Spring Mushrooms (and Alpine Flowers)

Found my first morel! Unfortunately only one. But I dressed for the occasion; the print on the T-shirt reads: I hunt mushrooms because I have no morels!

While the driving/mushroom ratio was rather dismal for the morel (well, we have to add a beautiful hike and alpine meadows full of western pasque flowers and glacier lilies to this equation); there was no driving involved to find the other 'new to me' mushrooms. Cutting back some of the ever-growing ivy in our garden I discovered two beautiful Prince (Agaricus Augustus). Very tasty!

Manning Park Flowers - July 15/16

Alpine flowers are out so we spent a weekend hiking in Manning Park. On our hike along Heather trail to the First Brother Mountain we count over 30 different species of flowering plants and could name about 15 of them. The night at 2000 meter was surprisingly cold. Next day we hike Skyline trail. More amazing views and a few different flowers. Count is up to 40.

Tulips!

Finally got around to check out the Tulips in Abbotsford. Although all the plants and flowers are 3 or 4 weeks behind this year due to the cold and wet weather, some of the tulips were already being 'harvested'. Despite visiting on a weekday the fields were very crowded and lots of people were out enjoying the colors. I got a few 'uncrowded' shots of the tulip rows and then focused on close-ups. Unfortunately the sky was grey and uninspiring - no impressive clouds. Abbotsford also doesn't have the cool mountain backdrop like Seabird Island where the tulip festival was a couple of years ago.

Glorious Fall Colors at Illal - September 13

 Wonderful fall colors at Illal Meadows this weekend. The meadows had been on my list of places to explore and a couple of weeks ago a paragliding friend confirmed that it was well worth a visit. Its a relatively quick hike in so carrying over-night gear was not much of a pain. The trail is about 4 or 5 km long and elevation gain around 500 m. There are very nice camp spots in the meadows, but care should be taken to pick a sheltered spot as it gets windy here - a look at the trees tells the story ... they have no branches on the windward side.

We wandered up some ridges to Illal Peak and enjoyed views of Needle, Yak and other peaks in the Coquihalla area (even saw Robbie Reid and the Judge on the horizon). On the second day we circumnavigated Jim Kelly. Although the scramble to the top is reportedly not too bad we skipped the summit as winds were still very strong and we didn't want to get blown off the ridge.

Glorious yellow mountain ash and red blueberries leaves but the berries were almost done; the ones left had started to dry out and ferment. I had much better luck with berries at Elfin Lakes 3 weeks ago. We didn't see any wildlife such as goats or grizzlies, but some disturbed spots could have been grizz digs. Up on windy (white-capping) Illal Lake we met hunters who said they were looking for deer - not exactly deer country ?

Some more notes: Trailhead is off a branch road of Tulameen FSR (from Coquihalla highway, around 19km mark), the last 3km on the branch requiring 4WD and reasonably high clearance (the Tracker had no problem).

Glorious colors with the Old Settler, Robbie Reid and the Judge

Pete hiking on Illal Peak, Coquihalla Mt in the back

Looks like a painter had an accident and spilled his/her colors

The Milky Way from the sleeping bag. Without realizing I also captured 2 shooting stars in this exposure. Quite different from the outing on Mt Seymour to watch the Perseids when we spotted only a few meteorites and I captured just a single one.

Nicomen Island Circumnavigation - May 30

With strong inflow winds (=un-flyable for paragliders) in the Fraser Valley I thought it would be great to get in our kayaks again. And why not, after a hiatus of >8 months, start properly with a 7h/40km tour.

I’d been looking at the sloughs around Nicomen Island and was wondering if the waterways could be connected for a circumnavigation.

We put our kayaks in the water at the foot of Harrison Knoll. It took two short portages to get on the Fraser River. Water was high and we floated downriver with up to 15km/h speed (not really a beginner paddle with the quick current, water in the trees and few safe places to go to shore). The mighty Fraser with its spring runoff carried us quickly past Chilliwack and Sumas Mountain. There we turned into Nicomen Slough where the inflow winds helped with the ‘upstream’ leg which wasn’t really upstream since the slough is dammed at its top end and Norrish Creek didn’t add much current (we paddled up Norrish to some nice bathing spots).

Everything worked according to plan until we encountered some prime kayak bushwhacking east of the Deroche Bridge. Always something new like portaging a sea kayak over fallen trees and beaver dams and pulling ourselves forward through tall grass. In the end we went up the wrong creek in one of the tall grass meadows and took out 700 meters from where we launched.

Fraser at Mission 8400-8500 m3/s = 4.4 m (on our Hope to Home paddle August 2014 about 1000 m3/s).

Germany: Storks, Orchids and Asparagus (May)

In spring I took a trip to Germany to visit my family and catch up with friends.

A friend took me on a photo-tour to his favorite stork watching area north of Berlin and lent me his long lens. I liked it so much I had to order one myself.

The countryside was dotted with yellow canola ('Raps') fields, quite different from my memories of German spring time views. Interesting how eco-policies change landscapes.

With my parents we checked the limestone hills near Jena where orchids grow in great numbers.

An additional bonus of visiting Germany in May is that it is in the middle of Asparagus time and I got to feast on it. The white variety is difficult to find in Vancouver.

And I definitely won't rent a Mini again. Although I'm not prone to back problems and German roads are not worse than average, driving this car for 7 hours on one day left me with a back so sore I could feel it for a couple of weeks.

Summer Wanderings - August

While Pete and friends did more flying (and parawaiting) in Golden I took a few days off and explored the scenery around Lake O’Hara in Yoho Park and the alpine flowers at Idaho Peak in the Selkirk Mountains near New Denver. The morning bus to Lake O'Hara was full, but hiking in along the 11 km road was surprisingly quick and painless as most of it was still in shade. From the lodge I took the trail to Wiwaxy Gap and Huber Ledges up to Lake Oesa and then returned via Yukness Ledges and Opabin Lakes to the lodge. It felt like a long day, although it was not even 25 km. But I had put in a 10 hour day, starting just after 8:30 until 18:15, so I was happy to find a seat on the bus back to the highway (later I heard that everybody gets to ride out as long as one doesn't miss the departure time). Have to come back next year and check out MacArthur Lake!



Having heard of the amazing flowers at Idaho Peak I detoured on the way back from Golden. Driving through the dark ghost town Sandon and up the steep windy gravel road was somewhat nerve-racking, but I still had a good night of sleep in the back of my trusty Patriot. And what sight to wake up in a mountain meadow full of flowers.

April Cherries

Spring is here again and the cherry blossoms are out in full force. Hoping for nice weather so we will enjoy them for a long time. Rainy weather means the blossoms will get soggy and drop fast. Not a photo of cherries, but other trees are in bloom too, like the maples.

Wenatchee - April 20

Back on the Wenatchee again! As every year, we met old friends and made new ones. Hiked the hills covered by yellow balsam root flowers and blue lupins. Listened to the wild turkeys call in the evening. I was really hoping I would get to paddle more this year. But it was not to be as I managed to tweak my shoulder again. This time it wasn’t paddling – it was from trying to catch my gliderbag as it dropped over the side of a pickup truck. Bummer!

Glorious Indian Summer

Phenomenal fall weather for 6 weeks! Record breaking sun shine and lack of rain. Well deserved after the very late start to summer this year, if the weather would care about human sense of fairness and merit. Fall air isn’t the greatest for paragliding and we switched into hiking mode. We went back to Downton Creek, a great area off the Duffey Lake Road where the logging road leads up into the subalpine. We hiked up to Linus, a fun ridge scramble with a short knife-edge ridge (but too pointy to cross it au-cheval style).

My other fall hikes lead me to Yellow Aster Butte and Table Mt in the Baker area, Mt Laughington and Flora Peak in the Chilliwack Valley and last but not least Mt Strachan. Stunning hues of red, orange and yellow of the fall leaves of blueberry, mountain ash and willow. New perspectives of the border mountain range from south and east.

Mt Baker from Yellow Aster Butte

Clouds cover Howe Sound seen from Mt Strachan (CBC Listners' Lens mug winner)

Chilliwack Valley from Flora Peak

Vine Maple leaves

A Sea of Green

So we sailed on to the sun,
Till we found the sea of green…
And we lived beneath the waves,
In our yellow submarine...

It’s one of my favorite times in spring when the new leaves emerge. They barely hide the empty spaces between bushes and trees but the harsh light of winter is filtered into a bright and warm green glow.

"Spring" Olympics in Vancouver, February 12-28

Cherries in blossoms, spring-like temperatures and snow from Manning Park - that was Vancouver in February 2010. Not very wintery, but we enjoyed the Olympics in Vancouver more than expected. Since we didn’t have to travel downtown and everybody else seemed to be on vacation or work from home, traffic was much lighter than usual. We ventured downtown a couple of times and immersed ourselves into the Olympic crowds, went to a women’s hockey game (very exciting as it was tied 2:2 until the last few minutes) and I even got close and personal to an olympic torch (no longer lit).

Visitors from Germany: June 30 to July 14

Wow – halfway through the summer already!
The first half went by way too fast and has been very very busy.

My parents visited from Germany for the first two weeks in July. We got to do lots of hikes in and near Vancouver. First we wandered up the snowy slopes of Mt Seymour ski area to Brockton Point – watched even a few die-hard skiers and snowboarders!



Still lots of snow in the mountains - even for Canada!


A few days later we found an amazing patch of yellow glacier lilies just below Mt. Cheam.




My parents even came and watched us paragliding at Bridal Fall on the other side of the Cheam ridge – and as added bonus I finally got some pictures of myself in the air!


That's me in the air at Bridal (photo H. Schwab)


Kiting at Steveston (photo H. Schwab)


During the second week we spent a couple of nights at Tyax Resort in the South Chilcotins and explored a rough trail to Ault Lake. Rather impressive signs of bear activity everywhere – judging by the size it must have come from grizzlys!


By the way, this is PADDY, my new ride


My mum was much more happy back at the car and greatly enjoyed fields of orchids, lupins and indian paintbrush by the side of the road.




Jill and Robin (Pete's parents) came over from the Island for a family reunion and a Howe Sound cruise with circumnavigation of Anvil Island and seal rock visit.






But just like at home, my parents couldn’t sit still and spent every spare minute working on our garden – it has never looked that nice before!