Yamnuska Circuit

Yam has been on the list for a while, but by the front route rather than sidling around the back. Given a short, early season day though, it looked like a good objective. Now that I've done it and talked to a Scottish climber hauling himself over the top of Red Shirt and looking like he'd done 15 pitches of Green Light at the Mother G (Gogarth)....I think I'll pass on the rock climbing.

We did the hike the long way - taking a detour path up to what I think is called Ravens' End. We saw a pair of courting ptarmigans on this path....and we also saw a lot of people. The ascent is straightorward until you pass the 'crux' - a fairly unnecessary wire strung along a traverse. Beyond that, we saw a guy stuck above what appeared to be a small cliff, so we took a gully option below. Unfortunately, we descended wrongly, trying to avoid a rubbly gully, and this cost us time. I saw people return directly up the short cliff later - maybe we shouldn't have trusted that guy's opinion.

The summit is a pleasant place so long as you don't roll the wrong way after lying down in the sun. The scree 500 m below makes for an awesome descent - and we saw some very fat-looking marmots. A good, hot, half-day hike.

Another Golden Weekend

The forecast for the weekend was utter poo, and as usual, when the forecast turns to crap, you can bet I’ve got a long weekend booked off work. So we sat out most of Friday at home in Calgary before somewhat reluctantly loading the canoe and mountain bikes onto the truck and heading for Golden. No wildlife stirred on the Kicking Horse Pass, and we had the feeling this just wasn’t going to be our best weekend.

Arrival in Golden was brightened by meeting Vicky and Lucy, and a bottle of wine or two. Crawling from bed the next morning, the sun was almost daring to join us outside the covers, although an unrelenting wind was already cutting up the Columbia River. It was lunch time before we summoned the energy to shuttle up to Parson and launch the boat for the 40 km meandering run back to Nicholson. Passing through these world-class wetlands in a boat is slightly strange, since unless you take the narrow side channels, you never get to see the wetlands and lakes, which hide stubbornly behind high levee walls and portcullis beaver dams. The bird life was spectacular at times though; we lost count of the bald eagles and ospreys sitting aloof on their wooden pedestals. At one point three large, pink, flamingo/goose-cross-like waterfowl cruised overhead, making new sounds – I still haven’t found out what they were. It was a long run against the wind, and we were glad to land at the bridge, although I think a two-day leisurely spin would have been more rewarding.

Sunday was MTB day, and Lou got her first taste of Moonraker, which is a great cross-country riding area adjacent to Kicking Horse ski resort. I love the trails here, with their swooping, contouring runs, and lakeside sections. Mark was pleased to hear that we had run into a bear on the exit trail, preserving the Moonraker reputation (this one was rather too close to grab the camera for, but didn’t seem too concerned by us cycling past).

The long weekend raced by, and soon we were in Yoho National Park, enjoying a mirror-calm Emerald Lake, where the exorbitant canoe hire rates limit all but the rich or feckless to the '$32 for 30 minutes' range of the hotel and tat shop landing, leaving us the rest , and the best, of the cirque to explore. It had turned into a great little weekend, and the next trip is already booked.