It was a lovely day for retirees to be out and about in the foothills of Alberta--some on motorcycles, some in convertible Porsches, and some of us hiking up Mesa Butte. We saw two deer on the drive, and had great weather. We followed Curley Sand trail and the Mesa Grind to the top, and moved the picnic table slightly to get out of the summit breeze. Not to be outdone by the Millennials ' penchant for taking pictures of their lunch, we had a contest for the most photogenic lunch.

Most photogenic lunch

Picnic on the butte

Happy group on the summit of Mesa Butte

We followed the Mesa Back Door trail down and around the mountain. The sunny day had gone overcast, but on the hike out the sun dropped below the Chinook arch to put us back in its glow.

Chinook arch in the foothills

The notorious muddy north facing hill on the way back to the North Fork was as bad as expected, but we were able to keep our feet dry by walking in the trees to avoid the quagmire. All through the rest of the trip the trails had dried out quite nicely since the record snowfall earlier this month. We were back to the cars by 2:30.

Participants: David, Francisco, Ricardo, Linda, Robert, Enrique, Dave and Carl, coordinator and scribe.

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