There may have been some light snow and rain involved but that didn’t stop us from hitting the mountains on Sunday (May 17th) for our first hike of the season. It’s always an exciting purchase of our Waterton park passes at the beginning of the season, as it represents the many trips we end up taking down to our favorite place in the mountains. We started easy with a nice 2km hike up to Crandell Lake in Waterton. It was a great little hike to christen my new birthday arcteryx jacket and rods new hammock that he received for christmas. We headed into the mountains, geared up and hit the trail for a quick hike to enjoy a nice picnic lunch by the lake. We got up to the lake, hiked further around to find a quieter spot and a couple of good trees to set up our hammock for some afternoon swinging.
Being the first hike of the season, we had a few hiccups. Its always good to get them out of the way at the beginning of the season on a nice short hike. Sadly my little iPhone had a little swim in the lake through no fault of its own. But thankfully, with my super quick cat like reflexes, I was able to grab my phone out of the lake and dry it off. It later spent the night and the next day in rice, and happy to say it lives another day. Rod was a little sad, as he really wants me to upgrade, yet still not sold on the too big for my hands iPhone 6. But that is another post for another day. We also had a little miss on the amount of fuel we had for our whisper camp stove. Unfortunately we only brought enough fuel to boil water for one round of noodles (our little treat for the mountains, easy meal with lots of fuel and carbs to recharge for the hike back down). So sadly Rod did not get to enjoy his noodles that afternoon, but we made sure to make up for that down in the townsite.
The rest of the afternoon, we hung out in the hammock and enjoyed the mountain views. Set up a few key photo shots, and enjoyed working with a medium format waist level viewfinder film camera for some extra cool shots. Avery enjoyed the scenery and the smells, but desperately wanted to join us in the hammock. We can fit two but the doge might not make it in without freaking out a little. Once the wind picked up a little, we decided to pack up and head back down to the townsite to get some food for Rod as the noodles didn’t work out so well.
Our first trip to Waterton would not be the same without a trip to Wieners of Waterton, the best hot dogs around. It was necessary to grab a couple of those for an early dinner before we headed for home.
So our first hike of the 2015 season is in the bag, short and sweet but so good to be back in mountains. We hope to get out as much as we can before the big road trip, but we are planning a good number of hikes along the way so I think we will get in our quota this season.
Here are a few photos from the trip….
Until Next Time……
– Tracy