Hiking in Kananaskis
I find when I’m working away from home that sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in what I call the “Hotel Trap”.
HOTEL TRAP:/hōˈtel trap/ noun.
a situation of consciousness that leaves the unsuspecting victim unable to account for large amounts of time. Usually due to consuming marathon lengths of reality television.
“A day into my trip I got Hotel Trap by watching Fast and Loud on Discovery Channel for 6 hours.”
Easy. You’ve all been there I’m sure. However this past December I decided this time that wouldn’t be me.
I enlisted the aid of my friend Dan. He lives in Calgary and I figured if I’m going to get active I should call on the local talent. It’s always best to get a local perspective and Dan is an avid hunter, fisherman and generally a spectacular outdoorsman – in other words, he would eat Man Tracker for breakfast.
Dan drove us to what he referred to as the “old” way up. This is along the Alberta Hwy. 1A – a beauty of a road. This is a bendy two lane road through the lower parts of the Canmore area. On the drive you’ll see lots of cool stuff, there’s native owned wild stallions, the eclectic homes of the mountain’s recloose (or at least in my imagination) and this will be your best chance at catching a good sighting of some larger Canadian wildlife. So keep your eyes peeled and drive carefully.
Once you gear up for your hike and tie up your boots you have options. There’s a sign/map of the area of which you can pick a trail from or like us – just turn towards the mountain and start hiking. After a quick lesson in animal tracks from Dan we headed up the side of the mountain.
From here we scaled the mountain for about 2 hours straight(ish) up the side. For lunch, nature has created a bunch of perfect places to sit and enjoy the view. From here Mount Rundle is in plain sight across the hwy and Bow River.
On our way back Dan took me to a Geocaching location he knew about and we spent a few minutes reflecting on our day. Some of the most honest things you’ll ever read can be found in these places.
After a few minutes (which could have been a lot longer than it felt) we finished our descent. The last few hundred feet being a little more quiet and somehow a little more contemplative due to the true realization that sometimes it makes sense to just take a minute and enjoy your surroundings.
And finally – of course reality snaps us back into real life. We grab road coffees and sandwiches from Beamer’s Coffee Bar in Canmore (which has incredible food and amazing staff) before we head back to the city. And with a rearview full of winter sunset and a Dave Grohl soundtrack the act of getting out of the Hotel Trap, or bigger than that, the “Life Trap” is cured.
