The End of Summer?

We've had some rain in the past couple of days, and I've been watching the snowline on the mountains across the lake. I think we're at about 600 meters elevation and the snowline is about 1400 meters, so we're not that far below the snow. It's been cooler the past few days although we haven't had anything below freezing so far. I think +5C has been about the lowest we've seen. Leaves have been turning color, although the larches haven't started just yet. Once they do, we're planning a hike into the alpine to enjoy them.

Our Pileated Woodpecker is back, making lots of noise and exploring some of the dead trees in the area. The black bears are prowling around and we've seen their poop on the road in our subdivision and in the woods just outside our fence. It will be interesting to see if the fence keeps the bears out, although I suppose you'll never know if the fence kept them out or if they just didn't have sufficient reason to try to get in. We've been trying to keep interesting items out of the compost pile so my compost worms are getting extra rations these days.

Our activities outside have definitely started to recognize the change of season: harvesting the garden, Catherine busy transplanting perennials, getting things closed up, painted, cleaned up and ready for whatever we get for winter this year.

Moonstruck

It's only a couple of days until the full moon. I wandered out onto the deck awhile ago to watch the nearly-full moon rise over the mountain peaks to the southeast. I've always found it neat that with a reference point like the mountains, you can watch the moon rise into full view, especially effective with a pair of binocs. It's a cool, clear, very still evening with the fresh smell of the evergreens in the air. Fall peepers chirping away in the darkness. Just a few things that keep reminding me how special a place this is. Sometimes it's still hard to believe that I can call it home.

Just Hiking in the Snow

Not something we normally expect to have to do in mid-September, but when a friend of mine from Vernon booked space at the Asulkan Hut (about 1 km higher than Roger's Pass), we decided to join him and his small group for a couple of days.

The hike in on Friday was mostly in showers which turned into snow higher up. The hike and climb to the hut (6.5 km and 1200 m elevation gain) was done in 3 hours and by later in the afternoon we had a full-blown blizzard happening outside. Fortunately, the hut had a propane heater and stoves so we managed to be quite cozy inside. This kept up all night and we only had an hour or so in the morning when we could see the scenery, including a spectacular view all the way down to Roger's Pass, over 1 km below us.

Catherine and I had only planned to stay one night so we left later in the morning. The descent was through snowdrifts and along a snow covered crest of a moraine, so the travel was very slow and careful. As we descended, the snow turned to rain which remained constant all the way to the parking lot. Beer and burgers in Revelstoke were our reward. Then a 3-hour drive along the scenic north shore of Trout Lake back home, enjoying the beginnings of fall colors.

Combining WORK and PARTY

It's been awhile since I've had the time to post. I just spent a week as part of a workparty repairing the Bill Putnam Hut at Fairy Meadows. This ACC hut is set in the Adamant Range of the Selkirk Mtns on the west side of Kinbasket Lake (that's NW of Golden...). Many more pictures can be seen on the SK Section's Trip Reports page.

As I've said before, opportunities like this make up a large part of what I value about my membership in the Alpine Club of Canada. Where else could you get all the food you could eat, a daily supply of beer and wine and work like a dog for a week, for free, all in some of the most beautiful and fantastic scenery you could imagine.

In brief, this whole thing involved driving on another BC Forest Service Road 98 km up the east side of Kinbasket Lake (aka Columbia River), preparing loads for helicopter lift across the lake and high up to the hut, and working steadily for a week on a long list of projects on the hut.

This hut has already received a sizeable amount of work in the past year. Last summer (2006), there were two separate workparties (August: 3 weeks; October: 5 days) and then this past week. Obviously, repairs to the hut were long overdue, plus there was some damage from the heavy snow levels last winter, but personally I feel it's an indication that the Club isn't spending or can't spend what's needed to maintain these primary assets that it owns.

These projects are very expensive, and a good chunk of the money is allocated to helicopter costs to ferry people and stuff to and from these remote huts. The fact is, though, that the ACC derives a significant part of its income from huts; Fairy Meadows is booked solid all winter as an important ski destination. There has been an ongoing debate within the Club for several (many?) years about injecting more of the Club's revenue back into its huts.

Obviously, I'd say, a solution needs to be found. The ACC operates 23 huts and owns many of them (some belong to BC Parks or other organizations who don't have the expertise or resources to operate them). If you do one major workparty each year to deal with the issues at one hut, you can see that each hut would seldom receive significant attention. Although ACC maintenance crews visit each hut one or more times each year, there simply isn't enough time during those visits to do the scraping, painting and minor (but essential) work that buildings in such severe environments really need. A case in point: I've heard that one remote hut will be "decommissioned" next year simply because it's become so run down it isn't worth fixing. Plus, it's remote and not often used. Still, it's probably too bad it can't be saved.

Anyhow, despite the limitations imposed by budgets and personnel, these workparties are great experiences. The leadership and organization on this workparty was excellent and I certainly felt that my work was appreciated and that all of us were kept "in the big picture". I always meet interesting, skilled and dedicated people, the setting couldn't be better, the food is always great, and the feeling of satisfaction you get from helping out in this way just can't be beat.