...and details of the cloud itself.
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
I Love Thunderstorms
We went out for a wander around the neighborhood after dinner on Sunday and caught a huge thunderstorm that was beating the heck out of Scott Lake Hill and Bragg Creek. The combination of the dusk/setting sunlight and the bright white cloud made for some very cool photo opportunities, both of the whole storm...
...and details of the cloud itself.
...and details of the cloud itself.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Rain Delay to Paget Lookout
The plan for today was to bike up Redearth Creek to Shadow Lake. But it poured rain last night for an hour, and some idiot (me) didn't cover the bike saddles in plastic. So this AM, the seats were soaked, and this necessitated a last minute switch. Instead we headed to Paget Lookout and Sherbrooke Lake in Yoho.
This hike is yet another one which matches the quintessential definition of the phrase "relentless uphill". The climb to the lookout is 520 m in 3.5 km, or 150 m per km. But consider that 365 m of this happens in the last 1.9 km (nearly 200 m/km) and the grade becomes apparent. Frustrating is that the first hour is disenchanted forest with no views. When you finally do break out, though, the views are pretty good, even on a hazy day like today. You get cool views of the braided streams at Field...
And when you get to the lookout, there are killer views up and down the Kicking Horse Pass.
The haze got in the way of what would have been a kick-butt view of Lake Louise Ski Area.
There were very friendly golden mantled ground squirrels up there, and while they did not beg for food, they did pose nicely.
One of the appeals of this hike was the possibility of ascending Paget Peak. Info I had on this from the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide and The Copelands (of "Where the Locals Hike" fame) was that it was a straightforward grunt for about an hour an additional 400 m above the lookout. We spoke with one fellow who had just come down, and he reported the trail in awful shape, with really loose scree. We opted not to go.
Instead, we decided to visit the shoreline of Sherbrook Lake, which was partially visible from the hike.
The lake is big and the colour is cool, but the flies suck, so we did not linger.
All in all, this hike is nice but more work than advertised. It's also very, very popular. There were at least 30 people there or working their way up there, including almost a dozen tourists from England.
This hike is yet another one which matches the quintessential definition of the phrase "relentless uphill". The climb to the lookout is 520 m in 3.5 km, or 150 m per km. But consider that 365 m of this happens in the last 1.9 km (nearly 200 m/km) and the grade becomes apparent. Frustrating is that the first hour is disenchanted forest with no views. When you finally do break out, though, the views are pretty good, even on a hazy day like today. You get cool views of the braided streams at Field...
And when you get to the lookout, there are killer views up and down the Kicking Horse Pass.
The haze got in the way of what would have been a kick-butt view of Lake Louise Ski Area.
There were very friendly golden mantled ground squirrels up there, and while they did not beg for food, they did pose nicely.
One of the appeals of this hike was the possibility of ascending Paget Peak. Info I had on this from the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide and The Copelands (of "Where the Locals Hike" fame) was that it was a straightforward grunt for about an hour an additional 400 m above the lookout. We spoke with one fellow who had just come down, and he reported the trail in awful shape, with really loose scree. We opted not to go.
Instead, we decided to visit the shoreline of Sherbrook Lake, which was partially visible from the hike.
The lake is big and the colour is cool, but the flies suck, so we did not linger.
All in all, this hike is nice but more work than advertised. It's also very, very popular. There were at least 30 people there or working their way up there, including almost a dozen tourists from England.
Rummel Lake & 3 Moose
Okay, so in the last decade I've seen maybe 4 moose. A few hikes ago, we saw two in one field. Saturday, we saw 3 different ones spread out over 10 miles along Hwy 742. Go figure.
So I was bound & determined not to let Japanese tourists ruin my attempts to get to Rummel Lake, and today we succeeded. This hike is a lot like Chester Lake, but much less crowded. The opening few km up through cutblocks is steeper and more overgrown than Chester, but offers some views up the Spray Lakes Valley.
The trail arrives at Rummel Creek, which is far better than Chester, which is nowhere near the creek. The path braids; we took a suicide route along a cliff edge above the falls -- worrisome, but the photo opportunities were good.
Then you get to the lake itself, which is just as nice as Chester.
But just like Chester, there's more beyond the lake, and it's not worth going if all you do is stop at the lake. Beyond Chester is the Three Lakes Valley; beyond Rummel is, well, more lakes, tarns and alpine. The alpine becomes lots of talus very fast.
The high alpine is infested with Columbian Ground Squirrels.
Unlike Chester, at the end is one heck of a view, down the valley towards Lost Lake and the Galatea Lakes trail, making the trail like West Wind Pass on steroids.
So while I like Chester, I've decided there's just too many tourists on the trail, and will head to Rummel from now on.
So I was bound & determined not to let Japanese tourists ruin my attempts to get to Rummel Lake, and today we succeeded. This hike is a lot like Chester Lake, but much less crowded. The opening few km up through cutblocks is steeper and more overgrown than Chester, but offers some views up the Spray Lakes Valley.
The trail arrives at Rummel Creek, which is far better than Chester, which is nowhere near the creek. The path braids; we took a suicide route along a cliff edge above the falls -- worrisome, but the photo opportunities were good.
Then you get to the lake itself, which is just as nice as Chester.
But just like Chester, there's more beyond the lake, and it's not worth going if all you do is stop at the lake. Beyond Chester is the Three Lakes Valley; beyond Rummel is, well, more lakes, tarns and alpine. The alpine becomes lots of talus very fast.
The high alpine is infested with Columbian Ground Squirrels.
Unlike Chester, at the end is one heck of a view, down the valley towards Lost Lake and the Galatea Lakes trail, making the trail like West Wind Pass on steroids.
So while I like Chester, I've decided there's just too many tourists on the trail, and will head to Rummel from now on.
Monday, 20 July 2009
West Wind Ridge: Flies Biting while on a StairMaster
Sitting square in the view of the window of the master bedroom at the West Wing is West Wind Ridge. And while we had planned on heading up the Tent Ridge Horseshoe, the Ridge called to us.
The first 3 km of this hike is a beautiful wander through a lush forest crossing Pigeon & West Wind Creeks.
What did not occur to me until afterwards was that the hike was 15 km round trip, and 740 m height gain -- except that virtually none of that height gain happens in the first 3.3 km. So the (post hike) math said that you gained 157 m per km of trail when the climbing starts. And a steep, grueling uphill was what this hike was all about.
In fact, the height gain in the last kilometer we hiked was 300 m. This is steeper than any staircase you normally climb, and you get to do it for a solid hour or more.
On its own, that may not have been bad. But the flies in the meadow were plentiful. And they bite. So in addition to trying to keep your balance while climbing a ladder, you have to swat the flies continuously. Not fun.
And then, after all that climbing, you hit what is affectionately referred to as "the rock step". When I was in my late teens, I used to rock climb. "Step" my butt. This was a climb. The "easy route" is over KC's right shoulder in this photo.
We chose not to climb this, so never made the full 740 m up, or the full 15 km round trip. We made it a mere 660 m, and 12.8 km. Darn.
Was it worth it? Sort of. Some of the views at the place where we stopped were indeed fine, including the view back to West Wind Pass (one of our favourite hikes).
But about half way up, you can stop at Windy Point, the first knoll on the mountain. The views from there are almost as good, and a heck of a lot less work.
You can even see the route upwards, that fools like us actually climbed.
And you can see the West Wing.
We were also a bit surprised (and possibly relieved) to virtually no wildlife on the trail, other than Columbian Ground Squirrels and Red Squirrels. Wind Valley is a grizzly, black bear, sheep and elk hotspot. We saw cougar poop and wolf tracks...
Was it worth it? I don't think we will try getting to the ridge again; it almost killed the both of us, and we didn't even try to scramble. But Windy Point was nice, and knowing what we know now, we could bike part way there. In the meantime, I think we will be content looking at the valley and the route up the ridge from the safe and easy confines of the West Wind Pass trail instead.
The first 3 km of this hike is a beautiful wander through a lush forest crossing Pigeon & West Wind Creeks.
What did not occur to me until afterwards was that the hike was 15 km round trip, and 740 m height gain -- except that virtually none of that height gain happens in the first 3.3 km. So the (post hike) math said that you gained 157 m per km of trail when the climbing starts. And a steep, grueling uphill was what this hike was all about.
In fact, the height gain in the last kilometer we hiked was 300 m. This is steeper than any staircase you normally climb, and you get to do it for a solid hour or more.
On its own, that may not have been bad. But the flies in the meadow were plentiful. And they bite. So in addition to trying to keep your balance while climbing a ladder, you have to swat the flies continuously. Not fun.
And then, after all that climbing, you hit what is affectionately referred to as "the rock step". When I was in my late teens, I used to rock climb. "Step" my butt. This was a climb. The "easy route" is over KC's right shoulder in this photo.
We chose not to climb this, so never made the full 740 m up, or the full 15 km round trip. We made it a mere 660 m, and 12.8 km. Darn.
Was it worth it? Sort of. Some of the views at the place where we stopped were indeed fine, including the view back to West Wind Pass (one of our favourite hikes).
But about half way up, you can stop at Windy Point, the first knoll on the mountain. The views from there are almost as good, and a heck of a lot less work.
You can even see the route upwards, that fools like us actually climbed.
And you can see the West Wing.
We were also a bit surprised (and possibly relieved) to virtually no wildlife on the trail, other than Columbian Ground Squirrels and Red Squirrels. Wind Valley is a grizzly, black bear, sheep and elk hotspot. We saw cougar poop and wolf tracks...
Was it worth it? I don't think we will try getting to the ridge again; it almost killed the both of us, and we didn't even try to scramble. But Windy Point was nice, and knowing what we know now, we could bike part way there. In the meantime, I think we will be content looking at the valley and the route up the ridge from the safe and easy confines of the West Wind Pass trail instead.
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Hummingbird Babies
Our hummingbirds have had babies, and now we have swarms of them. Current count is at LEAST:
2 adult males
3 adult females
3 juvenile males and
3 juvenile females
And are they ever fun to watch...
2 adult males
3 adult females
3 juvenile males and
3 juvenile females
And are they ever fun to watch...
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