Up and Up at Upper

Don't be fooled into a false sense of a trek being easy when the planned statistics are listed as being 60 meters of elevation which is minimal and 16km around a lake. This distance is accurate, as is the elevation but the 60 meters represents net elevation.

We planned to circuit the Upper Kananaskis Lake today which we did but it was more of a slog then expected and quite tiring. We can blame that on the amount of snow we slogged through and the undulating hills. The total elevation amounted to just under 500 meters. It felt every 20 minutes or so we had another up only to be followed by another down. I was desperate to rest and took advantage when I saw this piece of drift wood that looked like a lounge chair.After a few kilometers, we reached the Upper Kananaskis Lakes trail head and it was time for a snack break and another break. I needed to visit the outhouse! From the other end of the lot, it looked like I might have to climb up a snowbank to pay a visit but as it turned out there was a small narrow path behind the pile. Yes, there was lots of snow everywhere today.
There was lots of beautiful scenery everywhere today too! This photo shows the Elk Range at the far end of the Upper Kananaskis Lake but in reality the Range is quite far beyond the Lake.
The reflection caught my eye before anything else did here. Some day I would like to be on one of the little islands that populate the Lake.
I'm pleased with the shots I can get with my 9000. I play with my macro as time allows and try to capture unusual photos. I still have a lot of functions to catch up on.



We passed by this playground which was a field of tree stumps at the base of a mountain. I crawled up onto one to get today's summit shot. Once that was taken care off, everyone else picked a stump to pose upon, flexing muscles, balancing and performing yoga poses.
As the sun began to set on the distance range, we thought it time to pick up the pace and reach the trail head before dark. The plan was to complete the route earlier and tack on another small scenic jaunt but due to the amount of snow along the whole trail, it slowed our pace. We came upon a couple of scenic scenarios that took up a little more of our time then expected too but we couldn't just pass these by.
What a day of ups filled with laughter, play and fun. It's days like these that are good for the heart and soul. They lift my spirits so high up that I feel like I am "on top of the world!"

As you can see, I'm back up to par at including google earth maps of my hike and an elevation chart. What I thought was a complicated task to perform on my new MAC, the preparation of these was so simple it wasn't obvious at the start! The whole reason for getting a MAC was to make life simpler.