↓Skip to main content
Grant’s Tracks

Hiking Baldy Pass Trail to Lusk Pass Trail

·629 words·3 mins
Hiking Geocaching Kananaskis
Kananaskis Summer Trip - 2025 - This article is part of a series.
Part 1: The Climb to the Summit of Mt Burke
Part 2: Climb to the Summit of Horton's Hill
Part 3: The Path to Finding "Pathfinder"
Part 4: This Article

It was the last day of my 4-day Kananaskis visit, and knowing by this time during the trip my legs would be tested by the accumulation of many multiple meters climbing up and down mountains and hills, I saved this mostly flat ramble along established trails for this day.

My route today along Baldy Pass Trail then arcing around to Lusk Pass Trail promised to be relatively short but also “cache-a-licious”, meaning there were quite a view potential geocache finds along the way.

The sign said I had to march - but I ignored it.
The sign said I had to march - but I ignored it.
After parking at Lusk Creek PRA parking lot, the same place I’d started up Horton’s Hill the day before, I crossed Highway 68 and started along trails clearly marked on my OSM map and more importantly easy to follow in reality right in front of me.

Before my trip to Kananaskis, there had been multiple cautions posted online about the number of bear sightings in the park this season. Since berries had grown plentifully this year, and this is the time of year bears naturally gorge on food before their winter hibernation, the chance of a bear encounter was a definite possibility.

That possibility was enough motivation to be constantly wary of my surroundings and to remember to let out a “EHHHHH - OOOOOOOO” holler every so often. Bears generally want nothing to do with loud, strange-sounding, upright-walking beasts like us. The holler may have worked: there were no sightings of any large wildlife today.

The walk today was pleasant, but the finding of geocaches only partly so. My finding experience started off strong, but mid-way through the hike, I had a string of frustrating “Did Not Finds” (“DNF” it’s called). Spending sometimes 20 or 30 minutes looking for a tiny container in a tangle of shrubs and trees really wears on my patience.

By the time I reached the Lusk Creek Pass trail, I was frustrated enough that my geocaching “switch” had been switched to the “Off” position. When I “DNF’d” yet another hide, I simply started walking north back to the parking spot, ignoring the fact that I was walking past geocache hides, but enjoying the walk through this beautiful place for its own sake.

That is, after all, the point of the hike in the first place, isn’t it?

Gallery#

My Route Today
#

Baldy Pass Trail to Lusk Pass Trail

 

Grant S Wilson
Author
Grant S Wilson
Kananaskis Summer Trip - 2025 - This article is part of a series.
Part 1: The Climb to the Summit of Mt Burke
Part 2: Climb to the Summit of Horton's Hill
Part 3: The Path to Finding "Pathfinder"
Part 4: This Article

Related