To the Kananaskis country

---

When: 14th - 15th August 2010
Where: Peter Lougheed Provincial Park
Mileage: 300 km
Highlights: Some of the best sights of the Rockies outside the National Parks

Saturday, 14th August
Leaving late(ie., late for a walk in camp site) we found campsite availabilities in single digits at the Visitor center. Rushing to check in our luck & also wanting to choose the one with showers, we checked almost every campground on the way. And I should say that there are many campgrounds for a Provincial park and every campsite was FULL. We surely did not want to go back home at this point. So, we turned out at Mt.Sorrail campground hoping we would find a spot here as there is a "catch" that "may" turn some people away. And that is the sites are not driveable. You need to park you car & walk 2 - 5 minutes depending on the sites. That and NO SHOWERS!
But we looked at one site & loved it absolutely. It has the best view out of the patio 😊
Extremely relieved & happy at the same time, we set up camp.

At the visitor center, we saw notices about the Berry season & was also informed about the Buffalo berries in the area.

Shortly, we headed to the Canadian Mt.Everest Expedition Trail. The name sounds odd. Why would you call it a Mt.Everest expedition if it was only 2km & 320ft elevation?

The hike:
Elevation Gain: 100 m (328 ft).
This short, interpretive trail is dedicated to the spirit of the 1982 expedition, which saw the first Canadian set foot atop Mt. Everest. It is located in Peter Lougheed Prov. Park in Kananaskis Country, and follows a 2km trail above Kananaskis Lake. A nice, easy, short trail with very little elevation gain, with a nice view of the lake.

We saw a lot of the b-berries here.

The Upper Lake was very inviting in that hot weather. So we spent a fair time there. Ganesh got back to his long forgotten interest(remember Kent Avery from Vancouver?). So there he was at the lake using up all the stones to pile it up one on top of the other. I have to say, I was amazed! I still am.

There was enough daylight & so we hit the Boulton creek trail.
A short 3 km hike that goes beside the creek for the later part of the hike. We saw many bear marks on trees & some poop too. So, we made noise.

Coming back home, our neighbor was a group of 13 friends from 6 different countries. I also got to know later from the Manager that there were people from Belgium and Czech Republic too. He was so happy to see people from so many countries. He is from England, anyways. He also mentioned (un)excitedly about 3 people from the US too. When I conveniently assumed the reason for his casual comment to be because US is so close & they probably see a lot of them around here, he comfortably answered that they think they are special. Well! I've heard it before. The Canadians do not like the Americans, so much. For whatever reason!
The Manager also informed us that some campers saw a grizzly by their tent site. One cannot stress the importance of a bare campsite enough.




That night, just before going to sleep, I was wondering that this was probably the one weekend where I spent negligible amount of carbon. No showers tomorrow. No flush toilets even. Not even tap water(we used a hand pump). Simplest we've probably been so far.
After looking at it this way, not taking a shower did not seem so bad. But, my tolerance goes only this far. One more day & I would've gone berserk.



Sunday, 15th August
Woke up at around 7.00 am. Under normal circumstances, it would've been ok. But I'd wanted to take some sunrise pictures. So, I rushed to the Upper lake across the campground. Ganesh joined me while I puffed climbing up the dam. I go over & I am totally awestruck. The place vibrated with silence, reflection, fog & the morning sunlight. I was so stunned that I just sat there for a couple of minutes without doing anything.😊
The low temperature should've been somewhere around 5C. It was cold, but very bearable to us.



We went to pay a visit to Ganesh's artwork & it was still alive. Ganesh made one more structure & I am amazed at how fast he does these things.

Back at the camp, the little one woke up in a short while. By then the Sun was up & it became really hot.
After the usual daily camping routines, we set out.
We headed S on Kananaskis trail(hwy 40) to Highwood meadow pass. This is supposed to be the highest road pass in Canada(The pass reads 2206m).

Along the highway, we were suprised to see at least 10 Rocky mountain sheep on the road. I was wondering what they would want from the road. I saw one closely & he/she was happily licking something off the road. I bothered to keep this in mind and ask someone at the visitor center.

Located in beautiful Kananaskis country in the Canadian Rockies, the Highwood Pass is the highest navigable pass in Canada. The summit is just about at the tree line, which means the surrounding area is one of the most accessible alpine areas in the Canadian Rockies. Pull into the nearby Highwood Pass day use area and walk the interpretive trails through the Highwood Meadows.

This is the trail head for the Ptarmigan cirque as well. So, we crossed the hwy & started climbing up almost instantly.
It is an interpretive trail & the interpretation is here

The hike:

Ptarmigan Cirque is a high mountain bowl (cirque)above the Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country. It is billed as an interpretive trail, but the first kilometre is quite steep. But stick with it because the cirque area itself is worth the effort. Besides interpretive trails have those little signs every now and then where you can legitimately stop and rest while you slowly read the text. Once you leave the trees the trail levels out considerably. The landscape in the cirque is quite stark, but the views are fantastic. You can stay on the trail or head further up the cirque along a faint trail. you can also go further up to Mt. Rae from here, but that's a scramble for another time. courtesy: trailpeak.com

The hike was refreshing to say the least. It was a perfect day. Sunny with cloudy patches. One cannot ask for a better day to take a hike here. But as the brochure read, I could clearly imagine this place in winter. A 30 below with howling winds. Classic arctic tundra, it read.
I felt the altitude at the very top. Since it said, the place is a birthplace of a glacier, I probably looked at it too intensely.😊
I was trying to catch my breath at the initial climb. That was when I met a Ranger who had a grizzly skull at hand. She was explaining how the teeth were very much human-like. They are not carnivores. At least they were not made that way. She also threw some light on what these grizzlies eat & also about their acts for survival. Bring in that place, I could easily imagine how hard it is for a bear to survive.
I also clarified my question about those big horns on the road. She told me that they lick salt & minerals from the ground. "You would think that they would run away when you get closer, but they don't."
It is true. She also told me that since it was proving very dangerous to the animals, some park staff have to be around & hit them with paintball-like darts to shoo them away from the road. I could only smile. These guys(sheep) have to do what they have to do for survival. And we shoo them away just so we don't kill them! So pathetic!!!
Anyways, I wanted to catch my breath by listening to her. But ended up spending more energy asking her questions. 😊



The staff at the Visitor center mentioned these 3 hikes & told us that if we managed to do these, then we had a pretty good weekend. That we did!

Back at home, as I write, I am already thinking about the next weekend. It definitely helps to get through the week in between.😊

~travelbuffs
__________
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”-Sir Edmund Hillary

---

Photos

Morning view
Upper Lake

Lower Kananaskis lake
from the viewpoint on Canadian Mt.Everest expedition trail

Comments

[geetha]

Wonderful !
Dear Meera and Ganesh, What a place ! Shared the phtographs with my parents too. They send their best wishes Any particular reason for the name"canadian everest " - any links to Mt Everest take care