Vancouver Island

We arrived home from the Rockies after a long, but uneventful 12-hour drive. The trip was good, and we felt like we'd had a nice summer vacation. Here's a few stray pictures from our last few days:

Climbing at Carrot Creek. Our last week was quite hot and this location is north facing beside a cool creek. It was a good place to escape the heat and Elise enjoyed playing in the water. This is me at the crux of American Standard, 5.13b.


Elise making her own pizza at the Flatbread Co., a popular local pizza restaurant. She asked about this for weeks, and we finally relented. She looks pleased...


On my last day in the Rockies, Derek and I hiked far into Echo Canyon and climbed an excellent 7-pitch route called "The Tall Storey", 5.11c. The rock was excellent and the climb stayed in the shade for most of the day, which provided perfect summer conditions. Derek let me lead the entire route, which was a nice treat on such good stone. Thanks Derek! These are all pictures of Derek on the climb.





A couple of days after returning to Squamish, we headed off to Vancouver Island for the Labour Day weekend. We are trying to pack lots of outdoor activities into the summer and fall because Pam is starting work full time and Elise is going to Kindergarten this year! Preparation for the weekend was rushed, but we had a really nice time once we got across the straight. We climbed two days at Horne Lake and spent some memorable time at Pacific Rim National Park - a real treat! Elise enjoyed the ferry ride, swimming in the lakes, camping and, of course, the beach!

Here we are cooking dinner in the Wikininnish parking lot at Pacific Rim National Park.


We were super lucky to get the last walk-in camping spot at the national park campground - we were prepared to sleep in the van)! This is a pancake breakfast, again in the parking lot (because it was sunny and warm).


The beach combing was superb. We went down to Green Point at low tide and found tons of interesting sea creatures. Elise with a large starfish...


Goose neck barnacles.


Elise is obsessed with catching minnows. Much of the weekend was devoted to this pursuit, both in freshwater and in saltwater.


The starfish were thick!




Sea anemones.



Big waves at Green Point below the campground.


We spent an evening at Wikinnish walking the beach, looking for shells and enjoying the view. The sunset was truly spectacular. I couldn't stop taking pictures. These are a couple of my favourites.



We spent our last evening in Nanaimo where we had a good Mexican meal and walked the seaside promenade, watching people fishing for salmon at the river mouth and for crab off the pier. We got home around midnight - it was a long day! Next weekend, we are planning a short backpacking trip to Sand point at the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. We'll camp overnight at the beach will be a first for Elise. So far, September is starting with beautiful weather in Sqaumish. We hope it stays that way!

Marc

Summer in the Rockies - Heading Home

Our summer trip has come to an end. We've been very lucky with the weather and only had a couple of days of rain during the month of August. We've climbed lots, hiked lots and enjoyed spending time in a different and dramatic area. During our last week, we did two more hikes of note: the first was Ha-Ling and the second was to Lake Agnus above Lake Louise. Elise is developing good endurance for longer hikes, although there can still be a fair amount of whining to manage. In this area, Pam and I still need practice.

The first of the two hikes was Ha-Ling, a major peak above Canmore. Nothing in this area is small, and even the "smallish" peaks are still significantly huge. This hike was somewhat equivalent to hiking the Squamish Chief, although the trail was much more difficult to manage, even in the forest. The surface was loose pebbles, and this caused difficulty with footing. As you can see in this photo, the upper portion of the peak is entirely exposed with no vegetation. One side of the mountain is dramatically steep, while the other is slabby and very loose - not good terrain for walking!



It was a hot day, and we had to really coax Elise to continue upward. This is a view of the summit ridge. We'd been hiking for close to two hours at this point.


View looking away from the summit. We got a beautiful day. Normally there could be high winds on an exposed ridge like this, or even lightning during summer thunderstorms, but we got neither.


Many climbers scale the steeper side of the mountain. This warning is for the hundreds of hikers that lounge around the summit, which could create a great hazard to the climbers below if they weren't careful with the loose rubble underfoot.


On the summit, looking east.


The Bow Valley, looking eastward toward Calgary.


Coming down. We agreed that the descent was almost as arduous as the ascent due to the looseness of the trail surface. I ended up holding Elise's hand most of the way, which - let me tell you - is not that easy. It really adds to your personal fatigue having a 5-year-old constantly tugging at your arm.


Pam uses ski poles because of her knees. Many hikers around here do the same, which is probably very smart from both a balance and knee longevity standpoint.


The second hike was to Lake Agnus, a small glacially-fed lake about Lake Louise. It was a much more pleasant walk on a good surface, although there was still a reasonable amount of elevation gain - 400 m! We took our time and were rewarded with another perfect day and great scenery at the tea house. We enjoyed wading in the lake, taking in the scenery, and feasting on treats we'd purchased at the bakery in town before we left!


The tea house on the north end of the lake. The water was cold...


Once again, wildflowers were everywhere. This is Indian Paintbrush.


The views back down toward Lake Louise were dramatic.


Near the tea house, we interacted with numerous small critters, keen for some of our snacks. These are small ground squirrels, that have markings much like a chipmunk. It all started with them eating out of our hands...


Next, I lay down and let them eat off my chest. Elise thought this was hilarious, and decided she wanted to try! The decision...


The dive for the peanut...


Success! Elise was simply screeching with laughter.


If they'll eat off your chest, why not try your head? I got them warmed up and Elise decided she'd try this one too, and it worked! Greedy little buggers...


We have one or two more days of climbing before we start the drive home. We plan to go to Vancouver Island for the Labour Day weekend and then ease back into a fall routine of work and weekends off. Watch for a post of our activities in Tofino!

Marc...

Drumheller!

We enjoyed a nice afternoon canoeing on Vermillion Lakes, which lie just to the west of Banff. The lake was shallow and relatively warm, and Elise didn't seem too intimidated. In fact, she kept exclaiming "I'm not scared of this lake. I can see the bottom!" The weather was beautiful and Elise enjoyed netting small trout fry afterward.





A few days later we made a major drive to Drumheller to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum, an activity Elise had been asking about. It was about 2.5 hours from Canmore, so we got up at 6:00 am and made the journey. Although the forecast was for rain, we got very lucky and threaded our activities between the showers.

Elise getting ready for our first activity - the fossil hunting expedition!


This was Owen, our guide. Elise and he are sharing a laugh over something.


Hiking out into the Badlands. It was a beautiful landscape that reminded me of parts of the BC Interior.



Prickly Pear!


Once at the site, Owen told us how to identify the fossils from the various rocks, and we all set to work. The kids were given a screen into which they could gather their finds and show them to Owen for identification.


Elise found a piece of dinosaur bone! Owen said it was from the toe knuckle of a duckbill dinosaur, which are very common in the area.





After the fossil hunt, we moved locations and Owen showed us a spot where they had uncovered a dinosaur skeleton. It's barely visible as shards of white rock poking out of the dirt, but it was clearly a skeleton and it had not been disturbed.


After we got back from the hike, I took Elise to a fossil casting workshop where she made a plaster impression of a raptor claw. She had lots of fun.



Finally, we toured the museum. We spent about three hours inside and it was INCREDIBLE. Words can't describe the enormity of the skeletons and the elaborate displays. Suffice to say it was well worth the drive and we all left tired but impressed.

Elise posing by a leg for scale.


Triceratops.


Elise hamming it up beside a Tyrannosaurus skull.


The T-Rex skeleton. It was huge!


The museum also contained many other kinds of fossils and displays, including this series of skulls showing the evolution of man.



Black Beauty. This incredible T-Rex skeleton was discovered by a couple of high school students canoeing in Alberta. It's black because of the minerals in the ground, which stained the bones as they hardened to stone. This was our favourite skeleton.


We have just over one more week left then we head back to Squamish. Pam works for two days then we are going to Vancouver Island for the Labour Day weekend to climb and beach comb. The next weekend we are going back to the Olympic National Park in Washington to do the Sandpoint Trail hike at Lake Ozette. We have a reservation to camp at the beach and hope the weather cooperates.

Finally, we've made bookings to fly to Finale Ligure on the Mediterranean coast in Italy for Christmas. It's a beautiful area and will hopefully be warm enough at this time of year to hike, explore and climb (of course)!

Marc, Pam and Elise...