An Amazing Attempt to Thrift Peak

The Chef wanted to join me for a hike and I welcomed him because going as a team of two always decreases the cost even if your partner is someone such as The Chef who is not fit but I have to admit that despite his nagging throughout the second part of the hike, he showed amazing efforts and was behind me to the last.

We, however, made the same stupid mistake and went to the silly Cowboy Taphouse the night before the damn hike and drank Beer and ate junk food! It not only cost us unnecessary expenses but also made us tired because alcohol, specifically Beer, makes you lazy! However I promised myself to wake up on time and make it to our meeting point and I did it! The Chef, to my surprise showed up within a minute of my arrival! We had rented a vehicle through Budget the day before. So we headed south and got ourselves to Highway # 22 to go to where I had discovered the previous weekend, Bob Creek Wildland to reach Thrift Peak.

I don't know what this barbed wire fence indicate because there's no mention of it in the information but that's where we distracted and eventually lost the trail which cost us the summit!

Upon our arrival at around 09:05 we noticed a big Ford SUV with a Idaho plate! I was surprised to see someone had come from Idaho, which is one of the greatest destinations in the US for outdoor activities, to southern Alberta, in a smoky day, to do fishing in a small stream! My surprise even was bigger when one of the trio old men told me they were from Pennsylvania and the car was a rental! That answers it. When I went to Arizona in 2015 my rental was a Texas plate. We all, two of us and the three Americans headed down the path to get ourselves to Old Man River. They for fishing and we to cross it to hit the trail. On the trail I noticed a few Saskatoon Berry bushes and ate a few and picked a few for them and offered them. I told them what it was but one of the silly ones(!) said that they called it Blueberry! I tried to explain to them that they were different from Blueberry but it's hard to make people understand especially when they are old!

We soon got ready to cross the river and that was where The Chef showed the first signs of reluctance! I told him that when I had talked to him the night before, he had called it an adventure(!) and asked him why he was complaining! He said that he was bluffing and added that he was scared that he might catch a cold! He, despite that, joined me after a few seconds. We both grabbed a stick and started crossing where the path would start at the other side. The water was not very cold. It was perfectly tolerable but the stream was fast at points and the river was deep at spots. We then continued our hike on the path on a meadow. The environment was smoky but not too bad especially after a few showers. The nature in Bob Creek Wildland is amazing. Meadows, hills, streams, forest, bushes, wildlife, you name it. While walking within short bushes and shrubs I even notices a Snake! It was a thin and not very long, probably only 2 feet, one. It moved away so quickly as soon as it sensed us but I was able to see its kind of grey colour. It was so fast that I only could track it by looking at the stems which were moving because of its escape! The Chef was kind of upset that he was not able to see it and I was disappointed that I was not able to take a picture! Before that I thought Snakes are only available in hot parts of British Columbia including Summerland but then I read that they are even available in Alberta of different species.

I'm quite sure this is bear feces but if anyone differs please correct me. 

I don't know how long it took to us to see a boundary which was divided by barbed wire. Not wanting to go to a private property, which would probably ended up with getting shot at, if anyone had seen us(!), we decided to stay at our side of the fence and continue our hike. We saw a number of Cows and they apparently were not happy with our presence in there! One of them went to offensive position when we were trying to walk by and the other one ran away very aggressively! After that we were accompanied by a load Cow noise for part of the hike. After a while following the barbed wire we gained some good elevation but we realized that we had sidetracked from the main trail. It seemed that it was the trail used by animals especially after we saw a big dump which I later realized it was a Bear's! At the time we were both sure that it was not belong to a Deer, an Elk or anything similar but The Chef doubted me but I was quite sure it was Bear's feces's. One reason that I was still a little doubtful is that I had not heard of Bear presence in Bob Creek Wildland. We continued on the slope and it was getting worse by minute both in terms of steepness and terrain. Both of us, especially The Chef, were sweating like a Pig and he at one point said that he couldn't continue anymore! I had provided him with a 10 minutes break already at 11:10 and it was only 12:05 when he complained again but considering his out-of-shape body, age and his shattered left knee I have to give him lots of credit for following me to that point. We had gained quite elevation at that point in a manner that I could say we were probably at the same height as our destination but we decided to go back. From that point I could see the rocks which were the sign that we were close to the summit and the fire look out but we headed down. After we reached the bottom of the valley saw the fire look put building behind us. From there it was nearly 1 hour hike to reach it but The Chef was not the man. We took the trial down back to the meadows and after probably half an hour and so we reached where we first saw the barbed wires! That was when we realized where we had made the mistake. All we had to do was to jump over the fence but we didn't because of not only the possible consequences but also due to the fact that the smokey whether prevented us from seeing the fire look out building while it was visible at that time because the smoke had become thinner.

We continued down the path and did the same practice with the water and I guess it was around 15:10 or so when we were ready to leave the area meaning we spent almost the same amount of time there and gained almost the same elevation but failed to reach the summit. The Chef was positive and called it a productive day which was correct. I, on the other side, was disappointed. We spent nearly $50 each on the rental and gasoline as well 6 freaking hours and exposing ours and our boots to creek water without reaching our goal. Nothing makes a day worse than attempting a summit and not being able to reach that and this is not the first time but I have to make a few more hikes and reach at least a few summits before the cold winter of Alberta reaches us again.
(Photo, top: This, in the middle, is the fire lookout building on the top of Thrift Peak in a hazy day. This is taken after we came down the mountain and it seems that we have at least an hour to reach it which we didn't actually did)