I have bush-wacked (ya that's right, I can use that phrase in sentences) up a giant hill east of Nihahi ridge thinking I was bush wacking up Nihahi Ridge - that was fun, until I got to the top and realized I jumped the gun a little. But once I caught my breath, I sat down with DR and enjoyed the silence.
The next weekend I hiked up Nihahi Ridge with some people I don't really know - that was fun; I had done the hike 3 times so I was the tour guide - the insatiable show off in me was giddy all the way up. The bad news however, was that just before we got to the top, people were coming down saying that it was too dangerous to climb due to snow. Then some British Guys (who apparently also had insatiable show offs in themselves) wearing helmets and bearing gigantic ice axes came down declaring that it was unsafe. So would this stop me? No- too bad for the Brits - they don't have mountains, they have hills. So we went up and up and up. It was sketchy, but it was so fun. The true scrambling began - we climbed up a little waterfall/chimney and my heart was glad within me. As we neared the top, there was just DR, his little brother, and 2 guys left- and although we were determined, when we made it up onto the actual ridge it was suicide. For those of you who have never scrambled - basically the ridge has exposure on both sides. Well the top was snowcapped and we tried walking - er, I mean crawling along the ridge (which is 7 km long) and finally we all turned back. However, DR and Glen noticed a small trail going up a side of the mountain that we did not originally climb - and they wanted to head down it and see what adventure we could find. The two guys left us to our own devices and David and Glen then began Lemur Hoping down the side of the snowy, shale-y mountain side. It ended up being a blast. You could jump as high as you can and you'd always land softly. Good day regardless of the fact we did not finish our hike.
Two days later I asked Mike to go mountain biking with me around the Elbow Loop to celebrate Summer Solstice - well, it was amazing fun - but we only made it about 15 km around (out of the 43) before we turned back due to a river flowing over the path (all the snow that was on Nihahi 2 days before was now ruining another wilderness adventure for me) and also because we were losing day light. But man mountain biking is fun.
Frustrated that in 3 outings I had failed to finish any of the journeys I drove out by myself on Wednesday night towards Canmore looking for a mountain called Ha-Ling Peak. About 45 minutes before the mountain should have been there, I found another mountain that looked like a heart - I suspected it might be Heart Mountain. I parked my car and hauled my determined butt to the top. Allan Kane said it would take 3-4 hours round trip, and I was at the top in 1 hour and 20 minutes. Did I feel like letting out a Giant Lion-King style roar? You betcha. I felt like a champion. On the way down this steep scrambling I lost a little confidence - confusing squirrels with bears will do that to a girl, but alas, I made it back to my car and with all of the positive endorphins surging through my veins, I felt high as a kite. I had summited a mountain finally, and I did it all alone.
Two days later I had a date with Maddi and she wanted to go for a walk. I knew that meant a 1 hour outing for her, but I convinced myself that we could do a hike labelled as 6 hours in about an hour - so I told her I had found the perfect one. We headed towards Ribbon Falls. It was the most glorious walk - extremely easy, nearly no elevation gained - anyone can do it - and everyone SHOULD do it - the mountain valley and water falls were exceptional. Maddi had a blast until about the 3rd hour and she began to worry. But when all was said and done, the whole journey took us 4 hours and we were in Calgary at Unleashed almost on time.
So far, in about 10 days, I've gone up a mini-fake-Nihahi, climbed Nihahi, done half the Elbow Loop and sumitted Heart Mountain and walked to Ribbon Falls. Am I having the most amazing summer of my life? Yes.
I'm also sitting here enjoying a lettuce and tomatoe Sandwich compliments of my tomato and lettuce garden on my patio. Ahhhhhhhh life is too good.
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