Ribbon Creek...The Hike that Never Ends!

Last weekend Kevan and I decided to go for a hike in Kananaskis Country as we were thinking it was going to be the last nice weekend of the season. He arrived at our place without a definite hike in mind so we stopped at the Barrier Lake Info Centre to choose a mountain. While we were in there we decided not to hike a mountain but instead to do the Ribbon Creek Trail. We were both OK with that as the idea of huge elevation gain was not too exciting!

We arrived at Ribbon Creek Trail about 10:30 and began our hike. We were planning on doing the entire loop at first but then realized it was about 30km or more and we didn't start early enough in the day for that. Naturally, as Kevan and I started to hike, we began to take pictures and it was even more evident that we'd never be able to complete the loop since it took us about 2 hours just to go 6km!

Our first real stop was at a pool with leaves floating in it. Made for some beautiful shots. I ended up playing around with this one in Photoshop in case you couldn't tell!I had an idea at that point that Kevan and I should focus (no pun intended) on macro photography that day and he was in full agreeance. It was neat to explore this side of photography, especially since I finally have a lens that's capable of capturing these types of shots.

While we were walking down the trail Kevan passed under a branch that had some water droplets on it. They were very cool and it was possible to capture the mountains in them (though upside down).We also found an area that had not been hit by the sun yet and there was some hoar frost (I apologize if the spelling is off but I wasn't going to try it the other way I know how to spell that word!) on the rocks. For some reason I love B&W shots when it's rocks. It captures the contrast so much better.We stopped for lunch at a waterfall that we had heard from the trail. It was a little cool there but the quality of shots was pretty good. I had brought a rope this time hiking as I didn't know what kind of conditions we were going to face on whatever trail we happened to tackle so we used it to climb down to the water. After crossing around a rock face where there was only water below us we found we could have just climbed down on the other side without the need for a rope. Oh well, where's the adventure there!I decided to play with Photoshop with this picture as it was only mediocre. I really like how it turned out!

Kevan and I really wanted to get a shot of the waterfall but couldn't do it from the side of the stream we were on. We decided to cross over and Kevan went first. I was ready to go but we wanted to get pictures of this because, well, who would have believed we did such a stupid thing! Kevan nearly biffed it going across and as you can see below, I don't think it felt very good on his feet either! I was ready to cross only because I told him I would if he went but he said I didn't need to endure the pain he experienced. I have to tell you, I'm glad I didn't have to go!After getting Kevan back across the stream we finally sat down to eat lunch (we were starving as it was about 1pm). Kevan's sub that he got at the 7-11 was the highlight of that meal as he managed to get almost twice his daily fat intake and sodium intake off one sandwich. We had a good chuckle. Our walk on the trail was filled with more pictures until we ended up at Ribbon Falls. It was a pretty impressive waterfall but when taking pictures of it you really needed something there to give you an idea of the size of it. I decided to use Kevan (actually he started to climb up there and I was about to tell him to do the climb).After taking our pictures at the waterfall we decided to keep hiking up to the lake that was feeding it. The hike was only an additional 2km and there was a portion of the trail where they bolted a chain into the rock face as a lot of inexperienced people hike the trail and it would be a little dodgy for them. When we arrived at the chain I ended up going first so Kevan could get some shots and I decided that the chain really was unnecessary. We both ended up free-climbing the rock face, not only to where the chain went, but probably about 100 feet up. Not difficult at all since it was not a vertical face. Lots of fun going up!We ended up at the lake and stopped long enough for half a chocolate bar each. When we were ready to leave a group of university kids were going down as well. They did not look like experienced hikers and were kind of annoying (certainly the laugh of the guy at the back of the pack). We got stuck behind them at the chain again so instead of using the chain and getting stuck behind them we ended up free-climbing (or descending as the case was). Unfortunately Kevan got down before the group started moving but I wasn't quite down and had to stop until they cleared the area below me so I wouldn't risk dropping rocks on their heads. We ended up passing them at the falls and were looking forward to a peaceful hike out.

We underestimated their walking abilities. I should have pointed out at the beginning that the trail itself was little more than a granny hike so making good time wasn't too difficult if you weren't experienced. We pushed pretty hard the entire way back and about 4km from the end of the trail they had to stop and take a break. Thank goodness! We were both dying (our feet hurt the most!) but couldn't stop and let ourselves be passed by these...these...amatures!

When we finished the hike we looked at the distance we had gone and it was a total of 31.8km! That's crazy! We ended up walking almost half of the total distance of the West Coast Trail in an afternoon. We also calculated our average speed coming down and it was just shy of 8km an hour (we descended in 2 hours exactly)! That's pretty fast considering the average person walks between 4km - 5km an hour!

We decided on the way down that we were going to head quickly to the Kananaskis Village (Delta Hotel) to get a coffee and call Karyn and Leah to see if they wanted to do dinner together. Well, I'll tell you that the coffee was the most expensive I have ever paid (and would pay) in my life! I asked the server for 2 coffees to go and the total was $3.18. When he gave me the cup I asked where the other one was and he said "oh, you wanted 2 coffees?" I nearly had a heart attack when I realized how much they were charging! Highway robbery thanks to stupid rich people that go there and pay for such expensive coffee! UGH!!! That said, the coffee was OK, but certainly not worth $3.18 each!

The day ended in a dinner of pizza and a bottle of beer at Kevan and Leah's place. We tried to watch the Edmonton - Colorado hockey game and made it through 2 periods before I needed to call it a night. Partially for exhaustion, partially because I started coming down with a sinus cold that was making me all congested. Not a good end to the day and certainly not my idea of a good time for the rest of the weekend!

D