Hiking! In the mountains!

So after going for a short, 5 km walk in my neighbourhood without difficulty, I decided to join the Sunshine SnowHosts on their annual hike today. We went up to Sunshine and wandered, the day after it snowed (yes, snowed on September 3rd). Okay, the others wandered farther, climbing a mountain. I didn't climb the whole mountain, just one side of it.

The two peaks of Quartz Ridge they planned to climb

Starting in the village, we headed up the trail to the Continental Divide, passing the Divide chair along the way.

Doesn't look like this in the winter

The group left me and my still recovering leg in the dust, and headed down the Citadel Pass trail.

Off they go

My plan was to just to visit Rock Isle Lake...

From the lake viewpoint

...but my leg felt fine after climbing 150 m and going 2 km. So I set off cross country in the basically flat meadow towards Quartz Ridge. The meadow was pretty beautiful.

Wide open spaces

Closer still

It was pretty lonely in the meadow. Most of the Columbian Ground Squirrels have gone underground to hibernate. Very few birds were out. No sheep ot goats were around, nor any real sign of them.

A hawk kept an eye on me 

Amazingly invisible at this time of year

I got to the base of the ridge and still felt fine, so started to climb the northern ridge. I had no intention of climbing to the top, but thought I could make the bench about half way up that's visible in the photo above.

The weather was varied today. It started sunny but went to cloudy, with weird clouds around.

Strange

I made the shoulder without difficulty, wandered around taking photos for a while, then found a place to sit, have lunch, and wait for the group to descend -- and promptly got very cold. It was only about 5°, and the wind was very chilly. Down jacket, multiple layers, hat & gloves were all necessary to stay warm.

The others are climbing the ridge towards the peak on the right 

Looking back towards Sunshine 

The end of the Monarch Ramparts, where I hiked in 2011

Towards Citadel and Fatigue Passes

 After an hour, the others came off the ridge.

Company!

We retraced my steps back to Rock Isle Lake...

Afternoon clouds

... and the Village, where (the best part of hiking at Sunshine) I had a beer to celebrate actually hiking just over 10 km in actual mountains, including 350 m of climbing.

Walking in the woods, finally

The original hope after I broke my leg was to be back walking by July and into the woods again by August. Then there was that setback, when I injured myself doing an exercise my physiotherapist gave me. Initially, it felt like a 3 week setback, but then I had knee problems, and 3 weeks became 6.

Today, I entered the woods for the first time since early April when I was out servicing bear cameras. Okay, it wasn't all that exciting -- just a 4.5 km trip to the Banff Park boundary markers and back. But it was exciting for me.

Since the last time I was on this short trail, someone built a new bench in the middle of nowhere out of plastic and pressure treated wood --  next to an older bench that was in the middle of nowhere.

Not much of a view

It is trying to turn fall here.

We call it the Elk Meadow 

Some plant Karen doesn't know

I made it to the park boundary & back -- 4.5 km round trip -- with only leg muscle fatigue as an issue. Well, that and walking on a really crappy trail. Maybe I'm just out of practice.

Park Boundary marker

Warning signs at the park edge

The meadows inside the park. Mt. Rundle in the background 

More meadows. Peaks of the Fairholme Range

It seemed like a good day to play with HDR photos.

What it sorta looked like 

HDR version 

More of it

Even though we have run across a few bears in our 'hood in the last week or so, we saw only old bear poo to suggest any are around. We saw a few elk tracks, and not much else, except for this female spruce grouse.

Pretending she isn't there 

Trying to be invisible

There were other cool things, like fireweed in serious bloom...

Very red

...and a mushroom growing out of a tree.

Strange, that

It was nice to get back into the woods. I'm headed up to Sunshine Meadows on Thursday to explore with my fellow SnowHosts. Here's hoping the weather holds.

The Ice Bucket Challenge

So I was nominated by my friend Edwin -- who [a] lives in Holland, and who [b] I've never actually met -- to take the Ice Bucket Challenge. He's been reading my blog for years. That automatically earns him a challenge response.

I've been watching the progress of this internet phenom for the last few weeks, seeing it move from cool and funny to populous to mainstream to... backlash. It's the latter stage I find most interesting.

People have complained that it's a waste of water. It is, in a way, but that's pretty misleading. First, it's raised a whack of money for ALS, which isn't really a waste; that water has gone to good use. Second, I (like most people) learned in Grade 4 about the water cycle. Pouring water onto the ground doesn't waste it. It either gets absorbed into the ground or evaporates. If it evaporates, it eventually falls as rain. Groundwater is used by plants to grow, and they transpire that water back into the air, where it again returns as rain.

But there are other ways to "manage" that waste. Matt Damon poured grey water from his toilet over his head. Watch my video for how I managed it.

People have expressed concern over the impact of the campaign on other charities. Being the Chair of a charitable organization, I can tell you "charitable competition" is real. If my organization could come up with an internet phenom that would raise us 70 MM$ in 2 months, we would do it. In a heartbeat. But it's a real issue that people sending $100 to ALS means they might not send it to the United Way or the Crohn's Foundation or whatever their other favourite charity is.

What's interesting is that this campaign didn't start as a challenge for ALS. It started in New Zealand as a challenge to donate to ANY charity. ALS just picked it up and ran with it (and good for them, I say).

So I'd like to get the campaign back to it's roots. I believe that we "haves" (and that's ANYBODY who can read this -- those of you who can afford internet access and a computer are a HAVE relative to countries where the median annual household income is $2,000) have an obligation to give back.

It is with honour that I present to you my response to the Ice Bucket Challenge.

I wasn't the only one with the idea that day. Here's another guy:

He drove out from Calgary to do it

In truth, I have glaciers much closer to my house than the Athabasca Glacier (which is about two and a half hours drive away). I wrote about one here, and another one here. The trailheads to access each are 30 min or 60 min from my house, respectively. I would have gone to one of those, but the "hiking to the glacier" part isn't in the cards right now with my still-healing leg. You can drive to within 600 m of the toe of the Athabasca Glacier. You can take a snow coach ride up onto the glacier, and go for a walk on it if that turns your crank. So I went there instead.

I haven't been to the Athabasca Glacier in about 15 years. I was impressed how far it has receded since the last time I was there. Parks has erected little markers at the terminal moraines, one of which (the 1992 marker) is visible in the video. I remember way back when in the 1980's you could go right to the toe of the glacier, where there were ice caves. Can't do that now; the toe is sitting in a giant meltwater lake.

The movie's proof positive that I don't run iMovie that well. It was supposed to be in glorious HD so that my friend Edwin would see how fabulous the Athabasca Glacier is. I even wanted to figure out how to include this picture of a bear I saw on my way up there.

A shaggy brown coloured black bear

iMovie kept crashing while I was trying to record the audio, and I finally gave up. Ah, well.

The idea behind this thing is to challenge people. I'm going to challenge a bit differently:

• I challenge my friend Edwin to come see my glaciers for himself. He already dumped water on his head and donated to ALS. Good for him!
• I challenge my friend Gary Paukert to come up with something creative. He's a good sport, generous to a fault, and understands the impact that giving to a charity can have.
• I challenge my daughter. She's in Oz right now, up near Cairns. I challenge her to stand on a sandy beach and dump a bucket of warm sea water on her head. She ought to like that.
• And then, like this news anchor in Australia, I challenge everyone else everywhere to do their bit for charity. Still, he was a bit pompous about it, so I think he really should have a bucket of ice water dumped on his head. Don't be like that.

Birds from the past

When I was a kid growing up in Ontario, one of the most common birds we had were Blue Jays. My mom hated them. She thought them noisy, plus they stole peanuts and sunflower seeds that she put out for the birds, squirrels and chipmunks at home and at our cottage. They were as common as House Sparrows, Grackles, Pigeons and Starlings. 

Where I live now is the extreme west side of the Blue Jay's range, as you can see on their Wikipedia page. Here, they are rare indeed; I saw one occasionally last winter. And I guess that rarity makes them more interesting.

Besides, I never shared my mom's dislike of them. Personally, I think they are beautiful, and fun to watch. They are bold as all get out, and easy to attract up close.

This week, three showed up in my neighbourhood -- a mom and two very large young of the year. A handful of peanuts in the shell hitting the back porch is enough sound to get them to come in for a visit, no matter how close you throw the peanuts in.

Mom. Note the very white face.

One of the kids. Grey face.

They occasionally, but not always, break the shells open and get the peanuts out. Sometimes they take them away and "hide" them in the trees or bury them under the ground (where the squirrels are finding them).

Mom in the tree

The kids are just as bold as mom, and don't worry about getting close to us.

Patiently waiting for food

Being nut/seed eaters, we thought they would like something more than peanuts.

They ate the almonds first, then the peanuts, then the cranberries

The downside to Blue Jays (or any other jay, for that matter, like our more common Grey Jays or the less common Stellar's Jays), is that they will take as many peanuts we can put out, for as long as we put them out. So once or twice a day, we get a 15 minute show from a handful of peanuts we throw out for them. Like my cat, when they are done with that handful, they hang out expectantly waiting for more. Technically, we're not supposed to put out bird feeders, as the leftover food is an animal attractant. Blue Jays leave nothing behind. So we're OK with feeding them so long as they're around to greedily take our food.

A face even my mother could love

Summer gondola riding in Banff

There's LOTS of things to do in the Banff area if you're coming for a visit. One thing I always recommend to people is to get to the top of a mountain, and the easiest way to do that is to take one of the sightseeing gondola rides that are available. The choices are the Sulphur Mountain Gondola, the Lake Louise Gondola/Chairlift, or the Sunshine meadows hike.

Sunshine is a fantastic experience, but you still have to hike and climb a minimum of 200 m after the bus ride to get to the actual top of a mountain pass, to get that truly panoramic view. The hikes up there are glorious (which I wrote about here and here and here), and if you are a hiker just visiting, there's no better option than to start your day up high, and hike Simpson Pass/Healy Pass, towards Citadel Pass & Quartz Ridge, or any of the other options. But that's hiking.

Looking back at the village

If you don't hike, the Sulphur Mountain gondola is an option, and it's just outside of the Banff townsite. You get to the peak of Sulphur Mountain, though there's not much to do up there other than a short walk to to old cosmic ray station. The 360° views are stellar, especially of the Banff townsite, but that's about all there is up there. The owners are planning on renovating the top station, which would be good because it's old and decrepit. The ride costs $37 these days.

Me, my mom and daughter on Sulphur in ~1999

With my Auntie Eva, too

A better option is the Lake Louise Gondola/Chairlift. You don't get a 360° panorama because you don't get to the top of a mountain. But you do get a 180° view, which has more mountains than you can count, and multiple glaciers to see, plus the lake itself.

The lake and a bunch of glaciers

At the top is a pretty good set of things to do. 

• There's a pretty good wildlife interpretation museum that cover off all of the critters in the neighbourhood, from bears to lynx and beyond. It's a bit dark, and has an overload of info, but is generally well done;
• There are interpretive talks (free) and guided walks ($5);
• There are a few "short self guided walks", all less than 2 km with limited altitude gain. They all go to various viewpoints and overlooks;
• The restaurants at the top and bottom are both pretty good (the one at the top has a killer deck). They feature a $14 lunch buffet that is only $4 when added to the $30 gondola ride charge, which is a very good deal.

The Sulphur gondola is a fully enclosed gondola, and you have that option at Louise, but you can also ride in the open on the chairlift, which is WAY better (especially on a sunny warm day when gondola cabins are like ovens). Because unlike the Sulphur option, where all that you see riding up is better views of the Town of Banff, Louise is hugely active bear habitat. Daily bear sightings are common.

A bear from the chair

Open views from the chair

In general, the views from the lift are better, and the ride more interesting, at Louise.

So Louise is cheaper, has good food deals, has better views, offers significant wildlife sighting options, and has better things to do at the top (and bottom) than the Sulphur Mountain gondola. If you can only do one, Louise is a better option.

Montreal Grand Prix: How to get there if you're handicapped

For the 9th year, I was in Montreal this past weekend for the Formula 1 Grand Prix race. It was the best race I have seen thus far, with tight battles, lots of passing, interesting accidents and great support races. It was also a different weekend for me because I was on crutches and unable to get around that well, and I'll start with that because I could not for the life of me find anything on the 'net that talked about handicap access to the Montreal Grand Prix race.

The moment I broke my leg in April, I contacted Octane Racing, the promoter of the event, and gave them my predicament. My seats in Grandstand 11 are 3 km from the Metro station, and worse, the Metro is (1) basically the only way to get to the track, and (b) not handicap/wheelchair accessible. There are very few stations with elevators, and most are nothing but LOTS of stairs. Crutchers hate stairs.

I thought we would take a taxi to the track. You can do that; it generally doesn't get you much closer, but it's better than a wheelchair inaccessible Metro. I thought I would rent a wheelchair, and travel in a wheelchair the 2.5 km from where I thought the taxi would drop me.

So I called Octane (several times; it's hard to get them to call back) and explained my predicament. No problem, they said. They asked me to send them a note from my doctor, copies of my x-rays, and copies of my tickets. I did, but they gave me the wrong e-mail address (a .com address instead of a .ca), so I waited (and waited) and finally got back to them asking what next. After I finally got them the info they needed, they rush couriered me a parking pass to lot P7. I told them I wanted to take a taxi; I got a parking pass instead.

The back of the pass

I had no idea you could park on the track. I had no idea where P7 was (other than it was near my grandstand), nor how to get there. They sent no instructions about how to get there. I asked via e-mail how to get to P7; their answer was take the bridge (not helpful; there are two). And there are 16 parking lots on the track. I figured we could get a taxi to take us there, and the taxi driver would know -- but Montreal taxi drivers have never struck me as knowing much. So finally, we figured we would take a risk, rent a car and follow the signs.

On the Friday, we drove across the Cartier bridge to the normal access point for Parc Jean Drapeau, where the circuit is. No signs, for F1 or parking or anything. We knew we had to get onto Isle Notre Dame, so we followed the signs for that. Then a truck with a P7 tag pulled a U-turn and got in front of us so we followed him. 

Low traffic in the middle of the island

Passing the Biosphere

After security checked our parking pass, we drove across the Cosmos bridge (used by 50% of the 100,000 people who come to the race via the Metro), around the back side of the support race pits...

A tent full of Ferraris 

Some racing team

Dudes working on race cars

...then passed through security who checked our parking pass, and cross checked it to our Grandstand 11 tickets. Cleared through, we drove on the far side of the rowing basin on a dusty gravel road...

The view of the Casino across the basin

...past the access for the F1 teams, drivers and media...

Left to P7, right to the exit and where the bigwigs park

... to the back corner of the circuit -- which is where P7 is, but also where nearly every forklift in Montreal is parked (Note: when we left on Sunday, ALL of them were in motion).

Hundreds lined each side

P7 is a small space in the trees, with room for at most 100 cars. And they are packed in so tightly that they make you leave your name and phone number so if the car behind you needs to leave, they can. And there is a tow truck stationed there full time to tow people out of the way who won't answer their phones.

The cars are 6 deep

P7 is about 50 yards from Grandstand 11 & 12. There's a small space where some company was hosting a private party. The road was full of McLaren, Marussia and Mercedes team palates, all marked "Catering Supplies".

We spoke with a few folks parked there about how they got their passes. Most were handicap folks like us, who asked Octane for them. Some were VIPs, but in a place where George Lucas was at the track, I'm not thinking they were too important.

Getting out of that back-fourty was interesting. On Saturday and Sunday, they open a quick exit to downtown across the Victoria Bridge, which is literally 200 m from the P7 parking lot. On Friday, that exit isn't open because it runs beside the first lock on the St. Lawrence Seaway. So on Friday, you almost retrace your steps, though you actually drive down to other side of the rowing basin, where the REAL VIPs park. Like, say, Raikkonen, Hamilton & Rosberg (the latter two had left by the time we drove by, but Raikonnen's Ferrari was there)...

Expensive parking

...and Ricciardo's Infinity Q50s was still there, complete with "My other car is an RB10" bumper sticker...

Stylish

...and Valteri Bottas' BMW X5 was there, too.

Vergne had left, however

This is how the drivers cross the rowing basin to get to their cars.

Walking on water, like all Gods

In the end, it turns out that Octane Management was VERY accommodating in providing me a parking pass. Once we figured it out, it was quick and easy to get there. It was WAY easier (and cheaper) to rent a car than take taxis, and not actually much more expensive than taking the Metro.

Now all we have to do is get one of our group to break their leg every year...