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Kettle Valley Railway: Portia to Iago +

| June 1st, 2008 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

Photo Album

KVR: Portia to Iago Photoset on flickr.com

May 31, 2008

On Saturday, I hiked approximately 20 km (return) on the abandoned Kettle Valley Railway right of way with 17 members of the Chilliwack Hiking Club. The day was hot and sunny. The trail started out in a southerly direction on a pipeline access road. Not too far along, the trail diverted left onto the old Kettle Valley Railway right of way along the slopes of the mountain. On this stretch we saw old retaining walls, a pretty waterfall, telegraph poles and concrete bridge piers. The we rejoined the pipeline access road and took a snack break just below the road/trail at the site of a small old log shed. Some of my fellow hikers believed that this was the site of a station of some sort for the Kettle Valley Railway. As I was sitting down, I saw a salamander of some sort scurry under a rock, but try as I might, I couldn’t find it again to take a picture.

(more…)

Mount Robson and Berg Lake 2006

| September 6th, 2006 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

I just returned from a trip to Berg Lake in Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia. The weather was perfect – blue skies, and no clouds! Here are the details.

September 1-4, 2006

Pre-trip accomodations: Robson Meadows Campground

Photo Album

Mount Robson 2006 Photoset on flickr.com

Friday, September 1

Miette River, Jasper National Park. David and I stopped beside the highway just west of Jasper townsite to have lunch en route to Mount Robson. After eating, I wandered over to the river to see what I could with my new camera.

Mount Robson as seen from our campsite in Robson Meadows campground. David and I arrived early enough to secure trail permits for our group of nine hikers for the next day.

Fraser River, Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia. This west-facing view is from the bridge over the river on the road heading south from Robson Meadows campground. A trail leads from this location to Overlander Falls.

Overlander Falls, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Fraser River, Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia. This west-facing view is from the bridge over the river on the road heading south from Robson Meadows campground. A trail leads from this location to Overlander Falls.

Sunset on Mount Robson

David and I left Edmonton around 8am in order to get to the visitor information centre at Mount Robson in time to get backcountry campsites. We arrived at 1pm (all times mountain daylight time) to find that we could only get enough campsites at the Robson Pass campground. Robson Pass campground is 23 km from the highway, making this the longest hike I have ever attempted. After securing backcountry campsites, and front country campsites in the Robson Meadows campground, David and I hiked the short trail to Overlander Falls. The walk was along the Fraser river, but although we could hear the river, we rarely saw it through the thick forest. Capturing the falls on my Pentax digital SLR camera proved to be an interesting challenge. There’s still much I need to learn about the SLR camera. Following our warm-up hike, we returned to the campground to relax until the others arrived. In the evening, I wandered back over to the visitor center to take some sunset shots of Mount Robson.

Saturday, September 2

Kinney Lake, Mount Robson Provincial Park

White Falls, Berg Lake Trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Falls of the Pool, Berg Lake Trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Emperor Falls, Berg Lake Trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Mt. Robson and Mist Glacier as seen from a location just upstream of Emperor Falls Campground in Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Columbia
Photo is posted on Wikipedia’s Mount Robson entry

Berg Lake, Berg Glacier and Mount Robson, Mount Robson Provincial Park

I decided that we needed to start hiking by 8:30am in order to make it to our campsite by supper time. That meant waking everyone up at 6am Mountain Daylight time (or 5am Pacific!). It was still pitch black when I crawled out of the tent to rouse the others. Breakfast was devoured, gear was shared and packed and we were off for the trailhead. Another flurry of activity followed at the trailhead as everyone got ready to start hiking. We set off at 8:40 under clear blue skies. Two hours later, we stopped for a snack at Kinney Lake campground. We reached Whitehorn campground around noon for and stopped for lunch. Then we tackled the Emperor Hill and passed White Falls, Falls of the Pool and finally reached Emperor Falls. We stopped at Emperor Falls long enough to “take a shower” in the icy cold spray. Then we tackled the last hill before the trail levels off. After a stop to recharge our batteries at Emperor Falls campground, we set off for the remaining 7 km of the day’s hike. Mist Glacier came into view shortly and from then on, our eyes were drawn to the “back side” of Mount Robson and the turquoise waters of Berg Lake. As we crossed Hargreaves creek, we encountered a flock of seven Harlequin ducks – the most I’ve ever seen in one place. We finally reached our campground around 6:30pm.

Stats: Distance: 23 km; Elevation Gain: 800 m; Hiking time: 10 hours including breaks.

Sunday, September 3:

Mount Robson reflected in a stream near Robson Pass, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Robson Lake (unofficial name), Mount Robson Provincial Park. I’ve given it this name for the simple reason that the lake at the toe of a glacier often gets the same name as the glacier feeding it.

Robson Glacier as seen from the Snowbird Pass trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Mount Robson and the Robson Glacier, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Brian in Snowbird Pass overlooking the Reef Icefield, Jasper National Park

Mount Robson from the Snowbird Pass trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Saturday morning, I let my fellow hikers sleep until 7am! Nice guy eh? We had a 20km round trip hike ahead of us, which involved a lot of elevation change, so I figured we better get an early start. Following breakfast, we headed south on the Snowbird Pass route. We quickly reached the unnamed lake at the toe of the Robson Glacier and then the climbing started. Some sections are very steep with loose rock as the trail surface. Eventually, we reached a high moraine on the east side of the Robson Glacier. At the point the the trail to Snowbird pass turns east, we stopped to have lunch. The trail then passes through meadows en route to the pass. On a previous trip, I lost track of the number of marmots. This time I only saw one. I also saw a couple of Ptarmigan (snow birds). Eventually we reached the pass (at least five of the nine on the trip did) and were able to look out over the Reef icefield. The return trip was much quicker than the ascent to the pass, but it did involve some involuntary sitting on the loose rocks I mentioned earlier, which I can still feel three days later as I write this. The steep downhill did a good job on my left knee. I’m not entirely sure what’s wrong, but if it doesn’t stop bothering me in short order, I will be getting it checked.

Stats: Distance: about 20 km. Elevation Gain/Loss: 800 m.

Monday, September 4:

Mount Robson reflected in a pond near Robson Pass, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Mount Robson, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Emperor Falls, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Yes, actually, we did see this duck. Flip back several dozen photos and you’ll find a flock of them.

Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar causing a hiker traffic jam, Berg Lake trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

Kinney Lake, Berg Lake Trail, Mount Robson Provincial Park

We woke at 6:30am, and were on the trail at 8:40am. The weather was still nice, but there was a high smoke cloud partially obscuring the sun. We kept our breaks to a minimum so we could get back to the city at a reasonable hour. For the most part, the hike out was uneventful, but with my left knee still bothering me, I didn’t make the best possible time. But as I was hiking with a group, it didn’t matter too much as there’s always faster and slower people in a group. We lunched at Whitehorn campground again, and stopped for a snack at Kinney Lake campground. Shortly after leaving Kinney Lake, we had a wildlife encounter! We reached the trailhead around 4pm or so. After “washing up” with icy cold river water, and changing into clean dry clothes, I felt civilized. Then a brief stop for pop and chips at the gift shop before hitting the highway en route to supper at Boston Pizza in Hinton. Slow service there meant that we didn’t get back to Edmonton until 11pm. Still better than my previous visit to Mount Robson which resulted in a 1am return. All in all, an excellent trip!

Stats: Distance: 23 km; Elevation Loss: 800 m; Hiking time: 7 hours including breaks.

Total Stats: Distance : about 68 km. Total Gain/Loss: 1600m or 1.6km!

Edited: 2008-02-24 – Updated photo links to Flickr and edited the story.

Radium Area Dayhikes

| August 22nd, 2005 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

I just came back from an interesting day-hiking trip near Radium Hot Springs, BC. We had a great time in the beautiful sunshine. Here are the details of the trip.

August 20-21, 2005

Accomodations: Misty River Lodge aka Radium Hot Springs International Hostel

Participants

Phil, Mahiri, Maureen D., Celeste, Maureen M., Dolores, Ravi, Donald, Madeleine, and me.

Photo Albums

Lake of the Hanging Glacier 2005 Photoset on flickr.com | Stanley Glacier 2005 Photoset on flickr.com | [piclens-lite-link]

Saturday, August 20 – Lake of the Hanging Glacier

Saturday dawned clear and cloudless and the forecast was calling for +30C as we set off from the Hostel. The day’s adventures had begun! First off was the drive to the trailhead. We headed downhill towards the mill in Radium and turned off at the entrance to the mill onto the Horsethief Forestry Service Road. The first stretch of the road was a reasonably good gravel road. After driving for a while, and crossing several one-lane bridges, the road got quite rough. It looked like some of it had been recently reconstructed. The going was quite slow as the “gravel” got bigger and bigger. Eventually we came to a shallow stream washing over the road about 44 km in. We all piled out of the cars to see if this obstacle was navigable. After piling some more rocks into the steepest part of the drop to the creek, Phil and Maureen D. ventured their cars across the stream and we all got back in. A short distance later, we repeated the process as we crossed a dry stream bed. Then again as we passed a large puddle in the road. Finally we reached the trailhead, 49.4 km and almost two hours from Radium. Now we could start hiking! The first part of the trail was actually a detour from the parking lot up and around a washed out section of the old forestry road and then back down to the same road. As we hiked along the flatish old road through open (logged) terrain we caught a couple of glimpses of a waterfall on Horsethief creek. After climbing up and over a low ridge (the same one the waterfall cut through) we reached a bridge over Horsethief creek. From there, the climb began in earnest. We hiked uphill alongside a raging torrent for quite a while. Eventually we reached Lake of the Hanging Glacier after 8 km and 3 hours of hiking. In a word, Spectacular! We rested on the shore while we ate our lunches and watched the mini-tsunami come washing in. These waves looked like the were going to wash over the rocks right to our feet, but as the trickled in amongst the stones of the shore, the waves just dispersed. Ravi decided to brave the icy water as he tried to retrieve an iceberg that had run aground on the lake bottom. Along the hike out, we encountered a bunch of angry wasps and three of us were stung five times. That hurt like a [censored]. After applying After Bite we continued uneventfully back to the trailhead. Then came the reverse of the morning drive and a 8:30PM return to the hostel. The only difference was that the morning’s puddle had turned into a much larger puddle as a small creek was washing over the road. A few splashy minutes later, we resumed our drive home. After a leisurly supper at the hostel, we adjourned to the Radium Hot Springs pool to restore our aching muscles.

Recommendation: Take a high-clearance vehicle like a SUV or pickup.

Stats: Distance: 16 km; Elevation Gain/Loss: 670 m; Hiking time: 7 hours round trip

Sunday, August 21 – Stanley Glacier:

Our original plan for Sunday was to hike to Jumbo Pass in the mountains southwest of Invermere. We decided to change to a different trail because of the long drive over Forest Service roads given the condition of the road the previous day. Unfortunately this meant cancelling the Environmental aspect of the trip. We looked at various trails between Radium Hot Springs and Banff and settled on the Stanley Glacier trail. The trail is in an area that has been burned by forest fires three times in the last 37 years (1967, 2001 and 2003). Some areas were missed by each fire, so the area is a patchwork of snags, deadfall and still living forest. The burned areas were carpeted with wildflowers (fireweed and a purple daisy-like flower predominated). The trail climbs steadily from the highway up the Stanley creek valley. We stopped at the end of the official trail to have lunch before heading back to our cars and the drive home to Edmonton. The valley was very beautiful and quite busy.

Stats: Distance: 10 km; Elevation Gain/Loss: 300 m.

Total Stats: Distance: 26 km; Elevation Gain/Loss: 970 m.

Environmental Notes: The original environmental aspect of this trip was to visit Jumbo Pass to try and see where the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort will be built if approved. The Jumbo Creek Conservation Society (JCCS) is the group fighting the proposed resort. Here are some pieces of information that I wanted to sort through on the proposed site:

• The resort is named after the Jumbo Glacier (part of which is the Hanging Glacier at Lake of the Hanging Glacier) and Jumbo Pass.
• JCCS claims it is pristine wilderness. The developer wants to build his community on an old sawmill site in a valley that has been logged and mined.
• JCCS claims the resort will be be built in Jumbo Pass. The developer says that the resort community will not be visible from the pass.

And on it goes…If you want to read more, please visit the websites of the opponents. Here are the addresses:
Developer: http://www.jumboglacierresort.com
Environmentalists: http://www.jumbowild.com

Edited: 2006-06-25 – Updated photo album links.
Edited: 2008-02-27 – Updated photo links to Flickr and updated the story.

Backpacking the Iceline trail

| July 18th, 2005 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

I just came back from a backpacking trip to the Iceline trail in Yoho National Park. We had a little bit of rain to dampen our spirits, but only scattered showers on Saturday afternoon and evening.

July 16-17, 2005

Pre-trip accomodations: Whiskey Jack Hostel, Yoho National Park

Photo Album

Iceline Trail 2005 Photoset on flickr.com | [piclens-lite-link]

Saturday, July 16

Got up early. Had Breakfast. Got ready to hike. Started hiking – nice and level! For all of 50 metres! Then the trail started climbing. And climbing. And climbing. It’s a long way up from the valley floor to the Iceline trail. The roar of Takakkaw Falls was our constant companion during the climb, even when we couldn’t see it through the trees. Once you reach the “level” of the Iceline, you find that it’s not very level at all. The trail undulates up and down around and across glacial moraines for most of the distance. We had some showers during our hike so we got a little damp. We paused for lunch beside a glacial stream. When we finally reached the last moraine and started down, the first touch of colour we saw was a clump of bright red Indian Paintbrush. We made a brief visit to the Stanley Mitchell hut in the Little Yoho valley before proceeding a short distance further to our campground for the night.

Stats: Distance: 10.5 km; Elevation Gain: 700 m; Elevation Loss: 180 m.

Sunday, July 17

Sunday was waterfall day. Laughing Falls. Angel’s Staircase. Point Lace Falls. Takakkaw Falls. Plus cascades from the heights above that had no name. Plus several that were not named as waterfalls, but only as creeks. Fairy Creek. Whiskey Jack Creek. The Yoho Valley is a wet place as it is located just west of the continental divide. The hike out went pretty quick. Virtually all down hill at a gentle grade, with plenty of opportunities to pause and view waterfalls. We had left our vehicles at the Whiskey Jack hostel parking lot with the permission of the manger on duty when we left. When we returned, a different hostel manager threatened us with towing as we weren’t allowed to park there unless staying at the hostel. Obviously there was some communication problems between hostel mangers. Our vehicles were where we left them, and we quickly packed up and headed for home.

Stats: Distance: 10.5 km; Elevation Loss: 520 m.

Total Stats: Distance: 21 km; Elevation Gain/Loss: 700 m.

Edited: 2006-06-25 – Updated photo album links.
Edited: 2008-02-24 – Updated photo links to Flickr and wrote the story.

Mt. Assiniboine

| August 6th, 2003 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

Some photos of the trip:

August 1-5, 2003

Pre-trip camping: Restwell Trailer Park in Canmore
Photo Album:
[cpg_albumrand:26,6]

[cpg_imagethumb:26,2003-08-01-17HowardDouglasLakeAndCitadelPeak.jpg]Friday, August 1: Description to come. Distance hiked: 14.4 km. Elevation gained: 266 m. Elevation lost: 661 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:26,2003-08-02-03LookingBackNearValleyOfTheRocks.JPG]Saturday, August 2: Description to come. Distance hiked: 14.9 km. Elevation gained: 365 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:26,2003-08-03-11StormOverMountAssiniboine.JPG]Sunday, August 3: Description to come. Distance hiked: approx 14 km. Elevation gained and lost: 583 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:26,2003-08-04-02LakeMagogAndMountAssiniboine.JPG]Monday, August 4: Description to come. Distance hiked: 13.9 km. Elevation gained: 230 m. Elevation lost: 642 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:26,2003-08-05-11Brian.PNG]Tuesday, August 5: Description to come. Distance hiked: 13.3 km. Elevation lost: 28 m. Elevation gained: 43 m.

Total distance hiked: 70.5 km. Total elevation gained: 1487 m. Total elevation lost: 1914 m.

Edited: 2006-06-25 – Added photo album links.

Kaufmann Lake

| June 30th, 2003 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

Some photos of the trip:

June 28-29, 2003

Pre-trip accomodations: Castle Mountain hostel

Photo Album:
[cpg_albumrand:25,6]

[cpg_imagethumb:25,2003-06-28-11KaufmannLake.jpg]Saturday, June 28: We (Brent, Terri, Russ, Celeste and I) met at the Marble Canyon trail head at 8:45 and set off hiking around 9:15. We had a beautiful, blue sky day. The Tokumm Creek valley was very green and lush. The avalanche slopes were particularly beautiful and green.^* We hiked quite a way up the valley passing the junction with the trail to Fay Hut and the recently removed Tokumm Creek campground. We finally stopped for lunch near a snow bridge spanning Tokumm Creek – this was the remnants of a winter avalanche. After lunch, all that remained was the final climb to Kaufmann Lake. This is one of the steeper trails I have climbed in the Rockies. The heat of the day certainly didn’t help. Once we reached the top, we saw the incredible vista of Kaufmann Lake framed by the back side of the peaks around Moraine Lake. Distance hiked: 15.1 km. Elevation gained: 578 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:25,2003-06-29-07TokummCreekValley.jpg]Sunday, June 29: We hiked out to the trail head on another blue sky day. It was an uneventful hike out. Distance hiked: 15.1 km. Elevation lost: 578 m.

Total distance hiked: 30.2 km. Total elevation gained and lost: 578 m.

^*Additional Notes: The entire Tokumm Creek valley, along with the Kaufmann Lake area and nearby Fay Hut were destroyed burned by forest fire around August 1, 2003. I count myself lucky to be one of the last people who saw the area in it’s green state before it burned.

Edited: 2006-06-25 – Added photo album links.

Mount Robson / Berg Lake

| August 6th, 2002 | Comments Off | Outdoors, Photography

Some photos of the trip:

August 2-5, 2002

Pre-trip camping: Robson Meadows campground.

Participants: Debbie, Suzanne, Faye, Jon, Brent, Terri, Rene, Leila, Glenn and me.

Photo Album:
[cpg_albumrand:23,6]

[cpg_imagethumb:23,Robson2002_004.jpg]Friday, August 2: Glenn and I started our day at the cafe beside the visitor’s center with a hearty breakfast. The rest of the group slowly met in the restaurant as well. Finally, we drove up the road to the trailhead and got underway. We started up the trail and soon encountered the remains of a late season avalanche – very icy to walk on. We continued on to Kinney Lake and along the east shore to the Kinney Lake campground where we had our first major break of the day. Following our break, we headed on up the trail – up being the operative word. The trail from Kinney Lake to Whitehorn has the first of two major elevation gains on this trail, gaining 143 metres in less than 4 kilometres. We paused for lunch at Whitehorn campground. After leaving Whitehorn, the real elevation gain begins, gaining 503 metres in 4.5 kilometres. In the process we passed White Falls, Falls of the Pool and Emperor Falls each of which provided short breaks in the unrelenting climb. Finally we reached Emperor Falls campground and the trail flattened out substantially. We pushed on to Marmot campground at Berg Lake where we camped for the night. Mount Robson did not show his head but the glaciers spilling down the north slopes of the mountain were fabulous. Distance Hiked: 18.1 km. Elevation Gained: 784 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:23,Robson2002_037.jpg]Saturday, August 3: We broke camp and moved 2 kilometres along the shore of Berg Lake while taking in the view of Mount Robson with every break in the trees. After setting up our tents on recently vacated tent sites, and stashing our food in the Hargreaves shelter’s food storage bins, we set off on a day hike to Snowbird Pass. The trail along the Robson Glacier was more of a boulder climbing expedition until we got above the moraine on the east side of the glacier. Eventually we reached a relatively level area overlooking the glacier so we stopped to have lunch. After lunch, we climbed up through a cliff band beside a waterfall to the meadows below Snowbird Pass. As one of the trail guides said, the meadows were “marmot infested.” One marmot was bold enough to come right up and lick my gaiters. I have never seen as many marmots anywhere else. We crossed the meadows and began the final climb to Snowbird Pass. The view from the pass was of the Reef Icefield in Jasper National Park. On the way back down, we encountered a thunderstorm as we dropped down the cliff by the waterfall. With no shelter to be had, the risk of being struck by lightning was quite high. Mount Robson was not very cooperative in showing its peak – although there were a few glimpses. Distance hiked: 2.1 + 21.6 km. Elevation gained and lost: 779 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:23,Robson2002_057.jpg]Sunday, August 4: We hiked towards Robson Pass until we found the trail leading up hill to Mumm Basin (named after the Mumm of champagne fame) at the Robson Pass campground. The trail (if you can call it that) headed straight up the mountain side. We saw several instances of recently eaten vegatation (including cow parsnip – a favorite of grizzly bears) so we made lots of noise. We paused for a group photo at the Interprovincial Boundary Survey marker – placed in 1924. Once we reached the high point on the trail, the trail began to slowly drop down back towards our campground. When we got to the junction that would let us head back to camp or continue on to the Hargreaves Glacier, we chose to head back down to our camp along Toboggan Creek. We had our evening meal outdoors because the weather was nice (rather than in the shelter). The best view of Mount Robson I had was when I got up to go to the bathroom during the night. The sky was clear and cloudless, the peak was visible, and the stars were shining. The situation would sure change by morning. Distance hiked: 10 km. Elevation gained and lost: 457 m.

[cpg_imagethumb:23,Robson2002_073.jpg]Monday, August 5: We woke to find snow on our tents. By the time we finished breakfast, the snow had melted in the vicinity of the campground but the snow line was not much above us. Fortunately the worst of the precipitation was past. As we passed Marmot campground on our hike out to the highway, we encountered a wind driven snow squall. Visibility was poor, and the wind was biting. Fortunately the storm passed quickly, and the rest of the hike out was uneventful weather wise. We stopped for lunch at Whitehorn campground and had brief breaks at Emperor Falls campground and Kinney Lake campgrounds. The last few kilometres were really hard on my feet – each step was painful in the soles of my feet. Once we reached the parking lot and got in the cars, we drove to Jasper where we stopped at Jasper Pizza Place for supper. I got home around 12:30 in the morning. Total Distance Hiked: 20.2 km. Elevation Lost: 784 m.

Total Distance Hiked: 72 km. Total Elevation Gained: 2020 m.

Edited: 2006-06-25 – Added photo album links.