The Bugaboos - Briefly

It's taken years to finally arrange a visit to the Bugaboos but it finally happened this week. An ACC work crew was to visit the Conrad Kain Hut in late September to winterize the place. This was the opportunity to make a brief visit.

I managed to convince my regular scrambling/hiking partner that she would find the trip interesting, so we headed up over Gray Pass to Kimberley, up the Columbia valley to Brisco, drove 50 km up the Bugaboo Creek FSR, camped in the truck overnight and made ourselves ready for the helicopter and the day's work. All this to get to a place that is only about 100 km from our house, if only we could travel as crows do....

The rest of the crew and the helicopter arrived around 10 am, two groups were flown into the Hut and then the job of ferrying out the full biffy barrels, in with the clean barrels and the rest of the gear. This day, Tuesday, had perhaps the best weather of the trip, as it snowed and fogged most of the rest of the time.

Catherine and I took the opportunity right away to hike up to one of the campgrounds located about 30 minutes uphill from the Hut, with great views of Snowpatch, Bugaboo Spire, Crescent Spires and Eastpost Spire. All impressive granite spires rising nearly vertically from the surrounding glaciers.

We spent about 2 days taking apart the water turbine, cleaning, installing shutters on windows and trying to keep warm. Thursday morning we finished up and hiked out, taking under 2 hours to make it to the parking lot. This gave us lots of time to make the long trip south, around via Cranbrook and Creston and back home.

Pictures are at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/TheBugaboosWinterizingTheKainHut#

Exploring the Koots 0911 - London Ridge

Having searched for the beginnings of this trail a couple of times and needing a way to avoid all the 9/11 anniversary coverage and since it was a great day and because we could....it was London Ridge on Thursday.

A quick drive towards New Denver brought us to the "summit" at Bear & Fish Lakes, elevation around 1100 meters. An hour of uphill hiking through the trees brought us into more open terrain. Another hour or so landed us at the actual ridge, elevation around 2250 meters. Views were great in all directions, from Alps Alturas just across Kane Creek to Mt Loki, about 41 km away across Kootenay Lake. Other nearby peaks were prominent: Whitewater Peak and Mt Brennan, and we could see Mt Reco, only about 7 km away to the south. Once again, it was great to hike without smoke haze obscuring the views.

Colors on the ridge were excellent, with the blueberries and huckleberries an intense red color, along with the various shades of greens from the mountain avens, grasses and mosses.

London Ridge was explored for minerals in its past; the access road we hiked was an old mining exploration road, rather than the usual Forest Service Roads we usually drive. Old scars from the digging in various places was visible continuously after we left the trees. The open slopes seems like they would be great for skiing, though, so I'm sure I'll be back once that season arrives.

Fruit Harvesting in the Koots

Around here, I spend some time searching out abandoned apple trees and try to harvest the fruit before the wildlife gets it. During my quest for fruit yesterday, I had an interesting encounter.

Approaching one tree, I was mildly surprised when a small black bear started climbing down the very tree I was going to inspect. He stopped half way down and kept a pair of beady eyes on my approach. I decided that he was more worried about me than about protecting his apples. I decided, however, that a diplomatic move would be the best choice of action on my part, so I changed course and headed away from his tree. As I moved away, the bear came down further and continued to watch me from the base of the tree. You could call this a standoff, but the bear did end up with the tree, for now!

Road Trip BC - Clearwater/Mt Robson

We made what seems like an unusual trip for us, a brief road trip "outside" of the West Kootenays. There just seems so little reason to leave....

However, last week we headed for the North Thompson area and Mt Robson for a family gathering. The plan was to help Catherine's 87-year-old dad hike out from Berg Lake, a 23 km distance.

First, we got as far as Clearwater, where we were going to spend the night with an acquaintance and do a hike. Where, coincidentally, the car rejected the fuel pump. So, while the car was being repaired, we hiked in to Trophy Meadows, in the southern part of Wells Gray Provincial Park. The flowers were well past their peak, but the alpine meadows were among the most extensive I've ever seen. This is a place we'll want to visit again.

Then it was on to Mt Robson. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, so there were no helicopter flights in to Robson Pass the day we had booked. We did, however, use the next day to hike about half-way in to Berg Lake so Don got his long hike into some pretty nice scenery. I figure for age 87, he did pretty well, hiking about 24 km that day.

We headed home the next day, taking a shortcut around Kamloops, along Adams Lake, down into the Okanagan and over Monashee Pass and back into our beloved Kootenays.

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

Election Eh?

Well, now we have it. A completely unnecessary election. What is it, the 3rd in 4 years or something stupid like that?

The Conservatives may actually win this one given the absolute and complete ineptitude of the other parties, but I really hope voters remember a few things when they go to the polls:

The Conservatives LIED about how they would deal with Income Trusts, and the evidence brought forth since that action 2 years ago just shows how wrong they were.

The Conservatives are planning (or were, since the election call will postpone the legislation) changes to the Copyright Act. There is overwhelming evidence that these people don't have a clue about the "Information Age" that we've been in for the past 2 decades. One of my favourite blogs has been documenting the proposed bill's shortcomings.

And, perhaps even more importantly than the previous issues, this government hasn't done a single serious thing about the growing environmental and climate change crisis. In fact, they've been obstructionist. Hard to believe in this day and age....

Canadians were worried that Harper had a hidden agenda when they gave the Conservatives a minority government last time. I think we now have real reasons to be worried.

Join the movement.

Exploring the Koots 0901 - Krao Lake

The local hiking group had an objective in mind for today and, against my better judgement, I went along. The objective was Krao Lake, high up in the hills above Ainsworth with great views down to Kootenay Lake and interesting ridges to follow above the little lake, but things didn't quite go as planned.

I didn't think the weather looked all that good. Sure enough, we no sooner left the vehicles than it started to rain. Actually it was cold enough that it was almost snow.

We perservered through the woods for nearly 2 hours, arriving at Krao Lake. It's a cute little lake, set in amongst rocky ridges. Many years ago it was damned (dammed?) I believe for some mining purposes lower down. The dam has been gone for years so we enjoyed the views of the lake and the sun which decided to make an appearance and entertained thoughts of hiking/scrambling around the lake. Did I mention the new snow visible on the nearby hills? Anyhow, it started to snow/rain again, so the lake circuit was abandoned in favour of heading back home. More exploring for another, and nicer, time.