Female Spruce Grouse, the only wildlife we have seen.
We were the first group on the Wind Ridge trail. It was cool in the parking lot but with the elevation and the sun going steadily up we dropped the long sleeve attire quickly. Crossing the creek presented no problem due to the new bridge and low levels of water.
The summit of Wind Ridge in the distance.
After a little scrambling, we arrived on the ridge shortly after 11:00 am. Enjoying the pleasant temperature and nice breeze, we walked to the end of the ridge.
Short rest before climbing the rest of the distance to the ridge.
Ron scrambling up.
We had lunch under cloudless sky. Noisy helicopters were the only disruption of our perfect day; however, discussions on variety of topics were running smoothly.
Lunch break on Wind Ridge.
After lunch upon the agreement of the whole group, we decided to continue on the ridge and do the loop going down to the valley. It is probably possible to do this in many different ways, but with Ron‘s guidance, who has done the loop before, we started angling down. After following a faint path that could have been made by animals, we descended straight down the grassy meadow at the far end of the ridge, directly beneath Rimwall. This slope is a bit steep higher up, but mellows further down. Halfway down we crossed obvious drainage. A very good trail appeared in the meadows which we followed to the parking lot.
Group on the tiny trail going down to the valley.
All the flowers are gone replaced by Juniper Berries.
On the way back some of us decided to cool down in the cold waters of Pigeon Creek. According to Joe’s GPS, we traveled 15.2 km with a total elevation gain of about 898 m, and with a total moving time of about 4 hours on the trail.
Bird's Eye View of the hike route.
We were back at the cars at about 3:30 pm. Big thanks to Susan, Corey, Jane, Margo, Sonja, Joe (GPS stats and bird view picture), Aldis, Ron, David, Clifton, Inge, Ross, and Lenard for joining me on another beautiful day in the mountains, scribe Teresa