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around home, Canada, friends, hiking

More hiking than riding & new animal sightings

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A couple of rides last week, of which the highlight was my first bear sighting. Thankfully, the young black bear was a couple of hundred of metres away from us at the Nordic Center & we saw it first. We hung around at a distance for a little while watching it before altering our intended route so as to avoid provoking it or its mother. Earlier that evening, Alex & I had rode up the road & come down the Reclaimer a lot more confidently than our only previous ride down that trail. Thursday evening was spent taking both of Alex & Megan’s cars to the Mt Shark trailhead in K-Country & leaving one there for us to ride back to Canmore in at the end of our planned hike. Much of the rest of the evening was spent otherwise preparing for our upcoming three-day hike. We were to walk from Sunshine Meadows (over the back of the Sunshine), past Mt Assiniboine & then past Mt Shark to the car. As it’s only about six weeks before the baby is due to arrive, this was planned as being the last big hiking outing for Megan & Alex for a little while.

Friday dawned nice & clear & James took us up to Sunshine Village (he works at Sunshine too), saving us a walk up a big hill. Here’s what the village looks like out of season:

We were walking by 7.45 that morning & quickly up past where the old Strawberry lift used to be (it’s being replaced this off-season with one that was used in the Vancouver Olympics). It was a bit strange walking up ski runs with no snow oblivious to the fact that a few months ago I was skiing down them & then suddenly recognising different parts of the terrain. The trail across the meadows was wide & easy.

As the day was so still, we took a short detour to Rock Isle Lake to have a look – it was worth it.

All along the meadows we were amused by the antics of the multitudes of ground squirrels popping their heads out of their burrows to watch us go by, chasing each other around & generally just running around in an amusing manner. Before long we had a climb up through a few snow drifts (nothing major – definitely not waist deep as Parks staff were advising) & we could look back over the meadows.

Looking the other way, we could see Lake Howard Douglas (foreground) & Citadel Peak (just beyond the lake) & our first view of Mt Assiniboine (largest peak in the centre rear). We next walked up & over Citadel Pass (just to the left of Citadel Peak) – the highest point of our hike (2360m).

On the way there, we looked down & eventually saw Citadel Lake (which hid from us for quite some time).

We lunched at the top of the pass, with a lot of day walkers also thinking it was a good spot – which it was, the view was pretty good. Alex & I scrambled up a bit higher towards the peak & got a great view down towards where we were camping the first night & further on to Assiniboine.

Looking back towards the meadows, one of the small lakes still had a large percentage of its surface in ice.

From the pass it was three hours walking (mostly) down to the valley floor to Porcupine campsite. We were all pretty tired, even though it wasn’t such a difficult walk – Megan carrying a baby, Alex with a super heavy pack, & me carrying a pack with a tent & sleeping mat in it for the first time & just generally weak & not used to carrying a pack. After the first & only rain all day falling as we put up the tents, the rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, purifying water (an involved process with the borrowed pump-filter & UV SteriPen), cooking & eating. A bit later on a couple of English guys from Cheltenham wandered in to camp – they had started at Sunshine Meadows a few days ago & were on their way back from (next to-) Mt Assiniboine. They were able to give us a few pointers on the trail ahead – get through the Valley of Rocks before it gets hot & so on – & I was able to update them on World Cup results. It was a couple of days after I said I would come on this hike that I realised I would miss the final, I was disappointed – although it turns out I didn’t miss much. We hit the hay early (nine-ish) & I slept very well, only briefly woken by a heavy shower of rain when it was still dark. It was a stroke of genius taking my trusty Air NZ eyemask – as it’s only dark at night here from about 10.30 through to 5.00. For most of the first day we crossed over the Alberta – British Columbia border time after time, eventually ending up in BC for the night & the next day & a half.

We got away at about eight o’clock on Saturday morning. It was a climb for thirty-odd minutes away from Porcupine & in to the Valley of Rocks. While we avoided the heat that the guys had had the previous day, it was quite warm & really humid with the overnight rain still sitting around on the foliage. The Valley of Rocks started out rather disappointingly, but eventually the rocks got bigger – but not as big as I expected from various descriptions & not too impressive as they weren’t really standing alone. We surprised a moose (the first I have seen) having its morning drink – that was neat; a little later on we also had a good look at a porcupine (also the first I have seen) stationed in a tree after we happened upon it – they are a lot bigger than I expected.

As we got close to Lake Og (a convenient lunch spot), Assiniboine came back in to view again.

From the lake, we had an easy climb up to Og Meadows – which did take quite a while to get through & it’s for good reason that that walk is nicknamed the Slog of Og.

It threatened to rain on us as we sat on a big rock & watched the ground squirrels try to get up to us. As soon as we came down off our high-spot, the rain took off. We were by this stage getting close to Assiniboine Lodge & the junctions, & therefore signposts, got quite close together. This was a good sign as we only had about four kilometres to go to reach our campsite at Lake Magog – right underneath Assiniboine. Once again, we reached camp at three o’clock. This campsite was a lot bigger with a cooking shelter, about thirty campsites & a few toilets (that were even cleaned daily & had paper). Strangely, none of the sites gave a good view of the mountains. Once tents were pitched, I was keen to pop across to the lake as the sun had reappeared. I wandered off, leaving the others to relax – as I was feeling rather alone with just my water-bottle, camera & bear spray I took to singing the Philosopher’s Song to warn bears of my presence – a song that I realised I knew most of when we broke out in song some time on the Friday. It was a pleasant walk along as far as the trail would take me before I hit too much snow. I was well rewarded too:

Having done fourteen & sixteen kilometres of walking the previous two days, we had 27 km to walk out to the car on Sunday. We were up before everyone else in the campsite – but it wasn’t really that early (6.30-ish). There was a bit of cloud around, so no great early morning photos – but here’s one of the tent I borrowed off Megan – a macpac to go with my pack & most of the clothes I was wearing, not quite sure how that happened.

After briefly detouring to see what the lodge looked like (nothing special), we had an easy climb up to Assiniboine Pass & then back in to Alberta. Most of the rest of the day was spent walking down hill, first steeply down the valley & then reasonable mildly as we followed the Bryant River.

We must have made enough noise playing various alphabet games (first countries, then capital cities, then people of [debatable] historical significance) as although we were in bona fide grizzly country, we did see any. Lunch was before noon again on a convenient bridge, here is the pizza-esque pita bread that was my staple lunch for the trip.

We crossed the Spray River & then had our last big steep climb for about an hour – by now we were all pretty tired (Megan especially) & the final gentle decline to the waiting car took a long time. But 57 km & three days later we made it (still can’t believe Megan managed all that – what a trooper) – what a great weekend & with excellent scenery, weather & company. (There are quite a few more photos, & even some of me, in Alex’s smugmug gallery and also in Megan’s.) We saw another moose on the drive out from the trailhead – very cool.

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, MTB

Canada’s Birthday & all the way to the end of Minnewanka

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Last Thursday (1 July) was Canada’s one-hundred & forty-third birthday & a public holiday – Canada Day (I was surprised to find that Canada, in that respect, is younger than NZ). I opted not to work, unfortunately Megan had to – so it was just Alex & I (from our house) that wandered a block or two down to the Rotarian’s Pancake Breakfast. There was a surprisingly large crowd down at Centennial Park at nine in the morning – as well as the pancakes, there were some fun-runs (an oxymoron if I ever saw one) going on & a few clowns wandering around. The Rotary Club must be well organised as they were pumping out the pancakes & had nifty little implements to dispense the batter on the grills.

I was surprised to see that they were serving beef patties with the pancakes & syrup – I’m used to pancakes & bacon & all sorts of other things, but meat patties? It turned out to be a pretty good combination & after seconds (not sure that four patties that early in the morning is a great idea, but the ride in the afternoon burned them off), we headed out to go & pick up a bed from the other side of town.

(I moved house last weekend, not far – it was great living with Megan & Alex since my arrival here, but it makes perfect sense for me to move out before the baby arrives & keeps me awake all night!) Dropping the bed back at Steve’s (my new flatmate) with the use of his rather shiny & rather large Dodge pick-up, we all headed back to Alex’s to watch the Canada Day Parade. For a small town, Canmore apparently has a pretty good parade. It must be, because wandering down the main street early in the morning the street was lined with chairs that people had put out to reserve a good spot!

Our street was on the parade route (being one back from main street has many advantages), so we manoeuvred the couch on to the balcony, cracked open some beers & sat in the sun amused by the antics of bogans across the road – we still haven’t worked out the equivalent Canadian word for ‘bogan’. The parade ended up being ninety minutes long & there were so many horses & Scottish pipe bands. Unlike the float parades I’m used to seeing, there weren’t any big flat deck trucks (due to the tight corners on the route, we imagine) – just pick-ups, vans & cars.

There were plenty of older guys hooning around in little planes & cars – an Imperial Stormtrooper even made an appearance. Here is also a nice big red shiny ladder unit from the local fire department.

The bogans’ water-bombing acts were still amusing us, especially when the bush fire brigade fought back a little & the youths at the next house but one started lobbing water bombs over the house (more of a cabin really) in between them.

Not feeling particularly motivated to struggle against the holiday traffic or go for an epic ride, we eventually settled on riding to Banff on the Rundle Riverside Trail & then getting a ride back with Megan after she finished work. This ride started off by heading up to the Nordic Center & riding down the main thoroughfare (Banff Avenue) to the end of the park & then continuing on the rather rough trail before hitting the golf course & Banff eventually. Leaving the Nordic Center the trail deteriorated rapidly & was ridiculously rooty & therefore bumpy. The long downhill was great fun & then we were mostly beside the Bow River battling the roots.

Somewhere along here Alex managed to drop his chain & then wrap it around the cranks a bit & then jam it between the rings & the suspension pivots. It was proving difficult to extricate, until I found a fork in my Camelbak that worked a treat – the fork must have been in there for a couple of days, & proved more useful than just a lunch eating utensil. Avoiding stray golf balls we were soon at the falls below Banff Springs – not nearly as impressive as the Huka Falls – but with just as many Asian tourists.

Riding through Banff, Alex & I managed to get separated in the madness – we met again near the start of their parade. It turned out the times for the parades must have been staggered for good reason as we saw a lot of the same people doing the same thing.

One difference that we saw was the inclusion of a Brewster Icefield (Glacier) Bus that had difficultly getting around the corner on to Banff Avenue.

I got my token Canada flag & we were off to meet Megan & go home. The last part of Canada Day festivities for me was the small fireworks display – not nearly as grand as the July 4 displays I saw in San Diego last year, but the setting of the mountains & the sound echoing off them was pretty neat. As it is just past the longest day, the display didn’t start until almost 10.40.

As I mentioned, I moved house over the weekend – not too onerous a task considering I don’t have a lot of possessions with me. The weekend’s big ride was to go back to Minnewanka (Alex & I rode & got quite wet there four weeks ago) & get to the end of the lake. It was quite a cloudy start to Saturday & by the time I watched the Germans thrash the Argentinians & Alex bled his rear brakes again it was 11 o’clock when we left the car park. The big (& only real) climb was much easier in the dry & we met very few walkers at the start of the trail. It was supposed to be thirty-five kilometres to the end (& thirty-five back obviously), but we made good time & the turnaround point ended up being ten kilometres less than we expected. We had lunch at the turnaround point – after climbing over a lot of driftwood. The last part of the trail before lunch was a lot of clambering & carrying of bikes over some rocks; but also around here the summer flowers had started to proliferate the undergrowth (Alex put a bit off effort in to identifying some of those that we saw).

The sun even graced with its presence on the way back, which was nice. Once we got back to the Warden’s Hut (where we turned around last time) we started to see a lot more riders – our fitness must be improving as we weren’t passed all day & did get to pass quite a few others.

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, hiking, MTB

The sun stuck around for a bit

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Yes, yes – the rain has gone away (obviously listening to little Johnny) & stayed away for most of the last ten days. I’m still working weekdays at the Banff Center – although that project is supposed to wind up this week, so with a bit of luck I’ll get some more work after that. I’ve been riding so much I’m having trouble remembering the rides last week. Tuesday last was the Highline trail again, I think. We climbed up to the trail proper from Quarry Lake & rode west to east. This route up was pretty good – not all switchbacks & all manageable in the middle ring (for me at least) – it also looked like a gnarly ride down that would flow together nicely. This was a shorter ride than riding up the Three Sisters way or riding up to Riders of Rohan – we were back in an hour & a half. Still a good ride – & Alex seems to be keeping up with me a lot more on the downhills. It’s amazing what a regular riding & a decent pair of tyres will do for the confidence.

I went & saw the tree that I rather ignominiously shoulder-barged in the rain on Friday after work. We were back at the G8 trail on the other side of the Bow Valley. This time we managed to string the loop together in the correct way & it was really quite enjoyable. Of the four rides that line the hills on the Canmore town limits, this is by far the easiest with not a lot of climbing (comparatively speaking). But that doesn’t make it any less fun & a great way to unwind after the week at work. We crossed the walking trail up to Grotto (which we hiked up a few weeks ago) & headed out to the extremities of the trail that we didn’t find last time, enjoyed some nice sweeping corners down a small gully, looped around & headed back to Cougar Creek (the starting point) before cruising home via a small jump park. There were plenty of easy log rides to do, & a quite a few jumps of course. The jump park was overrun with ground squirrels, which were quite amusing.

A group of seven of us went for a little hike on Saturday afternoon. Driving past Banff on the Transcanada, we turned west at Castle Junction on to Highway 93 to walk to Arnica Lake. It was only five kilometres to the lake & only 350 m (climbing) – but having to descend first to Vista Lake, lots to look at & a larger group we took our time.

Looking back across the Bow River to Castle Mountain

The alpine Arnica Lake still had a layer of ice on it – which we amused ourselves with trying to land rocks on it, alas it was too thin.

After watching most of England’s unfortunate exit from the second round, Alex & I headed back to the Heart Creek parking lot. We had a slightly more ambitious loop planned for another beautiful Sunday. We started by retracing our path of two weeks previous & heading up to Jewell Pass. We never worked out why we saw so few people out & about – only a few climbers in the parking lot & a couple of hikers on the trail early on were all we saw before we reached the top of the pass. Having been rather uncomfortable on the climb from the recently inflated rear tyre, I let a little air out before what I knew was going to be another fantastic blast down Jewell Pass – & it was, unfortunately I got a snakebite half way down – grrrr. After changing that tube, we carried on down to the power lines & finally met some more people out enjoying the countryside.

Having found another geocache, it was a ten kilometre ride up the valley to Nakiska Ski Area. Mostly we followed the power company access track, which was mostly pretty annoying gravelly rutty uphill. We could see over to Baldy Pass which we rode over last weekend – it’s over there just to the left of the right-hand peak:

Getting quite hungry by this time, we followed the cross-country skiing trails up to a bridge that we spied on the map boards (a quick side note – many of the recreational areas around here have great little & simple map boards at most intersections, so convenient). It was a long climb (mostly because we were hungry I suspect) to the bridge – & the bridge wasn’t even a bridge, it was a culvert with no troll underneath (the falls just downstream were called Troll Falls). Nonetheless, we had lunch & carried on up to Skogan Pass. It was reasonably gentle climb (middle ring – all day in fact) up to 2150 m over seven or eight kilometres of the road.

After passing through a little residual snow we took the little side trail up to the top of the pass for some great views over the Bow Valley. There is Canmore down in the distance:

The Three Sisters – centre & just right of – not quite as impressive from this angle

It was mostly power company access road for the descent – with a little bit of annoying climb to mix it up a bit. It was a good fast descent – my bike computer had somehow come back to life – I spent a lot of the drop over 45 km/h & almost hit sixty at one stage. In parts the trail narrowed a bit & near the bottom we met a couple of groups of hikers – thankfully on wide open sections where we could see them in plenty of time to slow down a little.Back down near the TransCanada highway, we still had a little way to go to get back to the car. Given the choice of the highway or the TransCanada Trail – we took the singletrack. It started off pretty mellow, & then started climbing up above the highway & got quite tricky with lots of roots, rocks & steps. By this time we were getting pretty tired (over five hours out by then) & a lot of the sketchy looking obstacles were walked over. There was some neat soft moss around that was good for resting on:

Pushing up a long rockface for a minute or so I was glad to reach the top, but also noticed my recently replaced rear tube was getting a bit soft. Stupidly, I ignored it as it wasn’t long until we reached the car. Of course, I got another pinch flat within fifty metres. Alex left me to patch it alone as he seemed to think he was going a lot slower than me. I patched two holes & then enjoyed the singletrack until we hit more fire road & a big climb & I noticed that my tyre needed pumping up again (I found a third hole on the inside of the tube in a different place this afternoon) – this was just getting frustrating. I eventually made it back to the car shortly after Alex – that last section ended up being close to seven kilometres of the most technically demanding trail we had had all day, not the best when you are already a bit tired. So in the end that was a six and a half hour adventure, fifty kilometres, 1600 m of climbing & two flats to keep my hand in at pumping up tubes.

To round the weekend off with a bit more exercise, we had a short game of social soccer on Sunday evening – can’t think why I was a bit sore climbing up the stairs to the roof this morning at work.

around home, bikes, Canada, friends, MTB

Rain, rain, rain, rain, sun & two rides

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As you may have guessed from the title – it rained most of last week (Mon. – Thurs.). This meant that I had plenty of time, finally, in the evenings to get stuck in to reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I got it out of the library quite a few weeks ago & all 1250 pages have been mostly sitting around unopened. It’s quite good so far – about a quarter of the way through – but not quite as action-packed as the Three Musketeers (same author). But now the sun is out a bit more, it’ll be ages before I finish it.

The All Whites’ first game at the FIFA World Cup was on Tuesday morning, so I was up at 5.30 to watch it before work – it was just as well I didn’t leave at 7.10 as I usually do. All those who watched the whole game were rewarded by that very exciting equaliser. Also of note last week, was the visitor we had at two o’clock on Saturday morning. I was woken by a banging noise coming from the laundry – after it didn’t stop, I decided I had better get up & check it out. Alex also had the same idea & we were a little mystified by the noise coming out of the drier (which we haven’t used yet). The noise was explained when a ferret poked its head around the corner of the washer. As the laundry is in the middle of the building, we were struggling to work out how it had got inside. All was revealed when we harried it outside & it promptly when through a small hole in the wall & walked back up the duct to the drier to thrash around some more & then reappear. It was really friendly & tame, so Megan & Alex made a little bed for it & it slept in the bathroom the rest of the night. We quite enjoyed its company (very well behaved for a ferret – no biting or hissing) for most of Saturday, until we finally tracked down its owners – friends of friends living a couple of blocks away. By then I was awake & hungry, so I stayed up & watched the All Blacks thrash Wales in the second half at Carisbrook.

Quite tired on Saturday morning, so it was spent watching football & cleaning my bike (got rid of the horrible grinding noise from my bottom bracket when it was under load – very dusty in there, strange considering I only greased it a month previous). Alex & I headed back to K-Country for another ride that afternoon. We were going to do Baldy Pass – on the opposite side of Barrier Lake to where we rode last weekend. We climbed up a forestry road for about ninety minutes – it wasn’t too steep (except a little singletrack at the top of the pass), but we did have to clamber under & over a lot of fallen trees. This part of the ride wasn’t at all scenic – recent logging had opened up the view a bit, but also left a lot of debris.

Stopping briefly at the top of the pass for a rest & a bit more geocaching, it wasn’t long before we were heading down through some nice sharp, loose rocks.

The trail down then turned into another great test of roots & rocks & not-falling-off-the-side. It was technical enough for the first part, there was never really any place to let go & blast down – but eventually it started flowing & I could get some speed up & still remain in control. As we got close to the creek bed it flattened out a lot & was good pedalling fun. For our nice climb, we got a good twenty minutes of bliss before hitting the road & riding back to the car. On the other side of Barrier Lake, you can see Jewel Pass, which we so enjoyed last weekend, & to the right of that Barrier Mountain – which was a decent climb well rewarded by more great downhill.

Saturday evening was a barbecue for James’s thirtieth birthday. A good night with plenty of good company, food (Zara’s crab sauce was incredible & didn’t last long), beer & cake. I was well full by the end of it – I skipped the bars, as I wanted to get up & watch the All Whites-Italy game on Sunday morning. It was well worth getting up for – who would have thought we would be 1-0 up so early & then manage to hold off waves of attack for the last sixty or so minutes. I popped in to Calgary for some new tyres & on my return, Alex & I biked three-quarters of the way up to Whiteman’s Gap to try out another downhill trail – the Reclaimer (which just reminds me of moving coal & PC around & in to the Ironplant). Here’s a video of the trail, obviously taken early spring as there is still quite a bit of snow lying around. We got a bit more downhill out of it for our thirty minutes of climbing – as we were a bit slower going down. Those first two rocky corners were a bit tricky as they are steeper than they look (in fact, most of the trail is steeper than it looks on a helmet cam), but after that it was all ridable for me. From the end of the trail, we cut over to the Nordic Center for a few more trails (making up as we went along), before hitting our favourite way down from the Nordic Center to town. I was pleased to actually clear a tabletop or two, my doubles need a bit more work though. The hairy corner just above a pond was a lot less tricky after a race on the trail last weekend helped to smooth it out a bit.