Bertha Lake Family Hike July 2, 2016

We all dawned our Miles for Mark shirts today and headed up to Waterton.  The morning started with a few of us participating in the Annual Harlan Taylor Run in Raymond.  Some of us ran the 10k that morning then went on an 11 km hike that afternoon.  Waterton was probably the busiest I have ever seen it in my life.  I have never seen so many people on the trail and we sure stuck out with our matching blue shirts.  It was a nice day, perfect for hiking and a great time was had by all.

At the beginning of the hike

Beautiful lookout over Waterton Lake

Line Shot with everyone poking their heads out for the picture

Lower Bertha Falls

Honeysuckle Flower

Another Flower

Great view, on the last switch-back, down onto middle Waterton Lake

Group shot at the lake

Bertha Lake

Our group got broke up for the day because of car trouble, but here is everyone that made it to the falls

Mt. Cleveland in the distance, it was one year ago this day that I was on top of that peak

Final flower shot

Mapmyhike track of hike

Google Sphere Picture at Lake

Three Peak Attempt (Kishinena, Festubert, Lone) June 25, 2016

Well I had been looking to do this hike for quite some time and had researched it out pretty good and was all ready to go.  The weather was looking good, then the forecast changed, it said it was only going to rain the night before, so I thought I'd be fine.  Well I also had a few other friends that flaked out on me as well so it was just me and my son.  We woke up at 4:30 am and got on the trail by 6:30 am at Red Rock Canyon.  It was overcast but not raining, then as we took the trail towards snowshoe campground it started to spit a little, it never really rained heavily but just enough to be wet.  Anyways, we got to the Sage Pass trail marker and headed up to our ridge walk over the continental divide to summit Kishinena and Festubert.  Well the cloud cover never lifted and as we climbed we realized we were socked in pretty good and that it wasn't going to clear up.  Also as we hiked higher up to Sage Pass we realized that it had snowed in the higher elevations the night before.  So we eventually got to a false summit before the true summit and realized it wasn't safe.  The snow was wet from the rain we had been getting all morning and the visibility was terrible.  I didn't feel comfortable pushing ahead under those circumstances.  So we headed down to Twin Lakes and thought maybe Lone peak on the other side of the Bauerman Divide would be clearer??  So we headed down and got to Twin and ate lunch and went and visited Upper and Lower Twin Lakes just to say that we had been to both lakes.  Then we hiked over the Bauerman Divide and found out that it was just as socked in over there as it was at Kishinena.  So we decided that we would try and go up the South Kootenay Pass trail as we had never done it before and a friend of mine had tried finding the trail down a few days before and couldn't find it.  So we figured we'd try that and hoped that in so doing maybe the clouds would dissipate and maybe have another chance at Kishinena from the other side.  Well we noticed just like Sage Pass the snow got deeper as we climbed higher and the clouds got thicker as we climbed as well.  So we had the same problem as on Sage Pass.  Well by then we had hiked about 22 km for the day and my son's boots were wet and we figured it was enough for the day so we headed back to Red Rock via the Blakiston Valley trail.  Once we got low enough and in that valley the day turned beautiful.  We kept looking back and the clouds above our 3 peaks never dissipated until we reached the end of the trail and we noticed that Lone had opened up and if we had gone and tried that last peak we probably could have made it up.  Hindsight is always 20/20 eh!  It was a good day where I got to go on two trails I had never hiked on and got to visit Lower Twin Lake which I had never actually gone to either.  But I think I'll try this again in a few weeks when the weather is nicer!

All Socked in looking towards the slopes of Bauerman Peak

Heading up Sage Pass, looking down on Upper Twin Lake

This is about as far as we came, to slippery and couldn't see where we were going

I think there must have been about 1/2 foot of snow that fell at this elevation the night before

Lower Twin Lake with Bauerman's slopes behind

Looking down to Lower Twin Lake with the Snow Shoe trail valley behind

Crossing more snow after Twin Lakes to get up over Bauerman Divide

Looking up at the cliffs of Kishinena, after Twin Lakes and before Bauerman Divide

Unnamed lake that we named Scout Lake on a scout hike a few years earlier, notice we are still socked in with cloud cover

Scout lake, not a breath of wind

We stopped for a break here and I though the stream was pretty with the snow around it...pictures never do justice

Carter trying to dry his feet

Proof we made it to South Kootenay Pass

Looking down the Blakiston Valley from South Kootenay pass trail

The bear grass on the Blakiston Valley trail was spectacular.  

Another shot of the bear grass

More bear grass

The Blakiston valley trail was definitely more lush with flowers and vegetation that the Snow Shoe valley trail

Mapmyhike Track of Hike

Mt. Galwey May 28, 2016

Every year our church hosts a Father's and Son's camp.  This year on the Saturday I decided I would extend the event and have my own time with my two son's.  So I decided we could do a hike after the camp-out.  So we finished up our camp and packed up all our stuff and headed to Waterton.  We got there and started heading up Mt. Galwey.  I had done this hike many years earlier and remembered the way quite well.  I did forget how it may not be a suitable hike for those afraid of heights.  There is a pretty sketchy section where you need to traverse a cliff ledge with a huge drop below you.  I was very careful with my youngest who was only 8 on this day.  His birthday was actually the next day so he is really 9.  It was his second ever summit and not a bad one.  It was a great day we had a bit of wind and a little snow from time to time but the summit view was clear and sunny.  We headed down and really ran into no difficulties the entire way.  Great day spent with my son's!

This was also the first hike I haven't used Google Tracks. Funny because it worked tracking on my phone just like usual but the app won't let me share the link and thus I can't get it to this website.  So for now I'll just keep using Mapmyhike instead.

The beginning of our day, clear skies to the north, but a little less clear to the south.  Galwey the peak in the top center.

I haven't hiked much in the spring but the flowers of Waterton were out in full bloom today

More Flowers

Not sure of the name of any of these but they were pretty

Another flower

Blakiston in the background

Little creek we crossed just before the shale section

Parker didn't enjoy his first shale experience... he almost wanted to turn around!

Great view of the Red Rock area to our west.  Mt. Anderson just to left of center.

Cold enough for icicles!

The neat window of Galwey, great view of the prairies.

The boys in the window

Lakeview peak on the left of center, Carter and I had done that a few months earlier.

Summit Cairn Picture, there was actually a register in this one!

Another view of Blakiston

View of the ridge spine we came up.

Took this picture to show mom!

Coming down got out the tripod to get me in a couple pictures.  Crandel Lake right in the center of this picture.

Turned the tripod around and view of Galwey behind us!

Beautiful view looking towards Sofa Mountain

Buchanan Ridge south of us with Crandel lake in the middle of picture

Google Sphere Picture on Top

Panorama on Summit

Video on Summit

MapMyHike Link of Hike

Old Baldy Chetwynd B.C. March 26, 2016

We had driven up to Chetwynd in northern B.C. to visit my sister and her family for the Easter weekend.  It was a long drive, kind of reminded me of driving up to Yellowknife, just trees the entire way.  The one day we were there my sister said there was a nice lookout hike that we could do with some of the kids if we wanted.  Nothing too hard or difficult, but still worth the view.  So a few of us headed up and took our little hike of Mt. Baldy in Chetwynd.  It was a little windy but a good little hike and view.

The start of our hike

Resting on the way up

First flower I'd seen for the year

On top

View down on Chetwynd

Panorama from the top

Map My Hike Track of Hike

Google Track of Hike

Stats of Hike (I forgot to end the track when finished so we drove into town a bit):

Total distance: 3.32 km (2.1 mi)

Total time: 1:15:57

Moving time: 57:54

Average speed: 2.62 km/h (1.6 mi/h)

Average moving speed: 3.44 km/h (2.1 mi/h)

Max speed: 44.10 km/h (27.4 mi/h)

Average pace: 22:53 min/km (36:49 min/mi)

Average moving pace: 17:27 min/km (28:04 min/mi)

Fastest pace: 1:22 min/km (2:11 min/mi)

Max elevation: 880 m (2886 ft)

Min elevation: 630 m (2067 ft)

Elevation gain: 179 m (587 ft)

Max grade: 28 %

Min grade: -35 %

Recorded: 3/26/2016 2:36 PM