participants: Bill,Arnold,Alda,Manfred,John,Clifton,Paul and guest Brandur fromJohn.
Unusually, for me, all 3 vehicles on the trip left fom different locations so we met at the Bourgeau lake trail head which we left just after 8:30 am. We regrouped at the creek crossing below the waterfall then headed up the steeper section of trail switch- backing towards the lake. I was glad Clifton was along as he confirmed where we should take off to head for the meadows. This is before you get to Bourgeau lake. The best part of this hike starts as you crest a ridge overlooking the meadows as shown in this photo:
Approximate route in the meadows which are east of and below Mount Brett
We hiked up to a high point above the meadows as shown above. On an earlier trip Sim had christened this "Massive bump". On that trip I thought we might be able to summit Massive mountain but it is rather insignificant and lower than "Massive bump". We saw sheep and whitetail deer as we crossed the meadows, also some grizzly diggings in the meadows.
White tail deer in the meadows
We paused for lunch on "Massive bump" noting sheep trail routes to Mount Brett and its outlier:
Mount Brett in cloud on the right - sheep trail that works to the col
Lunch on "Massive bump"
One notorious peak bagger in the group was intrigued by an unnamed peak east of our lunch spot. Folks found it hard to believe it is not Massive mountain but research indicates it is not - Bill calls it "false Massive" and has climbed it:
An interesting looking unnamed peak above the Bow valley in the Massive range
After lunch we descended east along the ridge. Along the ridge a large fast moving flock of small birds were very impressive swooping very fast around us briefly. We are not sure what they were a speculative possibility is Snow buntings - not definitive by any means - but I think our birding Ramblers are doing research ......
John descending "Massive bump"
Further along the ridge on another minor bump our second group of sheep was encountered
Second lot of sheep posing for us.
Then a descent back to the meadows and the trail. Stats reported to me were approximately 21 Kms and 1250m elevation gain in a leisurely 8.5 hours.
Paul and John heading back down to the meadows
Special thanks to Brandur for the good photo of the sheep.