Pigeon Mountain

I got a chance today to be a bit free so I thought I should use it for a nice hike. I chose Pigeon Mountain in Dead Man's Flat. I was in the parking lot at about 10:10 AM and started following the information I had downloaded from the net and quiet frankly it worked although the grammar of the writer sucks!

There were a few vehicle parked there and it meant people were already going up. The signs that the guy refers to them are a bit vague, mostly. For example he says you pass couple of ravines but I guess I passed at least three, may be four. And the information board she showed in his note was never seen by me so I was a bit confused. But then he was right: After about an hour and a half or a bit more I got out of the trees and a steep trail started. The view of the surrounding mountain is very beautiful and the weather, as I had read, was partially cloudy. So sun would come out and it not only warmed me up in that windy weather but also helped me to get a few nice shots. after I got to the snowy section I realized two guys were coming down. They had covered their heads, had mitts on and where carrying sky poles! I was going to ask if they were coming from the Himalayas but didn't! I had a little chat with them and they descended. Then there the remaining part of the group coming down when one of the women, after I said hi to them, hoped that I had mitts on me! It really was not that bad. I didn't feel I would need any mitts, gloves, poles, ear muffs, toques or anything else. Just a few minutes to the top and that actually is the south summit I saw another group resting with the same gear and equipment. I think it took a total of a little more than 3 hours to reach to the top. I took a few photos and headed down but before going down I saw something on the top of a rock I had passed. I remembered what I had read: There is another summit, most likely the northern one. Footprints showed that none of the two groups had gone up there so I decided to go. That was a challenge because unlike the south summit, this one comprised of brittle rocks with not much guidance on the route to the top. I call this rock Chips Summit because the layers of rock would be easily broken and I had to be really careful not to fall and roll down the valley! Fortunately the trial was not too long and find myself on a vast flat summit with a cairn and a shed with antenna and solar cells. The view from there was magnificent and that is what you see in the picture. I assume that shed, which I had a glimpse of inside, must be a weather checking center or something similar. There were big batteries, the shape of car batteries inside. I took a few more photos and headed bad to the main trial. To that moment I have not had anything. So I took a sip of water. There was nothing special on the way back. I was just hoping to see a few animals but that limited to a few birds and a screaming squirrel! I reached the parking lot at 16:50 which means the whole hike took about 06:30 hours. Overall it was a very pleasant hike and I enjoyed. I was better than the previous two (Miner's Peak and Yamnuska). With the weather going toward winter I'm not sure how many more time I can hit the trials but I try to make it once a week if the other stuff of life allow. 

(Photo: The north summit of Pigeon Mountain. I really like the shape of the mountains in the back)