Finding Fletcher

This past Sunday, five of us headed up to hike the Abbey Trail to Upper Fletcher Lake. As the photo shows, conditions were excellent, unlike a few days earlier when fog prevented any views other than the near-at-hand.

As per Kootenay usual, we drove the 12 km up the Fletcher Creek FSR until road conditions made it easier to walk. A couple of hours later we were on a ridge above Upper Fletcher Lake. A further few minutes of scrambling brought us higher on the ridge where views opened up into Woodbury Creek, the Woodbury Glacier, Kokanee Glacier, Silverspray, Kootenay Lake, Mt Trafalgar......you get the idea. We could even see one of the spires in the Bugaboos, probably over 50 miles away.

Time to loll around in the sun, soaking up the view, eating lunch - it's a hard way to spend part of your day. Finally, however, we dropped down through the trees and meadows and joined the trail some distance below. Alpine and woodland flowers were everywhere offering opportunities for using the camera and the plant book. Just another gem of the Kootenays on another great day.