Lake Minnewanka

Here's some pictures from the hike the young men and the young men's presidency did last weekend out at Lake Minnewanka. We stayed overnight at Two Jack campground, ate a pancake breakfast (with syrup this time), and then spent the rest of the day on about an 18km hike. The weather was perfect and we got to see plenty of wildlife along the trail. We actually planned to make it all the way to the lookout, which would have been about a 21km hike, but some mountain bikers warned us that they saw a grizzly bear digging just off the trail up ahead, so we decided to turn back. The pictures tell the story better...

This is Isaiah supervising the deacons setting up the only tent you can see from space. It's a 9 man tent divided into 2 compartments. The smaller compartment might sleep 2 full size young men's leaders, and probably only one full size high priest group leader, but the four deacons we had there all crammed themselves in, leaving Isaiah alone in the larger compartment. They claimed that they did it for warmth, but I think the warning signs posted all over the camp with pictures of bears on them had something to do with it too.

The trail on the way to the lookout. You get a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains if you ignore the burnt out trees.

We stopped for lunch on this beach. There were spiders. We started walking back along the beach, thinking it would be flatter and therefore easier going, but the rocks were too big and loose to navigate very well, so a couple of us found our way back on to the trail before it got too high off the water level.

The rest made their way along the beach to this spring and then climbed the near vertical mountain side up to the trail where I was standing with my camera. I was impressed that they all made it, and relieved that we didn't have to call for a life boat, and happy that they brought me up some spring water.

After spotting some big horn sheep and some deer a ways off the trail, we came upon a herd of mountain goats on the trail. They were a bit slow to move to the side, but we eventually got through. A lot of them hung around to watch us go by, but that ended when someones dog came around the corner and chased them up the mountain.

Some of the younger boys were a bit hesitant to cross the path of an untamed mountain goat. Joey is actually walking backwards in this picture, and he's holding a knife.

The hike ended with a game of camouflage on the side of the trail. I think some of the other hikers were a bit bewildered when they heard AJ yell "camouflage" and suddenly 10 kids appeared as if from nowhere and pushed him over while he tried to count down from 30.

Despite how out of shape I feel, the only real suffering I endured were a couple blisters the size of Werthers Originals on my big toes when I got home. I have a picture of them too, but that's the sort of thing you don't let people see for free.