(First Hiking in Canada)It was 13th of June 2009.
I was planning to have sleeplong kind of winding up of week's work. So, had kept myself away from the Hiking, which was planned by our colleagues. It also had the another reason of not getting myself into activities which takes me off from my routine prayers. But, somehow, I changed my mind.
Time 9:00...
Place: GCS Reception Area...
Hiking team was waiting for their couple of other members to turn up. fast paced footstep sound gave the hint of those two coming in. The entire team boarded the bus. Before taking off, group leader Shishir did a briefing about the trip plan. So, the plan was to reach Powderface by 10 A.M. Join Gary's team and start the Hiking.
Someone gave the idea of playing Dumb Charades. That was a great idea and everyone was interested and it didn’t take any while to start the game. Enthusiasm and Joy was in full, when it was felt that the Bus stopped for something. This was followed by some safety instructions by the driver. Though we continued to play, it was under the Highway Road Laws.
It was almost 10:30, we reached Powderface. Craig was waiting for us there with Gary and team. We were given the plan for the Hiking which included the description of the trail, Do's and Don’ts and introduction of the first contact persons for each cases. Everybody got geared up and we started the hiking at about 10 minutes to 11.
The trail started with a bit lengthy uphill climb. As it was the beginning of the hike everybody was in full smiles. If there was anything which anybody could talk not-so-good about was the weather. It was a bit hotter day. And people carrying their backpacks wouldn’t have felt so good about it. After a while we reached an open place and planned to take some rest and to let the entire team to reach there. For some reason, at any point of time in the hiking, except for the rest times, the team was split into three groups. The swift and energetic lot going in front. The sweeper of the group was always accompanied by a slow paced group. And there was this third or the sandwiched group who was linking the leader and the sweeper group.
We continued the hike, it was nice to walk through a not-so-deep woods. Many trees were fallen, don’t know of what reason. We again had a short stop at the end of the Section 1 of the trail. We had our short eats here.
After re-fueling ourselves, we got into the section 2 of the trail. This part of the hike was pretty interesting one. There was this stream to be crossed. It was a shallow one, with water up to knee level and flowing in a fair pace. But more than this, what everyone liked (?) about this was the coldness of the water. Somebody said, 'it's toe numbing cold.' But I enjoyed it. Kathy too and she wanted to do it once more!!! We waited for everyone to cross the stream, before we continued the hike. It was really nice to see the Bikers crossing the stream.
Most of us having tiring legs, the trail was asking for more. It was narrow and had steeper climbs. Needless to say the distance between any two subgroups of our team was getting longer and longer. It was at this section, I was praising my friend for carrying an additional supply of water, which I was not recommending earlier. Towards the end of the second section we reached the summit of the trail. It was a cliff, giving a splendid view of the foothills of the other side. One side was greenish and at other place it's all just rock. We decided to have a stop there and wait for the entire team (again!!!). The sandwiched group joined shortly, with news of seeing a White-Tailed deer. At last, somebody saw some wildlife in this trail. The leader told us that now we are into the last section. A little about 300 meters of walk and then continuous downward slope are what we have to cover to have this hiking mission accomplished.
So, here we go... for the last lap :) . We walked for sometime and then there was the slope. No, it was really a slide. I felt it was easy, provided you have enough energy, to do the uphill than this downward walk, which needs more of balance than energy.
I should say, the trail was really a multi-faceted one. At some places, it was wider and narrow at other places. Some part, it looked like a beautiful South Indian Village kind, and at some places pretty rough too. Parallel running water stream gave a cooling effect to the air at some places.
Though, it was told to us that this is one of the easiest trails in Calgary, it was not that easy as well. Trail was narrow and rough at places. Bikers in this trail were another thing which caught my attraction. One should really appreciate the skills they possess to do this kind of act. It really surprised me that the two Junior members of our group Kathrine and Ashwin, made the entire Hiking. Credits to their Parents too.
13 Kilometers in 5 Hours... Very bad speed, eh? But not too bad for first time hikers. Our Hiking time was only 3 hrs, rest was our frequent rest times. For sure, we weren’t a team any Hiking lead would like to take for hiking, with the speed in which we covered the trail, which others make it in 1.5 hrs!!!
The silence in the bus was guaranteed as no one really had any energy left. It was surprising, Kathy was still active and she kept on talking...
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