October 22, 2018
This morning, my brother (Charlie) and I headed back up to Crowsnest Pass for a "short" hike. We were meeting family in the afternoon, so we wanted to fill our day with a hike where it was such a beautiful day. A short drive outside Lethbridge, we saw a coyote in the field and it stopped long enough to get a couple photo's ... it was a little too far to get an excellent photo, but fun to watch.
Below is an outline my brother Charlie did using his GPS to track our 13km+ hike.
My brother and I started our "little" hike along an old wagon road they used after the Frank Slide covered the road and railway tracks. They only used this road for a short period of time to go around the slide until the new road and train tracks were built.
We parked at the Frank Slide Interpretation Centre and I took a couple photo's at this location before our hike.
Hiking along the old wagon road, we found one spot that was very scenic and had a conglomerate cliff below us.
After hiking the old wagon road, my brother asked me if I wanted to climb up to the Eagle Watch Observation Station on Piitaistakis (South Livingstone Ridge). A lovely young lady, Cecilia, in the Interpretive Center told us that there were quite a few eagles sited in the area now. We had to decide if we were going to hike back to the Interpretive Centre and drive part way up, or hike from the wagon trail we were already on. We decided to hike from the wagon road, which means we would have to bushwhack it as there is not trail from this side.
We steadily had gained elevation during our hike up and the view of Turtle Mountain constantly changed and was continually impressive.
We got to one point where there were three peaks and we had to find out which one we needed to climb as we could not see the structures from where we were. We climbed a short hill and came across this sign ... love it.
Once we got near the top of the hill, we could see where the building was on Piitaistakis (South Livingstone Ridge). We would first start to climb up the ravine and then straight up the hill to the structure. Well, not exactly straight but pretty darn close to it. HaHaHa
Going up the ravine there was quite a bit of snow and was quite icy on a section that a few people had hiked up.
Once out of the ravine, we were in the open and started the final leg of the journey to the top of this mountain. You can see how much elevation gain we had climbed and still a little way to go.
This last section of our climb was over 300m elevation climb ... and quite demanding I must say. LOL
You don't think the view could get any better and then you stop and turn around to see this! What majestic scenery. Looking back onto Turtle Mountain I reflected on how Charlie and I climbed up to the North Peak of Turtle Mountain last year. I have added an arrow pointing to North Peak on the photo below
For a quick history lesson: Turtle Mountain in the background is where part of the mountain gave way and slid down over most of the town of Frank in 1903 (Hence the name Frank Slide)
The terrain was a little rough, but we did not have to climb over much deadfall which made it a nicer climb.
The panorama was magnificent.
Near the top we spotted a deer watching us.
The final leg and it was getting steeper.
Glory! We reached the top with jubilation.
It was absolutely a wonderful journey and what a view from this peak.
Had to take some time to contemplate ... life is good.
Because we went from a "short" hike into a much longer off trail excursion, we knew at this point we would be late to meet with family. I called Les and Lori, from this peak, to let them know we were going to be arriving late. After the call, we were pretty quick to descend.
The sun was starting to go down behind Turtle Mountain so it was certainly a great time to be at the site.
We stopped in to see Les and Lori and was so pleased to see Mike and his family here as well. Unfortunately it was a short visit, but it is not the amount of time you spend but the quality of time. Such a wonderful group, and it was so great to see all of them again before I head back to Nova Scotia.
We then stopped in to see Bert, Brandi and family. In this photo, there are four generations being represented here. Such a joy! I just loved to have had the opportunity to tease the kids.
Thank you for the photo's you took of me Charlie, and also for another fantastic day with my bro!