Exploring the Koots 0831 - Mt Reco

One of the great advantages of living where we do is the opportunity to look out the window and decide whether we'll bother going for a hike on any given day. This morning we saw our relatives off and started pondering the skies. Thinking that things looked OK, we headed for Jackson Basin and the minor peak of Mt Reco (elevation 2530 m).

A 20-minute drive or so brought us to Retallack, and a 9 km drive up the Stimson Creek FSR brought us to the end of what our truck could handle (elevation 1800 m). A further 90-minute hike up a mining exploration road to a ridge and from there to the summit of Mt Reco rewarded us with views in many directions. Skies were mostly cloudy, but there were patches of sunlight on slopes and ridges in the distance. Slocan Lake was visible to the SW, and there were good views of Idaho Peak, London Ridge and another peak to the East that we want to do sometime, Texas Peak. We were also able to see the trailhead to Alps Alturas, a hike we did a couple of weeks ago. In a few of the valley bottoms were the buildings of several mine sites not far from Sandon.

Temperatures were quite cool up high, probably not far above freezing, and to remind us of this, we were treated to a small bit of snow. We took an alternate route down some open slopes to another exploration road and then back to the truck. On the way down the FSR, the rain began more in earnest but it was over before we arrived back home. For the day, an elevation gain of about 700 m. There was lots more, but it was done in the truck, so I guess that doesn't really count ;-)

Exploring the Koots - 0830 - Three Forks to New Denver

We had an easy hike today, one we've done before: the Galena Trail along the Carpenter River from Three Forks to New Denver. We had relatives visiting from Alberta, casual hikers unaccustomed to the rather severe elevation gains of many trails in the Kootenays, so we picked this one.

The trail mostly follows an old rail line from New Denver up a narrow valley towards Sandon, the site of old (and current) mines. A side trip at Alamo Siding took us past the collapsed mine site to the mine manager's house, now mostly falling apart and being reclaimed by the forest.

A short ways down the trail you come to a small cable car that carries you, and your bike, across the river. It's a pleasant trail, and since it was once an old rail line, it's quite flat, gently descending down the valley towards New Denver.

One the way back home we checked the location of a trail leading up London Ridge, a hike for another day.

I have to say that the smell of fall was in the air. We've had unseasonably cool weather recently and have seen a bit of fresh snow on the peaks across the lake. Although the cool weather does put a spring in your step as you hike along the trails, I do hope that the fall season warms up a bit and settles down. I'm not quite ready to pull the skis out just yet!

Mt Loki at Last

Finally, a day to climb Mt Loki. I've mentioned this peak a few times in my blogs - a West Kootenay classic, easily visible and prominent across Kootenay Lake from Kaslo and one I've wanted to climb ever since we moved out here.

A small group from town decided to "do" the peak today so I got my neighbour to come along with me and we headed over last evening. In typical form, we took the ferry across the lake, drove up the FSR on the east side of the lake and followed the Portman Creek FSR to the top. This recently developed route eliminates hundreds of meters of sweaty elevation gain. After a quiet and cool night in the woods way above Kootenay Lake, and some breakfast, Bob and I started off. The rest of the group would be some ways behind us, having only left Kaslo early in the morning to catch the first ferry across the lake.

In about 2 hours, the peak was well in view, but it was nearly 4.5 hours to the summit, with some wandering around here and there searching for the best route through all the rubble and the rock bands and false summits.

This day there were 10 people summiting as well as one dog. I'd rate the difficulty as a mild moderate. There is some mild exposure, some route finding, some easy slabs and lots of elevation gain.

After lunch on the top, we headed down, taking 3.5 hours back to the truck, in lots of time to zip back down the hill and on to the ferry at Kootenay Bay, getting us back home in time for a beer and supper.

Pictures of the day can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.mcc51/MtLoki

Exploring the Koots - 0818 to 0819 - Double Header

Ignoring the heat we've had for the past while, or perhaps hoping for relief further north, we headed off Monday morning for a trip up the Glacier Creek FSR. Our objectives over two days were the Macbeth Icefields and Monica Meadows.

Monday was really far too hot for civilized hiking, but we perservered and did make it up to the view in the first picture - that of the falls coming from the melting Macbeth Icefields. We decided not to continue up to the toe of the glacier, having seen many similar things, postponing that little delight for another (cooler) day.

The main complaint about this trail was the substantial deadfall. I can handle the elevation gain (somewhat in the order of 1000 m), the steepness of the trail and even the alder (I lopped growth all the way up and back), but the 115 logs that we had to clamber over was a bit much. The trail really needs a trail crew with several chainsaws. I'm not kidding about the number of logs - Catherine kept count, and she has the bruises to show for many of them.

Monica Meadows, our Tuesday hike in much cooler weather after a night of fun lightening and rain, was considerably more pleasant. A nicely graded trail with real switchbacks, no deadfall and only an hours walk to the start of the meadows. Great views across the valley to mountains and glaciers of the Macbeth Icefields, southwest to the Horseshoe Glacier, and east to the peaks separating us from the Jumbo Pass area. It was an excellent finish to our two-day excursion.

Pictures of the trip live at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/GlacierCreekFSRMacbethIcefieldsMonicaMeadows

Exploring the Koots - 0815 - Alps Alturas

One nearby alpine area that we'd been hearing about for some time now is Alps Alturas, located NE of New Denver high in the mountains on the edge of Goat Range Provincial Park. With the weather clear, hot and dry, and with none of the usual mid-summer smoke haze in the air, we decided ato make Friday the day to explore this new area.

Nearly an hour brought us to the Wilson Creek East FSR for the start of a further 25 km of climbing to the trailhead on the border of the Goat Range. Thankfully it got a bit cooler as we climbed but another vehicle accompanying us couldn't handle the grades without overheating, so they turned back.

By 10 am we were ready to hike with about 500 m of elevation gain remaining. Even arriving at the trailhead was scenic, with the FSR edging around large mountains with incredible vistas opening up below us and into the distance.

A short hike through the woods brought us to lush alpine meadows and increasingly fantastic views in almost all directions. The trail curved around the base of Mt Dolly Varden and on to a lake at the base of Mt Martens. We had clear views to the Denver Glacier in the Valhallas and the glacier and peaks of Kokanee Glacier Park in the distance, and the myriad of other peaks in all directions.

Having scrambled to the top of a minor hill and enjoyed our lunch amid all this scenery, we hiked back down, rattled our way down the FSR, cooled off in the waters of Slocan Lake and headed for home.

Bushwacking the Koots - 0813

I had the chance Wednesday to go for a hike with one of the more longer-time locals, someone known for long bushwacking routes into the Kootenay backcountry. Knowing this in advance, I was able to be somewhat skeptical when I was told that we'd be back by 3 pm and that it was "just a hike" up an old mining trail in the Sturgis Creek drainage. I packed some extra food, carried my headlamp, gaiters and brought the bush loppers, an apparently essential piece of Kootenay hiking equipment.

We traveled up Keen Creek and into Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park (this is the north "entrance" which is seldom used these days). It took some time to even find the old mining trail as it was very overgrown and the beginning wasn't obvious at all. Using the map, the GPS and Tom's memory, we eventually found the place and, loppers in hand, headed up the "trail".

In the Kootenays, any trail not used much soon grows over with Devil's Club, Thimbleberry, stinging nettle and lots of alder. Not to mention cedar, fir and spruce seedlings on their way up. Add to that regular deadfall to crawl under or over. We traveled slowly, clearing a trail as we went. After several km, the trail narrowed somewhat, but actually improved - you have to admire these early 1900s miners and the trails they built into this kind of country.

Eventually, we reached the old mine site: a couple of decaying log buildings and the refuse of mining in a bygone era. Another 500 ft higher in elevation was supposed to be a lake, so up we went, nearly straight up - clinging to branches and what stable rock there was. The lake was very nice, very peaceful, and we were literally only just "over the hill" from the Silverspray Cabin. If we had climbed to the top of the next hill, we would have been able to look down into that valley. As it was, though, we had gained over 1000 meters of elevation and didn't feel like adding the extra hill to our daily total.

All of this, including a lunch break by the lake, took from about 7:30 am to 1 pm. Heading down was easier since we now had a trail and gravity was working for us. We were back to the vehicle in less than 2 hours and back in town by 3:30 pm. Not bad for a day of bush thrashing in the Kootenays.

Exploring the Koots 0811

Feeling almost sufficiently rested, I agreed to a Monday hike headed for Mt Reco, at the end of Jackson Basin, south of Retallick. The rain seemed to have ended although clouds remained which we hoped would dissipate during the day.

The first bad news was that the FSR leading to Jackson Basin was being torn apart by a backhoe so that route was blocked. Then we tried to find the trail up to London Ridge, but despite an hour of bushwhacking and casting about here and there, we were unable to find anything that headed uphill.

We finally headed for the FSR up Kane Creek, near the road to Sandon. Apparently this trail/road used to provide an alternate access to the Alps Altura area that we plan to try later in the week. We decided to hike up the road (driving was prevented by a rotten bridge) to see what we could see. Mostly wet thimbleberry and alder and a walk in the woods. We hiked up about 5 km until a large mud slide and downed trees basically rendered the trail unusable and very overgrown. In the distance we could see the beginnings of what we thought we were looking for, but we weren't going to get there on this trail. Having had enough of this fun we headed home, with one last look for the trail to London Ridge - no luck, again.

Asulkan Pass - Another Week in the "Hills"

I just returned from a week working at an ACC camp at Roger's Pass. This was the "55+ Trekking Camp", this year running out of the Asulkan Hut, near Asulkan Pass, over a km higher than Roger's Pass in the mountains to the south.

This was supposed to be a "Trekking" camp, but for future reference, there is zero "trekking" from this Hut - it's either glacier travel and climbing peaks or nothing, other than the trail back down (that's "way" down) the moraine.

This camp is generally thought to be more "laid-back" than some of the other camps, but we regularly had super weather, 10 to 14 hour days and many, many meters of elevation gain and loss each day. The weather was so good we had difficulty using one up for a "rest day", so by the end of the week we were all getting pretty tired.

The area around the Asulkan Hut is probably best suited to winter skiing - the terrain here would be absolutely fantastic for that activity. There are peaks to climb in the near vicinity, but for a moderately-paced group, there isn't all that much to do. We did, however, climb nearly everything there was available to climb in the area, trudged over vast acres of glacier, visited Asulkan and Sapphire Cols, and generally got a good visit with the area.

Yes, I have pictures, and they live at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/AlpineClubOfCanadaAsulkanPassCamp

So now I'm tired and enjoying, finally, a rest day here at home.