Into the mountains: Part 1. Mount Fatty

So Dan is more or less Mr Mountain Man, he bought a book on scrambles and our rule is "as soon as you put your hand down: You're scrambling!"

Our first outing was to Mount Indefatigable http://hikealberta.com/hike/mount-indefatigable-trail, we set off in high spirits, (and even higher blood pressure after stopping off at Humpty's) with a mission statement:

"To build an Inukshuk for my friends Anth & Sam who had just had a baby boy called Daniel"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk

To our growing dismay the further we drove into Kananaskis country the more I read about the place we were venturing into, it was a lovely fresh spring morning, and little did we know that as the snow melts, Momma Bears through out the

region are getting their cubs out of hibernation and shaking off a winters sleep.

The guide book warned against hiking here during spring, the guide book said 'by no means take animals' (we had Bohdi, the most rambunctious Husky I've ever met), the guide book gave 3 completely different ways to react to a Bear encounter, one of which involved fighting a Grizzly.

[Hushed silence through out the vehicle]

Dan: "Shall I put some music on?"

We all began texting people we knew to let them know where we were going and where to have our ashes scattered the next week.

And on we drove dear friends. And thank god we did....

Highway into Kananaskis Country

Halfway up and full of beans (nerves)

Eventually we found a nice spot for building, there was a nice overhanging ledge and plenty of large flat stones for construction purposes.

NB please observe my high tech Hiking Gear, an old Vest and a plastic bag containing the guidebook and a twix

Hopefully Dan wouldn't fall since

there's no way we could go to find him without climbing gear, AND he had the car keys...which is where our (no signal) cell phones were stashed!

And look at the view people! The little guy is on the rock just below the tree

And so we began our trecherous work above what must have been a 400m drop!

The article assembled all that was left was to get some group photos and get the hell out of there (Bohdi had started to bark a great deal) whilst singing the entire Beatles' White Album so stave off grumpy and most likely hungry Bears!

So here's the gang, Yours Truly on left, Mr Gunn, Ali (holding Bohdi) and Baby (or Andrea)

Oh and we found some time for Tom Foolery

Be good people, and there's lots more to come. I didnt write much because A) Im at work, and 2) I fell off my skateboard last night at 1am after drawing a tee shirt for Mon and my thumb is very sore.

Loves