Chester, not Rummel, and too many tourists

The plan for today was to hike to Rummel Lake. We got to the trailhead just in time to find a school bus full of Japanese tourists starting the hike. I come to the mountains to avoid crowds, so the idea of hiking with 45 tourists marching as a pack all yapping wasn't my idea of a good time. Trouble is, the Rummel trailhead is way down the Spray Lakes road, so given that we were down there already, we were kinda stuck for alternatives. So we went to Chester Lake, which has to rank as the single most popular trail in all of Kananaskis, figuring that 45 other hikers were fine so long as they were not in a group.

We were wrong.

I think the bus first dropped off a load at Chester before going to Rummel. Chester lake itself is an "OK" hike in my books. The lake is nice, but the hike up is kinda blah.




So when we go to Chester, we always add on the Three Lakes Valley for the spectacular rock formations, great fossils and beautiful vistas.





And a group of 25 Japanese followed us the whole way. So much for solitude. They chased away the critters, stepped in the animal tracks, and made enough noise to make sure every bear in Alberta would run away. So we were fortunate to stop them from stepping in wolf tracks...



...plus find marmots, chipmunks and Columbian Ground Squirrels.






The Robertson Glacier & Mt. Sir Douglas were pretty cool today, too.

Bike & Hike to Ribbon Falls

Our second "bike & hike" trip this year led us up to Ribbon Falls. This is a long 22 km trek, but 8 km of that can be biked on a fire road, so we grunted our way up on the bikes and really enjoyed the coast on the way down. Nicely, they provide a bike rack at the end of the fire road.



The hike follows Ribbon creek, which initially is fairly wide...



...past some ruins of old logging cabins...



...until the creek heads into a slot canyon full of rapids & waterfalls.





The prize at the end is Ribbon Falls itself, which is pretty -- and popular.



Along the way we saw some VERY fresh bear poop, and two trees being destroyed by carpenter ants.




All in all, a popular hike that is worth doing, but is indeed best done as a bike/hike.

Stampede 2009

Had the privilege of going to the Stampede Rodeo this year with the folks from Blake's, and sitting in the infield grandstand, where the view is GREAT.



On top of that, we were treated like royalty by a friend of ours who is the Chairman of the Courtesy Car committee, getting a ride onto the grounds right up to our grandstand, and the wonders of a chute tour (where you find out up close and personal that these folks are well and truly nuts for wanting to ride wild livestock for a living).



You have to admire people who are willing to do this. They bull rider with the fractured disc, the saddle bronc rider with the broken leg -- I'm sure their doctors approve of this as physiotherapy.







Even the less death defying events are fun to watch.





But I root for the animal, and it's most fun when it wins.





Once again, thanks to my friends David & Gavin at Blake's for inviting us this year.

First Emma, then Ryan, now David & Helen

Trip up a mountain #3 with West Wing visitors saw us heading up to Old Goat Falls, a short hike that leads up a pretty creek valley...



...to a set of falls under a glacier. While you can make it up to the glacier (and several parties were doing just that today), we opted just to picnic at the falls.



Our guests today were Helen, in town from Indonesia, and her son David, in town on 28 day rotation out of Angola.



Turns out David likes his Kit Kats, and the mountains.




On our way back to the car, we got caught in the edges of a thunderstorm. It passed over The West Wing, and ended up in Calgary.






I always like thunderstorms for many reasons, one of which is that it always clears after them.

Up West Wind Pass with Ryan

Another perfect hiking day in paradise. We have guests, so took my sort-of brother in law up to West Wind Pass to show him our neighborhood and one of the best picnic spots we know of.

WWP is a good trail, but it has lots of steeper grunt sections. However, you have ever improving views back down Spray Lake to make the numerous stops worthwhile.




As always, the views at the top were wonderful.




And the meadow at the top is also very pretty -- if windy.