Hike to Red Mountain

After missing 2 consecutive weekends of day hikes, I managed to do a 2 night trip during the Labour Day Weekend.  I had so much fun at last year's Labour Day weekend backpacking trip, that I had to do it again!  This may become a tradition.  Like the one last year, it was organized by Vivien Lougheed.

There were 6 of us on the trip.  We had left the trip open to anyone who was interested, but there was only room for 6 of us in the cabin up there, so any more that were interested, had to tent it.  As the weather was miserable on Saturday morning, only us 6 showed up.

We drove for over 2 hours to get to the base of Red Mountain.  We parked at the Boudreau's, who have lived there in the middle of nowhere for all their lives.  Actually, the area was once a thriving place due to lumber mills being set up in area, but now as the timber industry has cooled off, so has the population.  People who move out are not being replaced.

It took us 5 hours to hike to the cabin, and we gained a thousand feet or two.  The weather wasn't too bad, but it did rain here and there.  As we settled into the cabin for the night, it started to snow!  Don't forget though, that we are high up in the mountains, and it can snow in July.  Can you believe that there are some high peaks in the background of this photo?

It snowed a few inches during the night, and as we waked up in the morning, it was like winter outside.  And it was STILL snowing.  As it was miserable outside, we stayed inside the cabin until 1pm, when it stopped raining/snowing.  We didn't want to get cabin fever and it would be a shame for all the effort it took us to climb up to the cabin, to not explore the area.  We hiked up to a ridge on Green Mountain and back, which took us 3 hours.  We didn't climb up to the top of Green Mountain or Red Mountain because it was just too miserable and there was no view to see!  It was definitely worth leaving the cabin for a bit though.

 It's cleared a bit and you can actually see some peaks, so we go out to explore.

Below:  That's where we are headed to.

As we get higher, the more snow there is.

There's me!

Would you believe we actually saw some blue sky?

On our way down, we saw some fresh Grizzly tracks and digs.  It was digging for bulbs to eat.  It took off when it either smelled or heard us.  Without the fresh snow, we would have never known that it was just there.

Above:  It looks like the top has been dusted with icing sugar.

Above:  Red Mountain

Below:  to get to Red Mountain Cabin, you have to walk through some Ancient Cedar.