CR2013: Terrace Trail in Kananaskis

When Joan and I left Kananaskis Village for our hike on the Terrace Trail there were still clouds hanging around the mountains.

At first our route was crisscrossed by other recreational trails, shown at the top of this map, but these dropped away as we headed south.

Sometimes the way was straight and narrow.

Not far from the Village the trail had a short detour around a washout from the floods of June 2013. In this case, a footbridge was AWOL. This photo looks uphill.

And this one downhill.

Perhaps an hour after setting out, we saw the last mists rising up out of the forest. Blue sky forms the backdrop.

The Terrace Trail passes above the Kananaskis Country Golf Course, which as of this writing it still closed from the extensive damage in the June 2013 flooding. Whether it will ever re-open is undecided.

With binoculars, Joan and I could examine each section.

Logs, gravel, debris, newly carved ponds and streams,

almost whatever we could imagine, this course was hit with it.

Soon we saw, in addition to natural calamities, autumnal berries and blooms close up. Here is a rough-fruited fairy bell.

And one of our favorites, which Joan and I have seen all over the Canadian Rockies, the hare bell.

We reached the gully between the two summits of Mount Kidd, a popular stop according to our guidebook, Kananaskis Country Trail Guide Volume 1, by Gillean Daffern. It's scenic and has plenty of sitting opportunities, and we decided to lunch here. This photo looks upstream; notice the small cairn in lower left to guide hikers towards the proper spot on the far side.

Here's the view downstream.

We ate our lunch sitting close to a large cairn, in partial shade. Joan's hand in the foreground provides some scale for the cairn.

This is not a simple rock pile, particularly in the top half, which shows careful rock-balancing. Rock-balancing can be a casual hobby or a strong artistic discipline, and it was fun to see it here. It's catching on.

We were not far from the Galatea Creek trail (see map above), but Joan and I decided it was a good time to turn around. The Galatea Trail was officially closed because of flood damage, and we had to mind Joan's foot. The strong sun continued to boil vapors off the flanks of Mount Kidd.

We encountered many more people on the return leg of this hike than outbound, and we find that's not unusual in Canada. We were the first to the top of Ha Ling, for instance. One couple that caught up to us needed some guidance; they thought they were heading west on the Galatea Creek trail, rather than north on the Terrace Trail! All the flood damage and 'trail closed' signs seemed to have turned them around.

Joan's foot did not like the return trip, especially the second half. Back in our room, we decided that whether it was sprained or perhaps had suffered a stress fracture, the wisest course was to stop hiking for the remainder of the trip.

Thus our first choice for tomorrow became a visit the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary, outside Canmore. This facility specializes in rescuing canines that are a mix of wolf and dog, and adopting them out to suitable situations, all subject to the Canadian regulations on ownership of animals that are part wolf. There's a phone number for reserving a time for one of the paid tours.

Joan tried to call using her Verizon prepaid phone, which we had determined through the Verizon web site would also work in Canada. That was one of our requirements, and it eliminated most other options, such as Net10 and Consumer Cellular. I have a prepaid T-Mobile phone that works in Canada, but we thought it best to have a different carrier to maximize our chances of getting a signal.

All Joan got was a strange tone similar to a fast busy. She tried more than once. Her phone showed a good signal, the time of day, and her current prepaid balance. But the call wouldn't go through, so it was time to try the T-Mobile phone, which did work. When we returned from Canada Joan called Verizon, and the customer agent said there was a code to enter before leaving the U.S. to authorize roaming in Canada. (T-Mobile requires no such code, it just costs more.) Well, we thought, we could live with that.

A few months later Joan called Verizon again, because their web site doesn't recognize that two $50 refill cards total $100, giving her money only 90 days to live instead of 365. (Stores in our area don't sell $100 cards.) In the past this was easily and cheerfully fixed, but this time the customer agent said that such a thing wasn't allowed, but she would do it "just this once. Don't ask again." Joan also inquired about the Canada roaming code. This person said you have to enter it only once, not before each trip to Canada.

At the end of the call there was the chance to leave customer satisfaction remarks. Joan had a few to make. A Verizon supervisor called her the next day to discuss her feedback. The supervisor said that there was no code, and there was no Verizon prepaid service in Canada, because there weren't any "prepaid towers" there. The concept of a tower being prepaid or not is, of course, ridiculous. The supervisor was astonished that Joan's phone had shown a signal, time, and balance. She insisted that the Verizon web site clearly showed that there was no prepaid roaming in Canada, and walked Joan through the steps to reach the alleged proof. Joan saw nothing of the kind on that web page.

All we can do is enter the magic code that may or may not work before our next trip to Canada. If her phone doesn't work there, Joan will drop Verizon when her minutes expire. But I digress -- we'll start tomorrow with an engaging visit to the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary.