Had quite a few people over on Folk Fest weekend for lunch - hope everyone who came had fun. It was good to see everyone. We had a total of 24 guests this year.
On the Monday after, Nancy and I headed out to Kananaskis, where we camped from M-F. The campground we were at - Spray Lakes West - was both new to us and "new", having been recently rebuilt. It's a very nice campground, set right on Spray Lakes (reservoir for the Bow Hydro power system). The access road to the campground is built over a dam and there is the Three Sisters hydro plant on one side so that was also interesting. Highway 742 south of Canmore is gravel, as were accesses to all the hikes we did, but our little car did great bumping over the washboards and potholes despite being loaded with our camping gear, including 100 lbs of firewood and a 3'+ long cooler we lug along these days due to its superior ice retention properties.
After the fires this year, we weren't getting our hopes up but the fire ban was lifted, so we could have a proper camping trip, pizza irons and all.
Morning fog over Spray Lakes by the campground
Deer in campground
We mostly had good weather. A couple of days it rained briefly in the afternoon but we were back from hiking by then.. Had some loud neighbours for a couple nights but what can you do.
We did some nice hiking. On Nancy's birthday, we did the Tent Ridge horseshoe, which has you climbing to the top of a ridge and following it around in a semi-circle to two more peaks so you are on the top of the ridge for most of the day. This is probably one of my new favourite hikes.
Tent Ridge in centre frame of this panorama, with the semi-circular ridge approach to the left
Nancy doing some light scrambling to the first ridge peakRock that looks like a middle finger Repeater station at the top of the first ridge point
Approach to Tent Ridge. Unfortunately you have to descend from the first peak, then back up again Valley from the colTop of the second high pointFrom Tent Ridge summitThe next day we did Windtower, which I partly picked out of the guidebook from its proximity to our campsite, and partly due to the cool-sounding name. Nancy didn't make it to the top but that's what walkie-talkies are for. At the summit the cliffs around it are sheer, which makes it pretty exciting-looking.
Windtower from the meadow before the final ascent
View of Spray Lake and the summit cairns on Windtower
The next day we opted for something a bit more prosaic. Ha Ling is one of the most popular hikes around Canmore and the trail was redone in 2019. We had never done it though so we went up this trail, which was indeed very busy despite it being midweek. All ages were doing this, including some babies (firmly attached to mom) and what appeared to be a group from the octogenarian set.
In some parts what are basically staircases have been built to assist hikers up steep sections
Nancy approaches the summit
Ha Ling summit panorama
Miners Peak is off the saddle of Ha Ling. This is the view from it. There was a lone patch of green with a couple of trees that I found quite charming
We also went to Grassi Lakes. It was a bit more strenous than expected after just having done Ha Ling half an hour before but was worth it.
Upper Grassi Lake
Climber on the rock wall above Grassi Lakes
For the third camping trip in a row, we left on a Friday after camping for the week and for the third time in a row, we had to pack up wet as it was raining on departure. C'est la vie.
Next week we have Symphony Under the Sky and I've been toying with seeing Metallica when they visit Commonwealth as well.
In other news, Nancy is thinking of working remotely in Spain for a month or so next year and I would take a couple weeks off for us to go on vacation there. It's very preliminary but thinking mid-spring.
