*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

September 30, 2020

Newman Peak Sept 29, 2020 Waterton Lakes National Park

My 200th post on my blog. So Carter joined the club of climbing all the summits of Waterton today.  This was his final peak and it was a beautiful day.  We headed out early because we had another engagement that night.  I'd been on every peak with him on his journey and it was great to be with him today.  I was 38 years old when I finished this task and he was 18...a little younger eh.  So we took our bikes because we wanted to finish early and that made a huge difference.  It only took us about 20 minutes to go the 4.5 km to the Goat Lake trail.  The way out only took us about 10 minutes.  The entire trip for the day took us about 4.5 hours with about a half hour rest on the top.  So also this hike carried a little special trip down memory lane.  This was the last mountain I hiked with my father 8 years ago.  He passed away suddenly 6 days later and this was the last time I got to spend time with him.  I told this to Carter and he said hopefully you don't die in 6 days.  I responded to him that if I do he better not climb this mountain ever again.  So this summer has been about getting this goal done for Carter and now that he is leaving on his LDS mission to Toronto Canada I won't have my trusty hiking partner anymore and I'll actually be able to hike new places, cause I've done lots in Waterton and I think it is time to hike somewhere else for a while. 

Beautiful start to the day with the sun hitting Anderson

Biking through the burned forest

Goat Lake

Spread Eagle Mountain in the distance looking down on Yarrow canon

There was already a snow cornice

A dusting of snow on the Glacier Peaks to the south

Finished his goal, all 33 names peaks of Waterton

Proud of this boy as he will be serving his LDS mission in Toronto for 2 years...leaves in less than a week

Summit view over to Avion Ridge

Looking west towards the Castle Area

Beautiful Larch Tree

Track of Hike






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September 26, 2020

Ruby Ridge September 22, 2020 Waterton Lakes National Park

 So we had a Covid-19 scare and as a result we had to quarantine for 2 weeks and so that pushed back my son's Waterton Summit completion.  So today we decided to get one more done and now there is only one left...Newman.  I thought we could maybe do both in one day but the bike ride up the newly opened Akamina Road was too much for us and we were out of gas after finishing Ruby.  The ride up to Lineham Falls trail wasn't too bad but it does take a lot out of you.  We climbed this much like we did years ago but this time more than I reached the summit.  It was an overcast day but luckily there was hardly any wind.  On top we could see the Larch's turning color all around Ruby Lake.  It was pretty to see that.  We then headed down and took the awesome bike ride down on the nice new road.

Biking up the newly paved Akamina Road

Mt. Lineham and Lineham Cliffs in the distance

Blakiston in the background of Ruby's ruby ridge

Can see all the way to Cameron Lake and all the burned trees 


Ruby Lake surrounded by Larches at the base of Blakiston's Summit

Could barely see the Lineham Lakes

Elder's Evans and Ellingson

Better view of Cameron Lake in the distance

Track of Hike

Summit Video

Summit Photo Sphere

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September 06, 2020

Bertha Peak September 2, 2020 Waterton Lakes National Park

 So another Carter peak today, after today he only has two left to finish the Waterton Summits.  I've done this one two times before and the trail up to the lake I've done too many times that I can't remember so I figured we'd try a different approach and started on the Carthew/Alderson trail behind Cameron falls and once we reached the corner where the good lookout is of the townsite we headed up that ridge and continued it till we reached the summit.  With the fire this ridge wasn't that bad, it was steep in a few sections but nothing terrible.  Near the end there was a bit of route finding and steep exposed climbing but it was pretty enjoyable.  Once on top we had great clear views in all directions, but within moments of reaching the top some clouds started to form east of us and then within minutes we were above an inversion.  It was amazing to watch and I tried taking a bunch of pictures but they never really captured the moment.  We never got socked in as the temperature on the summit stayed the same.  But once we descended we noticed a significant drop as we descended into the clouds.  Once we came close to Bertha lake we were out of the clouds and then it started to rain a bit on us.  Pretty interesting day.  

Heading up the Burn

We refer to this band of rocks as the "T", if you look at Bertha Peak when driving into the park this horizontal rock band and an avalanche shoot perpendicular to it form a T in the mountainside

Looking down on the townsite

On the Summit ridge looking towards the summit in the middle

Some of the Larches are changing color

Great view to Upper Bertha Falls and Bertha Lake

Some of the exposed scrambling near the top

The beginning of the clouds forming

Getting more dense

Denser

Now surrounding us

Carter off in the distance on that ridge

Coming out of the clouds below

Summit Video






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