Canada 2024: Let's try that again

On Sunday, July 7, 2024, Joan and I drove to the Lougheed Parking area to tackle the Centennial Ridge trail again. Two years ago our goal had been to climb above the treeline for the spectacular views, but our effort had been cut short by rain. Now we'd try again. Although we arrived at this parking area 15 minutes earlier than for yesterday's Heart Creek hike, it was jammed, and we had to park on the side of the road leading to the parking. Well, it was a Sunday.

No place to park here ...

There are several intersections in the beginning, including those for West Wind Pass and Skogan Pass, but we followed the signs for the Centennial Trail. (Click on any image to enlarge.) The green circles note the parking area and our "decision point" on the trek.

Here's a photo of the map at the beginning of the trail. With less clutter, the circles are easier to see.

As with yesterday's hike, we soon encountered flowers. This year had seen a late spring, so July was still bountiful. Today had more varieties than yesterday because of the much greater altitude gain. Here is a red baneberry, early in its season.

For a while the path led us gently up a wide trail beside the creek that, like so many others, had flooded disastrously in 2018.

We spotted a female bufflehead duck and her two ducklings working upstream.

There's a stretch where it's just an easy walk.

It won't last long.

More flowers ... here, a blue clematis.

The uphill slog began, still on a wide horse-riding route from the past. The terrain became dryer. A few faster hikers passed us. Then, there was a peek-a-boo view across the valley towards West Wind.

Here's a red elderberry, but we're too early for the berries!

Now we peeked at the ridgeline south of Mount Pigeon.

Click on the image above, and at the left of the ridgeline, you'll see a small structure. This photo from Google Maps gives me confidence in my ID.

On we climbed, with frequent stops to catch our breath. Continued effort gave us a peek at the Bow Valley and Canmore.

And close to the ground, an Alpine forget-me-not.

Joan and I passed the spot where we'd been forced to turn around two years ago, and kept going as the old road turned into a hiking path, which narrowed as we went. Then we hit a meadow beside a seasonal creek gully.

The gully was dry.

An interesting closeup.

From here we received our best view of the day.

The path then dove into the woods again. We continued for more minutes, perturbed that we had never gained the open ground promised by the map.

That's a 2200 meter altitude line, or 7218 feet.

And now it showed us dropping down three or so contour lines before regaining the lost height, and didn't promise open ground for a while yet. The afternoon was ticking on. Joan and I agreed that it was time to turn around. We did spot more flowers on the way down, including this "Pretty Shooting Star."

 

And a calypso orchid!

Downhill had its own challenges with steepness, surfaces, and fatigue, but we returned without mishap. Thank goodness for hiking poles! Joan and I reached our car a tick before 4:00 pm, footsore but satisfied with our effort, given that we gained ~2350 feet in altitude and it was only our second day of hiking. And the flora was fabulous.

 

A final odd note before we left was that I had to push forward as well as down on the Versa's trunk lid for it to latch.