It was a beautiful summer day and the foothills were lush and green. It was rather muggy and still part of the time but we appreciated the light breezes that came along from time to time. The mosquitoes were deemed to have reached nuisance levels, so each participant was authorized for "critical slap"--no indictment, no trial, just straight to execution! I have to report that numerous mosquitoes lost their lives in the production of this adventure.

We had waited just long enough for the notorious quagmires of foothills valleys to dry up, but did have to detour through the forest a few times to avoid large areas torn up by livestock so bad there were no dry clods to hop. The dry crust on most of the bogs on the Death Valley trail were sufficient to hold our weight, with only one "sploosh" heard on the trip as the surface gave out.

We posed at the high point of Pine Ridge and had lunch a bit past the top.

Group on Pine Ridge high point

Calgary skyline as seen from Pine Ridge

About half an hour later we found the place we should have had lunch, with views to the west and cooling breezes to chase away the bugs.


View to the west from Pine Ridge

The hiking along both Pine Ridge and Long Prairie Ridge was through picture perfect aspen and meadows, and the trails were always dry and in good shape on the high ground.

Hiking along Pine Ridge

Hiking along Long Prairie Ridge

The flowers are coming along, with Alberta wild roses and wood lilies finally making an appearance.

Alberta's symbol, the wild rose

Wood lily on Pine Ridge

Lupine in Death Valley

We spotted a deer soon after beginning the hike.

We were back to the cars by 3:20, having covered 15 km with 511 metres of ascent. Note that the total time was almost exactly the same as my Thursday trip at Bluerock ridge, with almost exactly the same amount of ascent, but with easy grades we covered almost exactly twice the distance.

Participants: Sid, Dianna, Linda, Robert, Douglas, Margo, George and Carl, coordinator and scribe.

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