Sparrowhawk Tarns
My old university contemporary Peter, and his friend David arrived from Calgary at nine o'clock. After a brief pause for refreshments a day off for Charlie was declared and we all jumped into David's Mazda.
The Highway 742 road to the Kananaskis area is a gravel track from the outskirts of Canmore and when we reached the Sparrowhawk picnic area after a rainy/snowy journey of more than 20 km we found the access gate to be locked. It's the end of the season. So we parked by the gate and headed up to the tarns along a good forest path.
The rain turned to sleet, then snow, then it stopped. It was cool. Conrad has correctly observed the change of season, but we seem to have moved from summer directly to winter. You'll note the snow over about 2000 metres in today's pictures. Our there and back route started at 1750 metres and reached a high point of about 2350 metres, from where we could just about see one of the five tarns (fourth picture down). The rest were hidden away in nooks and crannies that we decided not to visit, given the snowy conditions and the rough terrain.
Nobody else was on this trail today. Great! At times the path was obscure and hard to locate under the snow. David's GPS tracking came in handy on the descent when we encountered a mystery stream crossing.
A fair proportion of the walk was above the tree line, with lots of mountain views both above the tarns and in the other direction beyond Spray Lake Reservoir where we'd parked. Recent snow had given some of the mountains a white fringe.
Some squeaking pika entertained us, but not as much as the cheery chipmunks who seemed to be preening each other, getting ready for a party. There was no sign of any Pilated Woodpecker, but one did land on a tree trunk a couple of metres from us yesterday, down by the creek.
It brightened considerably during our descent on this cold day, but by 3.30 we were back at the car and ready to move on to the Bow Valley Motel Tea House (Room 32) in Canmore.
Peter and David were duly waved off, with thanks for choosing a perfect walking route for today's conditions.
Sue and I adjourned to The Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company restaurant for shared salads and pizza of a very high quality. Nice beer too.
10 km with 600 metres ascent, in 5 hours.
1 comment:
Fantastic scenery Martin.
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