Heart Mountain
Today we hiked the dreaded "Heart Mountain", a 14 km loop where we climb for a third of the hike, then do a beautiful ridge walk around the backside of the mountain for another third of the hike and then a long, long walk down. Did I mention it was a long hike? Yes, it goes forever, but it was totally worth all the effort in the views earned along the way. The hike begins in with about a half kilometre hike to the trail head near Heart Creek which is actually sourced from the runoff from the mountain. We immediately began to hike upwards and it was a grind. Going up was a long slog... not much to talk about other than we rested often and worked hard. the hard work was very worth it to gain the views from the first summit, where we ate lunch.
After lunch we began our ridge walk around the backside of the mountain. This was a beautiful walk and we gained even more elevation, rising to an alpine meadow stolen right from "The Sound of Music". Of course a few bars of the famous song had to be sung. We took our group photo at this summit and then continued on the ridge walk to get to the end of the upper portion of the hike and to begin our descent.
The descent... There's not really much to talk about other than it lasted forever and it was awful. The kids were great though and we were very fast down the mountain. Still, it took almost two hours to get to the bottom and when we finally did, we still had a two kilometre hike back to the bus. We stopped in the creek to cool down and then headed back to the bus for some well earned watermelon.
The bus...
Unfortunately, our bus experienced some technical difficulties and we were forced to call around for an alternative solution. We called up Highland VIP Limo Service in Canmore and not only did they come with a small bus to pick us up, they also took almost no time at all and did it out of the goodness of their heart and didn't charge us a dime. They only asked us to pay it forward. Through this whole trip the students were amazing! Kudos to them!
We got back and ate around 9:30 PM. Great day!
After lunch we began our ridge walk around the backside of the mountain. This was a beautiful walk and we gained even more elevation, rising to an alpine meadow stolen right from "The Sound of Music". Of course a few bars of the famous song had to be sung. We took our group photo at this summit and then continued on the ridge walk to get to the end of the upper portion of the hike and to begin our descent.
The descent... There's not really much to talk about other than it lasted forever and it was awful. The kids were great though and we were very fast down the mountain. Still, it took almost two hours to get to the bottom and when we finally did, we still had a two kilometre hike back to the bus. We stopped in the creek to cool down and then headed back to the bus for some well earned watermelon.
The bus...
Unfortunately, our bus experienced some technical difficulties and we were forced to call around for an alternative solution. We called up Highland VIP Limo Service in Canmore and not only did they come with a small bus to pick us up, they also took almost no time at all and did it out of the goodness of their heart and didn't charge us a dime. They only asked us to pay it forward. Through this whole trip the students were amazing! Kudos to them!
We got back and ate around 9:30 PM. Great day!