Two weeks ago Kevan, Aaron, and I decided to head to the Crowsnest Pass to hike Mt. Tecumseh. We were going to bring the girls along but Leah already had plans to meet up with a friend in Calgary, Megan was on her way back to Dalum to get ready for her move to Lethbridge for the school year, and Karyn didn't want to be the only girl on the hike.
We left Calgary at about 9:30am after a long breakfast ordeal where we ended up going to Cafe Bouquet, finding out it was closed, driving to Kennsington to another spot to find out that was also closed, and then back up to Cafe Bouquet. We decided that will be the last time we visit that restaurant due to poor service, poor food, and a general poor experience the past few times we've been there.
Our hike began with a group of three water-bombers passing overhead doing training on the Crowsnest Lake. It was pretty cool to see them fly low overhead, land in the lake to pick up water, and then take off again and drop their load over a forest. We had a leisurely walk up a back road to a dried creek-bed which was our trailhead.
The hike up the creekbed was basically one bouldering session after another. There were a number of points where you could climb up the creekbed using opposing force, though the backpacking footwear may have not been the best choice for this. We took a little longer playing in the creek-bed then necessary and we fully intend to go back again next year with ropes, harnesses, and proper footwear so we can play in there again.
We finally arrived at a point in the creekbed where we couldn't go on any further and had to climb out. The climb out was a little questionable (Aaron can attest to that!) but once we were out the hike was pretty easy. Kevan and I took the opportunity to push a huge boulder down the slope into the creekbed and watch it explode into a million pieces! I don't know why, but I get great satisfaction from pushing rocks down hills. Below you can see the point where we had to leave the creekbed. Our climb out was up to the top-right of the picture.
After we cleared the creekbed we had some lunch. Shortly after, we noticed some animals on the hillside and tried to determine for a good 10 minutes whether they were deer or sheep. They looked an awful lot like deer, but in the end (and when we got closer) we decided they were sheep. I still think there was some inter-species breeding going on and we were the witnesses of the results! At this point our hike got pretty tough.
The next 2 hours were grueling. Two hours of straight up the mountain without much of a path to follow. We ended up finding some game trails but this mountain was a 'Choose Your Own Adventure'. To make things worse, the "trail" was climbing up over loose boulders about the size of a soccer ball. It made for some tough, slow climbing. There were points when we all wanted to turn around but we kept pushing on.
What a relief it was to reach the summit! The view was amazing as we could look over the Rockies to the west of us, the foothills and prairie to the east. I took a few pictures at the summit and was quite pleased with the results. Glad I brought the tripod on this hike!
The way back down was almost worse than the way up! Going down the large boulders was a little difficult as we couldn't really slide down them like a scree slope. At one point I lost my footing, fell on my stomach, and then slid about a foot and scratched up my belly. I also hurt my hand which proved to be a real pain when we got back to the creek-bed where I needed to use it to lower myself down at some points.
We finished the hike very hot and very tired. After completing the mountain we all decided two things:
1. We were glad that we didn't bring the girls along because it probably would have proved a little too extreme for them.
2. Mt. Tecumseh is a one-time affair and, though it was satisfying to summit it, none of us have the desire to do so again.
~D~
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