Yesterday Mother Nature obliged us with a perfectly splendid fall day. The temperature was around 20°C, the wind was light and being retired we have all the time in the world to enjoy life. Normally we stay at home puttering or should I say just frittering the day away, but yesterday we decided to go somewhere. That was the easy part, deciding what to do is always the hard part for me because I am pretty indecisive. Lucky for me I am married to someone who is pretty good at making decisions. We packed a few hiking essentials and headed off to the mountains.
How lucky we are that just an hour or so away God put a huge selection of mountains for us to enjoy. We decided that Grassi Lakes would be our destination which is just to the south of Canmore and a little past the Canmore Nordic centre. We have been there many times but it has been a few years and I don’t think it is possible to get bored hiking in the mountains.
We parked in the parking lot at the trail head and just a little ways in at a fork in the trail was a sign indicating the easy path or the more difficult trail. We opted for the easy fork but in years past we took the more difficult route, probably trying to tire out three energetic kids. One thing you should know about the word “easy” when used in a mountain setting, it means that the trail is easier than any other option but it isn’t particularly what one might consider “easy” in a city setting. The trail was a continuous uphill and the more difficult way had bigger rocks and was less direct but slightly more scenic as I recall.
We took our time and made the climb with a few stops to rest and take pictures on the way up, chatting with the more energetic people who passed us going one way or the other. Once you arrive at Grassi Lakes you are greeted with the most stunning little lakes that are on this planet. There are many benches located around the lakes for people to sit and enjoy being alive. We had a granola bar and a juice box to replenish our energy while we absorbed earth energy from the lakes and mountains surrounding them. The wind picked up and we put on our jackets, but it was nice to cool down after the climb.
We took more pictures and in the fullness of time we took our leave of the lakes. Going downhill is in it’s own way just as difficult as going uphill, and a little harder on older knees. We arrived at the trail head after a few stops to rest and take pictures on the way down, chatting with the more energetic people who passed us going one way or the other. Once in the parking lot we chatted with the person whose job it is to clean up after people have treated this serene, beautiful bit of God’s country like a dump. And all for $8.00 an hour.
Louise and I did as we always do, we took only pictures and left only foot prints.
Sounds like you had a great day, isn't retirement awesome!
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