I Took The Path Less Traveled By: August 2021

Coral Ridge Attempt August 8, 2021 Job/Cline Public Land Use Zone Alberta

So today was a free day with not much planned but we knew we wanted to do a few things with the triplets. So we went fishing, jumped in the lake, went to a suspension bridge and then in the evening we thought it would be great to do a sunset hike. Well the hike was a fail. In looking on gaia it said the trail was only 2.7 km to the top (I need to research better). Well that was only the last stretch of the hike, it was actually more like 5km each way and more elevation gain and the trail was pretty hard to find in the bush, I don't think it has been hiked much, I was willing to keep going but the rest were not so we turned back. Also we wanted a sunset summit and since I misjudged the distance we left way to late and the sun set before we even got close and it was also cloudy so there wasn't really a sunset. Anyways to make a long story short we got to a high point which was still gorgeous, and took in the evening sky there, the smoke had cleared and we had a beautiful night, minus the summit. Anyways we hiked out in the dark and still had a great time. This Cline area is really neat and I'll have to come back here more in the future. We had a few amazing starry nights and some really neat views throughout our 3 days and 2 nights.

First night stars

Abraham Lake was really high, Coral Ridge in the Background

Fishing, we only caught one

I explored a bit up and down the river where we fished and got this great shot of Coral Ridge that we would attempt to climb later

Before our evening hike we went to this suspension bridge and checked it out

View from the other side of the bridge

View of bridge

Our high point on the hike off in the distance is where we wanted to go originally on our back backing overnight trip (Lake of the Falls, maybe next years)

Taking in the night sky

The only ray of sunshine on the mountains we got, too cloudy

Heading back down

Gorge of Coral Creek, Awesome!

Couple Toads we found on the way down

2nd Night stars

3rd Day morning sunrise on Abraham Lake

Track of Ridge Attempt

Mount Ernest Ross August 7, 2021 Job/Cline Public Land Use Zone Alberta

So my sister and I have kids about the same age (she has twin boys and I have a son) so my brother in law and I took these boys that we refer to as triplets on a camping trip. We headed up to the Cline River area, we had originally wanted to backcountry camp in the Lake of the Falls area, but we decided to stay at a campsite instead. We didn't reserve one so we just stopped at one and booked it. It was the David Thompson Campground. Well this place was pretty awesome, like something out of 1980. The boys loved the playground (which most equipment is outlawed now), they had this Family pub night where you could karaoke and had a cowboy breakfast. We jokingly thought this is where all the rednecks of the province hang out, but it was fun. Anyways we drove up on the Saturday set up camp and then went for a hike. We wanted to do Mount Ernest Ross and so we headed that way. The smoke was pretty thick but we still headed up. It got pretty steep and only my nephew and I made it to the top. I wish the sky had been clear cause it would have been gorgeous looking down on Abraham Lake.

Smokey day, there is a whole mountain range behind that cloud there

The triplets on the way up

Smokey view of our goal for the day

Taking lots of rests on the way up

Cool rock layers near the top

On top, it started to clear a little bit

Complete rainbow on the top looking down on Abraham Lake

Smoke starting to clear up above, you can actually see blue sky

Looking back at where we came

Track of Hike

Summit Video

Summit Photo Sphere

Upper Rowe Lakes August 2, 2021 Waterton Lakes National Park

Family hike for the day, nothing too hard but it was sure nice to be in Waterton hiking in an area that still has trees, it wasn't terribly warm today but it was humid and I sweat a bunch today. Last time I was in the Rowe lakes area was pre Waterton fire when we summited Rowe peak and the Helicopter told us to get down!

First part of hike was in the burn

Fire Weed, looks pretty at first, but hiking through it all day and you get sick of it

Beautiful creeks views on the way up

Rowe Meadow full of fire weeds

Looking down on Rowe Meadow

The needles on this larch tree were so thick, I'll have to come up here in the fall

Throwing rocks in the lake

Looking down on Lower Rowe Lake

My brother turned 50 the next day, we made him a sign

Track of Hike

Video at Rowe Meadow

Cragging in the Gap July 28, 2021 Crownest Pass Alberta

I've only climbed with ropes a few times but this was the most I've probably done in one day. I did 4 climbs and tried a 5th but couldn't make it up. This is a neat little area we went to called the Gap, it is where the Old Man River comes out of the Dutch Creek area. I'd hiked the mountain to the west of us about a year ago, it is called Thunder Mountain. I have lots to learn about climbing, but then again I have lots to learn about lots of things.

Hiking up to the first site we climbed at

First area we climbed

There were three climbs on this corner, I was able to do all three

2nd area we climbed

This site seemed a little tougher to me, I only did one here

Track of Day

Shortened Video of one Climb

Triple Crown in One Day July 24, 2021 Waterton Lakes National Park

So a few of us (4) had planned doing this back in March when we stayed at the Cameron Lake Hut. It then ballooned to many more people. I have done each of these hikes many times but to do them in one day is quite a feat. We had wanted to do it in June but the snow pack was still to much and so we postponed it to today. We drove up early I think I was up at about 1:30am and we met at Cameron Falls at about 3:30 and we were on the trail by about 4:00am. We had a few join us on one or two hikes but it was 12 that finished all three. I had a dip in a lake between each hike and even had a change of cloths for each hike. We also had most of our food between hikes and the break to recharge was pretty good. Akamina was our first it took us about 5 hours, then Summit was next and that took about 4.5 hours and the last was Crypt which took just over 5 hours. In total we did about 60km on the day and I think I hit my first ever 10,000 Calorie day. I took about 80,000 steps as well. I figured I drank about 12 liters of fluids today, I also sweat about that much too. Busy day but fun as well, great sense of accomplishment finishing this.