Grass Pass Boundary Pine Loop April 22, 2019

We were long overdue to share a day being "out & about" in our mountain playground.  I put a shout out to Happy Hiker to see if she was keen to head off into cowboy country to refill our hearts and souls with joy.  Back in 2012 we dropped by to see The Boundary Pine after visiting Grass Pass and some of those Bull Creek Hills.  This time around I suggested we complete a loop coming off the back side where The Boundary Pine is and then venture down into that bowl.  This would be new to her and we agreed to make this our plan for the day!  

After checking all conditions before heading out the door, I knew we would be in for some wind gusts.  I parked as close to the trail head as possible and ran with all my gear into the trees to I could safely gear up without my gear blowing away.  We got the business out of the way of getting up that trail to where the views would begin.  We had no snow, no ice, no mud which meant no spikes and no gaiters. 

The winds were wilding up!

(I made up that word)

To get clouds like this, there has to be wind!

I had hoped for crocuses on the way up to Grass Pass.  We saw one lonely one that had just been born.  I had to focus on something and then the clouds began to show off and capture my attention.  I have this thing for clouds and they sure did it for me today.

We checked out Holy Cross and Mount Head and then went up slope to where we began the traverse over to where The Boundary Pine stands tall.  Today is Earth Day and today we needed to become one with our earth.  On the stretch from over there to over here, at times we had to hunker down to the ground or else we would be "off the deep end" and "never meet the ground"!  Once we got into a few trees I looked back to get this photograph of the clouds and the mountains.

The Boundary Pine

We captured our above photos after we dined.  We had hiked down slope on the backside to get well into a clump of trees for at least a little shelter from the wild wicked wind.  We settled in there for a little while and chatted up a storm.  At least now we did not have to yell at each other to be heard.

a view looking over to the Bull Creek Hills

Thank you to Happy Hiker for this photo.  

We followed along the edge of the ridge looking for a more scenic and fun way to get down.  

I like the crazy trees up in this neck of the woods.

the gate that opens to the bowl

So it was back in this bowl where all the crocuses were!  For today's crocus captures I focused up real close trying to protect them from the wind as I pressed the button.  The majority were singles with a random pair scattered far apart.

We geared down and took time to be silly.

It was still wildly windy but at least it was a bit warmer.  I was in desperate need to quench my thirst after all the silliness.  Thank you Happy Hiker for this photo.  She mentioned when she took it something about a frame, so now I see what she meant.

Time had come to get down the last stretch to the raod.  We meandered, all the while still admiring crocuses as we went.  We reached he bottom, scampered through the sparse aspen forest then walked the road back with the wind whipping around us.

We stopped in at Tim's in Black Diamond and savoured a hot one while sitting by the fire.  

We still had topics of conversation to cover so ended up spending close to an hour relaxing.  

I had such an enjoyable day.  Yeah, that's my kind of Monday!   

our route for today