Forgetmenot Mtn L/O 565244 Off-Trail hike on 28-May-2023

Not many people go to the old Forgetmenot Mountain lookout site, because the distance and elevation are rather large and the long connecting ridge adds an extra few hundred metres to lose and regain. But I have always wanted to do it, and we had a beautiful long day out.

Clear sky for the ascent changed to clouds by late morning, and in just under 4 hours we reached the final summit surrounded by threatening storms and a bit of thunder. We descended a bit for lunch but soon packed up because it started to rain and hail, but not for long and never enough to get us wet. After finishing lunch at the low point between the two main ridges, we climbed back towards the main ridge and, upon reaching it, the coordinator was treated to the bright line of a lightning bolt hitting somewhere ahead of us, followed by thunder 4 seconds later. Um, let's stay low, shall we? So after a few cautious minutes confirming that the storm cloud was moving away, we skirted the bottom of a scenic rockfield and continued to the top of the scrambly section, where we finally enjoyed a proper sit-down in sunshine. It was quite hot during the descent, and wading the cold water of the Elbow River sure felt good!

We walked rather leisurely along the ridge, so the 21.5 km and 1150m took us 8.5 hours. No people, quite a few birds (including a hermit thrush singing beautifully), and many early flowers including shooting stars, draba, buttercup, dryas, smelowskia, sweetvetch, spring beauty, moss phlox, and one androsace.

This was Tina's first of hopefully many hikes with the Ramblers - welcome! Thanks to Tina and Sonja for a memorable day, from coordinator Ingrid.

Sunny morning

The usual end-point summit above the hikers

Heading to Forgetmenot Mountain, with usual turnaround point at centre behind us

Forgetmenot Mountain summit

Looking back at the old lookout ridge

After the lightning

Rain all around but not on us

Gorgeous storm cloud