Door Jamb Mountain (Under a Thick Dark Blanket!)

I had to work this past Sat. and therefore the usual weekend hiking was postponed to Sun. which was disappointing to The Chef because despite all his nagging and complaining during the last hike, he wanted to join. He says he cannot join on Sundays because, obviously he would work within a few hours and that becomes really hard. His shift starts at 02:00 on Mon. but because he's naturally a moron, he wakes up at around 23:30! It takes him 2 hours and a half to get ready and get to work! 

I set the alarm for 06:00 and although I had a good sleep, I was reluctant to leave the bed but after only a minute I got my determination(!) and left.
The disgusting and dark blanket was covering the entire city and in fact the province but what was even more surprising was that the temperature. It was only 5 ℃ while I was leaving Calgary and the closer I got to Canmore, the colder it got. It was 0 ℃ near Bow Valley Provincial Park which is only 10 minutes from the trailhead of my hike, Door Jamb Mountain.

I lost the path at a point and found myself stuck in the middle of these steep slabs! I had then to climb down and get back to the trail. 

I was on Highways # 1 before getting myself to Bow valley Trail when I heard that a woman had fallen down from a hike in Mt. Rundle and got killed the night before! I haven't hike that mountain and I most likely will never do. Mountains such as Rundle, Lady McDonald (Which might soon be changed since her husband's statue has been recently removed from a municipality!) and Cascade should not be done during weekend as tons of people flock to the area.  
The trailhead is right in front of a Lafarge Cement Plant near Exshaw on Highway 1A when you approach from east and the trail start right off the parking lot and goes up. You'd hear the constant noise from the plant for the first half an hour and then when you get more elevated it fades and at times you only hear the back up beeping of trucks. One idiot has this for the plant as a review (I didn't know that people review plant's performance!) in Google Maps: I don't know what this plant produces but it's like an eyesore in the entire area! 
The plant is an eyesore and has lots of noise and emission and as I said you hear that for the first 30 minutes of the hike but I'm sure that brings lots of business to the community and province and if we look at every noise and pollution making facility from that perspective, we will soon have to shut down all of the plants and factories and do nothing! Besides it's a cement plant, you moron! Lafarge has at least three plants in the area and a pit. 

The trail gets covered with lots of loose small rocks and if you're not careful, there's a chance that you lose your balance and land on your butt and at spots it could be dangerous because you would role down the hill. The weather was disgusting and there was no sign of improvement. A hike which could be full of nice scenery had nothing but thick smoke all around. This ascend is normally combined with a second one, almost at the same height, Loder Peak but I got tired of the situation and after reaching the first summit decided to turn back especially because at one spot I went the wrong way and got myself in the middle of almost vertical(!) slabs with no grip! So I had to climb back down and find the damn path which cost me at least 20 minutes. 

So I'm heading down slowly and I'm careful not to fall and not to lose the path and I see something moving down below me and I immediately realise it is a dog. The dog owner shows up right behind the animal and we have a little chat. He asked me how it was going, which is a normal chat everywhere and I told him that I was sick of the smoke and disgusted by it. He goes: I used to smoke so I'm used to it!!!

In addition to loose rocks, exposure and dark thick smoke, I saw these beautiful tiny flowers which are common in most of Alberta hikes

Can you imagine someone as stupid as this?! By smoking you destroy your longs and expose your surrounding to cancer-causing fumes. This is a national disaster! There're people here now that can't leave their houses. There're people who need Oxygen tanks to help them go through this, every day. You being such a stupid ass smoking cigarette is not comparable with this! 

I wished the stupid a joyful hike and continued down the hill. I think the entire hike took around 4 hours which is way too much for such hike. I wasted a total of 30 minutes but still shouldn't have taken that much because people have done the combination of Door Jamb and Loder Peak in 4 hours but maybe I'm getting old and being too careful because of some exposures on the trail. I'm sure it would have been much nicer and enjoyable hike/scramble, had it been a nice and beautiful Alberta day but I couldn't sit at home. I had to get home. Maybe I do this hike/scramble once again later when the weather is good. 

(Photo, top: Door Jamb Mountain after about 30 minutes on the trail. The approach would be from left or the west side of the mountain which has less exposure)