Glenbow Ranch March 27, 2024

The sun was barely up and what was left of Monday's full moon was working its way down through the clouds.  This was the view in front of me as I left the parking lot at Glenbow Ranch.  Earlier this month, I hiked westerly from the parking lot, this time I veered south at the junction and eventually aimed east.  I enjoyed a quick descent along the paved path to the junction for Yodel then ascended on packed snow to the ridge.  

It's at the top of Yodel where I could see forever. 

Two missions I wanted to accomplish today, other than hiking, were to capture photos of my Grand Canyon Virtual Challenge medal which arrived yesterday and also of my third macrame leaf.  

This is the Grand Canyon medal.  I shared detailed photos at the end of this blog post.

This is my third macrame leaf.  I spent more time making sure I had the correct placement and tightness of the knots.  I am pleased with the outcome.  The colour actually leans more towards rusty red rather than the bright red in this photo.  There was so much brightness in the sky today that it was a challenge to dull anything down.   

It wasn't until I focused on capturing the macrame leaf that I noticed the buds on the trees.  

Now with those two missions accomplished, I put the medal and the leaf back in my pack.  As I began to hike along, like I always do I began looking every which way at the scenery.  That's when I spotted a brown bunch of fluff in the tree as you can see just beneath the orange star.   

This is a zoomed in shot of that brown fluff.  It's a porcupine!  I believe it might be sleeping.  The dark brown circle shape on the right would be an ear, the darker brown shape below would be an eye and below the eye it looks to be the nose tucked into the fur.  

This is the view after descending Yodel.  My next destination area is to hike by the river which runs along that tree line in the middle just below the top strip of barbwire.  I enjoyed walking a long easy stretch of clear pavement.  The trail leading towards the river had a few inches of hard snow.  Two people had been, probably yesterday, but they had a long stride which did not work for me, so it was a slow go breaking trail for the next hour or so.  At times it was supportive but as the morning went on, the sun softened it and I sank with each step.   

My hope was to see all the ice along the river but it was covered with all the new snow.  There was no way I was venturing out on it like these animals did.  The ice build up surrounded the trees.

This is another view of the snow covered ice on the shore of the river.  

That dark like behind the snow is where the river is open.  

Further west along the trail is where the river runs wide with very little ice along the shores.  

This is even further west along the trail.  It's at this location where the trail begins to veer away from the river and loop around and then back.  

The whole time while hiking the trail beside the river, I noticed all the animal tracks.  I wondered what was I sharing the trail with.  Most of them appeared fresh.  None looked large enough to cause concern.  I walked beside them, careful to preserve them for other people to enjoy. 

As I was nearing the completion of the great big loop, a train whizzed by.  There was still some distance to cover before I arrived back at the track crossing.  There would be no waiting once I got to the crossing.

I was thankful to be back on clear pavement for the last 45 minutes or so of hiking.  The pathway was lined with snow which was covered in tiny tracks and dirt sections.  It's spring!  The ground squirrels have emerged!

These are the photos of my Grand Canyon medal.