Exploring the Koots - 0530 - Hamill Creek

Sunday was hiking day and 4 of us arranged to meet up with another 4 to hike a short distance up Hamill Creek.

The trail up Hamill Creek is actually the Earl Grey Trail, a 60 km track from Argenta at the north end of Kootenay Lake, up Hamill Creek to Earl Grey Pass and down Toby Creek. You eventually come out in the East Kootenays near the Panorama ski development. This is a real wilderness trail with cable car river crossings, rough trail and the usual expectations of wild animals. The suggested hiking schedule for this trip would be about 5 days.

The trail was named after a former Governor General of Canada who crossed the pass in the early 1900s. Apparently he was looking for a spectacular trip and this is what he was introduced to. It's now completely in the Purcell Wilderness Conservation Area.

Somewhat before the mid-1900s, the lower Hamill Creek valley was the location of some mining exploration. Some equipment remains there still. I understand that this was also an early example of a mining scam, with hopeful investors from NYC funding a several-year project in this area. Their original route into the river valley was right up the lower canyon which is difficult enough that the present trail completely avoids this area, descending to the river from the small settlement of Argenta.

Our trip on Sunday went as far as the second cable car crossing of Hamill Creek. Rain was intermittent most of the afternoon, but quite steady as we drove to the trailhead. Four of our hiking companions were delayed by the rain, apparently enjoying warm soup at a home near the trailhead so we didn't meet them until quite late in the afternoon, on our way back to the parking lot.

At the second cable car crossing was also an old log cabin, gradually mouldering away. After a brief examination of the cabin, we turned for home.

Exploring the Koots - 0524 - Gerrard

Highway 31 heads north-west after leaving the north end of Kootenay Lake and follows the Lardeau River to Trout Lake. After that, it becomes more like a logging road....but that's another story.

Monday, on a bit of an impulse, I decided to wander up to Trout Lake and camp for the night. There is an old BC Forest Service site at the east end of the lake, more or less where the old townsite of Gerrard used to be. Very few signs of the old townsite remain. I understand the town was named after a banker, but I decided I wouldn't let that bother me too much....

These days, it's a good place to go fish or to watch fish - there's even a fish-watching platform on the banks of the Lardeau River.

We've gone up there to watch Bald Eagles while they've been fishing and have counted literally dozens of the great birds feeding.

This trip there were no fish and no Bald Eagles, just a solitary Rufus hummingbird who came to check out the tail lights on the camper.

Last night it was about views of the lake and the sunset. I've heard a certain amount of whining about the poor sunsets here in the mountains: "...just not like a prairie sky...", which kind of figures, given where we live. However, the sun went down last night almost right up at the end of the Lake and I thought the evening sky was pretty good - for the mountains, that is ;-)

Keeping up with the Hummers

We've been visited by hordes of hummingbirds the past couple of weeks, and despite having the feeders just outside the windows, they have proven to be difficult photographic subjects. I've tried shooting through the window, tried the camera on a tripod outside using a remote camera release and I'm still not happy with the results.

We figure that with the cool weather we've been having, the Hummingbirds aren't finding much other food. Some species spend their summers in the high alpine, but that part of the world is still covered with snow. So, for the time being, they've taken up residence in the trees not far from our two feeders.

We get 3 species of these little birds here: the Rufus, the Calliope and the Black-Chinned. It's been a source of endless amusement to watch their antics around the feeder. There are times when there are nearly a dozen hovering around, stacked up like jetliners waiting to land at La Guardia International.

With this cold weather, the flock is emptying each feeder nearly every day, but they still seem to have the energy to put on their mating displays. Some things are just too important to put off, no matter what the weather.

East Kootenay Wanderings

We spent a few days at the end of last week wandering around some of the East Kootenays. This is an area that we often drive through, but seldom stop to explore. This time, in conjunction with a Library Federation meeting that Catherine had to attend, some new areas were visited.

This is the valley with Cranbrook at the south end and Golden at the north end. The Kootenay River comes in from the east at Canal Flats and heads south and the Columbia River originates, also at Canal Flats, and heads north. The second picture is of the "mighty" Columbia River, just north of Columbia Lake, near Fairmont.

One area we found excellent for bird-watching was a hill just north of Wilmer overlooking the Columbia Wetlands Conservation Area. We saw several new species there

We also spent a short time hiking to the top of the hoodoos near Fairmont. Nice views from the top of the cliffs.

One night was spent at Alces Lake (Latin for Moose Lake), which is in Whiteswan Provincial Park, about 22 km up a Forest Service Road east of Canal Flats. The lake was cute and the campground was just what you'd expect of a BC Provincial Park campground - nice sites, excellent trees...

One luxury was a soak in Lussier Hot Springs, a couple of natural, undeveloped pools on the western boundary of Whiteswan PP. This was the early morning soak so as to miss the crowds later in the day. Nothing like the smell of hydrogen sulfide and hot water!!

The next night was spent at Lake Enid Rec Area - a BC Forest Service Site only a few km from Wilmer (near Invermere). A resident loon and several pairs of Red-Throated Grebes added to the ambiance of the lake with the Rockies in the background. Unfortunately, our peaceful evening was disturbed by some Albertans (have I mentioned that this valley is Calgary's playground?) arriving at 10 pm, unloading their dirt bikes, ATVs and chain saws and feeling the need to start up each one of their toys and make noise at 11 pm. Fortunately, they didn't stay up too late.

The next night, we tried a Forest Service Road (FSR) west of Canal Flats along the Findlay Creek. Findlay Falls was interesting and the Forest Service campground was very nice. Quiet and peaceful with the sounds of the Findlay Creek in the background.

The last day, as we were heading home, we rode our bikes a short distance through Bummer's Flats, an area along the Kootenay River just north of Ft Steele. Mainly we were looking for birds, but there was a cool, spring smell to the air and the ride was a nice diversion to our trip.

Further along the road home, we spent an hour or so wandering around the Creston Wetlands looking for new bird species.

After this, we had only the drive north along the east side of Kootenay Lake to the ferry and home.

Mr Campbell - Why Bother???

We spent a few days last week exploring a small part of the East Kootenays - more about that in the next post.....

One stop was at Lake Enid, a Forest Service Recreation Area just west of Invermere (Wilmer, to be precise), where we spent a night camping.

Observers of the BC scene will be familiar with recent cuts to the BC Provincial Parks system - fewer Rangers, privatization - but the Forest Service's Recreation Areas have received little attention although their plight is as bad, if not worse.

On travels through western Alberta, we have been somewhat appalled by the damage caused by ATV traffic. There was some of the same damage here. Lots of signs, though. But if the government thinks that some signs will make a difference, they're dreaming. Only enforcement will make a difference, and that needs people on the ground, not people designing signs in some office somewhere.

Mr Campbell: If you're not going to put your (our) money where your mouth is, why bother with the signs? Some of the things that make BC the beautiful place it is are being destroyed. It's time to start catching up with public concern on this one.

The Geek Side

I don't own an iPhone and am not interested in the iPad, despite all the recent hype and over-the-top enthusiasm, but I was intrigued by an interview on Search Engine from April 26/10.

In the interview, the interviewee made the claim that Apple had become worse than Microsoft in it's controlling and exclusionary behaviour. The basis of his argument was that Apple products, the two mentioned here, specifically, were designed to prevent the use of applications (apps) not written and/or approved by Apple. He likened this lack of user control to having to go to a professional to get the batteries changed in some device that you own. Some might remember the image of Apple throwing the hammer into the screen where Big Brother was speaking. The contention is that Apple has become Big Brother.

The short podcast (18 minutes) was pretty interesting to me, especially considering my lack of interest in the devices being discussed. I guess this was because of my bias against Apple products in general (excluding the iPod - I love my iPod). This started quite a few years ago as I began to see how controlling the Apple MAC's hardware and operating system was. My experience grew up with computers since about 1980 and it bothered me when the OS in a machine (like Apples) would just put stuff where it wanted to. I like to be able to control that myself. There just seemed to be so much about Apple MACs that wasn't open to user control. I know several MAC users and I know they will disagree with this totally and I will admit that I have very, very limited experience with MACs and other Apple devices. However, the story is what caught my interest and I was surprised to hear a point of view on Apple products that seemed to agree with my own, for once.