Aerin and I went backpacking for the first time this year the last weekend of June for 3 days. It was going to be 4 days (Monday to Tuesday), but we decided to cut things short.
The trip took us into Three Isle Lake in Kananaskis from the North Interlakes parking area. It was a very hot weekend, but at the same time a late spring melt and lots of prescipitation left lots of snow at altitude. This lead to an interesting long weekend in the backcountry.
On the way up we encountered a guy coming down the mountain for help. One of his group members had been struck in the left thigh by a basketball-sized chunk of rock. We didn't really see or heard anything of falling rock on the way up, but once we go to the campground it became a regular occcurence in the afternoon and evening to hear rock falls from the peak on the south side of the valley. The melting snow was all the rock needed for a quick trip down the mountain. The potential danger became more apparent when we came down the trail on Monday to find a very large rock in the middle of the path that wasn't there on Saturday.
Otherwise the often deep snow and blistering hot weather made for a fairly sedate weekend. The snow on the trails limited us to some very tiring hikes that Aerin was not feeling well enough to tackle with the beginnings of a cold and blisters, nor did the heat inspire us to move very quickly. So we enjoyed the solitude and scenario with a handful of other people and headed out early. We were glad we did because as we left some rather inclimate weather settled in for the next couple of days.
(Northover Ridge from Three Isle Lake)
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1 comment:
Good to see you're getting out backpacking still.
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