We had an adventurous time wandering through the High Noon hills. This was a new area for three of the particpants. The wind was a bit blustery but our loop route kept us out of the wind for a large portion of the hike. After hiking the standard route up and over several bumps until we reached the fence at the high point, we descended to the river for lunch and out of the wind. Each time I have done this trip and saw the meadow lower down and west of the high point with a cow trail going through it, I wanted to go there. By trusting the snow/ice cover on the river, we managed to reach this meadow. After lunch at the river's edge, we crossed over to the south side of the river, walked around the curve in the river and found another section of river ice we trusted and crossed back to the north side. There were footprints of someone who had crossed the river maybe a day or so before us.

The rest of the trip was exploratory as we headed west through open fields a bit too far then headed north east through the woods back to the meadow where the cars were parked. Sometimes we were on what I recognized as ski trails, sometimes cow trails until eventually we went through a gate in a fence, crossed over Lone Prairie creek where there was a barn I'd never seen before and eventually made our way back to the cars. I find it very enjoyable exploring these hills by wandering off trail since it is hard to get lost. The route just might be longer than expected. Not sure all my participants would agree with me. It was a short (3.5hr) ramble and probably more than 10kms.

Descending cutline to lunch beside the river

Crossed the river at this bend on firm snow/ice

Crossing the river after our lunch break

Participants: Yolande (c/s),Susan,Peter,Dean,Alda,Bill,Janice,Inge,Teresa,Audrey.