Autumn on the mountain trails

We changed our hiking plans today. We were going to head for the Highwood Pass in the West Kananaskis but we decided to take the quicker option and go to the East Kananaskis instead. We didn't find any larches on the eastern slopes but that didn't hamper the enjoyment we got from walking in the mountains on an unusually warm and still fall day. We didn't meet a lot of people once we were on the trail. The parking lot was so full that we had to park on the opposite side to where the actual spaces were marked. We met a couple on horses and the guy's horse was particularly skittish. We were having lunch the first time we saw them and then as we came down the trail after them he asked us to please stay put for a while because he was having trouble with his 'city horse.' I guess the poor beast wasn't used to going up and down on steep trails where there were a lot of trees on either side and not much visibility.

As we picked our way around the innumerable piles of horse poop, we began to wonder what the wilderness would be like if horse riders had to pick up after their animals the way dog owners do in the city. Either there were a lot of horses on the trail that we didn't see or horses have digestive systems with an even more rapid through-put than the birds have. The birds are good for about 20 minutes between dumps. It seemed that there were fresh steamies about every 3 meters. We did spend a fair amount of time watching the trail ahead so as not to step in any little surprises. If I had my choice though, I'd certainly rather fresh horse droppings than bear droppings and I'm thankful that we didn't see any of the latter.

The air was quite hazy today so the photos aren't as clear as they might be. I tried out the white balance on my camera designed for out-of-doors shots. It does exactly what it's supposed to do by giving more saturated greens and blues. Our total route was just over 6 km. When we got back to the car I remarked how unusual it was not to have to wear a sweater at 5 pm in the middle of September in the mountains. It was a truly enjoyable day and we even found a geocache. We took a red caribiner and left a Lee Valley universal screw driver. Bonus!