Blame it on Sirius

It may be the end of August, but the heat we've been getting the past while brought the phrase "The Dog Days of Summer" to mind. Thankfully, it hasn't been humid, but temperatures in the Koots have been over 30C for awhile and in that heat, I lose interest in doing much work outside. I think the Latin American idea of a siesta makes a lot of sense.

According to legend, Sirius (the Dog Star) is responsible for the heat and the Romans sacrificed a brown dog in an act of appeasement. Apparently we also need to be mindful of the seas boiling, wine going sour, dogs going mad and all creatures becoming languid. Languid - that's what I've been feeling in this heat so at least that much seems true. I have managed to get in some useful work early in the day: relocating some of the fence against the deer invaders, a bit of gardening harvesting, moving some wood....but I'm looking forward to later in the week when we are supposedly getting back to "normal" temperatures. Until then I'm hiding in the basement during the heat of the day.

Heart Lake - On the Mt Willet Trail

In this little part of the mountains, there are 3 big peaks - Loki, Brennan and Willet, all in the somewhat-over-9000ft category. Loki I've done twice, Brennan I did earlier this summer and now I have a closeup view of what Willet would require by way of effort and routefinding.

The Sunday hikers today went to Heart Lake which is not far from Willet and allowed me a chance to scope out the terrain and the route for a future trip up Willet. Didn't actually look too bad. Just the usual combination of BC FSRs, a fairly steep hike, some walking along a goat track and the final wander up the east ridge of Willet. Probably could be done in a day, easiest if you were to camp out at the trailhead the night before, ensuring an early start.

Heart Lake actually is shaped like a heart and the meadows in the area were quite nice with good views in most directions. The drive down the FSR at the end of the day provided a new view of Kootenay Lake, this from high up from the north. Another 10-hour day with who knows how much elevation gain. I just can't believe that I actually forgot my camera....

Garbage Delights

A news item on the radio this morning caught my attention, having to do with where Vancouver and the Lower Mainland was going to put it's garbage.

This story has been around for awhile. It's astonishing enough that garbage would be trucked or whatever to Cache Creek, but the thing that made my ears perk up was the admission by one government official that "BC didn't have the capacity to deal with it's own garbage". So there it is, someone's had the guts to say it our loud. I wonder if this new admission will result in a better way to deal with the outfall of our throwaway society??

Update: There might be something interesting about this topic in McDonough & Braungart's book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

Helianthus giganticus var. Kootenayensis

I hear a certain amount of whinging from the other side of the family about the poor soil, lack of garden production, lateness of plant development and so on. Good thing she didn't become a farmer....

I include this photo of Catherine and her driveway sunflowers just to prove that at least "something" grew well in the garden this year, even if it isn't made of Prairie soil :-)

Exploring the Kootenay Wilderness

Gerald, one of the local fellows here, has an annual "hiking trip" that he refers to as the "Thrash & Bash" off somewhere in the wilds of the Koots. The name quite accurately implies the nature of this trip. This year, however, the trip was a bit different. Gerald decided that it would be "interesting" to make a traverse from the Howser Creek drainage over to the Glacier Creek drainage using Echo Creek as the access valley and crossing the Macbeth Icefield. The only unusual concern was the glacier crossing, something not part of his extensive set of experiences. I've known Gerald for a few years now and have hiked and skied with him so he'd heard about some of my trips. I was invited along to help out with the glacier travel part of the route.

The original plan was to take 3 days (2 nights) to make the trip but we ended up using almost all of 4 days. Only a small part of the first day involved thrashing and bashing, as we made our way up the Echo Creek drainage which we reached by driving north along Duncan Lake, north-east up Howser Creek and finally up a logging road that wound it's way up an impossibly steep mountainside. I think our starting elevation was about 1800 meters (Kootenay Lake is at 600 m).

Route selection was entirely by map, there being no trails where we were going. Each corner and pass was new, and we never knew if the next corner would present impassible obstacles. Terrain is steep in this part of the mountains and although some sections looked a bit iffy, each new descent and climb and each new pass flowed into the next perfectly.

Our first night was by a peaceful alpine lake after about 4 hours and 600 m gain. The next day involved lots of "side-hilling", much climbing up rubble slopes and going back down on the other side, a brief crossing of a small bit of glacier and finally to our campsite (visible in the photo) by a small lake at the bottom of a snow gully along the side of one end of the Macbeth Icefield. Day 3 we crossed the Icefield, only spending a short time negotiating the labyrinth of open crevasses where we joined the Icefield. At an elevation of about 2700 m, the snow was fairly firm and there were no issues encountered (meaning none of us fell into anything!). A quick ascent of part of Mt Fleance and we headed for the rock bands at the glacier's end. We camped that night by the lake at the toe of the glacier; all of us were too tired to face the prospect of the hike out after the day's exertions. Eating and resting were higher priorities.

That night we enjoyed a lightening storm and some rain but the next day dawned clear and fine. It still took 4 hours to hike out the newly-cleared Macbeth Icefields trail and another 4 hours to go fetch the other vehicle and drive home, so a long day even if it was just logistical maneuvering. Gerald claims to be hooked on glacier travel and is already searching out the next trip. All of us had a great time exploring the Koots. Thanks to trip companions Gerald, Dan and Osa.

Pictures are posted here.

The Mob at Macbeth

It was last August that we hiked the Macbeth Icefields trail, encountering over 100 deadfalls blocking the route. Catherine posted a story about our day after that trip.

About a month ago I posted a note about the day four of us collected chainsaws and assorted implements of trail maintenance and cleared the deadwood in a morning's work.

Apparently, word has circulated, because many people have been using the trail in the past month. This last Sunday, 15 of us got together and hiked in. Total distance was about 14 km round trip and about 1200 meters of elevation gain. It was certainly nice to hike a trail without having to clamber over and under deadfall and apparently many others appreciate the cleared trail as well. In addition to the 15 of us, I counted 8 other hikers during the day.

The Macbeth Glacier certainly has retreated quite a bit since a picture of it was published in "Where the Locals Hike", our local trail book.

I'm pleased that so many people are out enjoying the trail to this scenic area. It certainly shows that a small group of locals can make a difference when the branches of government responsible for trails simply cannot deal effectively with trail maintenance. It's time for a change in how things are managed and maintained. That bit of organization is our next challenge.

"If You Go Out To The Woods Today....

You'd Better Go In Disguise..." At least that's how the old children's nursery rhyme went.

It's mid- August and certain locals are disappearing quietly into the woods of the surrounding hills. With the reputation the Kootenays has, I would have been tempted to think they were up to nefarious deeds, perhaps tending to certain crops hidden away in the woods. But no, not this time.

It's huckleberry season and this year the crop is a good one, at least in some places. This is one area where the locals we know aren't as open and welcoming as they usually are. Good huckleberry patches are carefully guarded secrets around here. We get general comments like "up some logging road" or "look for a good cut block". You won't generally get escorted to one, though.

Anyhow, we did get to one patch about 10 minutes from home where we got enough to freeze and some to eat. We'll probably go back in a couple of days for some more. Sorry, but we can't tell you where it is ;-)

New Jersey Nuptials

The main purpose for the trip to New England, of course, was Scott and Kristin's wedding. Our son has been in New Jersey for several years, carrying on a career in education.

Most of the guests at the event were friends and family of Kristin (our new daughter-in-law) and colleagues of Scott, but there was a lively contingent of Canadians who were in attendance. Old track buddies of Scott's from University, us, of course, and Scott's sister and brother-in-law from the Koots. Andrea & Demitri actually biked to the wedding from Montreal, at least as far as Newport RI where they decided the traffic was just too insane, so they switched to the train, ending up in NYC. This was only about an hour or so from the wedding's location and they had a few days to hang out and travel around with Scott prior to the wedding.

After our exploring around Boston and area for a few days, we had the rehearsal and the get-to-know-everybody BBQ followed by the event itself on Saturday. Everyone was very friendly (something we've come to expect of Americans) and welcoming and the wedding party was quite fun. As well as various references to Canadians (and Americans), the enertainment highlight of the party was probably all the Canadians in attendance enthusiastically dancing and singing to "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate". I think the Americans found this pretty entertaining. It is, after all, almost a Saskatchewan anthem!

Readers will be interested in one part of the ceremony where Scott and Kristin poured together vials of New Jersey shore sand and South Saskatchewan River sand. I thought that was quite cute.

Anyhow, it was nice to welcome our new daughter-in-law to the family. I think our next challenge will be to have her visit the Koots in winter so we can teach her how to ski. Here's to more connections across the border.

Pictures of the event are on Picasa

Sweltering by the Seacoast

We were lured from the peace and quiet of the Koots for a 10-day visit to New England. Probably not an area we'd choose to visit in the middle of summer, but Scott was getting married and we couldn't miss that. So.....

Travel by air - amazing how far you can go in such a short time, but also amazing what travelers have to go through to use this method of transportation. I guess there's no doubt that the security is needed, but I still shake my head a bit at some of the restrictions. Fortunately you can now bring small tubes of toothpaste in the plane with you. They also wanted to scan my two plums.

We spent a couple of days traveling from BDL in Connecticut around to a few locations that Catherine and I wanted to see - Concord, MA (Walden Pond, Louise May Alcott's home), Boston (The Freedom Trail and MIT), Newport RI (the cliff trail and the mansions) and lots of walking. Most of our driving was planned to follow small "country" roads where the scenery is better and the traffic is slower and less congested. We were constantly amazed at how nice almost all of the properties looked - very well tended, nicely landscaped....

There is at least one thing to note about New England aside from the congestion: in August it is hot and humid. We found the humidity particularly draining especially with the walking we were doing. I hate to say it, but air-conditioned vehicles have something to appreciate as do air-conditioned motel rooms.

I found myself almost completely disoriented the whole trip. I usually don't find that I'm directionally challenged in the woods or in the mountains, but New England had me completely turned around the whole time we were there. There are also roads everywhere and they wander around and as a result I usually didn't know where I was. If not for Catherine and the road atlas glued to her lap, we still might be lost in the forested eastern hills.

After the wedding in New Jersey (about which more in another post), we headed quickly up to NW New Jersey (Delaware Water Gap) and north into NY and a short drive through the Catskills. We even spent an hour wandering around Woodstock. From there we went east again ending up back in CT where we caught our early-morning flight headed west. Bradley CT to Chicago IL to Salt Lake City UT and finally Spokane WA. It felt good to be heading west and back home.

Pictures of some of the places we went are on Picasa.