Memorial Lakes: 3rd (upper) lake Off-Trail hike on 3-Aug-2019

It was a fine day to be hiking as we headed up Ribbon Creek with a number of participants not having been on this hike previously. After 40 minutes we turned onto the North Ribbon Creek trail. I hadn't been on the trail for a couple of years and it wasn't long before we came to the first of two bridges that now allow the bypass of what had been an ugly section where washouts had made the route difficult - kudos to K-Country for installing them:

Jo on one of the newish bridges over North Ribbon Creek

Further along the trail is a little overgrown in spots, has a couple of muddy areas and a couple of fairly easy creek crossings:

creek crossing on Memorial Lakes trail

Log crossing of a tributary of North Ribbon Creek

At the first Memorial Lake we stopped to reconnoiter if we would want to descend the headwall directly from the third lake on our return (we didn't):

The hats check out the headwall below the 3rd Memorial Lake

From there is the steep trail through scree on the way to the second lake:

Up the scree trail above the 1st lake

We took a rest there before most of us headed up the steepest short section to the upper meadow and the final ridge where the 3rd lake became visible. We chose a lunch spot with views of the lake and Mount Allen beyond:

Most of the gang at the lunch spot above the 3rd Memorial Lake

It was surprisingly cool there as the breeze provided a bit of wind chill that caused everyone to don an extra layer or two. After dining we left our packs and headed to the far side of the lake to visit the memorial cairn to the 13 aviators who perished in 1986 near here on Mounts Kidd, Allen and Lougheed when a plane and two search planes crashed:

At the memorial cairn

Wandering across the alpine terrain near the 3rd Memorial Lake

We returned back to the Second Lake and reconvened with the participant who had stayed there and been entertained by some pikas busily harvesting vegetation for their winter hay pile storages. Then it was cautiously back down the scree trails towards the 1st lake:

Ron & Anne descending the loose scree trail back to the 1st Memorial Lake

Rough trail descending alongside the creek

A couple of us were victims of loose scree rolling out from under our boots, but hardly any blood was lost. Back at the first lake there was time for a few to cool their feet in the rather cold water, it was refreshing but didn't promote lingering:

Cooling feet in the 1st Memorial Lake

Other than pikas and a golden mantled ground squirrel there weren't much fauna sighted, although Cristina captured a nice butterfly picture:

White admiral (<i>Limenitis arthemis</i>)

White admiral (Limenitis arthemis)

Traffic back to Calgary was not too busy so there were no slowdowns.

Thanks everybody for joining me on another fabulous day in the mountains. Participants: Turid, Barb, Sonja, Anne, Cristina (photos), Jo, Krystyna, Jim and John. Ron C/S/P.

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