The trail head is well marked. The trail itself is not. A lot of odd bushwacking to get to the ridge. This is where a few people had ticks crawl up in their clothing. After getting some elevation and escape the forest, we begin to see the world around us.
Below we see Eagle Lake. Beautiful shades of blue and green. To the West is Ya Ha Tinda Ranch and the Rockies!
Above us, the peak is finally in sight.... or so we thought. This is a false summit that we skirt arount the right. We need to follow the ridge up to the peak on the right, go across the saddle first! The true peak is just visible behind the saddle.
Farther up the ridge and the lake below is in full view along with the landscape beyond.
I was leading the way for most of the hike. I enjoy this because I get to look back and capture some epic photos of my friends as they come up the ridge.
Up, and down again! The saddle at last. The group was moving particularly slow. It's a long drive back to Edmonton so Jill and I decided to push on ahead. I did enjoy this decision because I was able to look back yet again and capture some unique perspectives of the group.
The gang was taking a break on the other end of the saddle. We waited.
We skirt the ridge along the wall. Water was dripping down the rock wall and we drank fresh mountain water.
After skirting the ridge, you bump up and lose a lot of elevation until you reach the final climb. Here is about halfway up the last push. The saddle is below to the left. Ya Ha Tinda Ranch off int he distance near centre frame. This saddle was interesting in that the scree was super thin. It was like stepping on glass and cracking it.
The summit of Eagle Mountain! It was a long grind to get up here. We relaxed and set the beers in the snow to cool them off. We explored the top and found a lot of great sea shell fossil. Some in superb condition.
It was time to descend. Everyone is packing up.
The hour was getting late. Jill and I wanted to return to Edmonton at a reasonable hour so we said our goodbyes to the group and made our way down the descent route in a speedy fashion.
On the way down, we met this little guy! A Mountain Goat!!!!
One last look at the landscape before descending into the trees. Bushwhacking is in order for the rest of the hike until we connect to the horse trails. Overall a good hike.... did I mention there was a tick crawling up my leg at one point? Gross. Did a solid tick check after and found none. The trick is, don't stop, keep moving. It's harder for ticks to climb up on you if you don't stop moving.
