As we joked during the trip this coordinator should not get his Rambler Christmas bonus this year and trip participants are due the big Rambler refund (whatever that is!!) ..... however I had an enjoyable day in the company of Peter, Ray, Manfred, Janice, Shirley, G., Ivan, Yoko and Jeannette.First of all I got lost in the city missing the Crowchild trail turn off from Stoney trail (error #1) ...... despite this error I, eventually, found the rest of the group at top of the big hill above the Ghost and set off around 9:30 am. The road to this point was in the worst shape I have seen it with many potholes. The last time I went through Devil's Gap was very wet (see Costigan attempt) so I had suggested trip participants creek crossing shoes but they stayed in our packs all day (error #2!!). Enjoyable conversation about various ski trips, and learning experiences, over the winter on the broad access trail. After crossing the Banff National Park boundary we came across a cairn and well defined trail off to the left ..... we took it ..... about 45 minutes later as we regrouped in the narrow valley I pulled out the map ..... whoops .... wrong valley (error #3). The trail had been fairly well defined with several cairns so we decided to keep going to see if we could get to it's objective. After the trip I have done some googling and I am pretty certain we were in what Ice climber's call "Planter's valley" and we ended up at the still very frozen waterfall they call "The Peanut Gallery".


End of"wrong" valley

Trying to help save the coordinator's OT4 trip out maybe(?), Manfred and Peter attempted to demonstrate "The Peanut Gallery" ice climb was well within the trip's OT4 rating!


Cramponless Manfred and Peter attempt to redeem a coordinator's OT4 reputation!!!

Though I am no ice climber it looked like the climb and ice was still in shape.

After lunch in the environs of the waterfall we headed back down.

Wrong destination - Peanut gallery Ice climb.

G. Descending the canyon of Planter's valley.

.We turned west at the cairn and went up the correct valley to the Hoodoos.


Hoodoo Hall

. We went a little beyond the Hoodoos but then had a break before heading back to the cars which we reached before 5:00 pm. Folks were kind enough to say it was a nice trip and, as Pat said, if access were better the Ghost would see a lot more traffic to it's unique scenery.


Black Rock Mt.

. Ray's GPS measured a little over 24 Kms and around 450m elevation gain. On the drive out Manfred spotted a bear fairly near the junction with highway 40. Thanks everyone for being very accepting of my mistakes and the pleasant company and conversation. Thanks Ivan for the photos. Special thanks and welcome to the newer members G. and Ray for, hopefully, accepting that the navigation on this trip was not typical for a Rambler's trip. Thanks Ivan / Yoko and Pat for being the other drivers on what is getting to be a very rough road (though if I were to do the trip again I think I might try to drive to the Park boundary - although rough and the gravel across the flats makes a 4x4 desirable less potholes than the approach IMO).