{Subtitle: New Boots do not a Mountain Climber Make}
We took two hikes this week: one tough, one easy.
First, Ha Ling Peak…It’s the big bump to the right. (In the foreground, our drinking water!)
The specs are:
Scramble: Class 1 – Steep Hiking
Altitude: 2,408m (7,898 ft)
Elevation Gain: 700m (2,296 ft)
Ascent Time: 2 Hours
http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-Ha-Ling-Peak-near-Canmore-AB-3400
Lots of people do it; couldn’t be too tough, right?…But I was hiking with my husband and fitness coach who sets a brisk pace and… unbeknownst to either of us I was incubating a case of the shingles…(At least that is now my excuse for getting left far behind in no time!)
Fortunately he conceded to let me find my own pace as his pace got him to the top in under an hour!!
Mine was more about catching my breath and looking around with short bursts of breathlessness in between!
The trail zigged and zagged rising steeply up through the forest floor…
The advantage of a slower pace is that you get to see the wildlife exhibits along the way!
But eventually the scramble begins and my eyes are on my feet. I don’t like this part. My boots are brand new, untried. And my respect of heights is not new! I’m on my own to make my way along, wishing I’d planned ahead and brought poles…
I make the mistake once I reach the ridge of popping my head over the top, hoping there’ll be some sort of level place to walk along toward the peak. No such! Instead, just a rocky razor edge and a dizzying descent to the valley below.
I am stuck to my seat for a while figuring out how I got into this predicament and how I shall ever have courage to make my way back down. 
Meanwhile Jim is at the top of the actual peak, taking pictures….
I text him: “I’ve gone far enough.”
“(I’m) On the ridge.”
“Sickening.”
He responds: “OK, coming down.”
“Sickening x2 up here.”
And we make our way down as fast as we dare, quads trembling and threatening never to let us forget this climb. Mine still haven’t; they are sore!
We did not grow up in the Rockies. This hike is considered child’s play for some locals…So we go home, have a quick nap in the sunshine and get on our preferred mode of transportation to work out all that tension—and pedal to Banff and back just for fun. Ahhhh, now that’s more like it!
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The following day’s hike is made for non-mountain climbers. Johnston Canyon. Paved trail all the way. Scenic. Safe. Short. We will come back with the grandkids sometime ( : No hiking poles needed. (Though I’ve brought one along this time, just in case…)
And that has been my week in hikes. For now I’m recuperating…Till next time.
–LS
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah
There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. Ps.46:1-5 NKJV
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