Enjoying The Journey No Matter What

Over the past couple of days, there were many emails and discussions on where we should venture to today. When it came down to the second do we drive straight or turn off right here, was when the decision was finally made to tackle Tent Ridge. I had checked the forecast before heading out the door and it looked like we would be in for a sunny, gorgeous afternoon! What city was that forecast for?

This was what 99.9% of today looked liked for us! Snowy! Cloudy! It all started 15 minutes into our 5 hour snowshoe trek, with a break of about another 15 minutes mid way.

I thought today could be an opportunity to improve upon my slippery slope snowshoeing skills but it turned out being an opportunity to practice our route finding skills, log climbing skills, remaining upright skills, keeping warm skills all while still managing to have fun because it truly is all about the journey and not the destination. Today there turned out being no destination unless you want to call the Grizzly Paw in Canmore a destination!

We started out with 2 functioning 60 CSXs. G-Force had the route loaded on his and eventually was able to find a trail to follow. Nothing looked familiar from when we did it on July 1st, yet we carried on. The visibility was not much beyond what was in front of us, yet we carried on.

We realized early on that we were faced with a tough challenge and already we were questioning how far we could get. I thought to myself that today then had to be all about the journey and making the best of the situation and enjoy it no matter what. Be happy! Don't worry!

Take the time to play and have fun! Enjoy the scenery plus the quantity and quality of snow.

After 3 hours and covering, maybe, 3 kilometers, we thought it best to break for a well deserved lunch and then trace our steps back. We still had no real idea of where we were, still could not see any evidence of a Ridge, the snow was getting heavier and knowing this time of year how the daylight hours are shorter, we would have to call it a day after lunch.

I tried out my new Thermarest Seat, which is a keeper and my new Vacuum Thermos for Food, which is also a keeper and contained homemade Hungarian Goolash. I gained these two new items to make my winter treks more comfortable and enjoyable experiences but I lost one item also. My thermos for my hot drinks went missing somewhere between our stop for lunch and when we arrived back at the trailhead. I'm surprised that is all that was lost considering the climbing, the ducking, the crawling and the falling that took place.

After that 5 hours on the very short trail, we made it back to the vehicle that was now totally covered in snow. We were too! We packed up and headed towards Canmore for dinner. As we got closer, the sky cleared somewhat and we stopped so I could get at least one panoramic mountain photo shot for the day. This is what I came up with!

I have the first third of the trek on my GPS and the remaining two thirds G-Force has on his. His batteries quite, we transferred mine over to his as we needed to follow his track. I always have extra batteries in my pack but last night took them out to use elsewhere and never did return them to my pack. Lesson learned!

Dinner at Grizzly Paw was great! Today was great! I felt battered but great! Even when we didn't reach our planned destination of being on top of Tent Ridge and remained down in a valley, I still felt like I was "on top of the world!"