Smoke and Snow: Baldy Pass

Joan and I checked out of Cathedral Mountain Lodge and drove a short distance to the Siding Café, in Field, to pick up lunch supplies. They have great sandwiches and baked goods, but we discovered that after Labor Day the Siding doesn't open until 11. Oops.

At the Visitor's Center in Field Joan bought a couple of books, we picked up two Le Chocolatier bars, and we had a long chat with a warden from New Zealand about trail closures due to bear activity at Moraine Lake and Paradise Valley, the uses and misuses of GPS, and what constitutes an emergency-demanding rescue. Then it was off to Kananaskis Country.

Just east of Canmore and off the Trans-Canada there was a trail head and Mount Lougheed viewpoint which we'd never visited before. The mountain in the center is Lougheed.

We're looking almost due south from the end of the road, from the top of this map to the bottom:

Here's a zoom-in on the mountain, which tops out at 10,194 feet.

Signs described the history of the area and the role Sir James Lougheed played in therein.

We then drove to Highway 40 and the parking area for Baldy Pass, another hike that we've done once before but not since the 2013 floods. By satellite view, the route was thus,

and by map, like this.

The trail began on the far side of the highway, and after crossing, Joan and I were winding gently through woods.

The trail from the Wasootch Creek parking area joined us, and we approached Indian Creek.

 Almost there, and more stones were in the path.

Now the trail followed the rubble-filled creek. Sometimes we scrambled through the rocks following cairns, and sometimes the path had shifted to a stream bank.

As you can see, we had a lot of altitude still to gain.

In this stretch we met a guy (age 55) and his wife from Calgary ex Edmonton ex Ottawa. He was fresh off an unexpected heart attack and monitoring his heart rate as he hiked. Not long before the heart attack his doctor had said he was in great shape, and didn't need another physical for three years, but some measure (I forget which) had been 4.9 where 5.0 suggests intervention. Fortunately he survived this oversight and has been recovering well.

The trail continued to ascend. Watersheds on either side of the valley had violently contributed to the destruction lower down.

The route left the valley floor and metamorphosed into a rooty trail climbing steeply through the trees on the south flank of the valley. It was much shadier than the rock river we'd left behind, and the higher Joan and I went, the more common it was to cross snowy patches. We enjoyed occasional views of the ridgeline north of us.

The winds were blustery when we reached the cairn at the pass.

Here we met a couple with a white dog. They had planned their hike ahead of time, but somehow she needed to ask us, "what's the name of that mountain?" There's a place in the world for good paper maps, such as the Gem Trek series, and classic guide books, such as Gillean Daffern's.

Joan and I turned to the south and continued with a short climb, to the point where the trail leveled off and began to dip down into the next valley. There we sat down and lunched. This was the view back past the pass towards the north.

Descending down to the pass.

There is an unofficial trail beaten along the ridge rising to the north, and many hikers take advantage of it. We spotted the white dog couple there with our binoculars more than once.

I'm sure the view from anywhere along the top is grand.

Perhaps, if we revisit Baldy Pass in another few years, we'll give it a go.

Back in the woods, not far from the road, Joan and I spotted a trail camera we'd overlooked on the way out. From the University of Calgary.

A short drive later we checked in at the Delta Lodge Kananaskis, recently purchased by Marriott, extensively renovated, and reopened two months ago. There were oddities in the reorganized rooms, such as, no towel racks, and a common bathroom/closet door -- open it to the bathroom and you've closed the closet, and vice-versa. The staff was friendly and empowered to fix less structural problems, such as a sock left on the floor by a previous guest. The larger restaurant, the Fireweed Grill, was now dubbed the Forte, and its omnipresent mood music was classic 1960s pop ("One Fine Day") instead of disco, an improvement.

Joan and I ate well but spent a fitful night before rising for the next day's hike at Upper Kananaskis Lake.

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.