Yes, the calendar, the longer shadows and cooler temperatures at night are all telling me that summer is (sob..) pretty much over.
On Sunday, Catherine and I made the drive up the recently opened Glacier Creek FSR and hiked to Monica Meadows. This is really an annual must-do trip, especially (or at least) in the fall, when the larches have turned yellow and golden and the meadows have dried and seed heads are everywhere. The colors were pretty much at their peak and we had an enjoyable wander over the alpine meadows. The only downside was the lack of good visibility because of smoke from fires in Idaho and Washington.
So, even though temperatures have been warm and skies blue, it's time to recognize that summer is over and we're into another season. We've finished collecting and storing all the firewood we need, there is some garden work that needs to be finished up and our grapes haven't ripened yet, but there is still time for a few more hikes in this wonderful place. As Joni says: "We're living on a carousel of life..."
All the summer season's pictures are at: https://picasaweb.google.com/dave.mcc51/Summer2012
On our way home, we had decided to visit Glacier National Park in NW Montana. Once, when the kids were little, we had driven through the Park, but we hadn't seen all that much and with massive snowbanks still at Logan Pass, we didn't do any hiking that visit.
Following one of the fastest border crossings we've had lately and a food resupply, we arrived at the eastern park gate only to discover that the Logan Pass road was to be closed for the season at midnight. This was a bit of a surprise as we thought it kind of early in the season for the closer. This kind of forced us to decide right away that we would cross Logan Pass right away and try some hiking on the west side of the Park. We discovered along our way that the real reason for the road closure was all the construction going on, road repairs, paving, etc.
We spent 2 nights in about the only campground that was open, very near West Glacier. We hiked a few of the short trails, enjoyed the nice weather, did a small bit of biking and spent a couple of hours in Columbia Falls replacing the fuel pump which had just started to leak. That's why I always carry a good selection of tools....
The we wanted to hike, however, were well east of the construction barricades and so were mostly impossible for us on this trip. We were somewhat astonished with the amount of treed parkland that had been destroyed by a big forest fire a few years ago. Anyhow, once the road closed, traffic became much quieter. We did a few hikes and then moved on, heading west and home.
In the very far south of Alberta is a unique little provincial park: Writing-On-Stone. It doesn't take long to explore, at least the part near the campground along the Milk River. There were a whole collection of hoodoo-type of rock formations, kind of reminiscent of Chiricahua National Park in southern Arizona, although on a smaller scale. We were tired, so we spend 2 nights, walked the trails, rested, cleaned up a bit... Got a few interesting pictures which are in the Summer 2012 album.
One part of Saskatchewan I really hadn't ever visited. I can probably admit that I almost completely shunned southern SK. It's just not the kind of scenery I appreciate....
That said, I found myself consenting to visit Grasslands National Park, about as far south in SK as one can go - just north of the USA/Canadian border.
There were grasslands, dusty roads, dusty towns, very little for trees (we did find a trail called "Two Trees" which was pretty accurate - although one of the trees was dead), prairie dogs, bison, deer, lots of birds.... We spent the night and enjoyed the wide expanse of star-studded sky. Lots of sky and lots of stars.
Escaping from southern SK involved several hours on gravel roads as we headed towards our next stop: Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta.
I'd forgotten (or blanked from my mind) how long the drive is from Calgary to Saskatoon. You'd think every bump would be imprinted in my bum, given the number of times we drove it, sometimes for a weekend trip to the mountains.... That one stretch of road had more miles of straight than I've seen in awhile.
But we drove it again, spending the night at the campground just outside of Alsask. It was kinda nice to be on the prairie again.
Saskatoon, however, was a bit of a shock. After only 6 years, there were sections that I hardly recognized. New highways, under/over passes, bridges, whole neighbourhoods, malls, big-box stores.... It was fun, though, riding my bike around the city, around many of the old haunts, the river trail....meeting old friends for a visit. It's a nice city with many nice memories. Even though our stay was brief, we experienced one day of howling wind and cold temperatures, making bike riding a bit more of a challenge.
Our 3 days passed quickly and too soon it was time to leave, heading south to Grasslands NP and gradually wending our way back home.
Kananaskis Country was another of our old mountain haunts, so we decided to spend a couple of days there.
Part of one day we spent hiking up to the top of Pocaterra Ridge, one of the nicest ridge walks we've ever done. All the mountain hillsides were in full fall color and with the stellar weather, what more could you ask for?
We also hiked up Mt Indefatigable to the little sub-peak near the north summit. The views out over the Kananaskis Lakes were wonderful, the water was mirror calm and the clear air afforded good views of all the peaks in the area. The traverse of Mt Indefatigable from north peak to south peak was one of the first scrambles I ever did, back in about 1995, with Dan, one of my regular climbing/scrambling partners at the time.
We also had time for some bike riding south of Highwood Pass. Our route north was from Longview up to Bragg Creek, a nice drive along the foothills. Once we passed Cochrane, it was time to settle in for the long drive to Saskatoon, our next destination.
Because of a family get-together to celebrate my parent-in-law's 70th wedding anniversary, we found ourselves in Lake Louise in early September. What to, what to do.... After the party, after everyone else headed for home, Catherine and I decided to hike up to the Plain of the Six Glaciers. I have to say I had some feelings of nostalgia, being around all those peaks that we'd drive all the way from Saskatoon to hike, scramble, climb. It seems nutty now - a minimum of 14 hours of driving for a weekend of climbing, but that was the only option we had, other than curling and golf....
Anyhow, it was another in a long series of stellar days - blue skies from horizon to horizon and a perfect hiking temperature. The trail wasn't very busy first thing in the morning, and the views ahead were wonderful... I enjoyed seeing Mt Lefroy (that's the peak in this picture) with the most interesting "Fuhrmann Ledges" that we used as a descent route from Abbot Pass several times. I was also able to pick out the route we once took on a beautiful July 1st one year when we attempted the north peak of Mt Victoria. We were also very close to the scramble up Mt Temple, Mt Niblock....across the valley, the route into the Skoki area and Baker Lake, the setting for that infamous bear encounter back in 1994. Such a great concentration of great peaks and memories in such a small area.
It was nice to be back in the Rockies, even if the visit was short. I guess it's time I planned for a more extended visit, possibly next summer....
I suppose you could call this the "2012 To Hell With the Bell Tour", something started by Catherine when she went on an earlier road when she was first retired and still full of fresh appreciation of the freedom that retirement brought.
This fall trip was partly for a family gathering in Lake Louise, to be followed by some Rockies hiking, a visit to Saskatoon, southern Saskatchewan and Glacier National Park in Montana as we headed home.
The first stop was in Kootenay National Park on Tuesday, where we admired the upper reaches of the Kootenay River and, a bit further on, went on a 2-hour hike up to the foot of the Stanley Glacier. I recalled some years ago hiking up to this glacier, very early in the morning (by moonlight, actually), with Andrew, destination glacier and the summit of Mt Stanley. That was in the first couple of years of my mountaineering initiation and we had almost every kind of mountain weather you cold imagine. I particularly remember climbing down a long, steep, snowy gully in heavy snowfall, barely able to see Andrew a short distance above me on the rope. The sun came out later and all the wet clothing was steaming as we hiked down the trail.
Today, the weather was much nicer. Blue skies everywhere, a few puffy clouds, great views and a fast trip in to the glacier, then on to Lake Louise.
Pictures are part of the Summer 2012 Album.
Did a couple of nice hikes over the past few days....
One was in Jackson Basin where Stu and I hiked up Mt Reco, along the north ridge of that peak and scrambling down to a long, grassy continuation of that ridge. The accompanying picture shows the route. Nice weather, great views.
The other hike was just over the ridge from Jackson Basin where Catherine and I hiked in towards Mt Carlyle. The access here is from Sandon and up the trail/old road past the old mining town of Cody.
We hiked far enough to get a view of the meadows on the north side of Carlyle as well as exploring an old mining site on the western flank of the mountain.
Nice hikes in the Kootenay hills.
Yes, the calendar, the longer shadows and cooler temperatures at night are all telling me that summer is (sob..) pretty much over.
