TRIP TO CASTLE MOUNTAIN, July 12-14, 2019
(Clicking on the pics allows to see them in bigger size).
(Clicking on the pics allows to see them in bigger size).
Our trip this time was to Castle Mountain, which is without a doubt an absolutely iconic mountain in Banff National Park.
Officially, our hike was on Saturday, but some people decided to visit Lake Minewanka the day before ...
... where Joanna caught a nice petrified trout fish.
( we are not sure what she had in mind here)
On the way to the Castle Mountain we stopped at the Johnston Canyon,
... where we had a chance to admire beautiful waterfalls ...
... and other amazing views.
Everybody arrived finally at our Hilton International a.k.a. the HI Castle Mountain Wilderness Hostel .
As you can see on the map, “We are here”, which means in the middle of nowhere.
We were a total 14 people strong, which is a very nice size group. Needless to say, our group dominated the whole place. Some people brought their guitars and other instruments and we spent the evening singing Polish, Russian and Chinese songs by the campfire.
Next morning we all woke up dark and early, way before 6 AM. For breakfast Peter ordered omelet and Grazyna ordered scrambled eggs with chives, like in a real Hilton International, or even better. And everybody was ready to hit the trail promptly at 7 AM
We were at the trail head punctually at 7AM
After a couple hours of an uphill hike we came to this magnificent alpine lake, from where we could see our destination in its full glory.
In the forest and at higher elevations we could admire some Canadian wildlife.
Our ladies had a picnic in the forest while admiring the magnificent view.
We had a short rest by the Rockbound Lake,
during which some people went for a quick dip in the lake.
At this stage some members of our group decided to stay at the lake and enjoy the rest of the day. Other people started from here the real ascent; some people decided to take the Road Less Travelled and went through a short cut that was later called The Crack of Death, due to difficult and dangerous scrambling.
We walked through a beautiful alpine meadow ...
and admired all sorts of alpine flora.
There was quite a bit of snow at higher elevations, which, unlike Zenka ...
... looked innocent enough from afar.
We were not prepared to see such a large quantity of deep snow.
In the moments of rest we built a fancy snowman ...
... while other guys were playing macho man ...
... and women.
Pity Asia didn't take her top off, like Piotr. On the other hand, she didn't have to! :-)
Michael Jr. and Mikolaj shared a moment of friendship.
Mike got stuck in a deep snow close to the summit and decided to turn around.
I was very happy to be re-united with my son, Michael Jr.
Several people made it to the top this time, including Joanna, Peter, Michael Jr., Roman
... Mikolaj ...
and Gennady.
On the way down from the summit, "ballets began." (Zaczęły się "balety.")
Upon return to our Hilton we all enjoyed some well deserved "spoils" of the day.
It appears that our friend Wiesiek, the Sexiest Man of 2018 Photo-Competition, quite justifiably, became the darling of the ladies.
Are they thinking Cascade Mountain (in the background) next year?
Next morning we said Good Bye to our Castle Mountain, which was covered partially in a dense cloud. So much pleasure in just a couple of days!
Note: In this report we used photos taken and shared by several members of our group, for which we are thankful. So next year on Castle Mountain? Yours truly,
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