*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

July 23, 2020

Mount Fisher East Kootenay British Columbia July 22, 2020

So today we drove a ways to a mountain I had never heard of but had probably seen before.  Mt. Fisher is a popular hike in the Cranbrook area and it didn't disappoint.  The 4 hour drive there and back wasn't great but it was a great view.  The weather was great and the views were pretty clear all around.  This was probably the shortest steepest trail I have ever done, it was truly up hill the entire way. It was a good day to try somewhere new since we've been pretty local so far this year. When I got home I found out that Scott Niedermayer took the Stanley cup up this mountain and got a picture after he won the cup.  Pretty cool.

Beautiful creek area about half way up

This kind of reminded me of the area going up to Abbott Pass

Cool rock formation on the ridge across the way

Mountain in the distance called the Steeples

A lake still with ice on it in July called Nicol Lake

Pretty neat Summit register on the top...glad I didn't have to carry this up here

Track of Hike
 

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July 18, 2020

Dundy Peak and Cloudy Ridge July 15, 2020 Waterton Lakes National Park Alberta

So another wednesday another hiking day.  Today was another father and son day as my son continues his quest to hike all the Waterton Peaks.  He now has 6 left.  So in the Nagura scrambles book he talks about a "Dundy" peak between Dungarvan and Cloudy so I figured I better do that one.  When I had done the Red Rock Rim Traverse a few years back we actually didn't summit Dundy as we didn't think it was named.  So today we had to get it done since it is now an unofficial named peak and it is in a book.  So we headed up Lost Horse creek and gained the summit of Dundy and from there traversed over to Cloudy and summitted it as well.  Interesting that there had only been 4 parties summit Cloudy since I did it in 2016.  We then headed down to Red Rock Canyon and tried to take the creek bed out but it was nasty with all the extra logs jammed in the creek bed from the Kenow Fire.  So we bushed above the creek bed and it was pretty nasty bush considering the recent fire.  I scratched my legs up pretty good and was reminded how much I hate the bush.  Anyways got it done and crossed off a couple more peaks for my son.

Looking down on the Lost Horse Creek bed

There were plenty of flowers on today's hike

Came across an area on the way up Dundy where you could see some burnt trees, except these were old burnt trees pre Kenow fire, so there must have been a little fire up here a while back

There were a few steep sections to scramble up to Dundy

I saw someone's post on facebook and they did Dundy but came up the ridge on the left and it looked pretty nasty and steep, our way was much better

In Nagura's book he talks about one "crux" part which was this cliff band you had to get over and here it is, not terrible but a fall would definitely not be pleasant here

Almost to the top of Dundy

Found a little window looking towards Galway and Dungarvan SE2

Beautiful flowers on the top of the ridge traversing to Cloudy

Resting on the nice flat summit of Cloudy

Cloudy Summit register and the 4 parties since we climbed it in 2016

Quite the cliff on the face of Cloudy

As we headed down to Red Rock Canyon we went through this burned out section of trees that must have been terribly thick pre fire and I thought we may have been the first humans to hike this section in years because who would have gone through this mess before?

Track of Hike






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July 12, 2020

Sofa Mountain July 11, 2020 Waterton Lakes National Park Alberta

So today was my son't 18th birthday and so I thought it would be great to watch the sunrise on a summit.  Well Sofa was on his list of to do's for Waterton, So I thought that is an easy enough summit to attain in the dark.  So we started hiking at about 2:30 am and got up on the summit just before the sunrise at 5:45 am.  It was a gorgeous view all day long.  We were even able to see a comet called Neowise in the sky in the early hours of the morning.  The wind was a little chilly on the summit but otherwise it was a perfect morning to climb and the views on top with the sun coming up were amazing.  I will definitely try to do summit sunrises more often.

Long exposure picture at beginning

My crew for the hike

The comet was best seen at about 3am (center of picture)

Getting lighter as we almost gain the false summit

Can start to see into Waterton

Sweetgrass hills in the distance

On the false summit

The moment we came for on the summit

Cleveland in the distance

Wide angle shot from Cleveland on left to Blakiston on right

The sun on the mountains in the morning was incredible

With the birthday boy

Heading down, such a clear morning

Sofa falls

On the way home I couldn't resist the canola picture with the windmills west of Magrath

Track of Hike





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July 09, 2020

Anderson Peak and Lost Mountain July 8, 2020 Waterton Lakes National Park Alberta

So today was a father and son's hike, Carter has been wanting to finish his Waterton Peaks list and the Kenow fire kind of slowed that process down.  So today we figured we go for three and do the Anderson/Lost/Bauerman hike.  So we headed out early and headed to Red Rock Canyon.  I had done this hike years ago and this time I read another report by Andrew Nugara to go up Anderson first via a different drainage and then complete the three peaks backwards.  So we decided to try the same hike as before except backwards.  The ascent drainage up was actually a pretty good scramble, I'd do it again!  Unfortunately the cloud cover was pretty low most of the day and before we reached the summit ridge we were completely fogged in.  I have always wanted to stand on the far false summit peak of Anderson and look down on Red Rock Canyon but the cloud cover made it so that I couldn't look down and see anything.  Oh well, next time.  So walking over to summit Anderson and then later lost the wind picked up and it was pretty nasty.  We were both cold and decided once on Lost to call it a day and head down.  Last time I remember this descent route being a slog and it was again.  I don't think I'll ever go down this way again.  The only advantage this time was that the last 100 meters of bush was burned away and re-finding the trail was easier.  Well my son only has about 6 or 7 peaks to finish all of the Waterton Peaks.

Blakiston Creek was still pretty except for all the dead trees around it now

Heading up there were some pretty awesome looking cliffs

Heading up the drainage to Anderson looking over at Hawkins in the clouds

Near the top of the ridge all fogged in

This was the view from the false summit of Anderson looking down at Red Rock...the fog was too thick and this was the best shot I could get

Heading over to Anderson the clouds opened up for a few good views

The usual cliff shot

Anderson Peak summit number 1 for the day

Lost Mountain summit #2 for the day

The only thing nice about the drainage down was this waterfall


At the end looking up at the false summit of Anderson that I wanted to look down at Red Rock from






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