Pigeon parking was busy at 8:45am with parking starting to be needed on both sides of the lot. Not sure where all the people went as we didn't see too many on the Pigeon trail. Once the trees started to thin we started to see lots of flowers along the way:
larkspur beside the road
After leaving the road it was a hot climb on the steep section to the upper meadows where we had a profusion of the usual floral display featuring forgetmenots, shooting stars, beardstongue and a few late blooming crocus in shady spots where the snow melted late. With the clear sunny weather the views were terrific as we climbed:
Nancy with Skogan and Lorette in distance
It was close to noon as when we arrived at the southeast summit which we declared as our dedicated lunch stop:
Lunch with a panorama view of Mt Lougheed
lunch gang on southeast Pigeon, main peak to left
There was a bit of a breeze which made for a very pleasant lolling session. We eventually hauled ourselves back into hiking mode and descended off the lower peak:
Descending southeast peak of Pigeon Mtn
We sauntered over to the main peak and had another relax time; a binocular search of the surrounding peaks spotted possible groups on Mount Allan and Wind Tower. A mini-thermometer registered 20C at the summit. Then it was the long descent through the main trail meadows and its sea of flowers. It warmed up as we descended so it was a relief to be in the forested sections of the lower trail before returning to the parking lot where a car themometer registered 27C.
Thanks to a fine group of participants, some of whom had not done the trip for years and some who had never the done this alternate routing: Ron, Coordinator/Scribe/Photos; Bill (photos), Barbara (photo), Arnold, Laszlo, Nancy, Turid, Brenda, David, Evan ,John, Jo, Donna, plus soon-to-be member John.
Flora report: a couple of photos:
cinquefoil on Pigeon Mtn
Forgetmenots (Mysotis alpestris) on Pigeon Mtn
There were many others as mentioned above plus golden fleabanes, blue-eyed grass that opened in the afternoon, wind flower and many others.
Fauna report: Barb almost stabbed the following with her hiking pole in the meadows and Bill got some pictures:
Horned Lark chick
A possible parent?:
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) in the Pigeon Mtn meadows
Flitting around were Northern Blue butterflies and the following at the lunch stop:
Old World Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon). With daisy fleabane (Erigeron compositus)
