmigan Cirque. So, not knowing what a cirque is, we decided to go for it anyways.

This hike was located just off of Highwood Pass. At 2206m, this is the highest road in elevation in Canada. Once we got there, we read the sign for the trail head: "Ptarmigan Cirque is a 1-2 hour strenuous hike...". Say what? We looked at each other...do we want to do this? Why not... let's just see where it takes us.

This trail leads straight into a forest. On a warmer August's day, it may have been easier to spot the trail and signs to follow, but at this time of the year, all we could go off of was foot prints. Some which forked off and lead to no where. I'm pretty sure people walked those and turned back creating all these dead ends. We met a family there while hiking. We decided it was safer for us 2 girls to walk with them. They kind-of seemed to know where they were going.




Eventually we found a "path" and tried to follow it until it, again, was snow covered. We got far enough to the top to see the cirque. (A cirque: A half-open steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley or on a mountainside, formed by glacial erosion; I didn't know what it was at the time). We saw a part of snow melting creating this little glacier river flow. I guess that was the run off that formed the creek near the base of the road.






While we were up there it was quite the blizzard. We started to turn back. We didn't make it all the way to the cirque, but considering we were expecting an easy hike and got about 90% there, I'm quite proud of ourselves. Final Elevation gain: 2206m + 230m = 2436m. Now that's being on top of the world!

I was exhausted by the time we got to the bottom of the mountain.

Final thought: Cover those heels with duct tape. It's prevent the formation of blisters.

Just around the river bend, I look once more!

Just around the river bend, beyond the shore!

Apparently Rafting along the Kicking Horse River is one of the main things you need to to while you're here in Alberta. Luckily, since I'm a groupon-addict, I found one!

So we decide to make a weekend adventure of it. Saturday we were going to go to Radium Hotsprings, BC and then the following afternoon we would go up to the rafting site.

Saturday we started to drive out to BC. We were taking 2 cars, and one of the drivers decided to take a pit stop in Banff. Not knowing that there was a car expo there (aka making it PACKED with people), we got delayed majorly and lost our other car/friends. See the thing is... when you're in the mountains, cellphone reception is unreliable. So luckily we got a hold of them before they went into the no reception zone, but we got the meeting location mixed up, so we missed a few hiking sites I really wanted to see :(.


We drove through the Kootenay National Park. Once we got to the BC border, we entered Vermilion Pass. All the trees were burnt!

Apparently there was a forest fire that destroyed the area in 2003. 13% off the forest was burned. There was an interpretive trail, but... we never got to that...

We stopped off at the ochre ponds/paint pots. The trail was really mosshy and wet. The soil was really orange too from all the iron/copper in the ground.



We didn't have time to do any other hikes as the rain was starting, so we just drove to Radium. We got a small little 3 bedroom cottage with a pull out couch for 5 of us. One decided to leave to go sleep at a friends place so everything worked out really well. We also got our own private BBQ so that how we cooked dinner! Since it was still relatively early before dinner, we decided to drive around and see the area. We found one little trail that lead the a mini falls and canyon. I think it was Juniper Trail.




Sinclair Canyon, I think was the name of the canyon that we drove through/pass.




Then it started to rain, so we went back and started our BBQ. Smokies, burgers, roasted corn, salad, fruit, etc. Om nom nom!

The next morning for breakfast we had breakfast sausages, bacon, hashbrowns, english muffin, and more fruit. Once we were energized we headed to the rafting area. We were going to be about an hour early so we found a quick hiking trail to Wapta Falls, which is apparently North America's 3rd widest falls. It's originally a 1.5 hour hike, but we booked it and made it back in less than an hour.



At the rafting site, it was awesome. The river level was optimal and fantastic! Here are a few shots.








At the end of the day, we decided to stop off at Field, BC to try for the restaurant "Truffle Pigs" again. Luckily, we weren't blocked by a train again lol.

Before we headed home, I really wanted to see what the natural bridge looked like without all the snow.


Emerald Lake was pretty close so we drove there too.



It was so nice and relaxing.


Final Thought: I gotta admit, I am going to miss the natural beauties.

Hiking and Ranching around

So for my birthday weekend, a friend of mine decided to take me out the the kananaski Country for the weekend to enjoy the mountains. Most people always go to the touristy areas of Banff and Lake Louise, the more well known National Parks. Most people forget about the provincial parks near by. We left on Friday to the kananaski area. It was raining a lot, and yes, we saw another double rainbow. I guess it's actually not that hard to see one, as I just saw one the week before.

We checked in at the Delta Lodge. It's actually a really nice place. It's very secluded and has a nice wooden feel to it. The G8 was actually hosted here one year. Easy security I guess, just block off 2 roads! There were little lodges to rent out, or we could get a hotel room in the main lodge. We went for the cheaper option, the "free" hotel room. Apparently when my friend stayed there previously they messed up so we got a free room out of it. Better yet, it was upgraded when we checked it. YES!

Once we checked it we headed to dinner. Since there weren't a lot of accommodations or restaurants near by, we went for dinner at on of the restaurants in the lodge. Yes it was pricey, but decent. I think it was called, "The Fireweed Grill". We then took our bathrobes, yes bathrobes, and headed to the outdoor/indoor hot tub. It's kind of nice to see all that mountainous scenery while basking in a warm pool. I think it was the perfect way to end the night.

The next morning I made us some sandwiches in lieu of planning to have an outdoor picnic. Sadly it was pouring rain. I wanted to hike to some where and then sit and enjoy the food, but Graham was too concerned about my leg breaking off. So we did some mild hiking (ie no elevation).

First stop was Mt. Lorette Ponds. It was a great little stopping area. It was mostly paved so easy to walk around in the rain.




Next stop we went to Barrier Lake. We tried to hike to a look point, but then things go too steep and we got lost in the forest... so we turned back.


We started to get hungry so we stopped off at Opal (pond/river/creek?) to eat. Nothing to fancy, just chips, Turkey & Brie sandwiches, and a salad. Pretty healthy despite being made at 8am in the morning.

Last stop was Eau Claire Loop. An easy little trail with a TON of ground squirrels running around. No major "wow" factors.

After all these easy hikes, we headed to the Ranch which is located in the Black Diamond/Turner Valley area south of Calgary. We were getting a little tired, so we stopped off in Cochrane to grab some ice cream. McKay's Creamery is a well known little gem here. Homemade ice cream since 1948! They have such unique flavours. I tired the Saskatoon Berry flavour and White Chocolate Raspberry. Om nom nom. While in town we picked up a few "smokies" (aka sausages) and stuff for a BBQ dinner.

Once at the ranch, Graham was not very happy taking his car on the gravel road. Also the heaps of puddles of water did not help. Getting a lot of rainfall at the ranch makes everything seem like a bog. We made dinner, and the prepped the horses for a ride. I think I rode Penny (aka Taz now) and he road Paulie. Horses don't like to walk in boggy water so they were a little difficult to ride with, but with a little pull and tug here, they listened.



We were going to roast marshmallows and make s'mores after the ride, but since all the logs were water drenched, they wouldn't like. No s'mores tonight :(

Next morning, we made a few snacks and drove an ATV to the top of the hill at the ranch. Great view, but thunder clouds were well on the way. We booked it back down the hill as fast as we could go. Literally after arriving at the base again, HUGE rainfall drenched us. Meh, at least we got off the top to avoid lighting!

That was my weekend. Nothing special, but to me, this was what I used to do every weekend when I flew down the years prior to my move. I guess I just like reminiscing about the past.

Final Thought: I like heading to the mountains then to the ranch. It makes everything feel like a trip/vacation to Calgary, and that I'll be going home soon.