Orchid in the Valley

It was pouring yesterday morning in Calgary; one of the ladies gave up for the hiking plan. MS picked me up at 10 o’clock and I took both my purse and backpack. We shrugged our shoulders, “Well, if it rains, we go to Canmore (105 km west of Calgary) for a quilt shopping and tea; if it doesn’t, we hike in Kananaskis.”

From Calgary, driving 84 km west on Highway 1 towards Canmore/Banff, we saw the blue sky and white cotton clouds above the dark clouds’ edge! With no doubt we exited to Highway 40 and drove south into Kananaskis Country. The trailhead is 14.7 km south at the Baldy Pass trailhead parking lot (across the highway). The light spring green is so fresh after the shower with the bright blue sky and white clouds!

Baldy Pass - South Approach Hiking Trail

Distance: 7.4 km return. Elevation gain: 570 meters. Time: 4.5 hours return. Difficulty Rating: Medium.

Description: A short, scenic climb through a valley providing exceptional views of the foothills once you reach the pass.

Once we got into the trail, we felt that the trees were too dense. I regretted immediately that I did not bring the bear’s spray and the bell. Oh well, we discussed what we would do if we saw a bear. M’s husband is a Calgarian, so she repeated the second-hand training on-site to me. If it is a grizzly bear, walk backwards quietly; if it is a black bear, make huge noise. I said climbing the tree is a smart idea, but M asked me to give a try. We talked about bears loudly for a while, before M found the beautiful Fairy’s Orchid! I totally forgot about the bears (I did not think M was afraid of bears; she was just being cautious.) We started to look down instead of looking around for wired noises.  Then we found more and more orchids.

Fairy Slipper (Other names are Venus Slipper and Calypso Orchid.)

Thank you M!!

 

White Globe Flower (very similar to the Spring Beauty) Thank you M!

Early Blue Violet (The book says it is supposed to have an 'exquisite fragrance' but we didn't get that low to smell them.)

Bearberry - the flower

Bearberry - the berry (The Indian name kinnikinnick means "something to smoke" because they used the dried leaves as tobacco or mixed with it.)

Don't know what kind of animal left the feet print! M says this is definitely not a bear's; that is comforting. But it does not look like a deer’s in my eyes… I was tired, breathless and stopped talking for a while; M reminded me not to stop talking, then I started o make weird noises between my quick breathes. I concluded that a person has to be talkative to join the lone hike!

Joan said later that this is a bear's foot print!!  Phew!!

(new note) Karl and Annette told me it is indeed a wolf's foot print!!  Ahhh.....

The upper part of the trail was full of snow and we almost gave up three times, however we persevered and reached to the top! It was cold and windy; soon we put all layers on and I started to shiver by the end of the lunch. I had only a bag of left over pop corn and a carton of berry juice for my lunch; and we hided behind some huge rocks. The sky was grey and the wind was howling, but I felt it was like heaven.

Nakiska Ski Resort, where the 88' Olympic was held.  Funny I felt that the ski slope should be open!

Rough-Fruited Fairybell (Thank you M!)

M knows all the names of the wild flowers in the Rockies.  She is going to email me the names of these flowers.  She told me when we hiked, but I forgot.

Blue Clematis (Thank you M!!)

Thank you Lord, we did not see a bear!

 

Rocky Mountain Lady Slipper (taken in 2007 at Yoho National Park, B.C.)