Kent Outlier and North Kent 2019-07-09

A new hike for us, with the Calgary Outdoor Club! While we have hiked Kent Ridge from the South, we had not done the outlier from Sawmill Parking lot where we started today. It was a beautiful, partly sunny day for this steep hike; the first couple of kms. were in thick forest, so we stayed cool. Once on the cliff edge of the escarpment, we were met by waves of wild flowers blowing in the breeze. Several of us reached the top of the outlier in about an hour and a half, and decided to go further, to the top of North Kent, which is actually higher than Mt. Kent to the south. This involved a descent of about 75 m. and then an ascent of 300m. The lower reaches of North Kent were grassy and green with plants. Then the going got steeper and the ground was covered with a jumble of rocks of various sizes and shapes, some with stony inclusions and maybe fossils. It was slow going in a brisk wind, but eventually five of us made the summit. What a great view, despite quite a bit of cloud on the bigger peaks (Assiniboine, Joffre, the Royal Group). The weirdest sight was the valley between Kent Ridge and Mt. Lawson to the east; at its southern end it was green with forest, and that gave way to rocky ridges all in parallel lines sloping downhill (glacial till, we guessed) and topped with a cirque still arrayed with snow patches. It took us a half hour to go back down to the low point and another 10 mins to get back to the outlier.