19. Heart Mountain Horse shoe

Distance: 10.5 k return
Elevation gain: 930 m


 On Saturday, August 11, Herm and I were up for a strenuous scramble up Heart Mountain. We started early because we had a dinner date at 6:00. Having done this same hike 8 years ago, we anticipated a great experience.The top of the mountain looks heart-shaped from Hwy 1.

Herm is always teaching me about trees and I have learned to recognize massive Douglas firs somewhat by their bark but especially by their distinctive cones (with mousetails) which can be found on the ground under the tree. Here I was thrilled to see a young Douglas fir with cones, my size.













The scramble begins. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show how steep we were climbing. It wasn't scary because there were lots of places to step and hold. Actually it was fun.

From Heart Mountain we could look down and see the Bow River, Lac des Arcs and Exshaw.

Once we thought we were at the top we looked ahead to see the second peak and kept on trucking.






The top of that peak showed us the highest peak still ahead.

 From the top we could look back and see the heart again.



On the mountain peak again.

 

The rest of the horseshoe ridge was a beautiful walk

until I looked where and how we had to descend. It wasn't as bad as it looked but I decided I didn't have to do this hike again.

Before we descended, we could look down to the trail from the highway to Quaite valley where we have been eating Thanksgiving dinner for the last 5 - 10 years.
The whole hike took us 6 hours, the same as 8 years ago, and we got to our dinner party on time and showed them Herm's pictures of the day.