Canadian Rockies

The picture of me outside the overnighting hut was taken when it was about 42 degF and misty ... it did clear. I had climbed up 3 miles to get here and gained 1800' ... it was pretty tough ... did it in about an hour. That'll teach me to ask 21 year old info center girls what their favorite hikes are! This was a partial hike up to the Mckinney hut near the Spencer Mountain area in Valemount.

Next shot is a view of alpine with so many colors ... this one I shot at f22 (stopped all the way down for max depth of field) ... caught the flavor of the Canadian Rockies perfectly I thought.

The snow shot is for my mom ... I was at about 7000' in the bow mtn area and this was just a brief side trip off the road (Sept 10th :))

Next was a cloud detail somewhere along the icefields parkway ... the shape just caught me ... almost pensive ... good shot for a background on your computer if you are writing perhaps?

Biking was shot in a traffic jam just east of Yoho NP ... I have only used the bike one day ... but as I have now transitioned south there should be more opportunities soon (Castlegar). I'm currently in Revelstoke ... apparently some of the best skiing in Canada can be had here ... it starts snowing mid-Oct. Lots of bears here at the moment ... I heard one sniffing a few hundred yards from my tent last night and the whole town is in the center of their "bear season" with trees being destroyed in almost every yard!!

The next shot is in Yoho NP ... this so reminded me of a castle (perhaps with a trapped princess within) when I saw it at dusk a few nights ago.

The wolf's name is Wily and he is the Omega wolf (the one who babysits the young-uns ... almost like a friendly uncle) with Crystal our instructor. I have also included a shot of wolf body language so you can interpret their behaviour the next time you meet one :)

Wolves are really social and friendly ... probably closest to us in terms of their social bonding.

I am enjoying my wanderings ... and chat to several warm people every day now. In Canada there seems to be a greater awareness of the need for proper eco-management. I am starting to truly travel serendiptiously ... following every whim (almost). Now that I am living from my heart, instead of pretending to be an engineer, I am so much happier.

Heading south from here (raining a bit today) tomorrow to new campgrounds and a ferry ride :) ... free at last!

Wells Gray Provincial Park :)

I finally made it to the park and am having a blast. The 1st night I crashed at a B&B run by a 75 yr old lady named Clemence (French) ... the fifth photo is the view from the balcony the next morning. I almost felt like one of the family and we chatted and laughed for hours before I had to sleep (at 8p!). The previous evening I'd been kept awake by trains at Steelhead Park campsite (really need some earplugs). The view is of Dutch Lake ... apparently the lake is only big enough to support one nesting pair of loons ... so a battle was fought for it.

The falls is Helmlecken Falls (141m ~ 3x Niagra). There are many falls in the park, but this one's the highest. OK the boat shot is from my own personal jet-boat tour of Clearwater Lake heading as far into the park as I can get easily. The lake is 1200' deep in places where a glacier dug out a huge boulder a mile long and several hundred feet thick.

There is a picture of me next to an old Shepherder's Hut at nearly 6000' on the way to Trophy Mountain ... I climbed up to this from about 5 km away in an hour. I also included a detail of the hut and if you look carefully you can see the sleeping bench near the back. It won't last too many more years ... the logs are starting to rot.

As I came down from this hike I found three ladies (40 year old or greater) hiking up with full 60 lb packs to overnight further up on the mountain ... they were concerned that their might be other campers ahead of them and I could tell them from the tracks that only one person was ahead of them. When I got down I got introduced to Sparky a labrador collie ... who really wanted to walk ... but had to wait for his master Bob to be ready ... so in the meantime he tried my car's front seat out for size :) Bob and I and his mom swappped stories for a while ... with me finishing by encouraging them to keep this wilderness wild ... there are a lot of people with their eyes on the resources ... everything from dams to uranium mining.

I now know why I'm up here ... to learn to discern and follow God's leading without hesitation or question ... and as I'm practicising this ... so life becomes more and more fun and easy to live :) It becomes easier each day.

Next onto Jasper/Banff/Yoho/Glacier ... probably Monday ... there is one more peak (Pyramid) I'll attempt on Sunday.

Catchup @ Kamloops

OK ... finally found a free hour of computer access in Kamloops. This computer has most tools locked out ... so I'm trying to push up the 5 MB images straight from my camera memory card ... sorry. Images are being difficult :(

The first photo is of Miracle Beach where I camped ... good choice ... even did some cycling. This is the beach with the tide out .... when it was in it was almost up to the log on the left. Much drier on the East coast ...

The second is of Strathcona Park in central Vancouver Island ... there were 500 cars at the parking lot for these hikes and that's a lot for VC Island. Its about 4000' ... I did a 10km hike and about half of it was on platforms like this. Absolutely pristine Alpine wilderness (my favorite ... my next 3 stops will be like this). I think they put the platforms in to stop people walking on the flowers some of which can take 500 years to come back if they are squashed. I have more photos and will upload later.

Kamloops is in an arid region between the Cascades and the Rockies ... not my favorite zone but probably the last civilization for at least a few days. I'm heading for Clearwater and the Wells Gray State Park after this and a snack at a local cafe. Stayed at Steelhead last night ... still a bit tired ... the trains go by every hour or so with much noise and sleeping on the ground I can even feel the vibration :) Fabulous lake ... see the recent waypoints ... the lake is 50km long ... would have been fun to traverse it in a high-speed boat (water-skiing for 50km :)). Perhaps my next trip. Lots of fishing and bird-watching available.

The Kamloops tour guide confirmed it ... sawmill and paper mill operations across Canada (at least on VC Island, Lilloeet and Kamloops) are shutting down and each region is rapidly shifting to tourism.

My journey continues ... in the next 3 areas (after driving hard for the last 3 days) I'll be able to enjoy more hiking and photography and continue figuring out things ... I realize now this is part of the normal identity formation ... takes time and reflection.

Will try to keep this up ... take care