Mountain View

The New Regime....

2012-01-18T19:47:00.000-08:00

Yep, wouldn't want people's opinions cluttering up the debate.... Oops, what debate?

Dealing with Climate Change Skeptics

2012-01-16T19:08:00.000-08:00

Logic and facts haven't worked. At least not as well as convenience, money, apathy and whatever kooky idea that's appeared in the tabloids recently.

So, maybe it's time for sarcasm. This is the approach being used by Bill Maher as demonstrated in the following clip (**language warning**):

Northern Gateway Pipeline: Let the Name-Calling Begin

2012-01-09T17:36:00.000-08:00

The Minister of Natural Resources today started the pipeline review process with some name-calling: "radical environmentalists", "jet-setting celebs" and so on. It's not a good beginning if what we're looking for in essential information. Maybe we can try something else:

Dear Mr Oliver:

I wish to express my concerns about your comments earlier today about opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project.

First, it is a real sign of weakness to start calling people names when they don't agree with you, because it shows that you don't have a good argument to counter their claims.

You also assert that these people have an ideological standpoint.... Well, of course they do, and so do you. It seems rather pointless to make that statement because it really highlights your fear of any opposition to your position. If you have good points to make that will convince me, let's hear them. I understand where the ideological viewpoints are because they are everywhere. What I want is good information.

Personally, I'm ambivalent about the pipelline project. I think it has risks and benefits, but I really haven't heard much in the way of facts, and I'm not talking about government spin here. You and your government will assert that this pipeline is safe, right up to the moment when it springs a leak in an environmentally sensitive area. That's what you guys always do.

What I want is real information, not name-calling and political spin. Unfortunately, your position, and that of your government, is making me wonder why you can't come up with anything better than your normal response. I'm a bit insulted that you don't seem to understand that Canadians deserve a better, more intelligent position from you on this issue.

Sincerely,

Understanding US National Economic Issues # 1

2012-01-09T11:03:00.000-08:00

For Canadians, the discussion south of the 49th has a certain sense of unreality to it, especially when political spin from all sides gets involved. The following examples may assist in understanding, just in case our country ends up in a similar situation.

Lesson # 1: Revenue, Budget, and Budget Cuts, Income

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts: $385

Lesson # 2: The Debt Ceiling:

Let's say you come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood....and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.

What do you think you should do ......

Raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?

Your choice is coming Nov. 2012

Post Release - Day 2

2012-01-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

A quick update....

Went backcountry skiing today. Other than having to dig the snow machines out of the snow several times and getting wet because it was snowing and being out of shape because I've been pretty inactive for 2 months....it was great.

Walking around, in regular sneakers, hiking boots and ski boots. The foot feels like a foot. Not some lumpy thing that hurts when I walk. I wish I'd had the surgery 5 years ago. Anyhow, I'm very happy with the results.

So, after 2 months post-surgery recovery, there is a definite sense of relief that it's worked so well. Now to get back in shape.

Although it was raining at Lake level this morning, up high (1200 meters) it was snowing and the powder was actually quite decent. We had fun.

Day 58 - Release from My Imprisonment

2012-01-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

An early release for what I'm calling "good behaviour". Actually, it was the surgeon's office that had to reschedule my appointment but allowed me to go to the local hospital to have the dressings removed.

A word of caution: potential gross-out warning in the tale ahead. Just saying!

Initially, I wondered if I could just cut the dressings off by myself, but decided that some professional assistance might be a good idea. I was able to see the Primary Health Nurse earlier this morning and she brought one of the doctors in to have a look and discuss how to proceed. I guess they don't get to look at post-surgical fused toe joints too often.

There were several thick layers of dressings, several strips of some kind of sticky mesh-type tape and a long piece of suture thread that emerged from the skin at each end of the incision. There were several flaps of dead skin; the suture thread had to be pulled out - all 3 or 4 inches of it.

And, for the first time in 58 days, I was able to put on a regular sock, slip my foot into one of my old sneakers and walk away.

I have to say that I've been surprisingly unwilling to walk normally. I guess that will take some time after limping for 8 weeks. My first job was to soak my foot in the tub and scrub off all that dead skin. It's quite amazing how much dead skin was all under all those bandages. Rub in some skin lotion. Expose the foot to the air.

I certainly have a sense of relief to finally have the bandages off. I can try on various pieces of footwear to see how they fit. I have to learn how to walk again which means consciously not limping. Time to try on my ski boot to see how that feels. The joint is definitely solid and right now it feels great for the first time in several years. Weird.

Day 52 of My Imprisonment

2011-12-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

Little change. Toe continues to feel better and stronger.

One weird thing was a dream I had last night. I was at the doctor's office, apparently to get the bandages off. I'd taken my shoe off, unwrapped the tensor bandage and had just laid back on the examining table to wait for the surgeon to come in. I guess I fell asleep and when I woke up the bandages had been removed.

Hmmm. Thirteen days remaining. I'm waxing my skis.

Day 46 of My Imprisonment

2011-12-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

Little change since my last missive. The affected joint continues to improve. I can wiggle other toes but definitely feel a solid resistance in that one fused joint. It feels fine, better than the other foot which will probably get the "treatment" next fall.

The bandages remain in place although they are starting to show signs of wear, despite the old sock that I keep on that foot most of the time.

I've been able to continue occasional biking because we still don't have any snow here at Lake level. This is fortunate, because otherwise I would be more or less housebound. I have found walking easier and am trying to get away from the limp used to keep weight off the front part of that foot. This means I walk slower than normal, more of a stroll, really. I'm not complaining.

Only 18 more days.

Easy Enchiladas

2011-12-19T20:14:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite meals. The recipe goes sort of like this:

In a pot, brown some ground beef. I like to throw in some chopped onion as well. Add a cup of beef bouillon dissolved in water, a 14 oz can of tomato sauce and a can of red kidney beans. Spices: chili pepper, cumin and pepper. If you have it, you can add one of those little packets of enchilada spice/sauce things, but they really don't contribute anything to what we have here. Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. What you want is something that isn't particularly runny.

Get out a package of flour tortillas and a rectangular baking dish about wide enough to hold a rolled-up tortilla. Spoon a bit of sauce into the tortilla, roll it up and pack them into the baking dish. Leftover sauce can be spooned over the whole thing when the pan is full of tortillas. Cover with grated cheese. Old cheddar.

Bake about 30 minutes in the oven at 350F, covered until the last 5 minutes.

When serving, I like to cover the enchilada with salsa, hot sauce, sour cream (or low-fat plain yogurt), some green onion and some shredded lettuce.

One final thing: you can make this dish with chicken in place of ground beef. Also good.

Day 34 of My Imprisonment

2011-12-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

The days move inexorably along. Only 4 weeks and 4 more days to go until the bandages come off. I don't look at them much. Usually they stay wrapped up in tape and a tensor bandage covered by an old sock. The wrappings are looking a bit ragged and it's itchy underneath sometimes, but things are progressing well, I think. It certainly feels fine.

Last night I was sitting around wiggling my toes and noticed that when I tensed the muscles that would normally move my toe, all I felt was resistance. There is a screw in the joint, but I'm hoping that there is bone growing there.

I've discovered that I can ride my bike and so I've been out for a few rides in the area. Fortunately our roads are clear and dry near home so biking is a possibility. I don't think I'd want to try it with snowy or icy roads.

One minor inconvenience is not being able to get the foot and bandages wet. I'm sure I'm waterproof again, but the instructions were to keep it dry. Showers are out. I'm not sure if even a plastic bag with duct tape around my leg would keep the water out. Keeping one leg up on the side of the bathtub has worked OK so far. I wonder how someone with a broken leg and a big cast manages?

Walking isn't too bad but it's still slow and too much wandering around makes that leg quite tired just because of the way I hold my foot. I managed to limp my way around the grocery store yesterday as well as the mall in Nelson. Sitting in the rocking chair with one of the twins works well. I think I'm gaining a bit of weight since my activity level has declined byt my enjoyment of food has not.

Only 32 more days. It's over the half-way mark.

Day 22 of My Imprisonment

2011-11-28T17:16:00.000-08:00

A current photo of the foot in question. Still bandaged. Aren't I well behaved?

Actually, with today being such a nice day in the Koots, and with walking so slow and somewhat uncomfortable, I decided to try for a bike ride. I managed to ride most of the way to town and back - maybe 4 km or so? It was slow, and I was careful how I pressed on the pedal with the foot, but rather successful.

Otherwise, it's mostly shuffling or hobbling around the house and the shop, with little forays out to get wood for the stoves. I think the way I'm walking is causing some tendon strain just above the ankle. I will have to be careful about this. I don't need a case of shin-splints on top of what's already wrong with my right appendage.

I hate to say it, but being kind of house-bound sucks. I feel for anyone who is "really" house-bound. At least I can drive and I can sort of walk and, if the roads aren't icy, I apparently can ride my bike.

Six weeks to go.

The Politics of Fear

2011-11-23T16:24:00.001-08:00

Here we go. Following the lead of politicians and the media in the USA. The politics of fear. Brought to you courtesy of the Harper Conservatives.

The Harper Conservatives keep on with the message that they are being "tough on crime". Sure. You need to be tough on crime, when there actually "is" serious crime. The problem is, however, that the crime rate in Canada has been going down for years. Canadians are safer now than they have ever been. And don't for a moment accept the silly story about "unreported crime". You have statistics on "unreported crime"? Really? So we're spending all this money to deal with a mystery shrouded in an enigma? Unreported crime??

So why are the Harper Conservatives insisting on this message? Because, as Rick Mercer says, people in fear are more likely to hand over their lunch money and shut up.

The sensible thing would be to spend some money on the root causes of crime: poverty, poor education, parenting...families, in other words. Improve community policing. Work to improve the poorest parts of our cities.

In the USA, the media has been bleating on about crime for years. It sells. People are more afraid and it shows up in things like gun ownership, which for some reason, seems to make some Americans feel better. So, Mr Harper: how long before you allow us to adopt gun laws (ie: no laws, really) American style so we can feel safer?

This is complete nonsense. We don't need to go down a path already shown to be the wrong one. Don't worry Canada. The thing we need to fear the most is our Government.

Day 15 of My Imprisonment

2011-11-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

The days pass inexorably along. I spend time each day reading. What I'm reading is reminding me of my "radical" environmental days back in the late 60s and early 70s. Not that it was all that radical.... These days it's more to do with social justice, the ruination of the economy, climate change, of course...

I'm currently making my way through Too Big to Fail by Andrew Sorkin. This 600-page tome recounts the events leading up to and through the financial crisis of 2008-9. The most head-shakingly amazing thing is to realize that so many occupants of the executive suite were in total denial of their companies' true financial state, right up to the hours before they were forced into bankruptcy. And how many were pleading, repeatedly, for help from government (ie: the taxpayer). God, you gotta love capitalism and the free market system!!

We've had snow. This has made walking outside on the wounded foot difficult. I've spent some time trying to create some more appropriate footwear since the "hut bootie" just doesn't work that well in 6 inches of snow. Accordingly I surgically modified a pair of old sneakers that I've been saving (just in case I needed them...). I have to say that they feel great and work pretty well. Since I did the modifications, it's snowed even more so I may still need to wrap it up in a plastic bag and wear my gaiter on that foot.

One positive note - I've experienced no discomfort, an exceptionally unusual occurence pre-surgery. It feels better already.

Six more weeks....

Day 7 of My Imprisonment

2011-11-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days, I have discovered techniques that have allowed me to ditch the crutches. The walking, however, is slow. Very slow. I'm glad to be able to walk unassisted at all, though.

Night 2 there was a slight amount of pain as the freezing finally came out of the foot. The drugs they used to block the nerve and freeze the foot must be really something, because it was numb for almost 24 hours. Otherwise, I've been unable to feel much of anything uncomfortable. I am, however, walking **very** carefully.

Becoming bored in "rehab chalet" where my "nurse" is staying while helping with the twins, I arranged to drive home on Friday. Driving is no problem. Glad it isn't my clutch foot. Not sure how that will work next fall when I get the left foot done.... Forewarned is forearmed, perhaps....

At least here at home I have a wider range of activities I can work on, including jobs in the shop. Note to self: don't drop anything on my foot, especially the right foot.

I hear there is 2 feet of snow in Jackson Basin. My skiing buddy and I will be getting the backcountry ski lift machine ready on Monday, but I think I'll be out of action until early January. That's when the bandages come off and I'm allowed to put weight on the front part of my foot. The snow should be good and ready by then. I should be good and ready by then....

The convalescence continues....

The Price of Civilization

2011-11-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

So this is the state we're in: political gridlock in the USA, sovereign debt bringing down one country after another, protests growing, corporate bonuses growing.... It's in this context that I just finished reading Jeffrey Sach's book: The Price of Civilization - Economics and Ethics After the Fall.

There are many memorable passages I could quote, but one will have to do:

"The list of recent government failures is long and growing. The intelligence agencies failed to anticipate 9/11. The Bush administration launched a war over Iraq weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. The Iraq and Afghanistan occupations were totally botched, brought down by ignorance, lack of planning, and corruption of U.S. contractors. Hurricane Katrina shattered our confidence in our emergency response system. The banking crisis shattered our confidence in financial regulation. The banking bailout destroyed any remaining sense of fairness between Wall Street and Main Street. And now we face budget deficits unprecedented since WWII, but continue to grant massive tax breaks to the richest Americans."

There's a problem with what's been happening in American society over the past 30 years. Maybe it's time to admit that the current strategies aren't working.

This book examines the mess we're in and what could be done about it.

Interior Health.ca

2011-11-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

Having had a real sample of the health care system at work in this part of BC, I thought it would be a good idea to record a few comments....

Our (single payer) medical care system in Canada and here in BC comes in for lots of criticism, but I've had surgeries in Saskatchewan, now one here in BC, our daughter had twins recently.... I have to say that the experiences have been quite positive. There are several large Health regions covering all of BC; ours is Interior Health. When people want to complain, they call it Inferior Health, but I think we've been pretty well served, so far.

Our daughter and the twins received great care at the Regional hospital in Trail, and with twins, there was a much greater level of attention and care devoted to her situation.

The wait time for my orthopedic surgery would have been 2-3 months, but I wanted November so that month has been booked for almost a year now.

The orthopedic surgeon has always been very clear about what was going to be done, the anesthesiologist explained what he was going to do: general anesthesia, nerve blocks, freezing.... The nurses were friendly and helpful.... I didn't see anyone who was abrupt or impatient. Everyone was good humoured.... It's all the little things that add up to a positive experience. The surgeon came by after I was awake to see how I was doing and answered my questions about what condition the joint was in, which certainly explained why I had been having problems with it.

So for me, so far, I'd certainly like to recognize the good work being done in this little part of Interior Health's fiefdom.

Day 2 of My Imprisonment

2011-11-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

I've been sitting/lying around contemplating my future convalescence and a cat diary came to mind. Actually, it was a dog diary compared to a cat diary. Gotta love the Internet - I was able to find it.

The surgery yesterday went well. Some expected waiting, but I was wheeled into the operating room around 12:30. The surgeon and the anesthesiologist had both been to see me, making sure it was clear which foot was to be the object of their attentions, drawing black marker arrows pointing at the joint in question. I was reassured. I was told what was going to be ground off, where the screw was going to go, where the nerve blocks and freezing would be put... Maybe too much information for some, but I was happy to hear it.

The operating room seemed large, nice windows with a view, lots of neat machines and tools all around...and I got to see it for all of 2 minutes. I remember a nurse arranging a nice arm rest and the anesthesiologist injecting something into my IV line. An hour later I wake up in the recovery room, completely alert, with a large wrapped foot. No nausea. Nice.

Back to the ward - a couple of juice boxes and a muffin. Managing to get dressed and hopping around with the crutches. The surgeon came by to see how things were going: the joint had no cartilage and lots of bone spurs. That would explain the pain. No weight on the front of that foot for 2 months. In fact, the dressing doesn't even come off for 2 months. I wonder what will be going on under the bandages during that time?

The night was fine. I was expecting the freezing to be out by midnight, but it still feels numb this morning. No pain at all, so far. I have these painkillers to use. Better living through chemistry I always say. I'm sure I will get a chance to use them....

So...the day ahead. I have CBC Radio, my computer, a bunch of files I need to work on, a new accounting program I want to learn how to use, many podcasts, two e-books, a fire in the stove....and where I'm staying is small and easy enough to get around. My "nurse" will be back from her day helping with the twins in time for supper, and the view down across the valley will be nice with the new snow that fell last night.

Laughter - The Best Medicine

2011-11-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

[This title is for those of you old enough and with the literary tastes to have read Reader's Digest back in the day ...]

The way things are going, I'm starting to think it can't be healthy to get upset or to take what's going on too seriously. Various "Occupy" movements, the mayor of one of Canada's major cities losing it on the heads of a comedy team, repeated (and unsuccessful) bailout proposals in Europe, the Harper Government determined to take us down the (already discredited) criminal "justice" path trodden by the USA.... You get the picture.

It's with some relief that I offer the "medical" antidote to the chaos around us: Wonkette

I'd never heard of this blog before (no big surprise given how much I pay attention to pop culture or whatever)...so I consulted Wikipedia to learn more.

I'm reassured to learn that Wonkette, although referred to as "left-leaning", clearly isn't afraid to take shots at idiotic nonsense in all directions on the political landscape. Wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about me from my suggestion, just because I live in Canada...and BC, at that, ...hotbed of left-leaning, socialistic ideas as we all know.

To give appropriate credit, my "discovery" came from "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin", a book I'm currently enjoying. More on that later.

How to Waste Six Hours with Bell

2011-10-31T12:26:00.000-07:00

[My brother had an experience with his Internet Service Provider that he'd rather not re-live. With his permission, I'm posting his final communication here...He lives in Montreal...]

Re: Switching long distance and internet service to Bell for account number xxx

To whom it may concern,

I recently switched my long distance plan and internet service (ISP) to Bell, and I am writing to tell you it was the most frustrating experience I have ever had with a telecommunications provider. The level of incompetence that some of the Bell employees demonstrated was breathtaking. I would only be able to recommend switching services to Bell to someone with five hours to waste and the ability to spend hours on the phone while at work. To be truthful, I will not be able to recommend to anyone that they switch to Bell.

Why?

When I contacted Bell on March 2, 2011 to ask for long distance plan rates, the first customer agent could barely speak English (her mother tongue was not French, either). Getting a straight answer on the cost of a LD plan took a long time, thanks to Bell’s near-endless list of plans, specials, bundles, caveats, exceptions, outdated, insufficient and/or misleading website information.

When I got that straightened out, I asked about the cost of Bell’s internet service. I was transferred to an agent who handles that. To my astonishment, the agent I was connected with had been told that I wanted this service, and I found myself already signed up for it. I had to repeat about seven times that I just wanted prices, to someone who had only the barest grasp of English (no, this was not a French agent).

I do not appreciate being called Mister Cornick, or Mr. Carroll. Is Bell operating call centre sweat shops in China or India?

Thanks to Bell’s byzantine collections of plans, promotions, bundles, moving-target prices, etc, etc, it took me over an hour to decide that I could save money by switching my LD and internet services to Bell.

But then, when I received an email confirmation of my order, the LD plan was listed, but the internet plan was not. So I had to spend another 45 minutes or so on the phone to get the internet service added. One agent I called spoke such poor English (no, it was not a French agent) I hung up in frustration and called again.

To my amazement, despite your website stating that a technician would visit me to install the modem, I had to argue with another agent to get this service. He insisted that it was “very simple” to install a modem and most people can do it themselves, and receive the modem by mail. Does Bell train its agents to blow off customers this way?

Anyway, I had to make more calls because the prices on the order were not the same as those quoted to me, the technician visit day was screwed up in the order … by call number six I was speaking to the Loyalty Department, a presumptuous name, I think. It should be called the Fix the Screw Ups Department.

I got good service from the Loyalty Department, I must tell you. But then on the next confirmation order the technician visit/modem install date was wrong, and I had to call Bell again.

The technician arrived and did a good job. I was very satisfied with that phase of the operation.

Since my faith in the competence and ability of Bell to do what I asked it to had long vanished by this point, I made another call to make sure I would receive all the services I had asked for, and at the prices quoted to me, well, at one of the prices quoted to me.

Most recently, I checked my Bell account to see what services were listed there. Of course, the LD service was not listed. I called Bell again.

Then I got some sort of service summary from Bell, which included a $49.95 one-time modem rental fee. I called Bell again and was told that this form was outdated and that there was no fee. The agent said, “It takes time to make these changes.” Was he kidding? Bell doesn’t have the manpower to make changes to boilerplate forms it sends to how many tens of thousands of customers? Bell would prefer that its customers scream out loud than update its damn form?

I asked the agent for a phone number or email address where I could lodge a complaint with Bell, and he could not find a number for me. I hung up in total disgust. I went back to the Bell website and found your email address, deeply buried. I only found it by doing a word search on your website.

Thanks for making it so hard to lodge complaints. I appreciate your desire to … waste my time!

I had other miscellaneous problems with your website: To log in I had to enter my user name and password three times!!!! before getting in. When I tried moving to the page that listed my services, the website threw me out and I had to log in again. What the hell is going on???

In summary, your technician visit and service was great. Your Loyalty Department agents were good.

Your first-line agents were variously incompetent in English (no, they were not French) could not quote the same price two times in a row, had to repeatedly leave me waiting while they found things out. One didn’t even know what ISP meant! That’s like a shoe store salesman not knowing what shoes are. Your pricing is so complicated that I could have screamed. I received a discount special for buying a bundle, which entitles me to $15/month off, for one year, I think, I hope. I am still deeply suspicious of your agent’s repeated assurance that I will be able to renew this discount next February, for another year. I can tell you now that it is the discount, not the basic price/service, that made it financially worthwhile for me to switch to Bell. If the discounts are not repeated, I will be looking for a lower-priced provider next February. As it is, your prices are too high. Telecommunications providers are gouging Canadians, and that is a fact.

I made nine phone calls, spent who knows how much studying your “designed to confuse” pricing, had to fight to log on to my account, had to endure agents with an insufficient command of English, just so Bell can save money, I am pissing away another hour writing this damn letter, which Bell will probably ignore, and I can look forward to who knows what billing errors in the short term, and price increases next February.

I have left out some details, but I hope I have painted a picture you can understand.

I will happily recommend Bell to every masochist and self-flagellator I meet, but not to anyone else.

Yours with great disappointment and disgust....

Fall on Kootenay Lake

2011-10-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

We've been flirting with fall for a few weeks now, but there still hasn't been a real frost, the squash are still on the vines, the flower pots are still blooming away out on the deck and the leaves have only recently taken on their fall colors.

Yesterday I decided that I needed a day away from the list of projects that I usually work on. I tossed the bike into the back of the truck and drove up the Lake to Lardeau, a small community near the north end of the Lake, and biked north to Meadow Creek and back, a distance of perhaps 25-30 km. There was a stiff north wind coming down from the Duncan, but that made the ride back easier.

I stopped in at the Lost Ledge campground to take this picture of Mt Willett. All of the higher peaks now have snow on them and spots of orange and yellow speckle the mountain slopes. I note that the larch trees in our woods have finally changed color. We're supposed to get close to freezing tonight and it's cooler this morning that it's been recently. Think I'll need a fire to warm things up.

The World's Cookies....

2011-10-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

When you look at the data, it's hard to see why the current protests have only started recently.

Back in 1970, the average CEO made about 25x the financial compensation of the average production worker. By 2000, the average CEO was making 90x more than the average worker. If you include stock options, etc., that disparity jumped to 500x.

In one specific example, in Wisconsin, the top CEOs made 592x the financial compensation of the average worker. In 2010, CEOs were rewarded with a 23% increase in their salaries.

Obviously, not everyone has been standing still in their standard of living over the past couple of decades.

In the neighbouring state of Michigan, the last governor was faced with massive budget deficits during her first term. A controversy arose when she accused advocates of cuts to higher education and social programs of abandoning the true tenets of their professed faith. Manufacturing jobs in Michigan have been disappearing for years.

I understand, from an interview I heard recently, that the corporate headquarters of Johnson & Johnson has a "corporate creed" inscribed on a piece of stone. It reads, approximately: The consumer comes first. Our employees come second. The community we live and work in comes third. The shareholder comes last, but they shouldn't worry, because if we look after the first three, the shareholders will get a fair return on their investment.

Maybe it's time we shifted back to some "old-fashioned corporate values".

Meanwhile, here in BC, we have the highest child poverty rate in the country. Figures from 2007 to 2008 did show a slight improvement in this dismal situation, but with the economic meltdown that started later in 2008, more recent numbers probably won't be pleasant to see. For children under 6, nearly 20% live below the poverty line. That's nearly one in five children during the most vulnerable years of their short lives.

We probably can't expect corporations to shift their priorities. They aren't instruments of social policy. That's the job for governments. It's time they started to focus on the people they were elected to serve.

One Journalist's Viewpoint

2011-10-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

The following is quoted from a column by Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author living in the United States.

"What kind of nation is it that spends far more to kill enemy combatants and Afghan and Iraqi civilians than it does to help its own citizens who live below the poverty line? What kind of nation is it that permits corporations to hold sick children hostage while their parents frantically bankrupt themselves to save their sons and daughters? What kind of nation is it that tosses its mentally ill onto urban heating grates? What kind of nation is it that abandons its unemployed while it loots its treasury on behalf of speculators? What kind of nation is it that ignores due process to torture and assassinate its own citizens? What kind of nation is it that refuses to halt the destruction of the ecosystem by the fossil fuel industry, dooming our children and our children’s children?"

"...corporations are not concerned with the common good. They exploit, pollute, impoverish, repress, kill and lie to make money. They throw poor families out of homes, let the uninsured die, wage useless wars to make profits, poison and pollute the ecosystem, slash social assistance programs, gut public education, trash the global economy, plunder the U.S. Treasury and crush all popular movements that seek justice for working men and women."

Outrage on Wall Street...and Bay Street...and...

2011-10-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

The "Occupy Wall Street" movement seems to be gaining attention, despite attempts by the neo-Cons to ignore and discredit what's happening. This cartoon depicts what many of the "Other 99%" feel has been going on for far too long: "The Rescue Plan - American Style".

There was a very amusing exchange between Kevin O'Leary (of Dragon's Den, which I don't watch) and Chris Hedges. If anyone still doesn't understand what the protest movement is all about, this clip will certainly help fill the knowledge gap.

There was a much more civilized exchange between Michael Enright and Chris Hedges on the CBC Radio show The Sunday Edition of October 2. You can find the audio here. It's very worthwhile listening.

Perhaps we've reached the limit of tolerance for most ordinary people. Unfettered capitalism, a complete lack of any corporate morals and a complicit government that removes regulatory oversight and then uses the taxpayer to fix the mess once things fall apart. It doesn't take a "left-wing nut-bar" to understand how wrong this is.

It's not that hard to understand. Keep the protest going.

Twins in the Family

2011-10-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been busy and I guess the photo shows the reason. At the beginning of the month, I was down helping with some painting and cleaning in the new house with my daughter and her hubby. Late on Wednesday we get the call that the twins have made an appearance. We made the trek down to see the little guys (aren't they cute??) and spent the next 5 days cleaning, moving stuff and admiring the two boys. We only made it home on Monday. Looks like some serious grandpa and grandma time in our future :-)

Welcome Atley and Miro!!

Thanks to Grandpa George for this photo!

Fall in the Kootenays

2011-09-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

After weeks of hot, dry weather, we seem to have arrived at fall. The days aren't as warm, the nights are definitely cooler, some leaves have started to change color and it's the end of September.

Catherine pointed out that the larches we could see high on the hills across the lake were changing color so we decided to take advantage of a blue-sky day to hike in to Monica Meadows.

Monica Meadows is one of the most accessible, nicest locations to see a sub-alpine larch meadow around here. It takes about 2 hours driving to get to the trailhead. North from here, east up the Glacier Creek FSR and then a steep few km up another old road to the trailhead. From there, you can be at views within 30 minutes. A further hour takes you above the meadows to great scenery in all directions: Horseshoe Glacier to the south, mountains of the Macbeth Icefield to the west, peaks between us and the East Kootenays just to the east....

The larches were about as good as they ever get and the smell of the meadows was wonderful. A great way to spend a beautiful fall day.

Moonlight Paddle

2011-09-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

A view down Kootenay Lake after sunset the other day. We had paddled across the Lake for a campfire and a hot dog roast. The return paddle was done after dark with the full moon coming up behind us.

Slocan Lake - Revisited

2011-09-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

The day after returning from our little camping trip to Washington and Idaho, we loaded up the canoe and headed over for a quick canoe and camp on Slocan Lake. For the second time, we had a lake like glass and warm temperatures.

Our campsite this time was a bit further down the lake at Nemo Creek. There are apparently a few falls on this creek, one set shown here. There is a good trail heading up the valley, but we didn't have time to pursue it to the end.

The campsite on the beach was nice, with views of the mountains across Slocan Lake to the east, watching the sunlight disappear and the full moon come up.

Slipping South of the 49th

2011-09-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

We had a few days free between working around the hacienda and waiting for the twins so we made a quick trip for some camping down into NE Washington and northern Idaho. Mostly, this was in the Colville National Forest at Sullivan Lake and at a forest site near Bonners Ferry, ID.

The weather was excellent and the campgrounds were almost empty and, since the water hand pump wasn't working in our little campground, there was no camping fee. Operating on reduced services, apparently.

We did a bit of walking and some biking - easy stuff for a change. Watched some mergansers on Sullivan Lake.... Nice area, but dry at this time of year. Campfire restrictions went on after our first night there.

Exploring the Koots - 0905 - The Badshot Range

2011-09-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since we joined the "Sunday Hikers" on their regular day-trips, but this weekend's hike was not one to pass up. The Healey Creek FSR, north of Gerrard, is normally inaccessible because of various slides and road conditions, but, because of some mining exploration going on up that way, the road had been cleared. Accordingly, a group of us headed up there on Monday.

The drive to the pass took almost 3 hours, with slow going for the last few km. The road was cleared and decent enough as logging roads go, but it was rough in places, so rather than shake everyone completely to pieces....

The end of the Healey Creek drainage comes from a pass between the Razor's Edge (shown in the photo) and Mt Abbot. These are large, quite spectacular granite blocks that rear up at the pass, right in front of us when we arrived. The other side of the pass is Hall Creek which drains into the Duncan River only a few km down from where we were.

We hiked up both sides of the pass. To the west, we passed two old mine shafts and much rubble, gaining views out over more spires of the Badshot Range (Badshot Mt, The Spine, etc). To the east, we climbed towards a ridge joining up with Mt Abbot. Nice views to the south of Mt Wagner, the Tenderfoot Glacier and Mt Trione. Horseflies were fierce in some spots. There seemed to be some possibilities for peak climbing and ridge wandering in the area and there were a couple of nice camping spots in the sub-alpine meadows.

After a few hours of wandering around enjoying the views, we headed for home. Some pictures are near the end of this album: Summer in the Koots 2011.

I should also mention a very nice sighting of a mother grizzly and her two cubs on "Highway" 31, just after we left the Healey Creek FSR. The cubs in particular were quite silvery-haired. I tried to get pictures, but even with the amount of time I had available, the camera took too long to charge up the flash so the best I managed was a dark bum disappearing into the bush by the river. I wish I'd had the presence to mind to turn the flash off....

The Race Heats Up

2011-09-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is Texas Governor Rick Perry, hot on the campaign trail. Right now he's running to be selected as the Republican Party's nominee for President of the USA. Depending on how things go, there is some possibility that this person could, just maybe, become the President of the United States of America.

Continuing the Fun & Games - Watching the World Economy

2011-08-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

Wild gyrations on world stock markets, advances in the price of gold, downgrades in the credit rating of the USA, a crisis in Greece and other European countries.... It makes for interesting times.

I just finished listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service (Business Daily) for August 26th. One of the interviews was with Jim Rogers, an American investor and financial commentator and one of the founders of the Quantum Fund with George Soros. What little I've read about him doesn't convince me that I'd agree with all of his views, but it's hard to argue with success. So, what did he have to say?

The next decade (or two or three) may be lost to an economic downturn. He pointed to Japan, which has gone through 2 such lost decades. In his view, the USA is in a far worse situation, being not only the biggest debtor nation, but the biggest debtor nation in history. Asia (China, etc) owns most of that debt.

As the 20th Century began, the advantage moved from the UK to the USA, a move, he says, that was exacerbated by a financial crisis and mistakes by politicians. As we move into the 21st Century, the advantage is moving from the USA to Asia, a move exacerbated by a financial crisis and mistakes by politicians. Sound familiar?

When asked what American politicians could do, he suggested perhaps an education about the world and their role/place in it. Cutting spending would be crucial. The USA has military bases in 120 countries and those bases were put there by politicians. These bases are making things worse for America. He feels that the USA needs to get a more realistic view of it's place in the world, much as the UK did as their world empire began to collapse a century ago. Sadly, if you follow any of the political comments by presidential hopefuls as the USA stumbles it's way to 2012, there is little evidence of any realistic views coming from anyone.

Despite any economic slowdown, he sees commodities and agriculture as the big opportunities of the coming decades, those and Asia (China specifically). Not that China hasn't/isn't making it's own mistakes (currency convertibility issues, among others...), but that's where he sees the dynamism in the coming years.

Interesting listening. I'm sure my financial friends will want to weigh in on this one.

Exploring the Koots 08/26 - Stalking the Elusive Glacier

2011-08-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

Stu and I decided that another exploratory hike was in order, just to see if there was another possible access route to the Horseshoe Glacier. Accordingly, on Friday, we thrashed our way up a valley at about km 27 (?) on the Glacier Creek FSR, a valley that heads towards Ochre Peak and one tongue of the Glacier in question.

To our surprise, we found a flagged trail most of the way up the valley. No idea who put it there or why, but it saved us lots of trouble. We did manage to find some difficult hiking, though, because we decided to investigate the right side of the valley, having seen a gully that we thought we could climb up to access the glacier.

To get to that gully, we had to spend some time in thickets of alder. Then we had to find the (only) crossing of a seemingly small but raging creek. And the gully? It went well for awhile, but as it narrowed, we were eventually faced with a small, cold waterfall that we decided we just didn't want to climb through. So, we retreated. Score so far: Us: Zero, Valley: 1. Needless to say, extricating ourselves from that side of the valley involved more alder thrashing, not helped by the realization that perhaps we should have tried the left side of the valley after all...., but too late in the day to change that. By the time we were back at the truck, we'd put in a hard 8 hours of work. Certainly enough for a Friday. A few pictures are here, towards the end of the album. Sorry, but no pictures of us in the alder.

Maybe we should try a different glacier....

Earl Grey Pass - Again

2011-08-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ever since hiking the Earl Grey Trail last September, we've been thinking of re-visiting the east side of Earl Grey Pass just to see the scenery that we missed the first time. As dedicated readers will recall, our last 2 days on the trail were rather wet and Earl Grey Pass was foggy, rainy and cold. We didn't linger at the Pass then to look at scenery we couldn't see.

With clear skies and warm temperatures seeming pretty certain for a few days, Catherine and I threw together our hiking equipment and some food and made the drive over to Invermere and up the Toby Creek Valley past Panorama to the Earl Grey Trailhead. Interestingly, although it's close to us as the crow flies, the Subaru doesn't fly the same routes as crows and it took us 6 hours to make it to the trailhead.

We used the remaining couple of hours of daylight to hike to a small campsite we knew of about 8 or 9 km along the trail and were set up before dark.

On Monday, we hiked the 10 km or so to Earl Grey Pass, admired the views, had a rest and lunch in the alpine meadows and hiked the 10 km back to our camp. It was a long, hot, tiring day, but the scenery was great. Nice views of Hamill Glacier (photo above), as well as the Toby Glacier, Toby Falls and spots between.

The next morning, we packed up and hiked back to the car and drove home. Pictures of the scenery we enjoyed can be seen here. The album is a collection of summer pictures and this trip's digital images are part way through the album.

Horseshoe Glacier Exploring

2011-08-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

This past week, in honour of Gerald's Thrash & Bash (T&B), four of us decided to explore the area around the Horseshoe Glacier, a smallish icefield not too far from Jumbo Pass, at the south-east end of the Glacier Creek valley.

It's a 2-hour drive up the Lake and up to the end of the Glacier Creek FSR, followed by a short distance past the Jumbo Pass trailhead. Our progress there was stopped by a massive pile of trees, debris from an avalanche sometime during the winter. We made the transition to foot power and spent the next couple of hours making our way up the valley until we found a good campsite in a cirque just below the toe of one tongue of the glacier.

We made two forays up two different pieces of glacier, looking for a route onto the main Horseshoe Glacier Icefield, but nothing we climbed had that direct connection. We had nice views of pretty much everything, including Monica Meadows to the north, Jumbo Pass to the north-east, Hamill Creek and Earl Grey Pass, a trail we had hiked last September.

On our last day, we hiked out via a slightly different route, taking a faint trail along the crest of a lateral moraine. It was easier and faster than the route in, with much less boulder-hopping, but the narrow crest was probably the most dangerous part of the trip in some ways. It was a very deep valley viewed from the crest of the moraine, so we were especially careful as we walked along it.

Pictures of the trip can be seen here.

Riding the (T)Rails Again

2011-08-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

In conjunction with the family gathering in the South Okanagan, a group of us decided to have a go at the Kettle Valley Railway trail system (the KVR). Accordingly, the group packed up bikes and water and food and headed for Myra Station first thing in the morning.

The drive there - north to Kelowna and up to Okanagan Mountain) took longer than we'd anticipated, so it was almost 11 am before we finally took off on the bikes. The Myra Canyon part of the trip is 11 km one way, and that's where most of the group stopped, returning the 11 km back to the Myra Station parking lot. Demitri and I kept on going and made the long ride all the way to Penticton, another 3+ hours. My main feelings were that a 2% grade isn't really all that much of a downhill, especially when you were hoping for one, and I really need a bike with suspension if I'm going to do much of that kind of trail again. Almost shook my fillings loose!

We were thirsty by the time we arrived in Penticton so we rested in a convenient pub while we waited for the rescue vehicle to come pick us up and take us back to the party. Nice.

The Gathering

2011-08-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

Spent a couple of days in the South Okanagan to celebrate the 90th birthday of my mother-in-law. Had a gathering with nearly everyone from the clan in attendance. Sunny and warm. Lots of food (as usual with this group) and with a chance to do a longer bike ride on the Kettle Valley RailTrail system (see next post).

I still can't say that the Okanagan is among my favourite places in BC, but it was nice to visit with members of the clan, had a nice bike ride, ate more food than I probably should have....

Is This the End of the World as We Know It?

2011-08-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

This post is about government deficits, debt, revenues and spending. I know, these are topics that cause eyes to glaze over and attention to wander, but it's that lack of attention that has landed us in this mess. Well, the "US", not so much "us".

Ever since the circus in Washington about the debt ceiling, spending cuts, "NO NEW TAXES" and the downgrade by bond rating agency S&P, there has been an abundance of articles, blogs and other commentaries about what this means, whether S&P got it wrong, whose fault it is, blah, blah, blah. One very good post on the eventual outcome of all this excitement can be seen here.

Rather than pontificate about current account balances, trade thingies, interest costs as a percentage of GDP and all those similar economic-money-type-things, I'd like to make some simple points, ones that all of us simple types can understand. So here goes:

Some earlier administration under the "leadership" of an ex-presidential-type-dork got the USA into an extended war. The Washington Post tried to estimate the total cost. Let's just say it's in the multi-trillion $$$ range. Can you say : "Very Expensive and Unnecessary"?

The very rich now pay much less in taxes than they did only a few short years ago. This proves once again how important it is to have friends in high places, something the very rich generally seem to have. To add a further point to this travesty, because of caps on social security taxes, the rich actually pay LESS as a percentage of their income than the poor. Nice situation if you can arrange it for yourself.

The Republicans and the Tea-Partiers aren't interested in anything even close to a universal health-care program. They don't even like the desperately inadequate system they now have. What the hell, THEY'RE OK, what's wrong with everyone else? So, guess what, it's social programs where this crowd firmly believes cuts in government spending should happen. It's a matter of where you come down on the swords vs ploughshares debate.

I could go on, but as an adult of several decades, my fiscal knowledge works like this: Ya shouldn't be spending what ya don't have. If ya don't have enough bucks to pay the bills, ya got 2 choices (and maybe should pursue both of them): increase your revenues and cut your spending on the things you can do without. Since I can't see why the poor should pay a greater percentage of their income to support their country, that leaves the rich. And if you want an expenditure to cut, how about some of those overseas wars. Just for a start.

But what the hell - I don't live (or vote or pledge allegiance) in the USA so it's easy for me to offer suggestions. It's just if the USA could get it's fiscal house in order, the end of shockwaves coming from south of the 49th would make things a whole lot easier for the rest of the world. The recent standoff in Washington would have been comical if it wasn't so very serious. The solution??? Raise the debt ceiling. Just make it legal for the government to borrow more.

Sigh.

Mt Willet

2011-08-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Four of us spent a day on the approach to Mt Willet, a twin-peaked mountain up the Lake from us.

The weather was pleasant, the alpine meadows were in good condition and the scenery was the usual West Kootenay wonderful.

Unfortunately, one member of the group was fighting the beginnings of a cold and in general the group was feeling the effects of a late start to the summer hiking/conditioning season, so we only made it to the base of Mt Willet before it was time to turn around. No summit today.

Mountaineering with the "Old Folks"

2011-08-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

Nearly each summer I volunteer as a Camp Manager and amateur leader on one of the Club's mountaineering camps. The past few have been camps catering to a "more mature" group where, generally, I have been one of the younger members in attendance.

This year's camp was at Lake O'Hara, based out of the Elizabeth Parker Hut. This is actually the first time I've had much chance to explore the O'Hara area. My general feeling is that it's a bit too developed (lodge, campground, bus access...) and too many people.... My previous visits have been overnight stays and then moving on out of the area the next day. This time I did get to most of the significant parts of the area: McArthur Lake, Odaray Prospect, Morning Glory Lake, Lake Oesa, the Alpine Circuit, Mt Yukness, Opabin Plateau.... And it all happened in great weather. A group of us also had a quick climb of Mt Schaffer, a 5.4 rated climb - mostly a scramble but with a couple of "interesting" bits, especially if you're climbing without a belay....

As always with groups of this kind, most participants are kind, pleasant, interesting people who are very glad to get out into the mountains and share hikes and climbs, and who are very grateful for everything you do for them to make the camp more comfortable. As well, you usually have someone who is more critical of everything and perhaps another who might have trouble walking along a trail alone without getting lost. Always an interesting mix.

The food (supplied by Yamnuska this year) was excellent. The guide, an older, very experienced fellow from Calgary I've worked with several times over the years, was excellent and fun to be with. You always learn a few new tricks watching how these guides handle situations with "clients".

I haven't decided about next year. Impending foot surgery might decide for me and maybe it's time to "retire" from this for awhile. Still, Lake O'Hara, it was great to visit you this time. Pictures have been posted of the week.

It's Berry Season

2011-07-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

We've been picking raspberries from the garden for the past week and today we drove up a nearby logging road to see if there were any huckleberries. What we found were ripe and plump. After the lousy spring/early summer weather we were wondering if there would be any berries this year, but it appears it will be worth exploring for some in another week or so.

Six Days With the Sask Section

2011-07-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

Just finished helping out with the Sask Section's Mountaineering Camp, where we take (relative) beginners and start the process of helping them learn how to travel in the mountains safely.

This year, the camp was held at the Peter & Catharine Whyte (Peyto) Hut, the northern-most hut on the Wapta Icefield.

Because of a bridge issue on Peyto Creek (apparently out since last September and apparently not something Parks Canada wants to fix), our route in was via the Bow Hut.

Each day we held class sessions and traveled across the glacier to climb one of the nearby peaks. We had almost every kind of weather possible, from rain to 6" of new snow to solar furnace. From a distance, we could see the toe of the Peyto Glacier where there is now a lake and a steadily receding glacier. But we all know that climate change has nothing to do with that....

All in all, a good week with great participants and old friends.

More pictures can be found here.

Asulkan Pass for 24 hours

2011-07-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

One of my volunteer activities is with the Alpine Club and their hut maintenance projects. The past 2 days were spent in the Rogers Pass area at the Asulkan Hut, which is about a kilometer above Rogers Pass at the edge of the Asulkan Glacier. This is a decent summer hiking objective with numerous mountaineering opportunities in the area and a prime backcountry skiing destination in the winter. The Asulkan Hut was/is owned by Parks Canada, but the entire operation of the hut has been taken over by the ACC, hence this trip.

This trip was for the regular hut maintenance operations and also have a small volunteer group stain the hut, do some cleaning and carry out some other painting. Our group included one ACC staff person and 6 volunteers. After the helicopter carried up the season's propane tanks and finished some other duties, we were all flown up with our equipment. This was Thursday, with blue skies, warm temperatures and great views on the way up.

With the good weather, we set about the staining project right away and nearly had the hut completed by supper time. While we waited for supper to cook, we made a quick hike up to Asulkan Pass for the views over the other side. Skies were really black to the south and when we heard the thunder, we picked up the pace a bit, making it back to the hut before the storm hit.

It rained, blew and snowed most of the night, and the morning presented us with low cloud, fog and no view much beyond the nearest snowdrift. After a couple of hours of cleaning, I packed up and headed down the trail because I had to be home by supper. The others were staying until Saturday to finish some painting and other jobs. The snow at that elevation made for easy and quick downhill hiking, but one bridge was out at the bottom of the moraine. Fortunately there was a good snow bridge over one raging stream. Once I tip-toed over that, the rest of the hike out was quite decent, although there was lots of old avalanche debris - bits of trees, snow - for some distance.

By the time I got home, the sun was out.

The Kootenay Lake Millpond

2011-07-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Summer arrived in earnest a few days ago so we decided to take one particularly hot, calm afternoon and canoe over to the other side of the Lake, absorb some infra-red radiation, generate some Vitamin D, have a little fire on the beach, roast some hot dogs and paddle back home.

This is a view back towards town from across the Lake. There are many days when this big lake is just like a millpond - a 60-mile-long lake of flat, calm water.

The east side of the Lake is very interesting to paddle along. Very interesting shoreline with very nice rock cliffs that you can get right next to. Our destination was Campbell Bay which we see regularly from the west side of the Lake but had never paddled over to see.

The paddle back across the Lake wasn't quite as calm since a small breeze had started, but nothing alarming.

WIFS - A Newly Identified Condition

2011-06-29T16:59:00.001-07:00

Well-Informed Futility Syndrome.

This is a condition that can exist in people who are well informed about an issue but are, or at least feel, powerless to do anything about it. One example might be how one might feel about climate change.

When You Don't Like (or Don't Know) History....

2011-06-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I occasionally follow is DeSmogBlog. It's mostly deals with climate change matters, but it often strays into politics because that's where so much of the climate change thing is these days, especially since certain groups aren't happy with what the science is saying.

One of their more recent posts was (once again) about Fox News viewers and how studies show that they "...are the most misinformed about an array of factual - but politicized - issues."

The article goes on to mention that a Republican presidential hopeful (Michele Bachmann) was caught asserting that John Quincy Adams (the 6th American president) was one of the "Founding Fathers" of the newly emerging USA. This story wouldn't mean much to anyone outside the US, but JQA was only a child in 1776. OK, so just a little mistake. Easy to do. Very few Canadians could name Canada's first Prime Minister, after all. However, she refused to admit her mistake, and - here's the real issue - attempts were made to edit Wikipedia to prove that she was right.

The post concludes that we have "saturation levels" of misinformation these days and that Fox news and the rest of the political right are responsible for much of it. Reminds me of the noise some weeks ago where some Republicans seemed unable to figure out where Obama was born. Another presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, was partly behind that one. It's especially scary because these idiots are aiming to lead the most powerful country in the world.

We're not immune to this kind of nonsense here in Canada, it's just not as visible. Given the current Government's admiration of all things American, expect to see more of it. Spout your ideology and then rewrite the facts to suit your assertions.

It's About the Water, Stupid

2011-06-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

OK..so not such an original quote.... After all, didn't it appear in a Presidential Debate in the USA some years ago, in almost those words?

When most people think about BC, I don't imagine that controversies about water come to mind right away. BC likely stimulates images of large lakes, rivers, waterfalls.... Lots of water. Yet the interesting truth is that issues about water are extremely common and divisive, right across the province.

Our little community (subdivision, actually), owns and operates it's own water system for about 25 residences. Volunteers from the community maintain the system. Although new drinking water regulations are really another issue, it's worth pointing out that our system is advanced enough that we actually meet those new regulations, and have done for several years now.

About 2+ years ago, we embarked on a project to install water meters at every residential connection. There were several objectives, but the most important, I suppose, was to move to a system where every water user pays for the water they use. The flat rate system that the water meters helped replace simply forces people with lower water use to subsidize homes with higher water use. You want a dumb example? Imagine being able to use as much electricity as you wanted for, let's say, $200/year. Flat rate. No incentive to be careful with how much electricity you used. One anticipated result of this system is that electricity use would increase and the power utility would have to increase capacity. This increased capacity would have to be paid for by an increase in rates. So, regardless of how careful you were with YOUR power use, you'd be subsidizing the power use of anyone not being as careful as yourself.

The good news is that most of the residents in our subdivision "get it". They understand that water is a utility and that, like any other utility, you should pay for what you use. The bad news is that we are STILL getting (some) arguments advocating going back to the old flat rate system. I've ranted about this in an earlier post and I'm still frustrated by the complete lack of logic and muddle-headed thinking that seems to be at the back of these tired old arguments. I guess that still, even in this day and age, some people still don't see clean, safe drinking water as a valuable resource that should cost something.

UK2011 Some Reflections

2011-05-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

There’s a lot to absorb in a long trip to another country. After being on the move nearly every day for 6 weeks, I find the days start to blur into each other and I start having trouble remembering what castle or church or garden or walk we saw on what day.

So first, the pictures:

London, that we visited at the beginning and end of the trip.

South England, including Cornwall, Devon and a day in Oxford.

Wales, with lovely coastlines, castles and gardens.

The Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire.

Scotland, from Berwick-Upon-Tweed to Thurso.

I probably goes without saying, but this entire area has just so much history. Every old abbey or church we saw was started in the 1200s or thereabouts. It’s also quite astounding what was built, by hand, with stone. Magnificent buildings, viaducts, bridges, endless stone walls.

The UK is a remarkably small place. By my quick search, it’s only slightly more than 25% the size of British Columbia (243610 km2 vs 944735 km2). Into that small space are packed about 62 million people (BC has about 4 million). So take twice the population of Canada and put them into an area ¼ the size of some of our larger ( and mostly empty) provinces.

Much of what is written about British cuisine is probably true. Indian curries have become the new “national ethnic cuisine”. Pub meals tend to the steak and ale pies, fish and chips, bangers and mash. A “tuna salad” we had once was basically a tin of tuna upended on some greens. Grocery stores stock an impressive selection of “ready meals” and “takeaway” shops are popular. Canned beans and canned peas seem to show up in surprising places.

Like most civilized places in the world, it is possible to buy wine for your meal in all grocery stores. We found quite nice reds for ₤3 to ₤4. In fact, I’d list wines as among the “good deals” in the UK. Other “good deals” would be chocolate milk (about ₤1 per litre), Boursin cheese (a French import) on special for ₤1 each (these cost about $5 or more in Canada) and bananas, for some reason.

Campgrounds all have showers and flush toilets but they don’t have picnic tables and very few have any kind of kitchen facilities (unlike New Zealand where campgrounds all had full kitchens with stoves, microwaves, kettles….). The weather was stellar almost the entire time we were there and so we managed to tent for about 32 nights.

Most of our gas (petrol) cost around ₤1.40 per litre. This works out to about C$2.30 per litre. Our rental car managed to deliver us between 45-50 miles per gallon, Imperial gallons, I assume. We managed to rack up over 4500 miles in 35 days of driving.

Speaking of units of measurement….the Brits are even more mired in a mixture of metric and “Imperial” units than us Canadians. Distances on the highway are still in miles. Fuel is sold in litres. Milk was available in pints and litres (pints???). Temperatures were given in both Celsius and Fahrenheit on local radio stations. I heard someone discussing their weight in stones.

Radio Stations…. In the USA, we almost NEVER listen to local stations because they all seem to have the worst programming imaginable, with a diet of fundamentalist religious nonsense, talk show crap and over-hyped rock. In the UK, on the other hand, there was always a Classical music station available and we began to enjoy some BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3 programs. As I write this I'm streaming a Radio 2 morning show with a quite amusing Scottish host.

Scotland was probably my favourite part of the UK, mostly because of the scenery, the remoteness and how uncrowded it was. The northern coast was truly wonderful. Wales was very refreshing after the crowds of Cornwall and Devon. It was also interesting to attempt pronouncing Welsh place names. Good luck with that! Abbey and castle ruins were everywhere and excellent estate gardens were in full bloom.

Travel. Gotta love it.

Oncoming Vehicles in Middle of Road

2011-05-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

This is a warning sign that nicely summarizes driving in the UK.

Aside from the challenges of driving on the left in a right-hand drive vehicle, drivers new to the UK must contend with a number of challenges:

First, there is lots of traffic. You almost never have stretches of highway to yourself. There are usually other cars around and most of them seen to be right behind you, materializing from nowhere!

Roads can be very narrow. In some cases, this means the width of a back alley in most cities or towns in Canada. Even if the road is nominally 2 lane, houses and other buildings are built right out to the edge of the street (obviously before the advent of minimum setback rules) and on-street parking is common, so any hope of having 2 lanes evaporates quickly. One gets adept at weaving in and out, giving way to oncoming traffic and powering ahead when an oncoming vehicle pulls over and flashes it’s lights to indicate that they’re letting you go first. There are long stretches of road in Scotland and rural England/Wales that are basically single lane roads with "passing places".

In some areas, stone walls and/or hedgerows can be at least 6 feet high so driving down a narrow road or lane can be more like driving along a tunnel with the hedges or stone walls making it impossible to see anything to either side.

In general, drivers should abandon any ideas they might have of simply pulling over if there is a need to consult a map, take a picture or generally collect oneself. There is seldom any place to pull over. Usually, your only option is to keep going.

Many "intersections" in the UK are handled by "roundabouts", the (in)famous traffic circle. These have been tried in North America but mostly abandoned in favour of traffic lights. In the UK, they are everywhere. Once you get the hang of them, they are fine. In fact, they have one advantage, especially when there are several road directions all converging at one roundabout and when you really don't have any idea which one to take. With the roundabout, you just keep going round and round until you finally figure it out and then bail out at the appropriate exit.

We did drive on stretches of "motorway" or "dual carriageway", but we tended to avoid such roads in favour of the country lanes and smaller highways through more interesting terrain.

In any case, the roads were better and somewhat less winding than New Zealand's and we survived without a scratch on the rental car, a measure of success, I suppose.

Eh?

2011-05-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

In addition to adjusting to some of the accents we encountered in the UK, there was the language in Wales. This little corner of the UK has been undergoing a resurgence in the popularity of the Welsh language. Every road sign we saw was in both English and Welsh.

This poster was seen in a small forestry park on the island of Anglesea. There was an English version, but it wasn't nearly as interesting.

We didn't learn too much about how to pronounce words in Welsh, although after I got home I did find a website that went into many of the finer details. It goes without saying that many words aren't pronounced the way you'd expect.

More on Getting Really Lost

2011-05-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Apparently my last post caught some attention because I was quickly accused of being insensitive and arrogant. Surely not someone who knows me.... :-)

I will say at the outset that the story that prompted my post was a tragedy, but I stick to my comments. In fact, I'll go further. There are many other examples where people have relied completely on technology and have suffered the consequences. Around where I live, some snowmobilers have died in avalanches because they behaved as though they were invincible with their powerful machines, avi beacons and avi lungs. Some young hockey players play a very physical game thinking their equipment will protect them, but concussions are on the rise. And people get misdirected and/or lost because they relied entirely on their GPS units.

GPS devices may be marketed as failsafe tools to keep you from getting lost, but experience shows otherwise. It's not insensitive to point this out in the wake of another tragedy and we need to learn some lesson from such events.

I've done a certain amount of traveling on icefields, in the woods and in other, crowded, foreign countries. I always have a map or road atlas of some kind. I almost never use a GPS, although I do have one and have used them on icefield traverses, but NEVER by themselves. This would be a VERY BIG MISTAKE. Besides, maps give you a "big picture" of where you are in relation to other places, something a GPS does not do. One does not need special skills to use a basic road map, although I will admit traveling with a topo map and using a compass takes some practice. It would be a big mistake to go into the woods or cross a featureless icefield and rely only on a GPS.

I will also say that I don't think I've ever been lost. By this I mean in a situation where I was not able to "find" myself and had to wait for someone to rescue me. I have been temporarily confused about exactly where I was and have hiked or driven off in the wrong direction for a short time, but these have been temporary setbacks and it wasn't a GPS that saved me. It was an awareness of where I was in the big picture of the terrain. Watching for terrain features, noting where the sun was, using a compass occasionally, using a map....there are numerous techniques for keeping yourself found.

Unfortunately, too many people think that technology like GPS units make old tools like maps redundant. They are wrong and sadly, some pay the price.

How to Get REALLY Lost

2011-05-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

On our way home we heard the story of the couple who managed to get lost in the USA backcountry using their GPS. One report of the story appeared here. The Urban Dictionary was quoted as saying that GPS is used by people who have no idea where they are.... Exactly. The source of the problem in a nutshell. We rely on all this technology and have basically given up making the effort to know where we are. GPS can be a big help occasionally, but it isn't a substitute for using some old-fashioned kinds of equipment: a map, a compass and your head.

UK 2011 - The Final Days

2011-05-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

With only 2 full days remaining in the UK Tour 2011, we are almost able to accept that there are really only a couple of things that we can realistically cram into that time.

So, on Sunday, we took the tube part-way to London and then a bus to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. These gardens are more than just patches of shrubs and bushes but have been important botanically in the collecting and growing of representative plant species from around the world. Scientists from Kew are also involved in conservation efforts for endangered plants and ecosystems in several areas of the world.

I remember hearing about Kew back when I was in Biology classes in the early 1970s, so it was nice to finally see the gardens in person.

It took us several hours to wander around exploring Rhododendron Dell, the Azeleas, a couple of large Victorian “glass houses” containing ferns, water lilies and more. It’s a great park-like place and the only down side were the large jets on landing approach to Heathrow passing overhead every minute.

Monday dawned sunny and bright so the main agenda item for the day was to find the James Caird. For those who aren’t up on your early Antarctic explorers, the James Caird was the small boat used by Ernest Shackleton and 5 other crew members to escape when their ship, the Endeavour, was crushed by ice. They sailed this boat 800 miles (1500 km) across the Antarctic Ocean to South Georgia Island where they then had to make a 36-hour trek over mountains and glaciated terrain to the whaling station of Stromness. Then, they had to take a ship back to rescue the rest of the crew (22 of them, I believe) who were nearing starvation on Elephant Island. Not one member of the crew was lost. It’s an amazing story and well worth reading if such things interest you.

Anyhow, the James Caird is now resting at Dulwich College, a private school that Shackleton attended back in the late 1880s. We made our convoluted way to the College (founded in the 1600s by a contemporary of Shakespeare, admits students aged 7 to 18, charges ₤500/term, 3 terms/year, where students wear white shirts, ties and suit jackets…), got our visitors’ passes and spent some time reading the various displays. Very interesting.

The remaining part of the day was spent on the tube, walking across London Bridge, past St James Cathedral, past where Dr Johnson’s house once was on Fleet Street, past the Royal Law Courts and back to our hotel near Heathrow.

Supper at a nearby pub (see comments in a coming post on British cuisine) and getting ready for our flight on Tuesday finished off the day. I have to say that London’s transit system is quite amazing and definitely the ONLY way to get around within the M25 ring road. London, it’s been nice. Very, very busy, but nice.

Heading South

2011-05-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was mostly a driving day as we wandered around the backroads, various peninsulas and bays in western Scotland. Extricating ourselves from that part of Scotland wasn’t a quick or direct process. We stopped briefly in Stirling – there was a very large monument to some famous Scottish guy – it’s another history thing, I understand….

Once out of Stirling, it was mostly “dual carriageways” past and south of Edinburgh. We did a repeat night at a nice campsite near the Tweed River and Berwick, at least partly because we knew the place had a microwave so we could have some hot food for a change.

Some distance south of Berwick, we hiked to the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle, located on a small point of land along the coast. Further south was Alnwick Castle, used for some Hogwarts scenes in the first two episodes of Harry Potter. The town itself was another in a long series of quaint English villages, always worth a walk around, so we did.

For another three hours, we drove on busy dual carriageways further south past several medium-sized cities to arrive near Whitby, a small town on the East Coast, noted for it’s connection to Captain Cook, who was born nearby and whose ships were built in Whitby. Our camping for the night was in possibly the first “forest” we’ve been in since we left home. Camping in a pine forest – it was so Canadian!

What followed, in order, I think, was a 3-hour walk along part of the Cleveland Way between Whitby and Robin Hood Bay. Nice enough, but not as nice as other coastal walks we’ve done. Then some driving to get us close to York. Camping with some light showers overnight. In to York first thing in the morning and a couple of hours exploring York Minster – excellent guided tour. Then a 4 ½ hour drive on busy motorways to get us a few miles from Oxford with only 30 minutes sitting in traffic gridlock because of an accident somewhere. Free parking on the outskirts of Oxford with a walk into town center. Exploring Oxford: Museum of the History of Science, Museum of Natural History and various colleges of the University of Oxford. Drive to the Heathrow area, unpack the car at the hotel and figure out how to get the rental car back and then figure out how to get back to the hotel. Only took 2 hours….

Our time here is now definitely at the short end.

The Long Road Home

2011-05-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

After nearly 6 weeks in the UK, by May 10 it was time to go home. Thoughts of gardening, splitting wood for next winter and home-cooked meals had started intruding into our holiday bliss. So, after a morning walk around a small neighbourhood near the hotel and across the M4, we packed up and made our way to Heathrow.

Having spent a couple of days figuring out some of the ins and outs of the local bus system, this part was dead easy. Rather than take the Hotel Hoppa bus at ₤4.50 each, we walked a block with our packs to catch the 140 transit bus and used our Oyster cards for the 10-minute ride to Heathrow's Central Bus Station for ₤1.20. We’d been taking this bus for 2 days because it was the easiest way to join the London Underground for our trips into the City.

There were no queues (er… line-ups) at the airport, so check-in was quick, although the Air Canada counter person didn’t know what to do with the Air Canada plastic bag that we’d saved from Edmonton to put our packs in, so I had to do that for her. Likewise, security wasn’t crowded, so by noon, we were airside with nothing to do but wait. Well, eat, shop and wait.

Pushback from the terminal was right on time, there was a short delay waiting for our turn on the runway, and we were off. Unfortunately, although the day was nice enough, there were clouds, and we couldn’t see much of the English countryside. At one point, we were pretty sure we could see the area north of Liverpool and maybe the Isle of Man, but Scotland was buried under cloud. And so it remained for a few hours until western Greenland, when views appeared.

Western Greenland, definitely a land of snow, ice, and glaciers running down to the sea. Not long after, we passed over Baffin Island. Even from 37000 ft we could see the terrain features. Having left at 3:15 pm, we basically chased the sun west so it was 5 pm when we landed in Edmonton where the weather was sunny and warm. All the snow we had seen 6 weeks earlier was gone. Leaves weren’t out, but, hey, it was only May 10 in Alberta….

The drive home the next day was uneventful, if long. The summer road maintenance season was in full swing and we were stopped a few times. We took the route through Kootenay National Park to Cranbrook, Creston and Kootenay Pass, avoiding the ferry because we’d heard of 2-hour waits. The big bonus? Clear skies the whole trip. Not “just” sunshine, but clear air. No haze. Not a cloud in the sky. Warm. What a welcome home. As usual, once we passed Balfour and headed up the Lake, roads were quiet and the scenery went from merely mountain “nice” to magnificent. It was good to be back.

More on the Climate Change Wars

2011-05-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

De Smog Blog posted an interesting article on American views on climate change. It illustrates, once again, why we are in trouble and unlikely to find any compromise on this issue - translation: nothing will really get done on this matter....

Scotland - The North

2011-05-02T03:03:00.000-07:00

We left Edinburgh on another blue sky day. The drive north was uneventful and quite scenic. The A9 follows the coast pretty well and there were nice views out along the shore. Inland were hills covered in heathers, all brown at this season, but soon to be blooming.

It was quite surprising, given our previous experience further south, how fast we were able to get up nearly to the top of Scotland. In about 3 hours, we drove from Edinburgh to Inverness and in another 2 ½ hours we were in Wick, where we found a nice campground for the night. Arriving in Wick initiated a brief discussion about how to pronounce the name of this small town. One option would be “Wick” and the other could be “ick”. We think that dropping the “w” is a propensity of the English (note: Keswick is pronounced Kessick”….) but we’re not sure what they do in “Auld Reekie”. We’re not sure if we should ask someone or not ;-)

The campgorund was a 10-minute walk from town along the Wick River. It’s all very pretty.

In the morning, we had a relatively short drive to the northern-most part of mainland Scotland – John O’Groats. It was early in the morning and we were the first ones there walking around, enjoying the views of the sea stacks along the coast.

We decided to see if a quick trip to the Orkneys would work, so we hustled the few miles over to Thurso and it’s port of Scrabster and found we had time to get a campsite, set up camp and get somewhat organized. The ferry ride was about 90 minutes, from Scrabster to Stromness, passing the Old Man of Hoy. We had about 90 minutes to walk around Stromness before boarding the ferry for the return trip. Our campsite had a great view out over the bay and off to the islands only a few miles away. I should mention that we also had time in the morning to see some of the Royal Wedding festivities. The woman who ran the campground was originally from Amarillo, TX, so we all had a good chuckle at the pomp and ceremony of the wedding.

The next day, we drove along the north part of Scotland towards the west. Most scenic with the highland heather fields coming down almost to the sea. Some of the nicest beaches we’ve seen on this trip were along this coast as well.

The next day’s travel was more inland, along lochs and streams. By Sunday night, we had passed by Ben Nevis (a bad case of shin splints negated any chance of hiking to the top of that one…) and on to a beautiful campground on the shores of Loch Levin, just outside of Glencoe. It’s almost sounding repetitious to mention it, but the weather, once again, was sunny, clear and warm.

We’re on the countdown to leaving so we’re trying to fit in the last few essentials. The next day’s travels will likely be down to the Mull of Kintyre. Tuesday we head back south into England and the last few days of our visit.

Scotland - Visiting Edinbugh

2011-04-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

Day 1 in Scotland involved merely getting north of the border and finding our accommodation in Edinburgh. That went fine, even with major construction on the roundabouts just where we had to turn off the M720 and having to wait for almost 2 hours for someone to show up and let us in to our room at the Guest House.

Day 2, however, we spent the day walking around Edinburgh. Surprisingly for a city of over half a million, it is quite possible to walk most places. A day bus pass helps connect more distant locations, but otherwise, you can walk everywhere.

One place we visited was the Botanical Gardens. The Gaelic for Edinburgh is Dun Eideann and that made me think of Dunedin in New Zealand, a city we visited over a year ago. That NZ city had quite wonderful botanical gardens and it was interesting to compare the two. Dunedin is considered the “Scottish” city of New Zealand (Christchurch being the “English” city). The botanical gardens we visited here were very nice and I’d probably say the NZ version was more spectacular, but that could be the setting and the terrain. Rhodos and many other flowers were out, the rock garden was very nice and it was generally just a pleasant place to wander around in for awhile.

Sir Walter Scott is recognized with an impressive statue/monument on Princes Street (named after the sons of George III) and we walked by a pub named the Conan Doyle. Continuing the literary theme, we note that JK Rowling lives/has lived here, along with other notables as Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith, all authors I’ve read recently.

The city has a reputation of being somewhat chilly, located as it is on the edge of the North Sea, but it was almost hot the day we were there. Walking down Princes St in the afternoon, I was really too warm and I regretted not having my hat along.

We finished off the day visiting with a former student of mine who lives and teaches in the City. It was good to catch up after 18 years.

Tomorrow we’ve decided to head north and have a driving day. The plan is to get to John O’Groats on the northernmost tip of Scotland. Maybe a day trip to the Orkneys might work too.

The Border Regions

2011-04-27T12:47:00.001-07:00

After our abbey ruins double header Saturday, we ended up camping just south of Rievaulx Abbey at a real commercial “holiday park”. It was a zoo. Fortunately, we were able to camp off in a field with about 6 other tenters and it was nice and quiet there. Elsewhere there were literally hundreds of tents and trailers (caravans), with kids running around everywhere squirting water and making noise. Our corner of the campground was very peaceful.

The drive north in the morning was through some really quite attractive terrain – pretty much towards Darlington and north-west to Hexham, just south of Hadrian’s Wall. We found a campground within a few hundred meters of The Wall, hiked for a couple of hours along The Call and visited the site of one of the Roman castles (Chesters?) built back in the 2nd century. Quite interesting and almost 2000 years old. Hadrian’s Wall, for those who might have forgotten, marked the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in this part of the world. There is a walking path along the Wall that crosses England at this point and we enjoyed wandering along a couple of miles of it.

Our camping that night was very quiet but with the usual heavy dew in the morning. Nothing but the muttering of Roman ghosts to disturb our slumbers.

Our next day was a drive up towards the coast to Alnwick to resupply (where we apparently missed an interesting castle which we will have to visit on our way back south in a few days) and on to Lindisfarne Castle and Priory. The castle is relatively new by the standards of this country and stands on a rocky promontory out at the end of a sandy island that can be reached only a low tide. The Priory has been part of the religious culture on Holy Island for the usually expected centuries. Apparently the ruins of such places are favourites of mine.

Towards Berwick-upon-Tweed we found, after some driving back and forth, a very nice campsite out in the country almost on the Tweed River near the site of a 1820s suspension bridge connecting England and Scotland. I think it’s now called the Union Bridge and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in existence. It’s not that long – under 100 meters, I’d say – but it merited another of those “Weak Bridge” signs we’ve been seeing. We drove across it anyway in the morning. Fortunately, our car is small.

In the morning, we spent an hour or so walking around the walled city of Berwick-upon-Tweed where one of our neighbours from home grew up and then wandered our way along the coast into Edinburgh where we have accommodation for the next two nights.

The Yorkshire Dales and Area

2011-04-24T06:06:00.001-07:00

We’ve spent 3 days or so wandering around “The Dales”. The wandering started in the south in what’s called Wharfedale. From our campground, we were able to hike along the Wharfe River towards what we hoped was Bolton Abbet. Unfortunately, in the time we had available, we only made it as far as Barden Tower and we didn’t see the actual abbey ruins until the next day as we left for the more northern Dales. Bolton Abbey is apparently the oldest abbey ruins in Yorkshire. I don’t know how to distinguish – everything here seems to go back to the 1100s or 1200s….

We had a short “walk” to a small “tarn”, supposedly the highest lake in the area. It was certainly up in the moors. The Pennine Way went by this – more open hill ‘n dale walking.

Eventually, we ended up in the Swale River Valley (Swaledale) in a nice little campground on the edge of Reeth. Our first afternoon we spent walking a loop down the river to another village and back to Reeth. Thinking we needed a day without driving, we elected to stay for a second night and spent a good part of the day walking up the Arkengarthdale to Langthwaite where we indulged ourselves in the traditional walker’s reward, a brew from the local pub, before we walked back to Reeth.

Reeth itself was pretty busy today, Good Friday. People are all over the “village green”, there was a village market going on earlier in the day….this is what replaces the lead mining industry of years ago. Sheep rearing seems to be still in vogue.

Saturday dawned sunny but damp from the night’s dew. We headed east and a bit south to visit the Fountains Abbey located at Studley Royal. I have to admit being a bit curious about the origin of “that” name. Fountains Abbey was very nice – an old set of stately ruins set in a valley, next to a small stream. Just what you’d expect of some old abbey ruins. About half an hour east, we also visited the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey also set in a small valley sheltered by the surrounding hills. This was started in the 1100s and was operated as a Cistercian Abbey for 400 years until Henry VIII abolished such places in 1538 and dismantled the places so that they would not be used again. At its height, there were 800 men living there.

From Wales into the Midlands and North

2011-04-24T06:05:00.001-07:00

Part of Tuesday was spent getting out of Wales and back into England. Along the way, we had to stop and have a quick look at Valle Crucis Abbey ruins. This is in keeping with the C3 character of out UK tour (Coasts, Castles and Churches).

From Valle Crucis, is wasn’t long before we were back in England. The first clue was road signs that didn’t have any Welsh on them and the other was busier highways.

We ended up at a campground in the Peaks District, just outside of Hayfield and after some sustenance, we headed off for a hike up into the Pennine Hills (I think they call them “mountains” but I really can’t do that….). We hiked up and along the historical Pennine Way for several miles before supper. Nice but I don’t think it merits a repeat visit.

Wednesday was mostly a driving day and credit goes to my navigator who plotted a torturous route through busy countryside to get us to the southern Yorkshire Dales in the Wharfedale valley – on the Wharfe River. We set up camp mid-afternoon and hiked down paths along the river towards Boulton Abbey. We didn’t get that far, but it was a nice hike nonetheless.

The main question about now is where we want to be over the Easter weekend. Campgrounds are already getting more busy and schools are out for the next week or so.

Noises in the Night

2011-04-24T06:04:00.001-07:00

Night in The Dales, indeed in most of the UK we’ve visited so far, has been anything but quiet. So unlike many of the nights around where we live where all we usually hear is the faint sound of a waterfall a mile across the lake.

Nocturnal noises naturally include sheep bleating and new lambs baaaa-ing. This never really seems to stop, day or night. Last night, a few cows added to the farm field cacophony. Near our tent a pair of pheasants seems to have made its territory, and the cock lets loose with his rusty gate call every 15 minutes or so, accompanied with a brief but rapid flapping of wings. We heard the pair walking by early in the morning, both making quiet pheasant clucking noises to each other.

There are at least a couple of species of doves, and they never shut up. They are easy to tell apart from their calls, but they are very monotonous all the same. The Wood Dove, the largest of the doves that I’ve seen, just repeats the same set of phrases over and over, with some individuals stopping/starting at slightly different places in the phrases. I’m actually starting to get a wee bit tired of all their billing and cooing, well, the cooing mostly.

Then there are the sounds of other birds, chirping away during the night or flapping their way through the branches. I have no idea what they are. Critters in the night.

Mt Snowdon

2011-04-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

I’m pleased to be able to report that the “Life Partner” and I made it to the top of Mt Snowdon today (Sunday) and back in 5 hours, including half an hour on the summit to have a lunch. I can also report that we did the hike along with what must have been literally thousands) well, at least many hundreds) of other folk, from the out-of-shape to the fit, young and old, and including many who made it to the top on the narrow gauge railway (“To the Summit since 1896”). We were quite amazed by the numbers of people on the trail and crowding the summit. I don’t think I’ve seen a summit quite as busy.

There were other trails coming up to the summit from other directions and they were almost equally as busy. Kind of looked like people on a pilgrimage. There were people everywhere. Guess it shows you what the people of Wales do on a sunny Sunday in April.

The day was cool but otherwise quite decent. We’ve been waiting for a good day, spending cloudy days wandering around “rural” Wales looking at castles and gardens, so when good weather seemed imminent, we drove over to the Snowdon area and consequently didn’t exactly get an alpine start on this one. I think we wandered out of the parking lot at around 11 am.

Anyhow, we can now check off the highest point in the southern UK, the highest point in Wales and on a sunny day to boot.

Wales North

2011-04-18T10:39:00.001-07:00

Rather than head further north right away, we drove back to Newport (near St David’s) and spent a couple of hours hiking our around a headland on the Coastal Path. Skies were mostly clear and breezes were light and views were excellent. We then returned to Solva, a small village near St David’s and did another hike involving some field & hedgerow walking through fields and returning along the Coastal Path. The return track was certainly the best part of the walk.

After our walk, we headed east and north and ended up in the small village of Cenarth, apparently famous for it’s salmon run in the Tiefy River and also for it’s coracle museum. It was a quiet night, but damp in the morning with the usual dew. The sounds of the gently flowing Tiefy River were nice to hear during the night.

A short drive brought us to Aberystwyth, a coastal town noted for it’s universities and the National Library of Wales. After setting up camp in the local “holiday park” we drove up the valley and did some walking – not on the walk we had planned, but nice none-the-less. After a walk through some of the town and a pub supper, it was time to retire for the night. Skies were clear overnight, but by morning, it was foggy/cloudy and the tent was partly wet again.

Since skies weren’t really cooperating, we decided to visit castles and gardens for the day rather than head for Snowdonia. Accordingly, we visited Powis Castle & Garden near Welshpool and Chirk Castle & Gardens near Chirk, just south of Wexford. Both gardens were excellent. The castles were interesting as well, but the highlights were certainly the gardens.

In Chirk we also had a look at a couple of aqueducts built by Thomas Telford, a famous engineer.

Camping for the night was a few miles up a small valley west of Chirk at the small hamlet of Glyn Ceiriog. Nothing but the calls of birds in the night disturbed our sleep.

The morning seemed decent, so we headed for Mt Snowdon.

The hike up was successful and is described in a separate post.

We spent the day after visiting a couple of gardens, including one of the best we’ve seen so far, the Bodnant Gardens south of Conwy.

Our next direction is east, back into England and to the Peaks District, east of Manchester somewhere…..

Wales - South

2011-04-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

My almost immediate observation about Wales is that it’s much lower stress driving here than in south England. The traffic is less, the roads are straighter and wider and the countryside is very picturesque. Higher, more rolling hills and many more trees (almost forests in some places). Spring isn’t quite as far along here as it was further south, but it’s very green and the views out over the fields and hills are most pleasant.

One nice find was Dinefwr Castle and Park. It’s managed by the National Trust and is set among some hills east of Carmarthen (north of Swansea a bit). What you see first as you approach is the ruins of a castle visible over the trees in the near distance. Have a look at some pictures of the place posted separately.

We drove from there straight out to the coast at St David’s, a small, historic village on the Pembrokeshire Coast, possibly as far west as we can get in this part of the country. The Pembrokeshire National Coast Trail runs all along this area and we spent some time Tuesday afternoon hiking along some of it. Once again, great views of the coast.

Wednesday was a rain day. Although there were showers overnight, the tent was mostly dry in the morning with rain starting later on, after we had done our walk around St David’s Cathedral. Up the road about half an hour was Cilcerran Castle, a neat set of ruins that has existed as ruins since about 1400. We also spent some time wandering back and forth trying to find a place to walk and, eventually, a dry place to stay for the night. We finally settled for the Hostel at Poppit Sands, near Cardigan. Fantastic views out over the bay full of big waves rolling in from the ocean.

After a couple of hikes in the Pembrokshire area, I think it’s time to head further north for an hour or so.

From North Devon into Wales

2011-04-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

Quite a contrast from Sunday to Monday morning. We woke up to a very dense fog with no views beyond about 100 feet. So we packed up the wet tent and drove on, heading for Wales.

About 3 hours later, we had done our driving on the M5, passed by Bristol and arrived at Chepstow where we picked up gas and groceries. It was then on to Tintern Abbey, not far away.

Tintern Abbey is an old ruins in a beautiful valley setting on the River Wye. Like pretty much everything here, it dates back centuries, to the 1100s. I'm repeatedly struck with the work it would have taken to cut all those stones and build these magnificent structures, keeping in mind that these were done centuries ago, all by hand. There are also numerous literary connections. Those are not my department.

Literally just down the road was Raglan Castle, which we just stopped by long enough for a quick photo. The current ruins date from the 1400s and later.

Camp for the night was as a campground that could pass for an estate's country gardens. I don't think I've seen a campground as neat and tidy with such good landscaping. It was right next to the Brecon Canal so we went for a walk and watched the canal boats wend their way along the canal.

At this point, I'd say that Wales is less crowded, the roads are better (ie: wider, straighter and easier to drive on) and the terrain is more forested, higher hills. I say higher carefully, because the highest point in southern UK is found here and I think it might be 700 or 800 feet above sea level. I decided NOT to tackle it today. At 700 feet, I'm not sure I should be bothered :-) [Upon looking more carefully at a good map, I see that the hills here are up to 2500 ft high - better, but not exciting. Snowdon, further north, is about 3500 ft or so]

We managed to get the tent dried out so it will be a dry night again. So far, the weather is being very cooperative.

Hikes & Local Lore

2011-04-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

First thing this morning (Sunday), Catherine set off on a hike along the Coastal Trail while I drove the car along to the next little village (Boscastle) and walked back along the trail to meet her. It was a fantastic day – mild temperatures, blue skies, no wind, great views… What more could you ask for?

This was our last hike in Cornwall and as we drove further north, we passed into Devon. Wandering as we usually do, we ended up along the coast just NW of Barnstaple just outside of a small coast village called Woolacombe. We found a campsite near there in Mortehoe, set up camp, had a rest, and started off on another hike along the Coastal Path to a small hamlet called Lee. From there, we were able to hike back to the campground through fields and along Public Footpaths and lanes. Everything is just so green here right now.

While out for supper at the Smuggler’s Rest, I decided to ask the bar lady if she knew the origins of the village’s name – Mortehoe. According to her, the name means Death Valley, and in the old days, some of the locals used to tie a lantern to the tail of a donkey and approaching ships would mistake it for a lighthouse and end up on the rocks, of which there are many sharp ones along this stretch of coast. Once the ship had foundered, they would plunder it. There was a large painting on the pub’s wall depicting these nefarious activities. Truth or fiction?? Hmmm.

Tomorrow the plans are to end up in southern Wales, but that’s what we had planned for today and we’re still not there. So we’ll see.

The Cornish Coast

2011-04-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

The trouble with constant traveling is that one day seems to melt into another leaving one trying to recall when, exactly, one did this town, that trail, which castle.... Especially tough with a slowly disappearing memory....

Today, though, we ended up at Tintagel, the supposed location of the (legendary?) Kind Arthur's castle. The location is quite stunning: a rocky outcrop of an "island" attached to the coast with ruins of an ancient castle. The town itself is another in a series of quaint little villages - lots of stone buildings, narrow streets. It's where we will be camping for the night.

Working backwards, we visited Port Isaac, just down the coast, earlier in the day. Aside from being another very scenic fishing village on the coast, Port Isaac is the location where the Doc Martin TV series was filmed. We wandered around the village for a couple of hours and managed to find a couple of the buildings that appeared in the scenery shots. I will post more pictures of this....later.

Our first stop of the day was Trerice, an Elizabethan house and gardens, although the land and buildings date from much earlier - apparently the property was listed in the Domesday Book. [Educational moment: my partner tells me that William the Conquerer did this as the first census for taxation purposes back in 1066 or 1090 or 1100 or so - I'll take her word for that - I'm a science guy].

Backing up to the previous day, we spent all of it hiking part (a very small part) of the South Coast Trail near St Ives. Very scenic (I know, I used that word before - I'm running out of descriptors) but very slow hiking. A fair bit of too-ing and fro-ing and up and down, rocky (did I mention how many rocks there are in this area...). Regardless, a sunny day and an excellent way to spend a day.

I think that pretty much covers the past 2 days. Other than hopes for part of a day hiking more of the coastal trail near here, the next "stop" is southern Wales, probably part of a day's drive from here.

The Metric System You Say???

2011-04-08T01:31:00.000-07:00

Traveling in the UK has reminded me that the USA isn't the only country still clinging to the old "Imperial" system of measurements.

Here in the UK, there has been some conversion, but it's a real mish-mash of the two systems. Some examples:

Road distances and signs are in miles. The speedometer in the car is in miles, although the digital display has a metric option. Gas (er... petrol) is sold by the litre. Most liquids (beer, milk, etc) are sold by the pint - imagine, a full pint beer can! I did find a bottle of chocolate milk that was a 1 litre bottle and the Imperial system wasn't even mentioned. I think temperatures are in Celsius, although I'm not sure about that.

Anyhow, it's interesting. But then, the UK just switched to decimal currency not all that long ago.

Speaking of currency, this is another country (like Canada) that could well afford to discard some of the smaller coins, like the 1 and 2 pence coins. Interestingly, the 1-pence coin is one of the larger coins and I'm forever thinking it's a pound coin or something important, only to realize (er... realise) that it's nearly worthless to buy anything with.

Southwest England - To Land's End

2011-04-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

After 3 days tramping and tubing through London, we’d had about all we could handle of the big city noise and bustle. Picking up the wee rental car at Heathrow, we were off to The South.

Our first stop was my pick – a brief visit to Down House where I could pay homage to Charles Darwin. Down House, for those who don’t know, was the family home for much of the time Darwin was researching, writing and raising a family. It was really quite a thrill for me to walk the paths he walked and to wander through the rooms of the house and his study where he worked.

As a sidebar, I had thought of visiting the grave of Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-developer of the Theory of Evolution - he was buried not far from Bournemouth, but we were not headed quite in that direction, so I gave that one a pass.

We continued on to Eastbourne, right on the English Channel. Our main activity for the day was a several-hour hike on the South Downs Way. Most of this was along hills and dales across the tops of high chalk cliffs bordering the seacoast. It was a windy day, but nice, nonetheless, and we had a good hike. Took the bus back but still quite a walk to where we had left the car.

En route the next day was Stonehenge (significant but not so impressive – somehow I’d expected it all to be bigger), Salisbury Cathedral (quite impressive and VERY old – we’re talking 1200s here) and Old Wardour Castle ruins (driving madly along narrow country roads to get there before closing time).

Our sunny Wednesday was spent driving 2-3 hours down into Cornwall. The highlight of the day was Glendurgan Gardens where we strolled in the warm sunshine through a 25-acre estate of magnificent trees and flowering shrubs. The sounds and smells were wonderful and I’m sure the photos won’t do it justice.

We found a nice campground later in the afternoon (after rejecting a rather scruffy one we came to first…) and enjoyed a traditional English pub supper at The Halfway House on the A394 between Helston and Long Downs. Good ale, good food and fast internet.

Another quite nice day dawned, although misty and foggy for the first bit. We headed towards Penzance (thanks Gilbert & Sullivan) and Trengwiegan Gardens just outside town. After that, we headed back a few miles to hike over a causeway to St Michael’s Mount – an old, restored castle on a rocky island just offshore. Very interesting and definitely an excellent location for a castle. We finished off the day with a quick drive down to Land’s End and then back to our campground to recover. Land’s End, by the way, is the southernmost point in England on the mainland.

Pictures of this part of the trip will be appearing here.

London in 3.5 days

2011-04-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

Our last night in London before we pick up the rental car and head out to the (hopefully) peaceful English countryside for a few weeks of random travel.

It's been a very busy 3.5 days and it's about all we can stand of a very big city. Cities aren't really favourite spots of ours but there are many interesting things to see, especially in a place with so much history as London.

The Palace at Westminster (the Houses of Parliament), Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, Hampton Court Palace, the British Library, the Museums of Science and Natural History, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and on it goes... So much to see with time and energy just not up to the available possibilities.

The London tube (subway) has been great. It's fast and easy to use. We did run into some crowds, but the rides are short and the trains are so close together, waits are usually only a couple of minutes.

Views from the top of St Paul's Cathedral were quite nice, well worth the climb of some 80-odd meters from the floor of the Cathedral.

The British Library is a really neat place and some of their permanent displays were real treats (Scott's last diary entries...). Something completely unexpected was the chance to listen in on some of a practice session of Handel's Messiah at St Martins in the Fields, something we stumbled across as we were walking around Trafalgar Square. And I still don't know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. I think the crowds at Piccadilly Circus explain the name of the place. There are tourists everywhere.

Anyway, it's off to Down House where I need to pay homage to Darwin, then a few days along the south coast. It's been great London.

Some initial pictures have been posted here.

Not Again!!

2011-04-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

Leading up to the last election (one of the previous three we've had in the past 7 years...), the media consortium tried to shunt Elizabeth May and the Greens out of the Leaders' Debates. The public response was overwhelming and the media goons had to back down. Well, they're trying it again.

The Greens are a national party, running candidates in all ridings, unlike the Bloc. The Greens have intelligent comments about important issues, unlike the tired, old arguments we always get from the "other" parties. And, finally, if we had a decent system of proportional representation in Canada, the Greens would be a sizable party in the House of Commons.

This has got to stop. Demand that Elizabeth May be allowed to participate in the Leaders' Debates. E-mail the CBC and the CTV. Sign the on-line petition at DemandDemocraticDebates.ca and let Canadians hear what she has to say.

Harper Inaction NOT Worthy of a Majority

2011-03-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

I find all sorts of interesting stories in the old papers that I paw through while lighting the fire each morning. One this morning caught my attention. It came from early December 2010 called "Tories say they will change number of Parliament seats".

A quick Google search revealed that, yes indeed, the Harper CONservatives had introduced a bill with that very purpose way back on April 1st, 2010.

This would increase the number of ridings in Alberta, BC and Ontario, because, with their rapidly growing population, these provinces are disproportionately under-represented in the House of Commons. I was whining about this way back in 2008 after the results of the last election.

So why was this story interesting at this late date? Because the bill was never called for debate by the CONservatives and we go into Election 2011 with the same dis-proportional representation that we've had for years.

Oh, I get it. The bill was introduced on April 1st, 2010.

Subsidies for Home Heating Costs? A Bad Idea.

2011-03-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

Oner item missing from the recent Federal budget, a budget that already didn't contain much to begin with, was any mention of subsidies for home heating costs. This was a demand from the NDP.

Subsidies distort the market. Real market prices are what people use to make decisions about how to allocate scarce resources (ie: their money). Every place in the world where subsidies have been used they have failed, whether it's reducing the price of bread or encouraging people to buy houses they can't afford. They are always bad. (And, while we're at it - let's cut subsidies to corporations).

If home heating costs are rising, people will make decisions like adding more insulation, installing a more efficient heating system, lowering the thermostat, and the like.

The NDP is advocating short-term political gain and turning a blind eye to the long-term economic consequences. It doesn't make any sense. Here in BC, the NDP criticized the carbon tax during the last election. They claimed that it was faulty, didn't tax the real polluters, etc, etc...blah, blah, blah. (The carbon tax was probably the best thing that the roundly hated BC "Liberals" did in the past few years). The tax raises the cost of fuel (although not nearly enough) and encourages people to make choices like driving less or buying a smaller car. Imagine what would happen if there was a subsidy on gasoline.

The question has to be: what are these people thinking? Sorry NDP, but you're losing your way on these issues.

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right...

2011-03-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

...Here I am, stuck in the middle.... " a tune that's been playing in my mind as more and more nonsense pops up, from sources all over.

Here at home, we have a BC provincial government that is starting an education campaign on the benefits of the HST. It's only about 2 years late, but better late than never, I say. The Federal government is caught committing campaign fraud but manages to call it a "discussion" between Elections Canada and the party about how to "interpret the rules". As another party leader pointed out, the government seems to think that "illegal" is a sick bird. Our Prime Minister on the issue? Oh well, "you win some, you lose some".

In Egypt, the (now ex-) President declared that he would not be stepping down. The very next day, he stepped down. Seems to be a disconnect with reality here. Is there something people like this don't understand about the concept "the jig is up"? Who will the next nut case be forced to step aside?

The military of an (un-named) invading world power is exposed gunning down unarmed and wounded civilians but has the temerity (and twisted morality) to be outraged when Wikileaks tells the world about it.

Big Oil has so subverted reason and democracy that governments can't/won't take action on climate change. So it looks like we really will get to see the results of this world-scale experiment.

Overall fuel efficiency of our North American vehicles is actually getting worse. Makes me kind of wish for $200 oil.

Although a few years out of date, an ex-Nixon aide was once quoted as saying: "What you have to understand is that conservation isn't a Republican ethic". ??? So waste and profligacy is the way to go, you're saying? Doesn't look like that "ethic" has changed much since the Nixon era.

Despite Canadians great lack of desire for an election, it seems like we will have one. Is this the 4th election in 7 years? Right, that was the effect of "fixed election date legislation", just one more useless bit of work by the Harper CONservatives.

Speaking of "CONs", we have the prospect of buying (and paying for) a bunch of fighter jets but we aren't being told (honestly) what the price will be and even why we really, really need them. Here's a story that us disgusted taxpayers need to read.

MP Jason Kenny accuses the CBC of "lying all the time". I'm not sure where some politicians find the nerve to accuse "anyone" of lying. I think his problem, and the problem of probably anyone in government, is that they can't stand voters or the media disagreeing with anything. What we don't need is the kind of polarized insanity endured by our neighbors to the south. And we certainly don't need a media outlet acting as the government mouthpiece the way FOX does down there.

We seem on the verge of a month of election campaign, where we certainly won't get any intelligent discussion of the real issues. The Conservatives desperately want a majority, but if Canadians don't trust them, I hope they won't vote for them. Personally I don't think they deserve our support. The NDP have the same old message. Sigh. And do the Liberals really think Iggy is electable? Not much to choose from here, and our system will make sure that the variety of opinions in this country won't be represented in Parliament once the dust settles. Prepare yourselves for a month of partisan spin, silly promises and vitriolic attack ads, and remember that if you want some real change, think about voting for something completely different. The "old" parties have had their chances and failed. Miserably.

Reflecting on UBB

2011-03-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Although the flutter has subsided in the past couple of weeks, you might remember the outrage when the CRTC ruled in favour of Usage Based Billing. Despite the fact that most Internet users don't even come close to using their "quota" each month, you'd have thought the sky was falling. While the advent of Internet TV, Netflix and other distractions might point out some shortcomings with Canada's current Internet system (ISPs, bandwidth, lack of competition, charges, etc), I have a different take.

Out here in rural BC, all these discussions and the outpouring of rage are of only academic interest. We get our Internet connection from Telus. You know, the phone company out here. It's almost the only option we have for an Internet supplier. Netflix? Ha! We can't even stream CBC Radio 2 reliably using the Internet and watching a 2-minute YouTube video is often nearly impossible. Sometimes when it rains, or when it's cold, or at irregular times or phases of the moon, the DSL signal just disappears. And let's not bother talking about download speeds. It's faster than a dial-up modem, but that's about all I'd say for it. Right now, I'd settle for something that was always on - reliably.

Life in the 'Slo Lane continues.

Lost Ledge to Rossiter

2011-02-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

A quick decision was made to do a ski traverse from the Lost Ledge cabin (near the headwaters of Schroeder Creek) to Hwy 31a via a pass near Mt Schroeder and Rossiter Creek. Accordingly, a half-dozen enthusiasts gathered at the cabin on Wednesday facing weather forecasts of frigid temperatures to come. This time, the forecasters were right. Thursday morning at 2000 m, dawn came with clear skies and a temperature of -25C.

Departure was delayed briefly to allow the sun more time to do it's job and to wait for 2 additional group members to arrive. They had the early start, leaving town well before 6 am to drop off a vehicle and make the ride and ski up to the cabin in the dark and the cold.

Just before 8:30 am, we started, with the run down through the forest to Schroeder Creek. Skins went on the skis, where they stayed until we reached the pass south of Mt Schroeder at 12:30 pm. We climbed through old-growth cedar and fir forest, across and up wide bowls and open slopes, where, despite the air temperature, the sun and the climbing kept us all quite warm.

The pass was cold, so other than removing the skins and admiring the view across to Rossiter Ridge and Mt Brennan, everyone soon started the descent to the valley bottom. The terrain leveled out there and what remained was a gentle descent along the creek alternating with, for me, somewhat hair-raising runs through West Kootenay woods. The road was reached at 3:45 pm where we all managed to cram into Webster's truck for the ride back to town, where it was still -10C. Photos of the trip can be found here.

Back from the Bend

2011-02-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

After a nice hike and climb up into the sunshine at Zion, the clouds started arriving and the time had come to leave for home. Even on the I15 it took 5 hours to reach Salt Lake City, but 7 pm on a Sunday evening seemed like a good time to pass through a major city. That night, just a couple of hours north of SLC, was the last night above freezing that we were to have.

The next day, as we drove through the bottom of Idaho and into Montana, winter returned with temperatures we hadn't seen since leaving the prairies. We stopped for lunch in Dillon (I can recommend the hamburgers at Papa T's in town) and continued north to the I90, taking a short detour through Anaconda and stopping for the night at the rest area just east of Missoula.

Missoula was a bit warmer, being quite a bit lower in elevation, but there was a cold prairie breeze as we did our shopping. Skies were clear so we took Rte 200 northwest to Sandpoint, an excellent alternate route. Much of the route follows one of the branches of the Clark Fork and eventually ends up on the Ponderay River. It's very scenic, avoids the traffic on the I90 and doesn't have any elevation gain or loss, since it follows the river downstream. It was exactly 300 km from Missoula to Sandpoint by this route and even with the slower road, it took us only 4 hours.

A quick lunch and we were on to the Canadian border, crossing in record time. The agent didn't even bother looking at the list of purchases and receipts that I had organized. Unfortunately, we just missed the Kootenay Lake Ferry and had to wait another hour and a half for the next one. Another good time to have a camper, where we could keep warm, have a snack and lie around reading while waiting.

This time when we arrived home, we were able to drive into the driveway, barely. The snow was gone but in its place was about 2 inches of solid ice over everything. The desert of western Texas was starting to look pretty appealing!

Traversing Central Arizona

2011-01-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

So far in Arizona, we've explored the west side and the east side of the state, but the one route we haven’t done so far is right up through the middle of the state. The only logistical issue here is trying to avoid Phoenix (referred to as the blob that ate Arizona). Our route took us through Tucson and north, then slightly east. We ended up going past Lake Roosevelt, which is apparently one of the reservoirs that supplies Phoenix. This turned out to be a National Recreation Area with free campgrounds, solar-heated showers, nice views and easy access to Tonto National Monument where there are some cliff-dwelling ruins to see. We also had a continuation of the sunny weather we’d been having for the past 2 weeks, so it was a great place to spend a night.

The next day, we pretty much finished off the trip north through AZ. Along the way, we went through some really nice scenery and great areas that will warrant future visits. One notable area was Oak Canyon, between Sedona and Flagstaff. Quite spectacular but apparently somewhat overshadowed by the nearby Grand Canyon.

North of Flagstaff was a volcanic area that we wandered around and another set of native ruins, which were quite nice. Then it was further north to the Colorado River, which we crossed at Navajo Bridge, downstream from Page and the Grand Canyon Dam there. We ended up, sort of by accident, at Lees Ferry, the location of one of the first crossings of the Colorado, at a very scenic area on the Colorado. We spent the next morning wandering around the area and one of our views is in this post's photo. We also saw 3 California Condors, perched on rocks below the bridge.

A couple of more hours of driving got us to Zion National Park, our last place to visit before the long drive straight home.

Chiricahua National Monument – Revisited

2011-01-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

We visited this little spot in southeastern Arizona a couple of years ago and liked it then, so here we are again. It’s one of Arizona’s “Islands in the Sky” – mountains that pop up out of the desert here and there. This particular one has quite unusual rock formations and a few very nice trails that wander down through the canyons around these rock formations. As an added bonus, the Park has a shuttle van service. They will pick you up at 8:30 in the morning, drive you the several miles to the top of the mountain from where you can spend part of the day hiking back down to the valley bottom along the trails.

We were the only people to take the shuttle service today and met no other hikers on the trail we selected. Just under 5 hours to hike about 16 km. We saw one Arizona Woodpecker, a new one for us, and otherwise had a scenic, quiet hike.

The trail we hiked was constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (the CCC). This was a project designed to help the unemployed and destitute during the Great Depression (part of the "New Deal") . About 3.5 million people were signed up during the time of the project, from 1931 to 1942. They were used for road and trail construction, fire fighting, and many other works. During our travels in the USA, we've seen many examples of their work. Certainly a lasting legacy for a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars at that time.

Texas and the Big Bend

2011-01-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

It’s a fairly long way to Big Bend, so named because the Park occupies the piece of Texas at the south end where the Rio Grande River makes a big bend to the north-east before resuming it’s direction southeast to the Gulf of Mexico. We picked up supplies in the small town of Alpine and really enjoyed the hour or so drive south to the park. A very scenic road that winds it’s way through hills and interesting rock outcroppings. The terrain becomes increasingly arid once in the Park, though. Very arid.

The main Visitor Information location for the Park is at Panther Junction and we stopped there briefly before heading down to the Rio Grande at the aptly named Rio Grande Village. This was the largest campground but was only partly full. It was only a short walk to the River. My biggest surprise was how small the Rio Grande is. It’s a long river, but here and a few other places where we saw it, you could probably wade the 20 or 30 feet across. Then, of course, you would be in Mexico and coming back into the USA would mean you had entered the country illegally…..

We also visited the Chisos Basin area of the Park – a really neat area right in the Chisos Mountains. Nice campground and excellent walks heading out into the Mountains. We hiked a long loop up and around Emory Peak, the highest peak in the Park, with great views from the South Rim. We also hiked the Window Trail and part of the Lost Mine Trail.

After 3 nights in Chisos Basin, we moved over to the Cottonwood Campground, further west and also along the Rio Grande. There was a short hike there into Santa Elena Canyon, through which the River flows. This campground was much smaller and very quiet.

As we left the next day, we hiked part of the Mule Spring Trail in the early morning. It was an excellent temperature for a morning desert walk.

In general, Big Bend was an interesting place, especially the Chisos Basin area and the road down to the Cottonwoods area. One note: Park visitors can only stay 14 days at a time and 28 days maximum in one year. We also understand that only about 200,000 people visit this park each year, making it the least visited park in the USA National Park system.

Following the Mexican Border

2011-01-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

From the time we left Alpine, TX and headed to the Rio Grande, we were often within a stone’s throw of Mexico. Our trip from Big Bend west was along the Rio Grande and west of Las Cruces and El Paso we were often within sight of the border. In this picture, for example, the river is the Rio Grande and on the left side of the river is Mexico. This was in Big Bend Ranch State Park (in Texas), just west of Big Bend National Park.

It was somewhat interesting to see how many US Border Patrol vehicles and checkpoints there were along the way. We passed several and had to stop at a couple more. We were asked to produce our passports at one stop but the person questioning us was friendly and the stop was only a minute or less. We saw many Border Patrol vehicles roaming the roads and parked here and there along the way. I recall someone I know commenting about the "hassle" of all the checkpoints, but our experience wasn't bad at all. We read in the Travel Guide that some 60K illegals were arrested during a one month period in an area around a town in Arizona, just south of where we camped in Chiricahua National Monument, our destination for the day.

The Highest Peak in Texas

2011-01-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

Our first full day in Guadalupe National Park presented us with the opportunity to hike to the highest point in Texas. This involved about a 15 km hike on a quite decent trail and about 1000 m of elevation gain. The views were quite impressive from the top of the Guadalupe Mountains. We had sunshine and nice, cool hiking weather. The return was fast enough that we had time to check e-mail at the Visitor Centre and wander about looking for birds.

Speaking of birds, we found the best place in the Park for seeing birds was in the "campground", where a water tap had created a bit of a puddle. First thing in the morning, everything we wanted to see was there and we could sit on the median in the parking lot and watch them.

We decided to spend a second full day in Guadalupe National Park and explore McKittrick canyon just a bit to the north. The canyon was originally privately owned, fortunately by people who believed the area needed to be preserved.

It was a warm, windy day, and the canyon was a good place to be. There was intermittent running water in the streambed and a surprising variety of tree and other plant species. Odd to be just a few miles from the creosote bush desert, hiking instead in a forest of oaks, maples, pines, large juniper trees and the like. It was very pleasant, even though many trees were without leaves, given the season. One can easily imagine the shaded oasis in this canyon once all the tree’s leaves are out.

Tomorrow we’re moving on to the Big Bend area of Texas.

Entering the Bowels of the Earth

2011-01-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

Having left the valley of science, military, past atomic testing, and the like, our route took us over a range of mountains to the east and then south, towards the Texas border. Today we spent a few hours hiking down and around some of Carlsbad Caverns. These are truly immense caverns deep in the limestone of the Guadalupe Mountains. None of what we saw inspired me to take up spelunking, but I have to admit it was quite neat.

We were able to hike down into the caverns, about a 3 km walk on a constantly descending paved walkway, until we arrived in the Big Room, apparently the size of 14 football fields (probably American football fields…). Here we walked along a continuous array of limestone concretions: popcorn, stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, pillars and the like. At one point, I believe the ceiling was over 140 ft high, much like being in a British cathedral. Quite awesome.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us hike back out because we were past their cutoff time for that option, so we had to take the elevator back to the surface along with all the other ordinary walkers. Boooooo.

By the way, between March and October, the natural entrance to the caverns is used as an exit by roosting Free-Tail Bats, which head out for their evening foraging at dark each night.

After seeing some of what Carlsbad had to offer, it was on to Guadalupe National Park where there is more desert, canyons and the highest point in Texas.

Days of Sunshine

2011-01-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

A few short hours south and east of Albuquerque is the small city of Alamogordo, home to the Air Weapons Missile Testing Range, White Sands National Monument, a landing strip for the Space Shuttle (used once in 1982), and the center for the first atomic test back in 1945. The actual location of that test, by the way, was at the “Trinity Site”, about 60 miles to the northwest. That first atomic bomb was brought by vehicle from Los Alamos (north of Santa Fe). We didn't visit the actual site; it’s only open to the public on the first Saturdays of April and October, should you wish to make that pilgrimage.

So why, given what’s here, did we make this part of our tour of the Southwest? The answer is: White Sands National Monument. It was really quite neat and unique. We spent a couple of hours hiking around the white dunes. We understand that the main highway to Los Cruces and the National Monument itself are closed every so often for a few hours when missile testing is under way. The military-industrial complex at work, I guess.

We also visited the New Mexico National Space Museum and took in an IMAX show on the Hubble Space Telescope. So much of this space stuff was part of my teen-age years. I remember being quite enthralled by it all at the time, and I guess this interest has lasted all my life.

We stayed a couple of nights at a New Mexico State Park south of town where we had a nice 8 km hike up into a canyon with the cactus and ocotilla plants. It was cool, but still warm enough that I was able to hike in my T-shirt.

Tomorrow we’re up and over a mountain range en route to Carlsbad and then Texas.

Crossing the Great Divide - Repeatedly

2011-01-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

This might look like a desperate dash for sun and heat, and perhaps it is...., but we left our snowy home late last week with sights set on West Texas - Big Bend, specifically. So far, we haven't gained anything in the way of heat.... In fact, I think it's been colder everywhere than it was at home. Ahhh, c'est la vie. This may be a case of short term pain for long term gain, we hope.

To get this far (northern New Mexico), we have crossed the Continental Divide several times: from northern Idaho into Montana, back across again between Montana and southern Idaho again, once again somewhere west and south of Salt Lake City and then again somewhere south of that - I'm losing track. So far, all that's meant is more cold and at least some snow.

Finally, somewhere west of Albuquerque, the snow disappeared, at least from the roadsides. We understand it might only be -5C tonight, which will be an improvement, believe me. Tomorrow, we head further south and maybe, just maybe, we'll find some warmer weather.

I console myself with the thought that my Prairie friends are suffering in sub-minus 20C and that if I continue further south it will warm up eventually, surely.... I know it's January.... I'm only complaining a little bit....really.

Albuquerque – Out of the Snow

2011-01-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

Finally, we seem to have traveled far enough south to escape the snow, if not the cool weather. Somewhere between Gallup and Albuquerque on the I-40, the snow disappeared. The daytime highs are still cool, chilly even, but although it is dipping below freezing at night, it’s not all that bad. As an ex-inhabitant of the Canadian Prairies, I can still say that, I think!

Albuquerque is a city of 600K, spread out in a broad valley along the Rio Grande, a river we will see in a few days, further south. The only part of Albuquerque we really explored was the Old Town and a couple of plazas in among the old buildings. That part was similar to Santa Fe, although I think Santa Fe has more nice old buildings.

We visited with a couple of friends from a Section Mountaineering Camp two years ago and, after a night’s sleep and a needed shower, we headed south, still looking for warmer weather.

Sunshine But No Heat

2011-01-10T10:41:00.000-08:00

For our third night, we made it as far as Moab, UT. Even here, there was snow and cold, although it was better than what we had left at home. It was nearly dark by the time we approached Moab but we knew of a good camping place along the Colorado River just outside town, so that’s where we headed for the night.

In the morning, we drove a bit further down along the Colorado, had breakfast in a sunny picnic spot on the river and had a nice hike up to a couple of arches (BowTie and Corona) that we hadn’t hiked to before. After some time visiting Moab, doing some e-mail and trying in vain to find a good place to go out for lunch (January really is the off season in Moab), we headed south as far as Bluff, right on the southern border of Utah. We had heard of a BLM campsite on the San Juan River, not far from Monument Valley where we decided to spend the night. It was another cool one, but slowly we are getting warmer temperatures. There is still snow on the ground in most places and the air is still chilly but we usually get sunny skies each day now.

View from the Top

2010-12-27T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I've found the time to blog, what with Christmas, walking, skiing, shoveling snow.... Even the usual nonsense that often is BC politics seems to have gone away for awhile. So nice.

A few days ago, though, a small group of us took the day to break a trail up to the Ski Club's cabin and get in a couple of runs at the same time. Snow conditions were surprisingly good right from the road (pretty much at Lake level) and got much better (and deeper) as we gained altitude. In fact, the snow got good enough that the usual 1-hour snowmobile trip took 2.5 hours, what with getting stuck and all. The hour-long ski to the cabin went well and we took two runs down the "North Bowl" before heading home. The picture is from the top of the North Bowl looking at low fog banks over the north end of Kootenay Lake and Duncan Lake. We could even see Howser Spire in the Bugaboos.

Snow conditions in the sub-alpine were OK - about 1.4 meters of snowpack, but more snow is needed - there were too many little trees and stuff to ski around, things which are usually buried. The weather word is to expect more snow tonight.

The trip down was slow as well and it was pitch dark before we arrived at the highway and the vehicles. Mind you, it's pretty dark here shortly after 4 pm....

Today we are experiencing what must be a Kootenay chinook. It's +5C and "almost" sunny. I'm busy chipping ice off the driveway so we can actually get the vehicles up the drive. That and a walk to deal with the post-Christmas stomach....

Reality Check: The Scale of Things

2010-12-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

One of my FB friends posted this yesterday. If anyone out there is having trouble figuring out where we fit in the grand scheme of things, have a look.

Fatwas ... Canadian Style?

2010-12-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

Full disclosure here: I haven't gone to Wikileaks to read all the latest gossip, but I have been following the story, sort of. My take on what we've learned? The Iraqi government is corrupt, some "world leaders" are on power trips and the USA thinks Canadian TV shows demonstrate a degree of anti-Americanism. Yawn.... When do we get stuff we "don't" know already?

So it was was with a certain degree of shock that I hear of a U of C professor calling for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The good professor is a political scientist at the U of C and was Chief of Staff for Stephen Harper several years ago. He's been called a Conservative "strategist".

Even for a political strategist, I'd say this gaffe was poor strategy. It was certainly in poor taste and seems to have outraged many Canadians who, quite rightly, seem to believe such statements are...ummm...outrageous.

To Mr Flanagan's credit, he apologized the day after, but I wonder if that's good enough? Even if he was just trying to be funny, jokes of a certain kind are poorly tolerated these days - just recall offhand remarks made by some people on FB, jokes made in airports that security folks don't find funny....there are many examples. What surprises me is that even after so many such mis-steps by so many people...there seems to be a learning opportunity that's being missed here.

But the story doesn't end there. A Toronto woman sent a note to Flanagan to chastise him and, apparently, received the following response: "Better be careful, we know where you live". I think I'd be worried, and I hike in the woods where there are bears. Maybe if he'd added a smiley face?

So there you have it. A fatwa, Canadian style. When Iranian clerics issue fatwas, we might dismiss them as part of the lunatic fringe, but when they come from seemingly respectable Canadians with a public image, it's a bit harder to square with what we think we know about our country.

Oh Yeah?

2010-11-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Maybe there was a time when some people might have found this offer too much to resist, but I can't say I've ever known anyone dumb enough. So the question is: why are these idiots still filling up people's inboxes with this crap?

An arab made a fixed deposit of $24,500.000.00 in my bank branch where am adirector and he died with his entire family in the war leaving behind no nextof kin. I want to present you as next of kin to claim the funds, get back to me if only interested for details as regards the transfer of this funds.

I shall require your full name, and telephone number to reach you. Most importantly, a confirmation of acceptance from you after which I shall furnish you with the fulldetails of this transaction Reply via this email only :lingyoung2@yahoo.com.hk
Yours Truly,
Ling Young.
lingyoung2@yahoo.com.hk
NOTE: REPLY TO MY PERSONAL EMAIL ONLY IF INTERESTED :lingyoung2@yahoo.com.hk

Saying Goodbye to Fall

2010-11-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been that in-between season. Not generally nice enough for real hiking and no snow for skiing. Leaves have been gradually disappearing, although the apple trees in our yard still have their leaves. In fact, some haven't even turned color yet. We really haven't had a frost; I think zero was our coldest temperature early one morning.

We have been doing some walking. This view looks down Kootenay Lake on a day that really seemed more like a warm spring day than late fall. We were walking the Cedar Creek trail near Ainsworth on one of the few nice days we've had recently.

Things on the estate are ready for winter. Garden tools put away, wood all under cover, garden tilled, mulch and compost spread around. Snow has been forecast for later this week. So far, though, all we've noticed is the snow level dropping down closer and closer to our location. We hear of snow east of the Rockies, storms even. Big wind storms on the Pacific coast cutting power to thousands of people. Not much here, though. I'm predicting it will be December before we get freezing weather. Perhaps I'll be proved wrong this week.

Potash - A Strategic Resource?

2010-10-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

The recent news out of Saskatchewan is the hostile takeover bid for Sask Potash by the Australian mining giant BHP.

There are a couple of ways of looking at this: let the market decide or have some level of government quash the proposed sale. The former might be in the interests of current shareholders - if there is a good offer, these shareholders could stand to make a substantial profit selling their shares to BHP. The latter really goes against both Federal and Provincial Governments' supposed free market philosophy, but could be justified by declaring this industry a strategic resource - too important to allow it to be sold.

In a somewhat surprising, but understandable, move, the Sask Government has come out against the sale, declaring it not to be in the interests of Canada or Saskatchewan. Given who else has come out against this proposed sale, the Feds will probably come out against it as well.

This is as it should be. There is no perceived benefit to the Province or the country by this sale. This is simply the quickest way BHP can enter the potash business. There have been far too many examples in Canada of valuable companies, good companies, being taken over and run into the ground, broken up or controlled by outside interests. Some industries are too important to allow the "free market" to do whatever the profit motive dictates. Not everything is about money!

We're From the Government....

2010-10-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

Let me get this straight: The Harper Conservatives feel driven to scrap the mandatory long-form census because they received complaints from: a) over 1000 people a day, or b) at least a few people in total, or... c) some other reason entirely. They feel compelled to protect us from fines and jail time because we might object to confiding information like how many bathrooms are in our house?

Give me a break.

This Harper (minority) Government scrapped Income Trusts in the mistaken belief that millions of tax dollars were leaking away and they have sidestepped climate change action, to name just two issues they've been on the wrong side of. They've followed a specific course of action despite often massive protests and opposition, and, in many cases, the facts.

They're not scrapping the long-form census because a few people have their shorts in knots over the questions. Rather, it's just another example of how this government is entirely driven by (mean-spirited, short-sighted, conservative) ideology and nothing else.

Apple Harvest

2010-10-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

What you see here is probably 10% of our entire apple harvest. One of 2 Jonagold apples and a very few on two other trees. This year was pretty much a disaster for our apple crop, although the trees are very young and quite small, so I shouldn't expect too much just yet. We had an infestation of various insect pests early in the season and I think that's what did them in. That and the unseasonably cool weather when fruit should have been setting. Oh well. There's always next year.

The apple was very good, by the way.

Exploring the Koots - 1001 - Plaid Lake

2010-10-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

With the fine fall weather hanging around the Koots for a few days, we headed off to explore the trail to Plaid Lake in the hopes of finding more larches in fall color, and, of course, the views.

This being a "rest day" we caught the 8:10 ferry across the Lake, found the right FSR leading up behind Crawford Bay and headed up. The FSR had been partially deactivated which, around here, means big drainage trenches in the road, making a high clearance 4x4 vehicle pretty much the only way to negotiate the holes. In addition to being full of deep trenches, it was steep, so the old truck started to complain near the top. Interestingly, the highest part of the access road was the best, but we walked that bit.

The trail in to Plaid Lake was fine, although the trailhead is higher than the Lake. When we got to the trail downhill to the Lake, I was surprised when Catherine suggested we head up to a nearby ridge for the views rather than hike down to the lake. I guess she's arrived at that stage when she'd rather stand on top of a peak rather than sit by a lake. Who knew?

At the "pass" we were just below Mt Crawford, a prominent peak visible east of Crawford Bay. It's one I'll have to come back to scramble up on another trip.

A short traverse across a steep slope and we were on a minor ridge with views in all directions of the compass. It's always fun to identify all these other peaks, including ones you've been on recently. After some time snacking and resting in the sun, it was back down and off to home. We were surprised by the amount of traffic waiting for the ferry and luckily happened to be almost the last vehicle that made it on for the trip across the Lake.

Exploring the Koots 0930 - Fletcher Lake and Beyond

2010-09-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

Not long after getting home from the Macbeth Trail, and while still restoring my carbohydrate and water balance, I got a call about a hike the next day. The plan was to head to Upper Fletcher Lake (which I've been to before) but to then traverse the Fletcher Basin, climb up to the next ridge and possibly attempt Mt Trafalgar. With blue skies and the promise of fall larches, it was the matter of a few minutes to re-load the pack, make a new lunch and get ready for another day in the hills.

The first challenge was the Fletcher Creek FSR which was getting some attention from the grader. This was probably a good example of something that gets worse before it gets better. Good thing we had high clearance vehicles.

The hike in to Upper Fletcher is quick - only slightly more than an hour, with fall larch color appearing in the woods as we approached the ridge overlooking the Lake. We descended into the valley, crossed through the woods and climbed up to the next ridge, made our way along that ridge and finally emerged to see Mt Trafalgar still quite a ways off. Too far for this day's trip.

We enjoyed the views, the blue skies and tried to identify peaks in the distance before heading back to the trailhead. Just another day in Paradise.

On the Ice Again - Macbeth Glacier Revisited

2010-09-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

The original plan for the day was for Stu and I to drive up the Glacier Creek FSR and have a look at the Horseshoe Glacier, just across the valley from Jumbo Pass. From the map, it seems like there would be a number of peaks that could be climbed from this glacier, a possibility for next summer perhaps.

The day didn't unfold as we had planned. Forestry was busy replacing bridges on the Glacier Creek road and at Km 30 they had big machines digging holes in preparation for a new bridge. To salvage the day, we decided to head up to the Macbeth Glacier, partly to look at the trail conditions, partly to have a walk around on the glacier and partly because Stu hadn't been up to that area yet.

We discovered only about a dozen trees down across the trail and we only had time for a short walk around on the glacier, but the day was stellar with not a cloud to be seen. We also saw a small bear track in the path on the way up. Hope the bear enjoyed the blueberries that were along the trail. We found the berries a bit past their "best before" date so we left most of them for the bears.

On the Trail of Earl Grey - Sept 9 to 13, 2010

2010-09-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Earl Grey Trail is a historic route connecting the Toby Creek valley near Invermere with the Hamill Creek Valley near the NE end of Kootenay Lake. It's about 60 km in length, crosses the Purcell Range over Earl Grey Pass and is normally hiked in about 5 days. Word had spread that the trail was in good condition this year so 10 of us decided to give it a try. Four of the group drove vehicles to the Toby Creek trailhead and started there while six of us started at the Hamill Creek side.

Information about this trail comes with cautions about changing mountain weather, tricky creek crossings, real backcountry camping, long distances from help, precautions about bears and food storage, steep trails and so on. For the most part, I'd say the route lived up to that information.

Our first 3 days were relatively easy, with 12 km being the longest day of hiking. Distance hiked is only one way to measure difficulty, though, and we found the going slow, with huge logs to clamber over and around, slippery log crossings of many streams, several (5) cable car crossings, muddy sections of trail and wet West Kootenay bushes. Indeed, the entire trail over the 5 days was damp or wet. There were showers, intermittent rain and cool temperatures. Only a couple of brief times did we see the sun.

Camp spots were small and rustic and we spent a certain amount of time at the end of each day drying boots and clothing. Food had to be pulled up into trees in case bears visited our camp during the night. Biffies were the usual backcountry rustic.

The first 3 days were spent hiking up Hamill Creek mostly in old growth cedar forest. It was dark, damp and mystical. Misty too, sometimes. Day 4 we climbed for several hours to reach Earl Grey Pass and admired what views we could with the swirling cloud and mist. The trail then dropped steeply into the Toby Creek Valley. We believe views in this area would be quite amazing, but we saw only low-hanging cloud and mist. We made an impromptu camp in a thick spruce forest where we were able to find some dry areas under the trees to camp for the night. All that remained was a 4-hour hike to the end of trail and the drive home.

This is a challenging trip through remote terrain. Trail conditions were good but rough. Careful preparation is important, keeping in mind changeable mountain weather. The unprepared could find themselves in trouble quite quickly. That said, it's a classic hike through the very remote Purcell Wilderness and well worth doing. Hope for good weather. Pictures live here.

Things that go Bump in the Night

2010-09-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

It wasn't a bump, really, but the scream of the smoke detectors that woke us up at about 1:30 am last night. You know how it is - first you think it's the phone, then the iPod, and the noise is loud enough to almost blast you out of bed before you realize what it is.

Once the brain is able to focus on the issue, you realize that there is no smoke. In fact, with the windows and doors open to the night breezes, there is nothing but the night air wafting through the house, night air and the smell of skunk.

We've had the skunk smell on occasion. No big issue - we get bears, raccoons, the odd mountain lion... we live in the woods so all that is pretty normal. I spent the next 15 minutes looking for what could have set off the smoke alarms. No place in the house was left unexplored. Nothing was found. Nothing but that skunk smell.

So now the question is: can skunk fragrance set off smoke alarms? I did find one serious discussion on the web about this and the conclusion seemed to be "maybe", but "maybe not". A coincidence, or....?