Today we decided to go on an easy hike to give our legs a bit of a break. The hike to Chester Lake is the easiest hike we have ever done, it is a cakewalk. According to our hiking book, it is the most popular hike in Kananaskis. Humans are like electrical current, always looking for the route of least resistance. Perhaps it is unfortunate for us, or we are completely cracked, but both of us are natural born Stoics, as in the Stoic philosophy. We don’t think life is all about comfort and luxury; conversely, life needs to have a good measure of discomfort, in order for us to truly appreciate what we have and what we do. To that end, we are proponents of relative depravation in our lives. The hike to Chester Lake is not one of discomfort, as the elevation gain is 1013 feet over a very gradual trail and the round trip is only 9 km.
If we were not trying to get our legs in gradual shape for hiking we would have taken on a trail up to other lakes from Chester Lake, as was recommended by our hiking book. The fact that we didn’t do this gnawed away at us, but we had to stay lazy.
We met some really nice people from Red Deer while walking around the lake, I told them their kid was a mountain goat as he was charging up the rock slope and they had to tell him to stop going, the Chester Lake hike bored him. I handed them my instructions for getting to the upper lakes, I don’t know if they decided to hike it or not. As usual, click on pics to enlarge....
Spruce Grouse on the trail to Chester Lake
Grouse are very tame, this is how close they come
Chester Lake sits below the wall of rock
Chester Lake
Our lunch companion - a Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel
View toward our lunch spot on far side of lake
Route down from Chester Lake
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