I Took The Path Less Traveled By: 2017

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

September 25, 2017

Angel Wing Sept 23, 2017

Well since the weather was a little uncertain I figured I'd do a little easier/lower elevation hike. The choice was a good one and Angel Wing Peak was the goal for the day. I figured since the boats at Many Glacier were not running that the trail would be pretty quiet, well I was wrong. Even with the extra 4 km each way the trail was very busy. We passed quite a few people on the way up and eventually we were blazing the trail in the snow just before the end of the Grinnell Glacier trail. We then crossed over to near the glacier and followed ankle/calf deep snow all the way to the saddle between Angel Wing and Gould. Then from there it was pretty clear on the wind swept shale all the way up to the summit. The cloud cover never dissipated the entire day but at least we had good views of the Grinnell Glacier and the valley to Many Glacier below. We returned the same way we came with a little variation. On our drive home we decided to swing by Waterton since the park was partially open to survey the damage and well it is pretty bad. It will take some time to get back to normal and it may be a long time till the trails are open again...but lets hope sooner than later!

Deer on the way up, it was pretty young looking

Angel Wing in the center

The blanket of cloud coming over Mt. Gould

Upper Grinnell Lake with the Grinnell Glacier on left and the Salamander Glacier on top

Looking down the valley towards Many Glacier (Lake Josephine in the middle)

The creek/river/water fall we had to cross

Some cool rock formations on the glacier plateau

View of Angel Wing from behind

Another shot of Mt. Gould and the blanket cloud, it looked like this for about 3 hours with some varriations

The drifting snow got pretty deep at times

On the Summit, Allen Mountain behind in the clouds

Many Glaciers valley, Grinnell Lake below and Lake Josephine in the middle

Summit Photo

That's Carter on the right with Many Glacier behind him

Coming down, you can see just how much snow was up there

The creek we had to re-cross

Grinnell Glacier

Panorama on Summit

Photo Sphere at Upper Grinnell Lake

Summit Video

Track of Hike

Crandell Mountain with all its burnt dead trees on it

Entrance to Prince of Wales hotel, those firefighters were amazing to protect this building

September 21, 2017

McClintock Mountain Sept 20, 2017

So our group headed down to Glacier National Park again today, and on our drive we weren't sure which area to hike in. We had the intentions to hike Rising Wolf Mountain in two medicine but the weather was pretty miserable. So the plans changed and McClintock was the new destination. We started in Two Medicine area and got a good view all day long of Rising Wolf but it would have been a much longer day if we had stuck to the original plan. Well just before we got to Old Man Lake we started hiking in snow and we had snow for a good half of the day to hike in and got to knee deep in some spots and once we reached Pitamakan pass the wind was just crazy. I got not summit view panorama on this hike because the visibility and cold freezing snow made it pointless. It was a great day except for the few cold blowing windy moments. I was hoping for a view of Stimson, but that too didn't happen either, way to overcast and stormy. Good all in all but Fall/Winter is definitely upon us!