Day 37 - Hiking in Drumheller

Only went to work for 15mins today. Dot came to take me to Drumheller to hike along w/ her friend Janet. Drumheller is NW of Calgary where the Dinosaur Museum is but the museum was closed today so we just went hiking at Horseshoe Canyon. It is this huge canyon in the middle of flat green farmlands. You wouldn't see the canyon until you walked right up to the edge. The canyon looks like a below ground valley w/ a narrow river gorge that runs thru it.

The canyon wall was very steep, almost 90 degrees, covered in grass. There was a trampled part of the wall from hikers in the past which created a mud trail. But it was more of a climb down then a walk. Everything was very muddy, it had rain the past few days. I shouldn't have worn my sketchers, there's no grip on them! Down in the canyon, it was quite a sight! The ground was simply hardened mud and there were no real trails...just animal-made paths. Grass and trees covered the entire canyon which was 3 miles long and it seemed we had climbed quite far down before we came to flat land. I wondered how we were going to get back up but it was kinda fun down there cuz the so-called trails that we followed kept making us jump back and forth over the river gorge and we there were so many paths that we really had to decipher which one would take us somewhere. I don't know how far we walked but we got to a point where there was no way to cross the river so we climbed up the side of the valley/canyon wall to the fields above. We walked along the canyon edge for a while but it seemed to lead to no where so we walked back to where we had climbed up and went back down. It was so tiring and painful climbing the valley walls. I was not wearing the proper shoes, I was so out of shape and it wasn't like the walls were made of rock, it was pure mud and grass and it was so steep! We found a reasonably hard mud-rock and had lunch. Janet is such an avid hiker, so quick and prepared! After lunch, the sky got really dark, we knew rain was coming and we were a long way from the car! so we hurried back...but there were so many paths that we had no idea which ones to follow! Everything looked the same. We just knew the general direction of the car and kept going. We took so many wrong turns, climbing up hills that led us no where and hills that only led us to cliffs that we couldn't climb down. My feet are killing me! The dark clouds were over our heads now, we heard thunder behind us and the wind was howling. In the far distance, high at the top of the canyon we saw the parking lot but we still had to cross an open flat marsh and climb 2 cliffs.

It was now pouring rain. I had no rain gear, just jeans, tshirt and my modrobes jacket. The ground was extremely slippery, the rain had made the ground into muddy goo. But we finally made it to the bottom of the canyon wall below the parking lot. One last climb! By now the mud path that we had taken down was filled w/ water gushing down. There was no way for us to climb up. Each step we took was a slid back down. It was pouring, we were drenched and we were stuck at the bottom. There was only one last way to go up. Climb up the grass covered canyon wall. The plants made it less slipery than the mud to climb cuz it gave us something to grasp onto but it was still really slippery. We had to grab onto plants with deep roots and pull ourselves up. Each move was a possible fall, sending us slipping back down. Each pull at the plants could break and send us back down. It was so crazy! and scary!! But we eventually made it, drenched and muddy head to toe but safe and sound.

Thank God for keeping the 3 of us safe. It was quite an adventure! The canyon was so beautiful but also so deadly. So many times, we could have slipped and really injure ourselves. When I got back to the house, I received a care package from Olga and Olvie. They're such great sisters. It was filled w/ snacks and pictures and garfield comic books!