So funny story. With the best intentions to do a hike to Rummel Lake, Elizabeth and I ended up doing a hike that we didn't figure out the name of until I was able to ask Google later that night. All that to say the one reading the directions (me) does admittedly have my natural blonde moments haha :)

Nevertheless we still had a lovely day and it was a great hike that (though we didn't make it to the end) spoiled us with amazing views of the magnificent mountains!
Smut Pass
Difficulty: moderate
Round trip: 15.3 km*
Hiking Time: 5-6 hrs
Elevation Gain: 505 m
FitBit: approx 23,000 steps and 148 floors

To find the trail head get onto the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail (Hwy 742). You'll pass the Canmore Nordic Centre where you can reset your odometer to 0 and your turn off will be approximately 34km from there. Turn right onto Mt Shark Road (the same turn off for Mount Engadine Lodge). Drive just a little ways up around a curve in the road, you'll cross one bridge, and turn left into the first parking lot you see.

The path for this hike is pretty well defined and is nice and wide to start. The day before we were out there it had rained like crazy in the city and so of course with the lower temperatures it had snowed in the mountains. There wasn't too much snow, but just a little mucky and first thing it was only about 2 degrees Celsius and there was lots of frost on the grass and trees. It was chilly, but beautiful.
One thing I love about hiking with my friend Elizabeth is that she knows things about nature and the smaller finer things about the mountains that I would be oblivious too. Such as wild strawberries! They are so tiny I would never have noticed them and walked right on by, but instead we stopped to pick a handful, such a delicate sweetness, yum! She also pointed out the Indian's Paintbrush, which I've seen many times before on other hikes, but she showed me how you can pluck the feather out and get a few drops of sweet sap from those. Who knew? :)

Can you spot the strawberries?

As you walk you'll hop a few minuscule streams and not too far into the trail you'll come to a fork in the road. Someone has placed a cairn right in the middle of both so to be honest, I'm not sure why because it does not indicate either direction. You want to go right. (We went left at first and it's a short walk down to the river, but the path ends in the trees with no easy way to cross). The path continues and narrows as you make your ways through some thick brush single file (note to self: do not, I repeat, do not do this hike in tick season...*shiver*). You'll also have to climb over a large tree trunk and keep trekking on.
In the forest you'll encounter a small but rushing waterfall. Make your way carefully along the ridge of the bank, it's not too steep or dangerous, but you'll want to be cautious of your footing around roots and a few big mud puddles (logs have been laid to help you across the puddles, but it didn't stop me from plunging ankle deep into one).
Eventually you'll come to a beautiful meadow with a wall of mountain in front of you. As you walk more into the open you'll find that you are surrounded on all sides by majestic rocks and it is breathtaking. I find it interesting how some hikers can walk so quickly, while I'm just trying to soak it all in and not trip over my feet or a root at the same. I also am slower because I have to take lots of photos haha!

This mountain is a smiley one :)

You'll hike a ways through the meadow, a little bit more forest, and cross a narrow part of the river (look for cairns to direct you). Up until now the trail has had negligible elevation gain, but you will come to the base of the mountain where your ascent to the pass begins. By small, close switchbacks you'll make your way up. Pace yourself and you'll be just fine.

At this point we didn't make it all the way to the pass. The trail appeared to end where a rockier terrain began in more of a scramble and the footprints we were following in the snow dissapeared. Seeing as we'd hiked for 3 hours and were clearly not on the hike we planned with no idea where the end was we decided that was where we'd have lunch and turn around. Even still the view is amazing so we were not disappointed!
According to other hikers online, there are two lakes over the pass and some more great views so I think I'll mark this one down to try again another time. I imagine we were so close, and just didn't know it. 

As usual the way back takes less time and so our round trip total was 5 hours. We even saw a frog! He startled Elizabeth as he blended in so well!
Happy hiking!






*Seeing as we didn't complete the full pass, stopping short when we didn't know how much farther there was to go, I've pulled the complete details for the km, hrs, and m from hikealberta.com.