Nahanni and Broken Skull Rivers, July - August

In July and August we paddled Broken Skull and Nahanni Rivers in the Northwest Territories. We were on the water for 21 days and paddled 500 km. The landscape is protected as a Canadian National Park and is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. For Peter and me this was the first river trip in canoes, up to now we have only used kayaks or rafts. But our friends had lots of canoe experience.

It took 2.5 hours to fly from Fort Simpson to the put-in at Divide Lake. Amazing untouched landscape of endless mountain ranges and big river valleys of the Mackenzie Mountains under our little bush planes (a Beaver and a Cesna).

From Divide Lake we paddled on the crystal-clear Broken Skull River through alpine landscapes past moose, bears and wolves.

Highlights along the Nahanni River were the Cirque of the Unclimbables with its sky high granite towers, thundering Virginia Falls (around which we had to portage our canoes and equipment) and the canyons of Nahanni.

On the river we saw only 5 other paddlers. This was a surprise as the Nahanni is a very popular canoe destination.

The three weeks on the river were our longest ‘expedition’ so far, requiring special preparation for the food, as the weight for the plane was limited and we had no refrigeration on the river. That's why we dried and dehydrated everything from vegetables over yogurt to tomato sauce and salsa. It worked out well and was tasty, even Jiri's spam dinner!

The North is famous for its mosquitoes but except for the last few days they didn't bother us too much. But as soon as we reached the end of the canyons the pesky insects came out en masse, so bad that we skipped the last hot springs - nobody wanted to take off the paddling jackets and expose any skin.

Canoes on board

Mackenzie Mountains and no sign of humans for hours!

At Divide lake

Broken Skull below Swallow Falls

Whitewater action

Good hiking here

Hot springs

Northern river views

One of our camps on the Broken Skull

Cirque of the Unclimbables

Virginia Falls

After the portage

Porcupine

Pulpit and gate in the third canyon

Deadman Valley (fortunately no dead man found)

First Canyon

Bison crossing!

Nahanni-Liard confluence

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.

Wedgemount Lake and Elfin Lakes (August 27)

In August it was time for some hiking and exploring closer to home. I had never been to Wedgemount Lake before and enjoyed the short but steep trail that got me on a glacier in 2h driving+3h hiking from our doorstep. Glorious views to be had but apparently lots of loose rocks to watch out for when scrambling the surrounding peaks.

A week later I went for a 3-day hike to Elfin Lakes and although there were other hikers at the campsites and cabin I had most of the place beyond this for myself. Great scenery at Elfin Lakes, Gargoyles, Opal Cone and Rampart Ponds in Garibaldi Park, a mix of moonscape, Haleakala and Nepal. And there was special light show for night entertainment. The northern lights. It wasn't very strong and rather pale so at first I didn't realize what it was - just wondered why there was this bright area to the north; there are no cities in this direction. But when I reviewed the photos on my camera the green was very obvious.

Chilcotin Ridges

I always wanted to explore the Chilcotin Mountain ridges, so I was very excited when friends invited me on a trip. Not having done a multi-day back packing trip in a long time and with some time on my hands, I carefully compiled my gear and even made a packing list with the weight of all items. I was quite pleased with the result and my pack weighing about 36 lbs (16 kg). Turns out my plans were a little too skimpy on the food side (good the friends had some extra chocolate bars). And after the trip I quickly replaced my lightweight 20 year old 3/4 thermarest - after suffering a serious case of sleeping mat envy: everyone else had new cushy full-sized mats that were 4 times as thick as mine but weight the same.

The area is remote and trails are not always marked or easy to find. But these trails get you to high ridges with most amazing views. We had to switch to Plan B as our car got stuck in the mud en route to Leckie Lake trailhead. So we hiked in along Gun Creek and up the ridge to Mt Sheba. Our second camp was on a windy lake just below Mt Sheba summit. Next day we continued to Deer pass and dropped down to Hummingbird Lake. On the way back we met a friend from paddling days in a group of mountain bikers. Small world!

Gates of Lodore: July 7-11

Back from the Gates of Lodore run. The first time on this part of the Green River for us. A float and no whitewater to speak of at the current low water level, but excellent scenery. We float from one canyon to the next, every single one with different looks, different layers, dotted by trees. Cool rock faces, steep and thin rock fins at Steamboat Rock and Split Mountain. Nice being on a river again with old and new friends. But it was super hot down there, up to 38oC. Good thing the water temperature of the Green River was very pleasant (and not the icy temperature of the Colorado in Grand Canyon) so we could hang out in the river until it cooled down.

Our river trip ends near Dinosaur National Monument visitor center and we stopped by to check it out. This is the femur of a 150 million year old Camarasaurus. Pretty amazing - it roamed the earth when Pangea was drifting apart. Another 100 million years before the Rockies started forming. And very considerate of the kids (in us) … its allowed to touch some of the exhibits.

Blanket Glacier: New Years 2013

Back from skiing and New Years at Blanket Glacier Chalet near Revelstoke. Sweet terrain with plenty of tree skiing (from steep to mellow; north, west and south exposure), great snow, stable avy conditions and an excellent crew. Several of our new skiing buddies were in their late 50s, but fit and keen. They dragged us lazy bums out of the cabin as soon as daylight broke (9 AM Alberta time) every day for a total of over 10.000 meter vertical for the week ... on a couple of days we did close to 1800 m. And that’s with extra 2 kg backpack weight of our new avy airbags. We haven't done this much vertical in a long time! Early starts combined with sweet pow and a great group did the trick. A good start to the New Year. Now we just have to keep the well earned fitness up, but its difficult to get motivated back in the Vancouver rain.

Pete below Pollux. Caribou Ridge across the valley.

Off to another powder day

Last run in evening light

Blanket Glacier Chalet

Between the layers

Idaho MF Salmon: June 3 - 9

Detailed trip report and pictures coming soon...

High water and a tense start. We played it safe, lined the rafts through Velvet, the first sketchy rapid. The rest of the trip was sweet, good whitewater, great weather, nice hikes, excellent food, a great time with old friends and a bunch of new ones.

New Years Road Trip: Dec 24 – Jan 1

Looks like we are turning into wimps in our old age. Or maybe it was the forecast that looked very much sub-standard for skiing from Whistler to Revelstoke. Anyway, after much procrastination we decided to head south to look for some sun and warm temperatures and go on a last-minute road trip to California. A couple of days of hard driving paid off with a week of sunshine and pleasant temperatures (although during some of the nights I wished I had my warm winter down sleeping bag). After the mad dash to California, we drove the coast from San Fransisco to San Luis Obispo along the famous Big Sur stretch.

Highway 1

Teenager Elephant Seal

Scenic Campsite

Halfdome Sunset

Mono Lake

Crater Lake... must be getting close to home - there is some snow!

On the way we checked out lazy gigantic elephant seals, found a couple of very scenic camp spots, had a look a several paragliding spots (but none worked due to the wind conditions). On the way back we stopped in Yosemite Park and hiked past Yosemite Falls to scenic Yosemite Point which looked like a sweet paragliding launch – but unfortunately, although hanggliding is OK, paragliding is not permitted in the park. When we hiked back down, we were treated to an amazing sunset light show on Half Dome. Since snow levels were super low for this time of the year Tioga Pass was still open and we drove up to the crest of the Sierra Mountains and Tuolumne Meadows. There we walked on frozen Tenaya Lake among many people who were out on skates. A Californian told us how unusual this was and that he had never skated here before (normally the road is closed and the lake is covered with meters of snow). On the east side of the Sierra we checked out Mono Lake’s bizarre tufa formations which were fortunately sheltered from the crazy wind that whipped the lake into a whitewater frenzy and blew up a sand storm on the islands. We spend the evening and last night of 2011 with friends at their place near Lake Tahoe. Hadn’t seen them in over a year, so there was a lot to talk about. Our last stop was a morning visit at Crater Lake on the first day of the New Year. Finally we got back to winter and hiked in snow! At first we were the only ones at this amazing spot, but by the time we returned from our short hike, more keen people had showed up to greet the New Year - a very appropriate place to do it!