Friday, July 31, 2009

A Few Days in the Rockies

This past week was supposed to be the annual Saskatchewan Section Moutaineering Camp - Little Yoho Valley, Yoho National Park. Unfortunately, just as we were hitching up the packs to hike in last Sunday, the Park Warden comes along to tell us that there's a fire up that way and the whole valley is closed. No idea how long it will be closed.

We hang around all day to get what information there is, which isn't much. A helicopter piolet thinks we won't be getting in Sunday OR Monday. The wardens are tight lipped - you'd think they were protecting evidence from a crime scene.

By late afternoon on Sunday, we had finally come to the conclusion that we probably wouldn't be getting in Sunday OR Monday and who knew after that. With regret, we told all the participants that the camp would be cancelled. People started to go their separate ways. I headed back to Roger's Pass where there was a renovation of the Wheeler Hut under way. I spent a couple of days there.

What actually transpired is the Little Yoho Valley was opened at noon on Monday. What this seems to indicate to me is that 1) it was a pretty small fire, 2) Parks probably believed that it would be controlled soon, and 3) the upper part of the valley where the Hut is, and especially the glaciers and snowfields where we would be most of the time, was probably in no real danger at all from this fire. Pity the Parks people we talked to couldn't have been just a wee bit more forthcoming with some real information - we might have decided to hang around until Monday to see what happened. As it is now, no camp this year :-(

Yep - the Consumer Gets it Again

The cartoonist John Pritchett just HAD to be thinking of BC residents when he did this one. Just announced: the BC government is going to harmonize the PST with the GST.

I admit, on the surface of it, not seemingly the most important of current events topics. But it does mean that a tax of 12% will now be charged on everything that the current federal GST is charged on. Consumers will get hosed again. Prices will go up. Sure, sure, businesses will be able to claim back their input taxes, and, in theory, that should reduce their costs and should, in theory, reduce prices on at least some things, but don't count on it.

The real issue, in my mind, is that this is just another in a series of LIES and MISREPRESENTATIONS that the Campbell Government has foisted on BC residents. Just to itemize a couple: 1) Before the election, the economy was doing just fine. Better than most, in fact. After the election, news leaks out that BC is actually in next-to-last place. The provincial economy is in a shambles. 2) No provincial deficit. But that was "before" the election. Now it's going to be millions and millions in the hole. 3) No word of this tax increase called harmonization before the election. It springs up now. They claim there was no plan to bring this in until just, oh, yesterday or the day before. 4) E-mails concerning the takeover of BC Rail were destroyed just before (or was that during?) the election. Wouldn't want that information leaking out now. And this is the government that tried to illegally muzzle opposition advertising during the election and the one that is selling BC resources for private profit.

This government obviously thinks that it can get away with doing and saying anything it wants. The sad thing is that voter response in the last election could mean that they are right. At least I didn't vote for the bastards.


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Idaho Peak

Today was part of a week of touring Catherine's parents around to some of the Kootenay's scenic places. Tuesday the schedule was to be Idaho Peak. This is an old fire lookout on a high peak overlooking Slocan Lake and the village of New Denver. It's accessed by an 11 km forest road to a small parking lot from which you can hike to the actual lookout.

Today, however, the road was blocked 2 km from the end by the remains of last winter's avalanche debris. The hike up the road was great, with many flowers in full summer glory so we had lots of opportunities to take pictures and work with the new plant book. It's a very nice place to see many species of alpine flowers. Good views too, of peaks and areas that we are finally starting to recognize.

Finding Fletcher

This past Sunday, five of us headed up to hike the Abbey Trail to Upper Fletcher Lake. As the photo shows, conditions were excellent, unlike a few days earlier when fog prevented any views other than the near-at-hand.

As per Kootenay usual, we drove the 12 km up the Fletcher Creek FSR until road conditions made it easier to walk. A couple of hours later we were on a ridge above Upper Fletcher Lake. A further few minutes of scrambling brought us higher on the ridge where views opened up into Woodbury Creek, the Woodbury Glacier, Kokanee Glacier, Silverspray, Kootenay Lake, Mt Trafalgar......you get the idea. We could even see one of the spires in the Bugaboos, probably over 50 miles away.

Time to loll around in the sun, soaking up the view, eating lunch - it's a hard way to spend part of your day. Finally, however, we dropped down through the trees and meadows and joined the trail some distance below. Alpine and woodland flowers were everywhere offering opportunities for using the camera and the plant book. Just another gem of the Kootenays on another great day.

Rescuing MacBeth

Yesterday was a work-in-the-woods day. The idea developed last summer when we hiked the MacBeth Icefields trail. A substantial section of the trail was covered with deadfall. I think Catherine counted over 100 logs that she had to scramble over, between or under. Since then, a few of us have been talking about doing something about the state of that trail.

The MacBeth Icefields trail is (or was) a BC Forest Service Recreation Trail, but I believe such trails are looked after by BC Tourism these days. Whoever has jurisdiction, important work isn't getting done. It's just one more example of how valuable natural resources and recreational opportunities are being neglected and allowed to fall into very sad shape. Apparently, the whole of the West Kootenays and perhaps beyond, is "looked after" by one person, who, until a short time ago, had no budget to do anything, not even to maintain a website about trail conditions. I'm sure this one person means well, but with those resources, any pretense of maintaining hiking trails in this part of BC is a joke.

Late last summer, a fire crew that wasn't busy was sent in to do some trail clearing, but they didn't get close to the worst part of the trail where logs were lying on top of each other several layers high, reminiscent of that childhood game "pick-up-sticks". For the money that it must have cost, they might as well not have bothered.

Yesterday, four of us armed with 3 chainsaws hiked the trail, cleared the deadfall and made the trail at least walkable again. There were fallen trees across steep stair sections and multiple trees over the path on many parts of the trail. We started hiking at 7 am, began cutting and clearing by 8:30 am and by lunch, we were done, all but the hike out.

To my mind, this is a much more efficient way to get things done. Forget the government on this one. The only role they might play would be to contribute a small operating budget to cover basic expenses, but otherwise, they might as well stay in their offices and push paper. In under 4 hours, 4 volunteers cleared a trail that was nearly impassable, a trail to one more of BC's natural wonders. Maybe it's time for a new approach to keeping our trails in hiking condition.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Under Cover

Catherine has already blogged about the new woodshed, one of several projects that I've been working on these past few weeks. With the electric wood splitter we now have, Catherine is no longer in need of much help and has been working at filling the new covered space. I've had to move some of the larger logs - the bases of some of these trees are pretty big - but otherwise, she's been able to work away at splitting whenever she wants.

One related job will be to move all the wood we now have under tarps over into the woodshed, but that won't need to be done until fall.

I was asked about the lack of walls. Just to clarify, we don't use walls on these things. Good air flow is important. All I might do, before the winter snows and rains come, is staple up some plastic just to keep the wet out, if it seems necessary. Anyhow, the storage space is now ready, it's getting filled and the building seems to just fit right in with the forest and the landscape of our yard.

Another Day - Another Summit

As a rule, the standard photo of a summit is, well, the summit, preferably with the climbers in it just to prove that they made it (no big ones that got away in this business!). This summit shot, however, is a bit different....

It's been a busy week or so. What with finishing the woodshed and getting vehicles maintained. And Catherine has recently decided that summer is nearly over so she's been in a minor panic about getting in her summer hiking. That means we've been out hiking almost every other day. It's a good thing I take pictures because otherwise I'd forget where we've been. Wednesday we hiked from the end of the Fletcher Creek FSR along the Abbey Trail. This is supposed to eventually lead to Upper Fletcher Lake, but we were having a fog day after rain on Tuesday and, of course, the bushes were quite wet so even with gaiters, I was pretty much soaked from the knees down. In any case, the fog wouldn't move out, so we eventually turned around. The flowers were great, though, and some examples are in the Summer 2009 photo album.

Friday, Catherine had arranged for a friend to come along, Lyle Basin being the destination. I was given "permission" to steam on ahead and go for the summit of Mt Brennan if I felt like it. Not being one to turn down opportunities, that's exactly what I did. We left the truck by 8:20 am and I was on the summit by 12:10 pm. Great views in every direction. Mt Brennan is one of the highest peaks in the area and is just across the Lyle Creek drainage from Rossiter Ridge, where we were last Sunday. The views of near and distant peaks were only part of the excitement. As I neared the summit, I saw tracks. Hmmm - so I'm NOT the first to summit today?? True, in a way. The tracks were of a large Grizzly bear who had apparently come up from Whitewater Creek, wandered around the summit and headed back down. The tracks seemed pretty fresh so I ate my lunch with the pepper spray close at hand and a watchful eye on nearby snowbanks in case a furry head should appear.

After surveying the views and inhaling my lunch and liquid, I headed back down. There were lots of snowy gullies and slopes to follow so I was back down at Lyle Lakes in an hour and caught up with Catherine and Lucille not long after. We were back at the truck by 3:30 pm.

Today is a rest day, kind of. The amusing thing is that Stu phoned last night and wanted to know if I'd like to do Mt Brennan (again) on Sunday. And the thing is??? I'm actually considering it. But this time, I'm taking reinforcements ;-)

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Looking for Lost Ledge in the Summer

On Friday, Cath and I drove and then hiked up to the Lost Ledge cabin, mostly for some exercise and partly to see where we had skied a few times during the winter.

This FSR is becoming much more overgrown now and we had to abandon the truck earlier than expected, adding another hour to our hike. Overall, we had a hike of about 4.5 hours, gained some elevation, had some nice views (once the fog disappeared) and got lots of exercise. Still made it back home in lost of time for a few chores and then a fine anniversary BBQ steak.

Exploring the Koots - 0712 - Rossiter Ridge

Today's destination for the "Sunday Hikers" group was Rossiter Ridge. Up the road from town about 15 minutes and then another 30 to 45 minutes up a steep logging road, the last bit little more than a very rocky, bumpy, steep cat track.... Then a sustained hike up to the ridge which many of us proceeded to climb.

The views were, as usual, excellent in all directions. Close at hand was Mt Brennan, a climb for another day; we could also see Slocan Lake and Kootenay Lake, the Valhallas, Mt Loki, Jackson Basin which we were in just a few days ago.....

The final scramble to the summit was over somewhat exposed, somewhat loose, quite steep rock for a peek over into the next valley.

Some of the route down was over steep snow slopes which we were able to glissade just for some fun. Then the return down the rough track and back home for a well-earned soak and a chance to bring the liquid levels back to normal.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Jackson Basin & Texas Peak

You have to wonder sometimes what's the origin of some peaks. This one is perhaps appropriate as a Post-Independence Day hike - Texas Peak.

It's been pretty hot lately, so we got a relatively early start and after a short drive up to Retallack and up the FSR to Jackson Basin, we started hiking by 8 am. Avalanche debris blocked the road at km 7.5 so that extended our hike by about an hour.

We had a nice hike up to the ridge at the end of Jackson Basin and along it to the eastern end. While my hiking comrades rested on the high point, I scooted over to climb up Texas Peak, about 45 minutes return. On the way back, we descended over more old avalanche debris down a gully that shortened our return significantly. Lots of glacier lilies, paintbrush, mountain avens and spring beauty to brighten the trail.

More pictures can be found on my Picasa album "Summer 2009".

Friday, July 03, 2009

The Post-Canada Day Hike - Fletcher Lake

Another in a series of very hot summer days. Today's objective was Fletcher Lake, one we've seen from a nearby hill before but never hiked to.

As usual, there was 10 km of bumpy, dusty logging road followed by a relatively steep, rough trail to a rather pretty subalpine lake. The topo map and GPS made sure we found the right place to start - trailheads aren't always really well marked in the Koots. Trail conditions would suggest this one's not hiked too often; a bit of trail clearing would be definitely in order. Speaking of which - I forgot my loppers, an essential piece of Kootenay trail hiking equipment. They would have been put to good use today.

Off in the far distance (see photo) is Mt Trafalgar, an objective for another (much longer) day. Today we were back home in time for some reading and a snooze before working on a few other chores.

The Pre-Canada Day Hike - Mt Roberts

The hot summer weather has finally arrived in the Koots. The day before Canada Day we went to Rossland to help celebrate the son-in-law's 30th BD. We took a couple of hours to climb Mt Roberts which is right behind Rossland, next to Granite Mtn and Red Mtn (the local ski resort hills). It was a short hike - only about 3.5 km each way, but fairly steep and a respectable 860 m elevation gain.

Views in all directions were the usual mountain summit's panorama - peaks and valleys in all directions.