Chillin' at the Falls

I haven't been out wandering that much. I have a nasty foot problem (that I need to address) that limits me to about 8-10 km of "normal" hiking with some ups and downs, or a lot of hiking on the flat, or a little tiny bit where vertical is significant.

An (overworked) friend of mine was looking to get into the wilderness to take a break, and asked if we could go hiking. Karen was out volunteering this week, so it was just Kim and I out for a wander. We were originally planning to go to Spencer Creek but the weather wasn't really favouring that with some snow forecast for that elevation. So instead, we took a peaceful wander to Old Goat Falls, a pleasant and easy lower elevation walk up a creek to a very cool waterfall.

It was not warm when we started, but the walk up the creek was pleasant as always. I hadn't been up here since the 2013 floods; there's still some flood damage, but not that much.

The creek flows...

We saw some pussy cat (probably bobcat) tracks along the path on the way up.

A distinct lack of toenails

There were also elk tracks and possibly moose, but no bear evidence despite a bear warning out for the campground below.

The falls were certainly churning when we got to their base, and there was still lots of snow, all covered with the dead trees of avalanche debris.

The falls and the snow

 We plunked ourselves down for lunch, and sat here...

...for 3 hours.

Just watching the world go by, talking about stuff, and having the entire valley to ourselves. Well, us and the odd Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel...

Watching us 

Kim watching him

...and the marmots. They were running around on the snow and generally being marmots.

Out for a walk 

Arguing about who gets the rock

The walk up from the falls to the glacier above is still pretty snow covered, but two folks we ran into made it up just fine. I like going up there, but today, it was just nice to waste away 3 hrs sitting in the mountains with my friend.