Commonwealth loop with col 163281 & Pig's Back Off-Trail hike on 15-S

Skies on the drive from Calgary were a mix of smoke, fog and clouds draped over and around the mountains. An occasional patch of sun appeared but didn't last long.

We left the parking lot at about 10 and headed along the old road, hopped over Commonwealth Creek, then worked our way up to Commonwealth Lake on a well defined trail --much better than I recall from past trips.

After a short rest we continued on up to the col. Flowers were pretty well over and only one valiant larch had a couple of yellow twigs. Even a solo ptarmigan was still sporting summer plumage.

We headed up and along to the north end of the ridge for lunch.

Views were good as the smoke had dispersed but without sun we all donned an extra layer for lunch. After about half an hour the wind picked up so we decided to move on.

We noted extensive, fresh bear diggings in the cirque on our descent.

There was no obvious route down the final thrash through forest but we all reached the bottom unscathed. Crossing the creek was dead easy and we were off on the Smuts Pass trail back to the cars.

My stats were 14km, 640m total elevation gain and 6 3/4 hours.

Thanks to all for joining me and their pleasant company.

Philip

Participants: Philip, Terry, Dean, Donna, Jozef.