Between serenading Diane with 1990s’ rock hits, I assured my friend that I would not get us lost on the trail. If I do it’s only a slight detour, and I can easily get myself back on track. I know I don’t have to say where this is going ….
I had a simple plan – drive to Station Flats where we would run/hike/crawl to the summit of Moose Mountain. I estimated it would be about 36-40K return. But somewhere (I know exactly where now), I got distracted. Two loops, some backtracking and close to two hours later, we finally were on the right track.
Thankfully Diane was not in a hurry. And she did not get annoyed with my constant, “I think we are going the right way now” followed by “Maybe not. Let’s go this way.” I know I would have strangled my friend. Two weeks ago Diane completed the Death Race solo in Grande Cache. She was just happy to be in the mountains and moving.
We did not make it to the top of Moose Mountain. Because of our detour, we were behind in schedule. I had to be back in Red Deer to go to a friend’s book launch. We were also done. We finished with 33K on our feet. I think it would have been another six kilometres on our feet.
We would have been climbing on already tired legs so we decided to call it a day at the meadow area. We could see Moose in the distance. I felt bad that we didn’t reach the top. I go to Kananaskis all the time but Diane doesn’t always have the opportunity. On our way down, Diane spotted a bear in the bushes, at least she thinks it was a bear. I didn’t see anything. I was too busy daydreaming.
All in all, we had a great day. There was singing, dancing and a little running. Now that’s what I call time well spent.
Tips for not getting lost on the trail (unless you want to get lost)
- Pay attention to your surroundings
- Read the map
- Do not rely on memory alone