Sunday Hiking

We're getting some real summer weather now and we've had a couple of very good hikes this week. Friday we went into Lyle Basin and enjoyed a sunny, hot day. Dave managed to make it to the top of Mt. Brennan in the time that it took Lucille and I to go to the Upper Basin and back - that's about double the elevation gain! Lucille took this picture of me at a creek just above Lyle Lakes.

Sunday hiking found us at Upper Fletcher Lake and then doing a scramble to a ridge above it where we were given great views of Woodbury and Kokanne Glaciers, all of Kootenay Lake down to Creston, and we could some of the spires of the Bugaboos way off to the west. One thing I love about Sunday hiking is that if we can get back by 4 p.m. I can still get a bunch of garden work done - picked peas, strawberries and raspberries after getting back, plus did a load of laundry and wrote a blog. Hurrah for me and hiking!

The Woodshed

We're both really pleased with the appearance of the new woodshed. It's large enough to accommodate many of the dead pines in our area (we think). We expect the name of Pine Ridge will soon change to Rocky Ridge. I now have a covered area for wood splitting, there's lots of room to store split wood and we get to look at a beautiful roof!

In The Path of the Avalanche

July 5th's hike was made a bit longer by the avalanche path which crossed the road just past the bridge on Stenson Creek. It made for about another 2 -3 km of hiking (one way) and right now my feet are feeling that extra walk! We crossed through three other avalanche debris pathways along our approach to Texas Peak. Can't see how an avalanche beacon can help much in situations like the ones pictured here.

'Little' TX Peak

Another gorgeous day to go hiking so we made our second attempt at Texas Peak, up from Jackson Basin near Retallack. This is me on the summit of what I named 'Little TX Peak' because I didn't feel too comfortable with parts of the approach to the actual TX Peak. Dave got there in about 20 minutes from where I am standing. In the background you can see bits of Kokanee Glacier. Lots of snow on our approach but where it had melted there were abundant glacier lilies, buttercup and anenome. The approach to the hike was a bit longer than expected - too many avalanches last winter closed the road at km 7 rather than getting to about km 9. Saw some pretty recent griz tracks in the snow as we hiked to the ridge.

At Last - Hiking Season!

It's been a really slow start to hiking season this year and now that the heat is here, we're able to get at it! On June 30th we took advantage of some time in Rossland to hike up Mount Roberts, the mountain that's clearly visible from the main drag of Rossland. It took us nearly 2 hours to do the 3.5 km, but it is pretty steep - 860m of elevation gain. I enjoyed many wildflowers over the route and those pictured here are some of my favourites. Great views at the summit - Rossland, Trail, Genelle and nearly Castlegar. The Columbia River is visible in several places and I'm not sure if we could actually see a bit of Lake Roosevelt which is part of the Columbia system way off in the USA.

Today we took a couple of hours to hike into Fletcher Lake which is about a one hour drive from our place and a one hour hike from the end of the road. It's a pretty mountain lake with some lovely rocky peaks and ridges to view. Bugs were bad and I forgot to bring the camera!

Three Years Later - Some Thoughts on Relocating

I think it's our third anniversary of arrival in British Columbia. I wish I could figure out some "before" and "after" pictures for this post, but I haven't spent any time learning how to do that. I love looking at my vegetable garden and this picture does represent huge changes from our arrival 3 years ago. We had no paving stones in the driveway and the current garden plot was a mess of weeds. Today, I've got the best looking broccoli in the Kootenays!

I'd have to say that the past 3 years have been a huge learning curve. I didn't think I'd be spending time splitting wood, stacking wood, hauling wood, and making kindling. However, I actually really enjoy all of those activities. The first few times we had a big wind while I was here I'd be really nervous. I'm getting much more relaxed about it, but one can never really relax about that. I find B.C. has a huge number of natural hazards. Prairie people would always be on to me about the extreme weather. After 3 years here, I've learned that prairie people don't really have a clue about that. We've got falling trees, avalanches, rock slides, forest fires, floods, and power lines coming down. In this province, people are really expected to be able to manage themselves "off grid" for up to 72 hours. Our longest time without facilities so far has been 24 hours.

One thing that has been really good for me is that it's pretty nigh impossible to plan anything around weather. The forecast is usually wrong and you can't tell what is coming from behind the last range of mountains. This means that one has to be much more "open" to going somewhere regardless of the weather. I've been a bit surprised at how much faith some people put into the forecasts around here. Having lived a very regimented life as a school teacher for 30 years, it's been good for me to learn to "go with the flow" much more. Even the bit of school work that I've done has forced that situation upon me and I actually really like it. Retirement allows each day to be so different, but so does subbing and waking up and deciding it could be a good day for a hike or a ski!

The Pathfinders???

Dave and I went out today to walk the Wragge Creek Trail over in the Slocan Valley. As usual, you have to try about 3 or 4 times to find a trailhead to really get there. We had our B.C. Backroads book and a vague idea of where the trail was found. After walking to deadends on 3 different roads we managed to do about 9 or 10 km of walking and get absolutely nowhere! Nice to stop at Rosebery Provincial Park on our way home to soak the feet and enjoy the rushing waters of Wilson Creek. I had to reflect on the fact that I have absolutely amazing places to picnic within one hour's drive of home - it sure beats Beaver Creek!