This past weekend's hike with the group was supposed to be done on Fable Mountain but it's been raining and snowing for the past 3 days or so. Hence they changed it to Mt. McGillivray's ridge. I first wondered where that was and a little search took me to Crowsnest Pass but then I thought that can not be because these guys are normally not going that far from the city, especially if that is a day before the workday. Then I read more and they say you go to Dead Man's Flats and I said that cannot be! How in the hell I never heard of that mountain in the area?! When I looked into Google Maps I realized that is a mountain between Heart Mountain and Pigeon Mountain, the two easy mountain that I had been up to!
We met at 09:00 and happily there were only four of us this time. Since there should always be a problem in this type of trip, there was an annoying, load, ugly woman whose her voice is still ringing in my ears! It was a damp and rainy day but it was not as bad as this woman. We started our hike at 10:15 and went up the visible trail. The leader, had been up there obviously because we seemed to be going over the plant, moss and everything alive after a few minutes and still heading to the spot! They call it bushwhacking! I call it bush destroying! There were a few spots that he was not sure where we were going but eventually we got ourselves on a flat area on the top which we could see Las Des Arcs, Baymag Plant and Lafarge Cement Plant. Apparently that was the ridge which would lead us first to the false summit and then from there to the actual summit at approximately 2450 m.
The guys took a break there and had a snack. We reached the spot at about 12:00 so our hike took some 01:45 hours only! What a joke! We headed down after the short rest and while our team leader said we'd be taking a different trail down, it seemed to me that all he knew was that we had to go down! We reached down with not much difficulty and quickly. I originally didn't want to go because I don't like ridges and things like that! You go up and try to reach the summit. That's real hiking or scrambling. What's the point of going to a ridge only while after an hour or two you can reach the summit?! But I didn't want to stay home all day and sit in front of the computer. At least I got some exercise!
(Photo: This supposedly is Mt. McGillivray in Dead Man's Flats between Pigeon and Heart! Seems that I has ignored that for a long time until we went up to its ridge today!)
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