With a week of rain coming up in the forecast, we had to make sure we took advantage of today - sunny and clear with a nice cool high of 16-18 C. Last night Amanda asked me to pick a hike for today with our good friend Lexie. I broke out the maps and Gillean Daffern's Kananaskis Country Trail Guide books. This one jumped out at me, and it was one we hadn't done before. It has a moderate elevation gain but lots of payout, with a gorgeous mountain lake at the top, surrounded by beautiful ridges and summits. The hike follows Canyon Creek initially, and then Upper Canyon Creek the rest of the way up to Bryant Lake. The creek bed is very walkable the whole way but there are many intermittent trails on the banks which are much easier than the creek bed. The trails continuously start and end, but it is easy to find another bit to follow. The creek bed has to be crossed many times, but it seems to add to the fun. This was made much easier by the fact there is currently no flowing water.
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| Canyon Creek River Bed |
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| BHB - Best Hiking Buds! |
We were hopeful that this would be a good hike, but it far exceeded our expectations. There were views the whole way up, and every type of terrain and feature - river bed, meadow, rocks, boulders, scree, waterfalls, forest trails, and a beautiful alpine lake. In addition to all of this, the back and forth across the creek bed and the intermittent river bank trails made this a very fun walk. Lunch at Bryant Lake was surreal. "The blue-green tarn cradled in a basin under Mount Bryant" as Gillean Daffern describes it, is a very special place indeed, and we had it all to ourselves. We enjoyed a very peaceful moment (and had quite a few laughs) as we devoured our PB&Js, and Lexie's delicious Cadbury's Fruit & Nut chocolate bar.
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| Boulders |
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| Meadows |
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| Scree |
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| Alpine Lake - Bryant Lake |
Walking with our friend Lexie is always entertaining, and educational (she happens to be a biology instructor at MRU so we always learn a lot about rocks, plants, and animals as we go). Today we learned about Lion's Mane Mushrooms, which turns out to be a very good description. It was a great hike (might be in my top 5 Kananaskis hikes of all time), a great time, and a great workout. I would highly recommend this hike to my friends, and hope to bring my father on it in September when he comes to visit (rest up, Jojo!!).
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| Three Amigos |
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| Post-PBJ Shenanigans |
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| Home Stretch |
