Canmore – Page 3 – HIKES & HAMSTRINGS

Grassi Lakes

I’m slowly starting to enjoy the winter. It’s been coldish, but I’ve already been out for two hikes. The first was Tunnel Mountain, and then on Monday, Robbie and I took a quick drive to Canmore to hike the Grassi Lakes trail. We left Calgary late and started the hike around 3 pm, but by 4:10, we were back at the car. I loved that the sun was out (albeit setting), and that we had great views of Canmore as we ascended. Walking past the icy waterfall was a nice touch before watching the sun set behind the mountains surrounding Grassi Lake. With all of the cross-country skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing planned, will it be possible to add more hikes?? Of course it will. Of course.

Stats

Start: 3:00 pm
End: 4:10 pm
Distance: 3.9 km
Elevation Gain: 165 m

Sunrise Over the Rockies

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned to Shari: would you be up for a morning hike to see the sunrise? Of course, being the awesome person she is, she said “yes”. So we decided to get a few people together for a Sunrise Hike over the Alberta Prairies. It would be an early morning hike where we would leave the city around 4:30 am and head out to the mountains, climb to a vantage point, and enjoy breakfast and hot tea and coffee while watching the sunrise in the horizon. It sounded wonderful!

So on Saturday morning, Robbie, Tushna, Shari and I headed out to Mount Yamnuska with the intention of hiking to the east ridge. There’s a lovely spot there to set up shop and watch the sunrise. As we pulled into the parking lot we realized how dark it was. Super dark. We strapped on our hiking bags, layered warm clothing, and switched on our headlamps. We were off!

Things would not go as planned. Within 5 minutes, Robbie stopped and flashed a light: “Did you see that??” He had seen two eyes, staring at him. We didn’t want to jump to conclusions at that point, so we cautiously proceeded. Then another few minutes later, he proclaimed: “Over there! Do you see it?” And lo’ and behold, something was watching us- this was clear. Not only was it watching us, it was silent and following us. As we walked along the trail, it had walked in parallel. Then we all heard the rustling. There was most definitely something moving over there… and it wasn’t that far away. The sounds weren’t loud enough to be a bear walking through the forest, so we think it was a cougar… and that’s not an animal we wanted to go up against!

That was that- we high-tailed it out of there, looking back cautiously. Of course, we were choked that the hike did not go as planned, but we were thrilled that we left unscathed! That is the most important thing. Safety first.

But this certainly did not deter us from watching the sunrise. We had lots of goodies- bagels, cream cheese, muffins, coffee, tea, and strawberries. We headed to Canmore and drove up the Spray Lakes road and stopped near the top of the Grassi Lakes trail. We ate, chatted, and then bundled up just in time to watch the sunrise over the mountains, casting a wonderful orange and purple colour on the clouds. The surrounding mountains were all dusted with a fresh snowfall, which made the scenery pretty amazing. I reminded myself that I feel so lucky and blessed to have such great people in my life and to live in a place where I can experience a sunrise over the Canadian Rockies, whenever I choose to. It was a pretty incredible morning :).

Barfing up Gatorade and Prosciutto on Ha Ling

So after Dan and his brother Aidan arrived on Wednesday, I decided to take them to Ha Ling. Amazingly, Dan had never done that hike before (I figured I would have taken him at some point). Aidan had never been to Alberta before and Ha Ling has incredible views from the top in minimal hiking time, so I figured it would be a good intro for a weekend of hiking. Right after work on Thursday, we headed to Canmore and began the hike around 5:30 pm.

I’ve blogged about the hike itself before, so I’ll focus on something else. Aidan. It was great to meet Dan’s brother after hearing about him over the years, and he was eager to get to the mountains to hike. But apparently he hadn’t eaten a lot in the two days prior to the hike, and he was a bit off. He craved gatorade and drank about four bottles of it. He also had a prosciutto sandwich right before we booted it up the start of the mountain. So after gaining about 100 metres in elevation, he stopped to say that he needed a break. Then it happened. He barfed. And not just a little. A lot. About 5 or 6 full heaves-worth. Of red gatorade. And bread. And prosciutto. I wish I captured it on Instagram. He definitely left a little bit of himself on the mountain that day. We ended up hiking a bit with a guy named Ali, who told us he heard a bunch of belching at one point and thought it was a joke. Nope. No joke. Just a fountain of barf. On another note: descending Ha Ling in the dark with head lamps while it rains = sketchy and treacherous.

All in all, despite two rounds of vomit and a bit of rain, we had a great hike with an awesome sunset behind the mountains. Aidan and Dan agreed it was a good starter and training hike for what was to come on Saturday…. Mount Indefatigable!

It’s Time for the Challenge-versary!

Dan and I at the summit of Cascade Mountain one year ago

Exactly one year ago, I was in the midst of an incredible experience. Dan and I were hiking up Cascade Mountain with a Yamnuska guide, a Parks Canada guide, and Jeff from The Real Banff. I had won the Big Mountain Challenge that month, which resulted in a $26000+ donation to The Kidney Foundation of Canada. Of course, hiking mountains was also part of the win… and hiking mountains is what we did!

Fast forward a year later, and Dan (this time accompanied by his brother) is about to board a plane en route to Calgary for what we have called the Big Mountain Challenge-versary! Dan and I don’t see each other very often since we live in different cities, but when we do, there’s usually some sort of adventuring to be had. And since I have had a lack of scrambles this year, scrambling will be part of the adventure! All I know is that I’m pretty stoked about a weekend filled with hiking, laughs, and shenanigans. I guess spending quality time and catching up is okay too eye roll.

Ha Ling: It’s Time for More Hiking!

There’s a part of me that’s a bit disappointed with the amount of hiking I’ve done this year. I guess it’s because I always want to head out to the mountains and sometimes life events happen that prevent this. For example, vertigo… vacations… road trips… gatherings… or just plain laziness, like today. It’s not that I don’t enjoy those things, because I definitely do, but there’s a yearning for the mountains that never goes away.

This is why it was so awesome to head to Ha Ling with Robbie and Jess yesterday and conquer this short climb. The weather was sunny and cloudy but perfect for a hike. We had all been itching to test our legs on the mountain. Now that the summer has started with the completion of Ha Ling, we can look forward to a summer ahead of many more mountain summits. And so today I proclaim: there will be many more summits to come! And my goal this year is to avoid, as best as possible, repeats of hikes. Why? Because there are just so many amazing ones out there!

One important thing we realized? “It’s not worth it if you’re going to die.” I suppose this is common sense. If there’s an activity where certain death is the outcome, it’s probably not worth it. Taking smart risks, on the other hand… well, those usually turn into quite the adventures!

Stats (according to Runkeeper):

Distance: 6.32 km
Duration: 3:53:49, starting at 2:10 pm
Pace: 36:59 min/km
Elevation: 756 m