CR2016: Ptarmigan Cirque

Moose were already visiting the wallow below Mount Engadine Lodge the morning of August 9th. Early on we saw three males, and later a female and a youngster. One fellow bore an impressive set of antlers,

and a younger one wore a starter set.

Today was a transition day; Joan and I planned to hike Ptarmigan Cirque in the morning, and buy chocolate and drive back to Calgary in the afternoon. We hoisted our luggage into the car and set off, and spotted one of the earlier moose browsing on the side of the road.

The parking area for the Ptarmigan Cirque trail, among others, is at Highwood Pass, the highest paved road in Canada at 2206 meters, 7239 feet. The cirque trail adds another 700 feet or more, depending on how far the hiker goes.

Early in the day the sky overhead was a transparent blue.

Landing approach into Calgary

We weren't the first to arrive. It's a popular family destination.

After a short walk leading to an interpretive trail and other destinations, including Pocaterra Cirque, Joan and I crossed the highway and began to ascend.

Folks find the first mile steep

The straight trail split, becoming a loop around the cirque that separated the incoming and outgoing traffic much of the way.

After many switchbacks we emerged from the trees, the trail became gentler, and wide views opened up. This photo is pointed south.

Joan and I were curious about various small flags we saw planted in the meadow. Fortunately there were a couple of explanatory signs; it's all about Columbian ground squirrels.

Looking up to the head of the cirque on a gorgeous day.

As Joan and I drew closer to the loop's apex we saw that a large group (11+) had gone off-trail for a long stop. They were the oblivious owners of several poorly-taught dogs, all of whom were yapping without pause, echoing through the cirque.

There was no temptation to linger within earshot. A more adventurous group took a spur route deeper into the cirque (click on the image to enlarge).

In this view, the inbound trail is on the far right and outbound is left.

Joan spotted a group of mountain sheep moving up the north flank of the cirque, drifting away from the humans who continued to stream in.

We returned to our car and drove to an overlook on Highway 40, where we had lunch. On the way we saw that King Creek Ridge, which we'd hiked the year before, was off-limits due to bear activity. A family of three that had also been staying at Mount Engadine Lodge arrived at "our" overlook.

We stopped at the Barrier Lake Visitor Center to donate our bear spray, which cannot be taken onto an aircraft. At the center it could be used in demonstrations, but not resold. We were told there was a shortage of bear spray in Canmore!

And of course we had to stop at Le Chocolatier in Canmore for chocolate goodness to take home. We enjoyed watching the chocolate being worked before driving on to Calgary.

Joan and I again had dinner with Barry Ronellenfitch at our hotel restaurant, as we have for several years. He asked if we were flying Delta. Three days ago Delta's operations center in Atlanta was down for three hours due to a power outage and backup failures. We used Barry's phone to check our flights and everything was supposed to be OK now.

The next morning came all too early, because the flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20 and we would need to go through check-in, security, and U.S. immigration and customs. Check in was smooth although the flight was listed as running late.

Earlier in the summer Joan and I had signed up for Global Entry, which would greatly speed our transit through the hideously overburdened Calgary infrastructure (an airport overhaul was finished late in 2016). However, there was a Canadian official who was verifying that everyone had filled out the U.S. customs forms before permitting them to enter the customs area. He wanted to see proof of our Global Entry status before allowing us through without standing in line; however, we didn't have any. The Global Entry program states that carrying your GE card is not necessary, but in Canada the equivalent program, Nexus, requires showing the card. After some discussion he allowed us through with the warning that if our Global Entry didn't work we'd go back to the end of his long queue.

There were four kiosks at the Global Entry portal. Two were obviously out of commission. We tried the other two twice each, but they timed out at the point that they should have taken our photo. Fortunately, the U.S. passport officer saw our dilemma and waved us forward. He said the kiosks often don't work, and we had a good chat while he scanned our passports on his own equipment.

To enter the pre-check security line Joan and I again had to explain about not having our Global Entry cards. Canada doesn't care about the airline's pre-check designation on the boarding pass. The Swiss Army knife in my mini first-aid kit, which I overlooked when repacking, was confiscated at the x-ray scanner.

At our gate there were more delays. First, not all the kinks had been worked out of Delta's aircraft allocations since the outage three days ago. Second, the customs computers in Calgary had just gone down, for an hour. Finally, the flight crew had arrived late the night before due to weather, and they had a minimum number of off-duty hours to observe before flying again.

There was a long line at the gate and I joined it; this was like the old Soviet Union -- see a line, get in it! When I reached the head of the line it was obvious that our Minneapolis connection was in peril, and the agent put a hold on two seats on a later flight.

There was a delay getting the baggage loaded, perhaps an aftereffect of the customs computers crashing. In the end, we left Calgary 2½ hours late.

In Minneapolis Joan and I dashed to the Delta help desk. There we saw a couple of self-serve work stations labelled "miss your flight?" (or the equivalent). We scanned our old boarding passes and new tickets (not boarding passes) for a later flight printed out.

The Minneapolis gate staff were also harried; it had been a long three days I'm sure. I was rebuffed when I asked about getting boarding passes corresponding to our new tickets, but Joan was more charming and fixed that problem.

It had been an exhausting day by the time we arrived home in time to catch a few winks in our own bed. Our trip was a long and enjoyable one, and we remain proud of our ascent of Windtower.

Note: If you've made it through all eighteen of these posts about Canada 2016, I congratulate you. And admire your stamina, or, was it pacing? Thank you for your attention.