*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

October 28, 2017

Loaf Mountain October 28, 2017

Well what a great day.  The views today were amazing and the only downside to today was it was a little breezy, but that is what living in southern Alberta is all about.  I'd never been to this area before, but I think I will return often.  We had a little trouble finding the area, there was one road that was closed so we had to drive an alternative route to get there and then the seasonal gate was closed so we had to hike an extra 4 km each way.  Once we started seeing snow on the trail we noticed some bear tracks and they seemed to be going the way we were going, so we made a lot of noise along the way.  We followed these tracks for probably 3 km of our hike and luckily had no run in with any bear.  Once we reached the ridge the tracks disappeared and we headed up the mountain.  We had some of the best views I've ever seen.  It was such a clear crisp day and the sunshine was great.  These are days I absolutely love and they are the days I hope for each time I hike.  The views from the summit were great and we could see from Crowsnest Mountian to Chief Mountain and then all the way over to the sweet grass hills as well.  Great day to have my 25th summit of the year.

This was at the start of our hike

This was the extra few km of our hike?

Some Deer on the trail. Other people we saw reported they had seen sheep, a grizzly and a cougar!

Our Bear Tracks

Following the bear tracks

Almost up to the ridge

Our first view into the South Castle Area

Looking south towards Peaks in Glacier and Waterton, that forested area on the right is where some of the Kenow fire came to

This is the other peak we had wanted to summit but the extra 8 km cancelled that Spionkop Ridge

Getting close to the summit with a beautiful view west

Summit cornice

Summit Photo

Another shot of the cornice on top

Crowsnest mountain in the distance

Boivin Lake down below

Snow drift on the ridge, I bet in the winter this gets pretty big

On our way down with the sun reflecting off the snow

Little waterfall near the end

This is so you don't have to hike an extra 4 km round trip, only hike this area between these dates or bring a bike
Track of Hike

Google Sphere on False Summit

Panorama on Top

Google Sphere looking to South Castle Area

Video on False Summit

Video on Summit

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