Picklejar Lakes Hike

Once again we headed towards Kananaskis for our hike.

There is still quite a bit of smoke in the air from the fires in British Columbia but it seems better as you go south and so we picked a hike a little further down the road.

We heeded the warning at the start of the trail head.

We carry bear spray, have a bell jingling, huff and puff up the trail to make noise and try and keep our eyes and ears open for anything that might look like a bear.  The trail started at a gentle ascent but soon it felt like we were touching our nose to our toes.

Once we emerged out of the trees we walked along a meadow before heading into an even more steep slope.

As I hike up these mountains I always try to remind myself that the views at the top will be worth the effort along the way.

We take lots of breaks along the way to take pictures and let my heart rate go back to a somewhere normal beat.  The trail turned to rock and shale with a thin path kind of laid out to guide your way.

This hike was leading us to four lakes one after another.  According to my fact sheet Picklejar Lakes are classified as Paternoster Lakes. 

 

Paternoster lakes occur in alpine valleys, climbing one after the other to the valley's head, called a corrie, which often contains a cirque lake. Paternoster lakes are created by end moraines, or rock dams, that are formed by the advance and subsequent upstream retreat and melting of the ice. - Wikipedia

 

So the goal was to hike to Lake # 1 and continue to # 4.

Lake One:

Lake Two:



Lake Three:

Lake Four:

After a short break we headed back.  Going back is always easy because you now have land marks AND you are going down hill.  Although some of the steep slopes were a little bit tricky.



Just climbing up over a rock pile

 



Ron's selfie!

As we got close to the road we heard an animal noise and Ron saw something black cross ahead.  Fortunately they were just free roaming cattle.  Strange to see but much better than encountering a bear. 

However, we were not skunked on the wildlife because on our drive out we did have to stop for these two.

It was another productive hike...A 8.3 km hike, burning just over 1700 calories which meant we treated ourselves and our boy to an A & W supper. 

 

Today Ron is off to work for 8 days in a row.  I'm catching up on life around the house.  So until my next blog....enjoy your week!