Prairie Mountain

I picked Tom up at the airport Saturday morning and after a good breakfast and nap (it was a really early morning flight) we headed out to hike Prairie Mountain. It's about a 45-60 min drive away just west of Bragg Creek, about 687 m elevation gain, 7 km round-trip. Definitely worked the climbing muscles heading up (we're both still feeling it... and Kali was completely down for a day too). We lucked out with only minor spitting and very small hail that didn't last that long. The top of the ridge was a bit windy and cool, but we managed to get a brief bit of sun peaking out... long enough to lay out in the grass for about 5 min anyway and take some nice shots of Kali with the mountains in the back. There was also a geocache hidden at the top for an added bonus... one micro on the way up that we paused at, intending to look a bit more for on the way down but forgot about it . The whole hike took just shy of 3 hours... 2 hours up, 1 down. Heading up the ridge-line for the final ascent:

Hanging out at the top (sorry it's a bit dark... the sun wasn't cooperating at this point):

A view to the north of Moose Mountain from Prairie Mountain, and I think that might be Jumping Pound Ridge in the background on the left (for some kind of reference from previous posts):

The requisite shots of Kali the hiking Ridgeback... peering over the steep edge of the ridge (steep, shear drop off one side, gentler slope on the other):

Heading back down: