Summer will not long be with us. Already a dusting of snow has appeared on the mountain ranges around us. So we’ve squeezed in a few hikes this month…I’ll let you guess which was my favorite!
Up, Up and UP we went to find the fabled ‘Teahouse’ on Lady MacDonald, which rises just across the highway from town…
The ascent was a doozer, steep and relentless, and we never did find the teahouse, only a helicopter pad…
Had we read more closely we would have realized that the elusive teahouse was never completed. This failed enterprise of some tycoon visionary was demolished a few years back. All that remains is the helicopter pad that would have saved the diners an arduous hike!
But had we come just a few years sooner we might have seen this:
[from Internet archives…]
Climbing three thousand feet in under 2 1/2 miles is difficult but the descent was at least as bad! 
My quads complained for days! They are accustomed to pedaling, not climbing and descending.
At least now I can point to this mountain
and tell you just where the helicopter pad sits and how once-upon-a-time we climbed up to it…
Well, that was last week. Hoping to ‘lock in’ these climbing muscles we went for another summit in Banff a couple days ago—Sulphur Mountain. 
We once took the gondola but not this time. 
A seemingly endless series of switchbacks tamed the 2,283 feet of rise, spreading it nicely over 3 1/2 miles. And this time there was a real coffeehouse at the top from which to survey the expanse of Banff
and to wait out a passing squall.
Then we hustled down the mountain to dine at McD’s and hurry home to get ready for the kids coming for a birthday celebration!
With them we did another sweeter hike the following day.
This time, just 2.8 miles round trip and just 853 feet of rise, but with smaller feet and shorter legs it was a triumph for all!
The rock faces around Grassi Lakes are a rock climber’s destination, so some of us tried a hand at that too…
It was a splendid day!
Ho-ho cake anyone?
–LS
Go and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me… Joshua 18:8
Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. Ps.89:15
