I had to ask a friend three times the name of the mountain. It just didn’t roll of my tongue. I didn’t care where it was … I just wanted to do something with a cool name.
Ship’s Prow near Canmore fit the bill.
I didn’t find many trail reports about Ship’s Prow online. There were reports from AllTrails, which I always take with a very thin grain of salt.
Also .. what the heck is a ship’s prow? (It’s the most forward part of a ship’s bow above the water. Yup I had to look that one up.)
I met Kate at the usual meeting spot on Hwy 1 before picking up another running friend at Tim Horton’s. I always stay clear of Canmore because it’s usually busy with tourists or random people.
We parked at the same spot for Mount Lawrence Grassi near Goat Creek Pond on Smith Dorrien Trail. Down the same gravel road for a bit before we headed up through the trees. It was uneventful and steep as we followed a somewhat bush whacky trail.
Once out of the trees came the views of the ridge, surrounding mountains and the lakes behind us. A chilly wind picked up and I wondered if I had enough warm clothing. While the sun was shining, the wind definitely had a bite to it. The Ship’s Prow hike is short under 10K so I knew I wouldn’t freeze to death. I just had to keep moving to stay warm. Thankfully we had periods of no wind throughout the morning.
The ridge views were outstanding. We still at about a kilometre to go so we moved briskly, trying to stay warm. There was loose scree and rock to the hiker’s summit on Ship’s Prow. It wasn’t terribly difficult route-finding. We could see the cairn clearly from a distance so we knew we just needed to head in that direction.
After quick high fives, Kate and Conway sat down to have a snack at the Hiker’s Summit. I was still relatively cold so I kept going to check out the rest of the trail to the true summit. I went down to the chimney and gazed up at the true summit. I am not sure how long it would have taken me to scramble to the true summit of Ship’s Prow so I turned around and joined my friends who were chatting and taking in the views.
Swiftly we descended from the summit to the ridge where we played around on the ledges. Our spirits were lifted by the breathtaking views, and we quickly moved through the tree descent.
This was a nice hike, one that could be coupled with Mt. Lawrence Grassi, if you are feeling ambitious. One day I will go back and scramble to the true summit.