What a beautiful day on the lush green Trout Creek Ridge of the Porcupine Hills!

  The route starts at an orphan well access road at Adair Creek, 24 km south of Chain Lakes.

 

   As was the case on my first trip up Adair Ridge exactly two years ago, the grass was lush green and knee deep and the lupines prolific.  The Western Wood Lilies were in their prime.  I have seen double headed wood lilies in the Porcupine Hills before, but today there were triple and quadruple headed ones!  We marvelled at the gigantic ancient Douglas Firs. 

Last time we overshot the intended climb up Adair Ridge, but this time, trying to follow inaccurate information, we undershot the trail.  We started uphill intending to intersect the trail at some point, and succeeding.  After a while, though, the trail dropped over the far side of the ridge, so we followed faint game trails to the crest of the Porcupine Hills, hitting good trails along the summit fence line.

 

 

We had lunch at a summit with sandstone boulders of pleasing shape, and carried on to the high point with overhanging sandstone outcroppings and even an arch.  Views were from Chain Lakes in the north to Crowsnest Mountain and the Waterton area.  It was sunny and warm with a brief interlude of dark cloud which raced by and only produced a brief sprinkle.
Wildlife sightings were a deer along Highway 22 and a grouse on the crest.
We walked 16 km with perhaps 500 metres of elevation gain. 

  Although we heard some motorcycles nearby at one point, we saw nobody all day.
Back to the car by 4:45, we stopped for supper at the Twin Cities Hotel in Longview, where there was entertainment by the Calgary Stampede to celebrate a motorcycle cancer fund raiser.
Participants:  Michael, Brian and Carl, coordinator and scribe.