CR2012: Baldy Pass and then Home

Our final day of hiking was a morning jaunt to Baldy Pass; in the afternoon we planned to purchase chocolate in Canmore and then drive to the airport in Calgary. By the GemTrek map, it's 3.7 km or 2.3 miles one way to the pass.

There's an elevation gain of about 1900 feet, with an opportunity to stretch both the distance and height a small amount to reach a better viewpoint.

There were overcast skies when we began, with a chance of showers. The first part of the trail, before the junction, passes gently through a wooded area.

After reaching the junction and creekside, the trail turns up the valley, with the detritus of spring floods piled on the floor. At first the trail follows the left bank.

The sky in the above photo is not blue. Joan and I ascended rapidly. We had been hiking for two weeks, and were in much better condition than when we arrived, and we had a schedule, and it might start to rain. The trail crossed the dry rubble a couple of times and then began to climb more steeply. I didn't stop to take photos on the way up, so the remaining pictures in this post were taken at the top or on the way back down.

The pass is in a notch between two heights, of course, otherwise it isn't a pass. There is no view from Baldy Pass itself; hikers must climb a few tenths of a kilometer further to get any kind of view.

To the east is towards the foothills, not the high mountains. In this photo the pass itself is below us, on the left between us and the next peak.

Shortly after we stopped to survey the view a rain began to fall. It was time to pull out the rain jackets and begin the climb down. The short distance to Baldy Pass itself had steep sections; in this photo the trail appears to drop down the side of the mountain.

Fortunately the rain turned out to be just a passing shower, and we were able to stow the rain jackets as we descended. The sun began to shine through, hesitantly at first but more and more strongly. For a while both brilliantly lit and deeply shadowed peaks were visible.

The clouds continued to dissipate. At one point, where the two sides of the valley were still close together, a small group of mountain sheep foraged on the other side. They were startled to see us, and the only photo I could get was of their behinds as they fled.

As the trail left the highest reaches of the valley and emerged into sunshine it looked like this:

Eventually the Nakiska ski trails on Mount Allan came into view as the valley widened.

We arrived back at the parking area, very well satisfied. We had regained our form, something doubted after our discouraging trip to Hummingbird Plume two days before. By our standards we had charged up to Baldy Pass and we felt good about it. We could still contemplate, for future years when we had trained before arriving, new milestone hikes such as Guinn's Pass and Centennial Ridge.

Lunch followed at a Barrier Lake picnic area, and I was able to donate my unused canister of bear spray to the Barrier Lake Visitor Information Centre. (Don't try to fly on an airline with one, even in checked baggage.) The final, and most important, stop of the day was at Le Chocolatier in Canmore. In the midst of ordering I took pictures of two chocolate sculptures on display there.

We recommend a stop at Le Chocolatier if you are passing through or even near to Canmore.

A closing note for this trip occurred at the Minneapolis airport, where we were connecting. Earlier in the year we had seen a 'pink airplane.' It was high above us, but much of it definitely looked pink, not a Southwest jet seen in an odd light. As time went by we couldn't find any corroboration or mention of such a plane, and doubted ourselves ... until Minneapolis. Parked there was a Delta jet, publicizing the fight against breast cancer. It was unmistakable even if obscured by the gate arrangement.

And thus closes the story of our 2012 hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies.