Some fun times with Henry and Walter with a quick trip to Crowsnest Pass, hanging out with cousins
at Big Hill Springs Prov Park, and then a hike up to Lillian Lake with Henry and his friend Evan.
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My wife is now a mountain biker! Big thanks to my friend Bri and the team at Bike Cochrane who
put together an amazing Women's Mountain Bike Camp this year!
Big Hill Springs PP with cousins
First Walter playing with his poles
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We had a morning window and needed to burn off some energy so I took the boys to Bighill Springs Prov Park
and invited their cousins who are now in Cochrane. Of course, the important thing at this park is to bring
their crocs as they love playing in the creek.
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As much as this park is for hiking, it's mostly for kids to play in the creek. For the first time however
I actually saw a brown trout swimming upstream here, which was cool.
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We got invited to ride bikes with Walter's friend Jett at Pass Powderkeg. Which, for five hours of
driving isn't great value for 5 hours of biking, but the kids had a blast. The really tough bit though
was the two tires we had to repair before biking! Thank to bike karma though, it all worked out.
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We started with the boys' favourite trail Nothing to Luge. Here's Bode loving the rollers here.
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And Matt looks great here and you can't even tell his shoulder is injured!
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The boys were SUPER STOKED to get a shuttle ride from Tamara and they filled the back of the truck
to pop back up to the mid-mountain lodge.
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We climbed up Chainsaw Massacre which the boys did great on. They loved the troll and treasure tree.
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Walter was having a bit of an off day and it took a bit of effort and motivation to get him up the mountain.
However, it was super awesome that it wasn't boiling hot here.
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Henry is a big fan of the monkey at the top of Electric Monkey.
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It turns out all the boys think a giant monkey sculpture with bulbous balls is hilarious.
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Bode coming down the bottom of Electric Monkey. He crashed in exactly the same spot as Jett had
crashed the year before but recovered pretty well.
Walter dropping into the Nothing to Luge wall ride
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Henry riding the wall ride at the top of Nothing to Luge.
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I'm having to chase this one more and more. Not a single use of the tow whee strap on this trip!
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Henry hucking his meat on the table tops at the bike park.
Henry hucking the table tops
Walter hucking the table tops
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Here's Henry having fun playing on the rock roll in the bike park. I've said before I LOVE a lot of the
features they've built here.
Henry dropping the rock roll
And then after Jett saw that, he was IN!
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Walter was pretty finished when we were done at the bike park, so it was great that Matt shuttled
me up the road to get the car. Walter didn't even take off his helmet when he jumped into the car to
play Switch.
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We popped into the Pass brewery for beers and pizza and the boys got to throw axes around.
Hiking up to Lillian Lake with Henry's friend Evan
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Description of the Lillian Lake hike. We had a relatively narrow window due to horse stuff for
Evan so we elected to do an earlier morning start and then just did the Lillian Lake section.
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Fall is such a pretty time in the Rockies with all of the aspens turning. Henry and Evan were
excited to do a hike together!
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I gave Henry a bigger pack than his usual water backpack, but he did fine with it. We'll eventually
come back here to camp at Lillian Lake and maybe even do the Ribbon Lake loop via Guinn's Pass and
come out the Ribbon Lake side.
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The suspension bridge that Evan said is 'my favourite bridge EVER!'
Bouncing on the suspension bridge
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This hike has 10 footbridges and the kids counted them throughout the day as a way to know where we
were in the trail. Sure beats hearing 'Are we There Yet?'
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Henry, Evan, and the south peak of Mt Kidd.
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Evan and Henry having first snack of the day.
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We didn't get a pile of sun throughout the day, but when we did, it was glorious! This is Fortress Ridge
behind the kids.
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Charlie (Evan's brother) also got to bring a friend and he brough his buddy Lee, who entertained us all.
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Dean at Lillian Lake, AB. The water was so clear you could watch fish swim around. Now, they wouldn't
bite on our hooks, but who's complaining?
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Henry and Evan decided they needed their own bench so they meandered over along the lake and hung out
here while they ate their picnic lunch. It's tough to find a better place to have a picnic!
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Evan got to try fishing and casting too.
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Charlie and Lee fishing. When I asked Lee, 'Do you know how to cast?' He said, like any grade 8 student,
"Of course I do", and then I promptly had to teach him.
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Fishing at Lillian Lake on a pretty sweet afternoon.
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Evan found this stick which she thought looked like a talking toucan, at least until she broke it.
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Chilling and taking a rest break on the way back down the mountain.
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Not a terrible afternoon I'd say. We didn't see any larches, but the fall colours here were still pretty stunning.
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Taking a load off and enjoying the view.
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Evan found a tree in the shape of the letter P. She thought it was cool.
