Today was the first day of our hiking season. We had five women in total (Stacy, Kathy, Carolyn, Shannan and me, Selena)… as Stacy and I have been doing this for a few years and the others haven’t, we decided to do an easy one. Diamond T is located in Kananaskis about 10 or so minutes past the Information Centre … the Trailhead is Station Flats (if you are coming from Bragg Creek, it is on your right). The hike is only about 4K with an approx 400ft elevation gain, a really nice beginner hike. The morning was a bit rainy and cool but ended up clearing as we arrived … the rain stopped and the sun started peeking through – all in all, a beautiful day. I took a few pics and they are located on the left under ‘Hiking’.

The hike was great, we had no problems walking the first few kilometres, got to the bottom of the big hill and worked are way up. It wasn’t until we got to the top to the lookout when we started to have issues. You see, the path was not as clearly marked as it should have been. We walked along where we thought we should have and then realized, after sliding down the side of a large hill, that perhaps this wasn’t the path … and the sad thing was, we really didn’t realize this until about half way down the hill. No one wanted to hike back up, it was steep and very slippery. When we got to the bottom, we heard water rushing and made our way there. The water was a small stream with a large marshy area beyond that, which we all didn’t know about until we sunk into the grass getting all wet. It was then that I started freaking out at bit, where were we?, how do I explain to 911 where we were? … I pictured the conversation in my head.

‘911 … what is your emergency?’

‘We’re lost’

‘Where are you?’

‘I don’t know, we are lost, HELLO – we are in the bush somewhere, please come and find us’

‘Is anyone hurt?’

‘NO, but I haven’t eaten for at least three hours. I am getting awfully hungry and my friends are starting to look tasty.’

I snapped back to reality, when Kathy found the path. *WHEW*

The rest of the hike was uneventful and after making back to the car, we all decided (after our traumatic experience) we would head over to Cochrane for some MacKay’s Ice-cream … yummy