Hiking Hillocks!

Some say hillocks! How can that be when you cover 662 meters of elevation over 7 kilometers! Today's plan was to do a loop up Grass Pass then across and down Bull Creek Hills leading us back out to Highway 541 to conclude with a 2 kilometer roadside walk back to the car. Typical views for today looked like this! So green and lush! First things first! I discovered something new! Letterboxing! Before R and I headed up the hill today, I wanted to scout out a letterbox. We followed the on-line directions to this one which we found tucked well behind and underneath this large rock. We each signed it, dated it and wrote a quick note.

We had to cross the highway to start our ascent, dodging runners (would you believe that?) competing in the K-100 Relay. The climb started immediately at the trail head and was relentless. At about the 3km mark we reached a spot which had a great vista and thought let's get our "two of us, camera on timer" shot.We are not even in full swing of wildflower season! After what we saw today, I can't even imagine what the prime time, high season will look like. I'm excited for that!

R picked a place to stop for lunch on one of the hillocks, where we had a view of the snow covered mountain range to the west. We relaxed for awhile trying to identify the flowers we saw by comparing them to pictures of flowers in my "Pack-It" pocket guide called Central Rockies Wildflowers.

Feeling refueled,we were ready to roll along the rolling so-called hills. When we thought the peak was ahead, we were fooled because once we reached that we saw another peak ahead. When we thought the peak was ahead, we were fooled because once we reached that we saw another peak ahead. No, I did not mistakenly type that twice, it happened not twice but numerous times. It was hillock after hillock after hillock!

This is my summit shot which was taken on the highest hillock! We had a gorgeous day of sunshine and 360 degree views of forever.

There was some confusion many times on where the path was and once we did find it, then where did it lead. After the summit, the plan was to carry on doing a loop. We reached a section which looked rather steep with no gentle way to attack it. I know others have done this hike, but we just could not see a safe way to go. We had already done much more elevation then was the plan for the day, the hours were ticking away, the sky turned grey and our water supply was dwindling!

We regrouped, put our heads together and decided the best thing was to go back the way we came. This became an issue because nothing looked familar. There was no obvious path, we were in a large section of trees without a view to the mountains to give us a sense of direction. This is where I used my GPS for something other than knowing our elevation and distance travelled. We used it to retrace our track! Wow! It worked!

Two hours later than planned, we landed back at the car! Today's hike had different scenery and landscape than I have hiked before. I enjoyed all that! It was a long day and quite tiring! Thank you R for sharing today with me and I look forward to our next hike!