Yesterday was Canada Day (happy 145th birthday Canada!) and we celebrated by heading to the mountains for a hike with some friends. It was a special hike because it was our first of the season, it continued an annual tradition of meeting with this family for some mountain time and it was also Abbey's first hike.
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| View towards Calgary, half way up Mt Yamnuska |
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| Two terriers lead the way |
The weather forecast was shocking but our optimism paid off because when we got to the mountains, we saw nothing but blue sky and sunshine. Our first choice hike was quickly ruled out thanks to a metre of snow still covering the trail in parts (welcome to summer in the Rockies!) but we chose another one, the Yamnuska trail, a 8km up and back trail with about 600 metres of elevation gain (I rounded it out because some reports suggest that it is just over 500m but my GPS suggested that it was just over 700m.)
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| Indian paintbrushes |
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| Taking a rest break on the way up |
The trail was perfect - sunny walks along the side of the ridge as well as some shady relief in the forest. At the top of the trail, was a 'key-hole' which involved some scrambling through a narrow slit in the rock before the trail hit the scree on the way to the summit. Because we were hiking with dogs and children, we climbed through the key-hole, took a few pictures and then headed back down to find a good spot for lunch.
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| A man and his dog |
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| A man, his dog and an amazing view |
Hiking is not just about the walking and the views but also about the company and the food. We found a lovely spot for lunch (see below for a picture of our lunch spot view) and tucked into home-made sandwiches, vegetables, cherries, nuts and chocolate. Abbey was particularly thrilled to be allowed to share human food as well as snacking on her lamb jerky and freeze-dried chicken strips.
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| Through the key-hole |
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| Spot the chipmonk (Abbey obviously hadn't spotted him yet) |
The downhill was just as tiring as the uphill slog thanks to the slippery rocky path. The round trip took us about 3 and a half hours. It was a perfect time/distance/elevation for the first hike of the season.
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| Hiking cuddles |
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| Lunch break |
C and I were particularly thrilled with how Abbey handled the hike. In of our 'criteria' of what we wanted in a dog was that they could come hiking with us and Abbey certainly surpassed that criteria. She loved every minute of it and was up ahead of us checking out all the lovely new smells and keeping her eye out for chipmonks the whole way. Despite her boundless energy on the trail, the experience definitely tired her out because she has been asleep nearly all of today!
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| View from our lunch spot |
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| Wild daisies |
A hike in the mountains with good friends followed by a lovely BBQ dinner and animated chatting late into the night was the perfect way to spend a Canada Day!
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| On the trail home |
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