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| Coyote in the bushes |
When I first moved to Calgary, I used to go off on little adventures to run in the woods (silly of me, now that I know more about bears!) and one of my aims was to run around Upper Kananaskis Lake, a total of 16 kilometres. I never achieved that aim, however on the weekend, a group of us hiked around the lake. At first we were a bit skeptical about attempting the hike, for two reasons. Firstly, we were hiking with a 9 year old, a 14 year old and a small terrier and secondly, we thought it might be a little boring with the same scenery. However, we were wrong on both counts. The kids were terrific and completed the six hour hike with minimal moaning, the dog out-walked us all and the scenery was absolutely spectacular.
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| Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes ... the Upper lake is on the left |
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| Bear in the Area! It's peak berry season for these furry creatures |
The day started well when we spotted a coyote on the roadside. It was my first up-close-and-personal look at one of these mean looking creatures. Pretty cool. It was a spectacularly beautiful day to hike - sunny and hot - although it was comfortable with the trees providing just enough shade and there was a lakeside breeze to keep us cool. The scenery was quite remarkable. Every few kilometres, the terrain changed. We hiked through rainforest like territory, a rocky moraine, a huge field of bushes and berries (we were particularly loud during this part of the hike - I didn't want to disturb a berry-eating bear) and there were also plenty of kilometres of lakeside wandering with views of the surrounding mountains.
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| Hiking over rocks |
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| View from the campground |
At one point, we walked through a campground and picked out a camp site (number 16, with a view similar to the one in the picture above) for a possible trip next year. Despite our initial hesitations about the hike, it was well worth it and my gym-sore legs were thankful that there wasn't much climbing, just a long, flat walk around the lake.
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| Pole to hang your packs on to keep them away from the bears |
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| Food storage lockers |
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| Peaceful log |
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| Tree stumps in the swamp |
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| Our hiking companion, Jake |
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| A river runs through it |
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| Hiking through the forest |
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| Pretty creek |
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| Nice fishing spot |
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| Stumps at the bottom of a waterfall |
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| Pretty view |
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| Glacier |
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| Dead tree island |
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| Dead trees on the shore |
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| Spot the chipmonk! |
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| Nearly home ... heading down to the car at Lower Kananaskis Lake |
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| Evening sunlight on the mountains |
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| More evening sunlight |
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