Ridge Play!

The playground along the Highwood Pass is open for the season! The place of choice to play today was Mist Ridge. I have done a couple of ridge walks before and had visions of what would be facing us but today's ridge was nothing like I experienced before and exceeded expectations! It was a real rough rocky ridge! Shortly into the hike, we came to the realization that we were not the only ones considering this as a playground! We examined evidence! We took inventory of "better to be safe than sorry" equipment. We had a few canisters of bear spray, an air horn, bear bangers and nine loud different voices.

Nothing was going to bully us in the playground today. We announced our entrance then set off to play! After exiting the narrow winding tree-lined trail, the ridge was in full view and it stretched as far as the eye could see. We made our way to the top without much effort. once up there, the contrasts in colors and landscape was surprising to me. We even saw prayer flags like in Nepal.

It was windy at the highest point as you can see! Around 1:00 we dipped to the south a few meters to find protection from the wind and took a quick break to rest and refuel. I had a view that went on forever. Once my belly was full and my eyes were full, we set out to attack the bush.

I have bushwhacked lots before but that was while snowshoeing. This was a first for tackling the bush in short pants and short sleeve shirt. I have all the scrapes and scratches to prove it and every single one was worth it for the hidden beauty to be found where others dare not to go. It was very steep, very dense, very lush and very intimidating. The air horn was put to use numerous times to clear our way. For the majority of the bushwhack, we followed a water falls and at one point where it cascaded into a pool, we stopped to cool our hands and feet.

We accomplished what we set out to do today! Nothing rained on our parade and we were able to play until our hearts were content!