It was a gorgeous sunny October day for the eleven people who came out to hike the 11 km trail from A60 westward to Schnee Hill.

Each year we try to schedule this hike at the end of the season, after the crops have been mown.  Otherwise, the trail would be another 2 km as we would have to go around a field.

There are still highbush cranberries on the branches and this is the best time to eat them fresh. The recent frosts have made them sweet, pulpy, and intense—every berry is a blast of refreshment and vitamin C.

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Lunch was at the top of Schnee Hill. There are two ways to climb it.  You can approach it from the north side and go straight up, or you can follow the animal path, which starts on the north side and uses switchbacks running up the east side. Either way, climbing the hill takes only minutes. It’s not nearly as daunting as it looks.

And it’s well worth it too. The grassy plateau at the top is irresistible for having a lie-down after lunch.

Thanks go to Lee for leading the hike and to Trail Maintenance for the great job clearing the trail, which hadn’t been done in two years. You can find more photos on Flickr.

Five people came out to hike the trails that lead up to the middle lake of the three Miquelon Lakes.

Ever since Trail Maintenance put in a good strong boardwalk a few years ago, the path over the marsh at the beginning of the trail has become very walkable.

 

From time to time, you’ll see an antique rusted car on the Waskahegan Trail. This section happens to have the cutest one.

Thanks to Johanna for leading the hike and to Trail Maintenance for clearing the trail. You can see more pictures on Flickr.

 

As the weekend approached for our trip to David Thompson Country, we knew from the weather forecasts that we had better pack warm clothes. Snow was on the way, but it was just the type of snow that would melt in a few days.

Thursday morning, our carpool headed for the Goldeye Centre outside Nordegg, with a quick stop along the way at our favourite Dutch grocery store and café, the Wooden Shoe at Gull Lake. As we approached the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, we were treated to stunning views of fields and forests in fall colours.

At Goldeye, we hiked around the lake and up the hill to a vast cleared section. The clouds lifted and we got our first view of the mountains.

Flowers are still blooming here. We saw a lot of yellow asters (Arnica) and even strawberries in bloom.

On Friday morning, the ground was covered in a light dusting of snow. We headed south to the Kootenai Plains and hiked the popular Siffleur Falls trail.

The next day, more snow had fallen. We spent the morning with a hike down to Crescent Falls. The trees were loaded down with the fluffy stuff and we could see the clear, distinctive paw prints of a wild cat—as well as rabbit tracks .

In the afternoon we hiked the trail at Cline River. We started off on the horse trail and then took a side shoot down to the river. The narrow trail runs along the river and rises up as the gorge deepens. We were quite high up, overlooking the rocky canyon, before the trail led us back to the horse trail again. This side trail is not found on most maps, but it is described in the David Thompson Highway Hiking Guide by Jane Ross and Daniel Kyba. Almost in unison, we declared we would come back and visit this again.

On Sunday morning we checked out and drove to Fish Lake, just south of Nordegg, for our last hike of the trip.

The “group photo” below shows how evenings were spent in the lodge—the boys quietly reading books and the girls loudly playing cards!

A big thank you goes to Anita who organized the trip and led the hikes. You can see more photos on Flickr (Wooden Shoe, Thursday at Goldeye, Friday at Siffleur Falls, Saturday at Crescent Falls and Cline River Corridor, Sunday at Fish Lake)

 

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