39. Burstall Pass

Distance: 16 km return
Elevation gain: 472 m

Monday, August 4, a nice morning but thunderstorms forecast for later in the day so we decided to hike Burstall Pass instead of Tent Ridge for safety sake. Harry and Tena were in agreement with this plan.

The trail starts up an old road, wide enough for comfortable group conversation.

After a few kilometres of this, we reached the alluvial flats, glacier melt. It was a fun challenge to pick our way through the most shallow streams and then use our poles to help us vault over.

On the return, after the rain, the water was higher (or we couldn't find the better trail) and we landed in the streams many times. Fortunately, it was a nice day and our feet didn't get cold just prune-like.

After the water, we climbed and climbed through trees to this valley, a beautiful,open level area for lunch.

Many mountain peaks could be seen and admired from our lunch on the rocks.

 The next barren section makes me think of moon landscape and was very startling the first time I hiked this trail.

We continued on up to the pass and explored for a bit but soon the clouds and thunder encouraged us to start back down.

It did rain, we put on our ponchos and continued walking and enjoying all the variety the trail offered.

38. Forgetmenot Ridge, B)with Naylis and Skyler

Distance: 14 km return to high point
Elevation gain: 740 m

It was a very windy day in Calgary, July 25, not the best choice for a ridge walk but we decided to go with our plans. We had done this hike before and wanted to repeat it with a variation for this blog. We were also curious to see what changes the flood had made to the trail.

We had to cross the Elbow to begin the trail but we were prepared this time with water sandals and enjoyed the experience.

The trail has some steep sections in shale.

From the top we could see the wide muddy river bed resulting from the flood. Not really pretty.

When we got to the top, we could see the first peak on the north east end which we reached last time.

This time we wanted to walk along the ridge to the south and perhaps reach the highest peak. Our minimum goal was the rocky peak in this picture. It was easy walking on grass and flat rocks.

But it was not easy walking in the wind. I used the poncho for warmth because the wind was cold and I didn't have a windbreaker. Unfortunately, the wind won and we didn't reach a peak. We did lay down and rest behind some trees and out of the wind before our descent.

The descent was easy but still windy until we got into the trees again.

We (Herm) are starting to recognize other mountains in the area. Here we are looking at Nihahi Ridge (recently hiked) across the Elbow River. The blue lake in the middle is Forgetmenot Pond, miraculously untouched by the flood.

On the return, we forded the Elbow and the Little Elbow where the horses do in order to cut some uninteresting distance off. It was a little scary as we weren't sure of the depth but successful.

In this picture from across the pond, we can see where we hiked - up the left edge and then along the top.
Because we did not reach our goal, this hike must be repeated on a less windy day.

What a reward to have our choice of firepits out of the wind, beside the pond and finish the day in stillness and calm.

 

On August 13, 2020 or so, we hiked up the ridge to the north peak with Naylis and Skyler for Naylis' birthday. He has decided he likes hiking. They found it a bit tiring going up but definitely led the way going back down. Beautiful weather, great cold Elbow River to cross and delicious ice cream reward.