A Great Good Friday

With an ideal forecast, with four fab friends, with a route extraordinaire, I knew we were in for nothing other than a win, win, win, win, win way to celebrate Easter Season all in one day!  Today's entire route would be new for Flying Finn.  Nikita would get to experience the West Ridge and the East Slope descent for the first time, while Short Stop would now get to add that East Slope descent to ground covered in this Bull Creek Hills grand area.  For myself and Agent-X, well we have been there and done that yet are always happy to come back here again and again.  You see, it would be a win for us all!

We hit the trail head just after 9:00am and made a quick ascent up that horse trail.  When we got beyond the trees and I saw the blue sky, the odd puffy white cloud, the aspen trees and the golden ground cover, I was tickled pink because these are a few of my favourite things.  

Our plan at Grass Pass was to first hang a left and ascend up to the summit of the West Ridge.  The snow was packed solid so we were able to hike on top of it which made for a fast trip to the top,  Looking back along the way, we could see the Bull Creek Hills where we would be early afternoon.

We could also admire the freshly snow covered summits.

This is my West Ridge summit shot in front of Holy Cross Mountain.

our group shot on the West Ridge summit

Easily reaching this West Ridge and having blue sky with gorgeous scenery, I was beginning to feel in the festive spirit of the season.  The wind was cold and at times strong but thankfully it did dissipate as the morning went passed.  On the way down, we stopped in the trees for fuel before beginning the attack on those relentless Bull Creek Hills.

We slowly worked our way up and down and up and down and up those Hills.  

If there was an opportunity to enjoy certain sections, we jumped at the chance.   

Our plan was to reach the last Hill but after searching and searching for a safe way to get to it and not having any luck, we made our way back to the second last Hill and declared that our dining spot.  We had the sun at our back, the rocky ridge to shelter us from the wind and our view was splendid.  Boy were we winning in many ways today!

My summit shot at Bull Creek Hills with Holy Cross behind me.

It seemed fitting to have Holy Cross Mountain in our view all day on this Good Friday.

our group shot at Bull Creek Hills

After our Bull Creek Hills attack, we retraced our track all the way back to where we hit the intersection for The Boundary Pine Peninsula then followed it all the way to The Boundary Pine Tree.  Just before reaching The Tree, we had an amazing view back to where we just were.  

relaxing under The Boundary Pine Tree

If there is a reason to celebrate we will take on the task and find a place and way to make it happen.  Our descent route for today was beyond the Tree and finding the open meadow to our left that would hook us up with a well defined meandering trail leading down.  We searched for the perfect tree then hung our Easter Eggs with care.  

our Easter Tree

This was an ideal meadow to bring on the bubbles.  

Is this winning or what?

bubbles

Well into the afternoon now, we snacked again then carried on with our day to where the crazy trees stood.  We meandered along through the meadow gradually making our way down.  I took a look back loving the view that was offered us.  We could see the Bull Creek Hills far off back there.

Descending the grassy slope, we stopped to admire the trees.  

Each had its own wild and wonderful characteristics.  

What a winning day feeling high the whole way,  so why not end on a high note too.  This is our last group shot high in the sky on a rock garden.  From this point on, we descended a steep grassy slope then hiked down through an aspen forest and lastly out to the road with only a klick or so back to the car.    

I was so happy today turned out the way it did! 

With the right mix of everything we could not go wrong.  

It was a winning combination day in every which way.  

What a Great Good Friday!  

Thank you so much for joining in on making today the day that it was!