Knitting is the new Nintendo

 I have to say, I think Rummel Lake is one of my favorite hikes so far. We didn't have the most ideal day for hiking as it was overcast and drizzly, but nonetheless the views were still beautiful and I can only imagine how spectacular it'd be on a clear day! I think the fall colours might have had something to do with my enjoyment of the ambiance of the hike as well. The yellow larch trees and partially fallen leaves are just so pretty this time of year!

Rummel Lake
Difficulty: easy
Round trip: 8.6km
Hiking Time: 3-4 hrs
Elevation Gain: 355m
FitBit: approx 19,000 steps and 155 floors
This trail head is not marked (and no facilities), to find it from Canmore you'll need to get going south on the Smith-Dorrien (Hwy 742). Turn your odometer to 0 when passing the Nordic Center on your right and your destination is approximately 34km from there. You'll see a sign for Rummel Creek and shortly after turn right (W) onto Mt. Shark Road, signed for Engadine Lodge. There is a grassy pullout immediately to the left, but as some do, they also park on the side of the road beside the trail head, which is at the top of the T of the intersection (the E side of Hwy 742, your left when coming from Canmore).

Directions From Calgary - click for Google Maps

The start of the hike is through the trees on a well defined path where you'll gain most of the elevation at a steady, but very manageable, rate and it levels out part way which I quite liked (versus the hikes that have a steep incline at the end...). Thus it doesn't take long into your day, and with not too much effort, to have a nice view of the surrounding mountains above the treeline!

A Spruce Grouse

You will enter a thicker part of the forest, where the path is lined with roots so watch your step. It opens up again and you will find yourself near to Rummel Creek. There are some planks laid across the water which you may take and when you come to an actual bridge a little farther up you'll want to go back across (otherwise you'll be on the snowshoe trail meant for winter). However, you should really just skip the planks and continue straight ahead. You'll rock hop a bit (how fun :) beside the embankment where the path appears to disappear, but it picks up on the other side. (Trust me, it's not hard).

Option 1 (take next the bridge back across when you come to it)

Option 2 (it's not as bad as it looks)

From either approach you'll continue E. You will see a sign that says Avalanche Territory Do Not Enter (i.e. don't go there in winter...) Being the end of September there was remnants from an earlier snowfall, but not enough to avalanche thankfully!
There are a couple of beautiful cascades over stair-like rocks, at the second one your path will narrow along the bank for maybe 30m, it's a bit of a rush, but nothing to be afraid of. On the other side you'll continue on a boot beaten path at the base of a small rock slide.

Can't see the path, but that's where we came across.

We then came to a point not mentioned in my book. The path appeared to continue straight, but there was a cairn and ribbons marking a  route left through the trees. We opted to follow the ribbon route.
You'll then come to be beside the creek again and when the path appears to end ahead you actually have two options. We didn't realize this at the time so we took a right up the bank, it looked like the most obvious path. But in fact as we discovered on the way down you can rock hop across the creek here from the other side, so that is an option too.
The lake is not far ahead, 10 min if I remember correctly. You'll know it when you see it :)
We spent some time snapping lots of pictures and then sitting to enjoy our PB&J. We were the only ones there other than a man who came a few min behind us and he meandered off to the other side of the lake to do some fishing. It's a spectacular serene place.
Our hope was to also do Rummel Pass, but we ran out of time. We ventured along the main trail over to the north side of the lake and up the rocky slope and got some great snaps of the lake from there, but we did not go further, so next time! In total we were out for just over 4 hours.
On the way down we thought we'd try to go the route we thought might connect with the bridge from the other side, but when we got to the creek again it appeared that the path ended and we were forced to hop across again to continue on the original path. Since then I've read that's what we were wanting to do for the way back was the snowshoe trail so I'll have to look it up in my snowshoeing book and see what it says. Nonetheless it was a great hike and I can't wait to do it again, but all the way to the Pass!

I made a cairn!

Happy Hiking!

What do you do when you get an extra day off work for a long weekend? That's a rhetorical question. Go hiking of course! This time I recruited a handful of friends to come with and we had a blast. No rainy drizzle would get us down! Grotto Canyon turned out to be the perfect overcast day trail and in answer to a quick prayer, we still got some warm sun mid afternoon :)
Grotto Canyon
Difficulty: easy
Round trip: 4km to 7km
Hiking Time: 2-3 hrs
Elevation Gain: 100m to 235m
FitBit: approx 9,000 steps and 58 floors

The trailhead is nice and close to Canmore so this one makes for a great short day trip from the city. Driving west on Highway 1 take the Highway 1A exit for Canmore, go left/east onto Bow Valley Trail (Hwy 1A) at the stop sign. Reset your odometer to 0. When you get to 9.8km turn left into the Grotto Pond picnic area parking lot. The trail is marked with a sign on the west side of the lot.

From Calgary - click for directions on Google Maps

The initial trail is easy going and whenever it appears to fork just look for the directional signs. You'll hear the hum of the Baymag plant to your left, but once into the canyon that noise will fade. You'll pass through a small makeshift parking lot (another option I suppose, but with no facilities) and at about 1km you'll come to a small ridge with a bench which offers a nice view of the Bow Valley. 
From here you can see the mouth of the canyon slightly below, that's where you want to go. The hiker sign that indicates a path ascending into the trees slightly, ignore it! Then just follow beside the creek, it's very shallow and there are plenty of narrow places to traverse when you are required to skip over it. Just be careful of your footing on any wet rocks.
There are several unique factors about this canyon trail. The first is that it is a popular place for climbers. We only spotted one pair, but it's fascinating to watch and try to comprehend how they can climb a surface that appears basically flat with few hand/footholds. So neat! (Even if you don't see any climbers look for the bolts drilled into the rock.)
The other drawing feature of this canyon is the 1000 year old native paintings on one of the canyon walls. You would likely miss it if you aren't aware. It's about 40 min from the trailhead on a rock that juts out from the left. Basically at eye level they are now a faint red. You'll see a few warriors, a canoe, buffalo and more! It's fascinating :)
Just a few minutes past the rock art you'll come to the spot where to to the right in the distance is the slim waterfall that feeds the creek. If you are satisfied with the progress you've made you might choose to turn around here, but the path through the canyon continues to the left for those who desire to see more.
A little ways further the canyon opens up wide and the creekbed is now dry. The terrain is slightly rougher with larger rocks and boulders, but you'll get a nice view in front of you and as you continue, behind as well of some snowy mountain peaks. You'll also pass some hoodoos. Once at approx 3km, 1.5hrs from your start, the views lessen and so there is no real reason to continue.
Though at first it was a bit dreary of a day for us, the sun did come out. We took our time as we meandered, myself quite enjoying taking in all of the things that others in my groups spotted that I might otherwise have missed. In total with a few snack breaks we did the return trip in about 2 hours and 45min. We rounded out our day trip by going into town for some yummy bagels and hot beverages. Not a bad day at all :)
Happy Hiking!

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.