Where NOT to shop in Radium, BC

I continue to be annoyed by the way some businesses go out of their way to gouge customers. My most recent experience was at the Mountainside Market in Radium, BC.

Heading back home after a week at Stanley Mitchell, I was hoping to pick up a sub or something for supper. Hmmm - no Subway in Radium. So I tried the grocery store across the street. The deli selections were exceptionally limited and expensive so I ended up with a litre of milk and a bag of chips - protein, fat and carbs in 2 easy packages.

My issue is with their price for milk. At this store, in Radium, one litre of skim milk was selling for just over $3. I don't expect "Superstore" prices in towns like this, but in Cranbrook, about 90 minutes south of Radium, the same milk was selling for about $1.40.

My recommendation? Don't shop at the Mountainside Market in Radium. One hour north, there is an Overwaitea in Golden and south about 90 minutes there is Superstore in Cranbrook. Get supplies before you visit Radium. I can't think of any reasonable justification for what this store charges for milk other than an attempt to capitalize on the needs of the traveling public and the lack of competition.

Exploring the Koots - 0928 - Woodbury Valley

No sooner than I was back from Stanley Mitchell then we were off on another hike. Monday looked like it was going to be a nice day, so we decided to hike in to the Woodbury Cabin in Kokanee Provincial Park.

The route includes a 13 km drive up the Woodbury Creek FSR and an 8 km hike up the valley to the cabin. About 700 meters of elevation gain as well. As we started, it was clear that the day was going to be another stellar mountain day - blue skies, warming temperatures but with that hint of fall in the air.

The Woodbury valley was burned quite extensively in 2003 but vegetation has started to return, most of which was showing fall colors under all the burned tree trunks still standing. A sub-three-hour hike got us to the cabin, situated on a bench overlooking the Woodbury Glacier on the edge of a larch meadow under a number of surrounding granite peaks. It's an oddly-shaped cabin but it sits in an avalanche path (why I have no idea) and has been hit by snow slides in the past, so it's designed to deflect the snow, hence it's shape.

I took an hour to scramble up to a ridge with the desire to see what was on the other side. We were quite close to the main part of Kokanee Prov Park - just over a ridge, but all I could see was the other side of the mountain and down into Keen Creek. There is also a high traverse from another nearby hut, the Silver Spray cabin. A project for next summer.

After wandering around, lunching and such, we headed down, stopping briefly to pick yet more huckleberries. After a round trip of over 16 km, we were at the trailhead, headed for home and supper after another great day in the Koots. A few pictures of the day have been added to the Summer 2009 album on Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/Summer2009#

SM - A New Definition of Party

Another of the Alpine Club's workparties to repair and renovate another of their huts, this time the Stanley Mitchell Hut in Yoho National Park.

This time, it was to replace several logs that were rotting, install a new kitchen and do a number of other smaller tasks needed to keep this historic hut (built in 1939) in good shape.

The Hut is very popular in summer and also in winter as a skiing destination so it sees a lot of use. I had a chance to work on the renovations during the first week of the project. Given that it was the last week of September, the weather was fantastic - clear skies, warm temperatures and the company of a number of ACC staff and several other volunteers made this a great week. It's always interesting to see people so willing to take time out of their busy lives to volunteer on these projects, work from sunup to sun down in the middle of the usual workparty chaos.

Of necessity, most of the hut somewhat resembled a war zone for most of the week. Logs, tools, discarded kitchen parts, generators, excavations around the hut.....

We were flown in on Monday and I hiked out on Saturday afternoon. It was a bit nostalgic, hiking out over the Iceline Trail. This is an area that we've hiked in for decades and there were many pleasant memories of other hikes. That and plus fall is my favourite season. Hiking in the mountains in the fall has to be one of the best ways to spend your time.

Pictures of the week can be seen at: http://picasaweb.google.ca/dave.mcc51/StanleyMitchellRenovationsSep2009#

Exploring the Koots - 0914 - Saddle Mtn

One of the peaks on Catherine's list for this season has been Saddle Mountain. This distinctive peak rises just across Arrow Lake (Columbia River) from Nakusp, a mere 2 hours from home.

Because it's been pretty hot lately and wanting to get an early start, we drove over on Sunday afternoon, had supper in Nakusp and then went looking for a place to camp out for the night. There was one Provincial Park just down the Lake from Nakusp, but we were a bit surprised to find it completely full. So we crossed the Lake on the Arrow Park Ferry and drove along the west side of Arrow Lake looking for possibilities. One overgrown track into the woods seemed worth exploring and we were pleased to find it ended on the shore of the Lake with no reason not to use it for the night.

The night was cool and clear but we were able to sleep in the back of the truck with a sky full of stars overhead. Coyotes could be heard a few times yipping in the distance, but it was a very peaceful night. We were up early to complete the few km drive to the trailhead.

Unlike many trails in the Koots, this one ascended gradually and was well constructed, leading in just under 2 hours to an old fire lookout right on the peak of Saddle Mtn. A few minutes scrambling up the final 50 feet brought us as high as it was possible to go. Views weren't as good as they could have been - there are still some fires in the area and the heat has increased the haze, but we were definitely on the highest thing in the area and after such an easy hike, too.

We spent some time absorbing the views and then began the descent, stopping for a short time to fill 2 containers with huckleberries. Then it was back home, delayed for a short time because of an issue with the ferry but in time for a brew before supper.

Exploring the Koots - 0912 - The 4 Squatters Trail

High above Duncan Lake sits another icefield, the 4 Squatters Glacier, with several peaks poking up above the ice and snow. It was visible several times from our Macbeth Icefield trip last month and there was obvious interest in learning a bit more about it, so.....

Last Saturday, Dan, Robert and I drove the 40-odd km along Duncan Lake, itself about an hour from home, then up a very old logging road, now mostly gone to grass, hiked up a mining track and then onto a trail. This trail has been cleared and improved recently by a couple of dedicated souls, but it's still pretty steep, as the photo shows. Views out over Duncan Lake and the surrounding mountains was quite fantastic. In less than 2 hours of hiking, we arrived at the alpine meadows with increasingly good views of the 4 Squatters Glacier. We wandered in the general direction of the glacier to see where there might be good access, evaluated possible camping locations and generally enjoyed the views in all directions. This was just a short recon trip so after soaking up the scenery, we descended, headed back to the Lake, had a swim and drove home.

Although the trail is locally known as the "Oma Trail" (I think), no such name exists on any map. Possibly the correct name should be "Gravelslide Trail" or the "Squatters Trail". Not that names matter much. It's just another backcountry route that isn't in any trail book and one that wouldn't be easy or perhaps possible to find without directions. Nothing like a bit of local beta.

Midnight Obsession

If Skype, Blogger, Facebook, e-mail and all that wasn't enough, I seem to have developed an interest in a new way to wile away the hours I'm awake in the middle of the night - WikiTravel. It's an on-line, free, travel guide in the style and spirit of Wikipedia. Contributors are called Wikitravelers and apparently I've become one of them. So far, I've developed a page for Kaslo, updated the article on the West Kootenays and fixed up a link to a region of New Zealand called the Catlins. It's one new use for the little Asus netbook that I picked up last month while I was in the south. If I wake up at 2 am, as I often do, I can lie in bed reading and typing away until I run out of battery power. Usually I get sleepy first, though. It could be an obsession, but perhaps I'm the wrong person to be answering that question!

The New BC Economics?

Hot on the heels of finishing my latest book, Hot, Flat & Crowded, I came across this article in the online GlobeInvestor. I was feeling pretty discouraged by the time I finished the book and, although I won't say the Globe article perked me up completely, it did point out some positive moves in the right direction right here at home.

Water, Water, Everywhere, but.....

Regular readers will know that our little neighbourhood has been involved in a project to install water meters over the past year. In fact, the discussion about such a project started over 2 years ago. The good news is that we're finally just about finished. All the meters except 1 or 2 are in, the membership has approved the new rate structure and the new metered system is going into effect at the beginning of 2010. I thought I'd take a look at some of the (occasional) points that I've heard from various quarters about this whole initiative.

Cost of connecting to the system: We're going to be charging $0.65/day just to be hooked up to the water system, even if you use NO water. By comparison, the phone company charges about $26 per month although you do get your local calls included in this. The power company charges about $15 as a flat fee per month although they can spread the cost of the power grid over thousands of connected customers. So we're probably about on par with the other utilities on this one.

Cost of water: Our system is going to charge $1 per cubic meter (m3). That's 1000 litres and works out to $0.001 per litre. That's one tenth of a cent per litre. Today, in our area, gasoline sells for about $1.10/litre, milk is about $1.50/litre and a cheap Aussie wine is going for about $17/litre. Electricity is in the neighbourhood of 7 cents per kilowatt hour. At our house, during the summer, we probably spend about $50/month for electricity. The real comparison? You can do without or cut back on everything I've listed here EXCEPT the water. Yup - water is the cheapest item here and it's also the most essential. You would die without it.

Now everyone knows how much water you're using: At the gas pumps, we regularly watch other customers fill up with gas and I assume other people notice how much gas I'm getting...or do they? We're so used to filling up the car we probably don't even pay attention anymore. But we could...if we wanted. If you're filling up next to a Hummer sometime, watch for how much gas the owner needs, and, if you're feeling frisky, make a comment about it. The phone company measures every minute of your calls, the power company meters every KwH of electricity and Esso certainly won't let you have any gas unless it's measured by the gas pump thing. More to the point, as part of a system that we run ourselves and on which we all depend, excessive users of water are a concern to all of us.

The problem, in much of the "developed" world, is that water has been seen as cheap and plentiful and we've come to believe that it should be free. Well, maybe not "free" but certainly "cheap". Some consumers just can't understand why we should be metering it and charging for what we use.

Can't we just run the pumps 24/7? Then we wouldn't need water restrictions: I can't really take this suggestion seriously, mostly because it's only been made by individuals who don't involve themselves in cleaning filters, turning the pumps on and off or helping to maintain the system.

There's lots of water in the Lake: The same claim was made about the number of cod in the Atlantic, the amount of oil in the ground, the ability of the oceans to dilute our wastes and the atmosphere to absorb whatever we spewed into it. None of these statements were true and were obviously shortsighted. The main problem with all that water in the Lake is exactly that - it's in the Lake. It needs to be pumped, filtered, treated, tested, stored, and distributed. Plus, in our system, the whole thing is run and maintained by volunteers, so we're not even paying the "real" cost of the whole process. These days, it shouldn't be necessary to mention that just because we happen to have lots of a resource doesn't mean we can justify wasting it.

Fairness: Under the current flat-rate system, everyone pays the same amount no matter how much water he or she uses. Obviously, each household's water use is different. As well, the volunteer help to run the system varies widely, from no help at all by some to many dozens of hours of work by others. To put it simply, households using more water than any others and individuals contributing no help to the system are being subdized by people who use less water and contribute hours of labour. It's time everyone paid their own way.

This is BC. No one is metering and there's lots of water: Hmmm - there may be lots of water in some parts of the province but, aside from what we are required to do to it to meet government water quality regulations, the fact is that many communities are starting their own meter programs quite frankly because they are facing a supply or a capacity crisis. The recent news has had several stories making this very point. Some of those communities are not that far away.

It has been interesting through this whole process, so far, to see the range of reactions to water metering. It's all part of the education and acclimitization process, I guess. I don't know of anyone who ever reads his or her own electric meter just to see how much running their stereo is costing. We just use it. If we're feeling thrifty or conservation-minded, we install CF lights and insulate the hot water heater. I expect in a year or so everyone will stop worrying about the water meter. The quarterly bills will remind each of us that water is a commodity with a supply cost and a value. Hopefully we'll all act accordingly.