Mountain Madness

August 16th, 2007 · No Comments

This summers is turning out to be my best summer since I was probably 15… no work equals lots of play. From Aug 2-8th I was in Alberta visiting my sister in Calgary who also had sometime off. She and her husband Chris managed to take us on some of the coolest hikes I have ever been on starting with the Nihani Ridge Trail(photos), Mt. Yumnuska (photos), Forget Me Not Ridge (photos) this hike turned out to be a downer Sarah Chantal’s border collie ripped her paw open and Chris had to carry her down the mountain now that is hardcore! and finally the highlight of the trip the highest hiking trail in the Canadian Rockies - Centennial Pass (photos) this is a fantastic hike with amazing vistas and quite good training you rise 1350m in ~8k 2840m summit. After Alberta we got home did some laundry ran some errands and it was off again this time to Harrison Lake to visit Tara’s parents and Manning Park for some cycling in the valley (photos) and Cascade Range hikes. I finally got to bag Mt. Outram (photos) which was on my to do list for many years, Mt. Outram is the highest peak that you can access via a trail in Manning Park (90% of the hike is outside Manning) the hike has a 1800m elevation gain over 7.2km and peaks out at 2440m(8000ft), the hike is beautiful you go from temperate moss covered forests to alpine meadows to pure alpine cairn slopes. At the top you have awesome panoramic views of the North Cascades. My legs are still hurting from the 1800m of descending though!

I also managed to get a few runs in. My legs are feeling pretty strong from all the long day hikes but I need to do some “hard workouts” if I want to do some fall races. I also need to run more miles to lose the weight I put on during the trip to Europe. I may do the IronLung 10k on Sunday and the 5peaks in Whistler the weekend after to get my body used to the intensity again.

Here are some photos from the last few weeks of adventure.
Tara and I on the Centennial Ridge Trail