Up the chains to an Alpine Lake. Then over Guinns Pass to complete the Tour de Mt Kidd.
Kananaskis Village – Ribbon Lake Campground, Ribbon Lake Campground – Guinns Pass – Galetea – Kananaskis Village, July 23 – 24, 2016.
Despite living close to Kananaskis Country and completing numerous hikes in the area I did not have a great feel on how the park was connected. I knew the park as a series of disjointed hikes. I had heard of Ribbon Lake and that the hike was not for everyone, there were these mythical chains that some people struggle with to complete the hike. At the time of this hike I had not even done the Ribbon Creek hike to view the very impressive falls created as Ribbon Creek tumbles over the headwall.
This hike came together quickly. Micah has a buys schedule and when they are free plans have to be made quickly. For a good reason that escapes me know, probably Micah was busy, we had a relatively late start, not hitting the trail until 12:30 pm.
The typical hike would be an out and back over the headwall and the chains. Micah and I decided to extend the hike and continue west away from Ribbon Lake and go over Guinns Pass, down Galetea Creek and then taking a cross country ski trail back to Kananaskis Village. The route would circumnavigate Mt Kidd so we named the hike the Tour de Mt Kidd.
With day 2 being longer, with a very uninteresting ending, we decided to park at the village at Kananaskis instead of the Ribbon Creek Parking lot where most people would park. This would save us only about 2 km on Day 2 but it was worth it reducing the distance down to 17 km and transferring some of the forest walk to Day 1.
Our time at Ribbon Lake was much different than my trip in 2017. The campground was full and had two fires going in the provided fire pits giving the place an almost carnival atmosphere.