I Took The Path Less Traveled By: November 2015

*I hope people use their own wise judgement when hiking always plan ahead and be prepared. One should never go beyond their abilities.*

Over the years I've had a few goals my first was to Summit all the Peaks of Waterton. Here is My Waterton Summit List I completed that goal on September 26, 2016.

My next goal I'm still working on and that is to summit the 6 10,000 foot Summmits of Glacier National Park. I have one left Kintla.

My 2018 Goal that I accomplished was to summit 40 peaks in my 40th year and that I finished on September 26, 2018.

Not sure what will be my next goal, once Glacier's Summits are done?

I commonly use 3 Hashtags on my social media. The first one is #itookthepathlesstraveledby which is to reference this blog. The next two relate to my father and grandfather who were also hikers. #milesformarkellingson is to remember my

Dad, Mark Ellingson and #dustfromthetrailandhowitsettledonme is to remember my Grandfather Earl Ellingson

November 15, 2015

Summit Hike Spring 2001

A bunch of us had just finished our University semesters and we were down in Southern Alberta for the summer and decided to go hike the Carthew/Alderson Summit hike. This was the first hike I did with my wife who was my fiance at the time. It was a great day, and very beautiful. We had a lot of snow on the mountains all around us and even on the trail. Great time and great company.

At Summit lake with our group of hikers

My fiance and I with Lake Wurdeman in the background

Group shot on the false summit of the hike

My future wife and I on the false summit

Cameron Falls at the end

No track included or picture of route as this is a very common trail on all Waterton maps

Blakiston Summer 2001

I was living at home this summer before I got married and one Saturday I decided to do this hike with my father and my old Venture leader. We decided upon Blakiston as Wayne had never done it before. It was a gorgeous day and the views were splendid. It is too bad that I didn't have a better camera and that I didn't take more pictures because it was a nice day.

Black bear on the drive up we saw

On the Summit

View to the South east from Blakiston Peak

Picture of me on the Summit with Lineham lakes just in view on the right of picture

Dad on Summit looking southeast

Ruby lake below

Approximate path we took

Akamina Ridge Summer 2001

This was the 2nd time I had done this hike. This time my Dad and brother and I did this hike. We had a great day and really enjoyed our time together. As you can see from these pictures of me I have put on a few pounds since this hike. Anyways great hike with beautiful vistas.

At Forum Falls

On the ridge between Cameron Lake and Forum Lake

Almost at Forum Peak with Mt. Custer behind me

On the high point of the hike

Picture with Kintla and Kinnerly peaks behind us

Dad and David with the Akamina Park area behind them

Heading down with Wall Lake below

Approximate trail we took of the hike

Cleveland Attempt August 2001

This was an interesting failed attempt. My friend and I decided to give Cleveland a try. Years later I think it was wise that we didn't make it as I think we were too unprepared. Anyways we had planned on taking the last International boat ride the Friday night and stay the night at Goat Haunt. Well we got to the boat and they told us that because of border restrictions the last boat actually doesn't dock and there is no way to disembark on that ride. Well we decided to hike the shoreline trail from Waterton to Goat Haunt that night which is about 13 km. We did it, arrived after dark, and were pretty tired. Well I slept terribly, and we got up the next morning and headed out for our hike. We were given some pretty vague directions from a friend and we misread the directions and ended up getting lost on the west slopes of Mt. Cleveland. We hiked for about 3 or 4 hours that morning trying to get through alder branches and trees and bushwhacking. It was awful. We decided to give in after a while and headed down the brush we had been in for a few hours. We regained the trail and headed back to Goat Haunt and took the International boat back. All and all a disappointing day.

Our little two man tent we stayed in that night

A little suspension bridge we came across down by Goat Haunt

Saturday showing our thumbs down to the day

This was the approximate trail we took. I'm not sure how high we got on the slopes of Cleveland but this is about where we were.

November 11, 2015

Crandell Peak July 8, 2005

At this time we were down in Southern Alberta for a family holiday. We were currently living in Yellowknife and since graduating from University in 2004 I had not really done much hiking. In fact I had not done a significant hike since 2001 before I got married. I had been busy with school and young kids and this was the first hike I had done since then. Almost a 4 year break. So my Dad and I decided to do a peak I had done 5 years earlier. Crandell Mountain is most known for a point that everyone seems to hike and it is Bears Hump. This little hike gives you one of the best views of Upper Waterton Lake. So on this day my mom and sister accompanied us to Bears Hump and then Dad and I continued the rest of the way up the mountain. It is a little technical at time, no ropes or gear needed though as you are doing some pretty good rock climbing. Once you reach the top you see a helicopter landing pad and a weather station. The view down to Waterton Lakes looking the way you came up are impressive and you catch yourself stopping and starring the entire way up. I've since learned an alternate ascent and descent but on this occasion we hiked the same I had done 5 years earlier. We circles around and came down the Crandell Lake side of the mountain and had my mom and sister pick us up at Crandell Lake. Great day and good company to boot.

View from Bears Hump looking down on Upper Waterton Lake

View of the ridge we would take to the summit

Vimy across the way

Shot with my family before we split for a few hours

This is some of the what the rock climbing looked like

Great shots looking back on Waterton Lake

Now my turn for the cliff picture

Dad on the summit flexing his bulging muscles

First summit in 4 years

Looking south east to Vimy and Chief

Looking out over the prairie

Approximate path we took to the top and down to Crandell Lake

Rowe Peak July 3, 2006

This is a hike where I realized I was very out of shape and needed to get my but in gear. I hadn't hiked much the last few years and this is where it call caught up to me. It was also the first hike where I learned about how effective hiking poles are and I have not done a significant hike since without them. This hike was with a bunch of High School friends. We had just celebrated our 10 year high school reunion a few days earlier and so we decided to go on a hike. The day was beautiful and aside from me being way out of shape it was a great day. While driving to the hike we came across a black bear and I think it was 3 or 4 cubs on the side of the road, I had never seen anything like that before or since.