Hike Into Willmore Wilderness Part Three

Monday morning greeted us to clear blue skies and our main goal of the day was to hike up to an unnamed lake on the ridge line above our camp. I taped up my blistered foot with some gauze and duct tape and put on a fresh pair of thick socks over top a pair of lighter ones. We would be leaving our gear at camp and travelling with light packs with only a few essentials (rain gear, snacks, water, first aid etc.).
The trail was well used by both humans and horses and the climb took us about an hour through the trees. There were countless varieties of mushrooms along the way and I took a lot of pictures. I am really interested in plant identification but I am only just getting into it. As far as mushrooms go I know absolutely nothing. I never even realized how many varieties there were until this trip! There were many I have never seen before.

We eventually broke out of the trees on to a plateau that looked toward the scree slope descending from Cathedral Mountain. From this angle we got our first glimpse of the lake that was down in a valley. There was a stream flowing over a waterfall that descended toward the lake. We skirted the ridge line that rose between the slope down to the lake on one side and on the other an alpine meadow stretched toward the base of the scree slope. We stopped to drink out of the creek and eat some food all the while taking in the magnificent view of Cathedral Mountain. In front of us the lake stretched and beyond that were more mountains in the distance.
One of the things I like to do after a good hike is lay down in the grass and let the sun beat down on me. This inevitably leads to the nap monster creeping up and so I took the opportunity to doze for a little bit.

The wind started to get a little cool so I decided to go for a walk. I followed the ridge line up for a while to get some better angles of the the lake and the valley. We had toyed with the idea of hiking down to the lake but I wasn't too keen on the idea as my foot was still a little tender. I was quite happy to take in the views. From my vantage point I could look back across the meadow toward the foot of Cathedral Mountain. A person could follow that along and get right to the base no problem. At least that's how it looked. Experience tells me that some of those easy looking routes are not so easy once you start trying to actually do them.I scanned the mountainsides looking for signs of mountain goats or big horns but saw nothing. A few falling rocks attracted my attention but nothing came of it. I did see a marmot running about on the slopes.

Dark clouds started coming over the mountain top so I made my way back to where Harold was still dozing and suggested we should head back before getting caught in the rain. Just then thunder boomed around us again. We made our way back down to camp. The rain never came until about 7 when another terrific storm blew in, this one more intense than the night before and a little hail mixed in.
Looking back I think this day hike was the highlight of the week. It was a pleasant hike and the views from the top were just reward for the effort put in. It just goes to show that: Yes, places such as Jasper and Banff offer fantastic scenery but there are so many places with equally stunning vistas.
You just have to be willing to look for them!

Book Review: Men For The Mountains

"Men for the Mountains" by Sid Marty is a recollection of his days as a warden in Canada's national parks. Sid gets his first summer gig as a patrolman. He learns the hard way about the ins and outs of horseback riding in some of the more memorable and hilarious stories from the book. He is given an area of responsibility in Yoho National Park. He lives in a small cabin heated by a wood stove and draws water from a nearby stream. As the years progress he eventually gets on as a full time warden and the book is filled with  stories about his dealings with bears, camp cooks and horses. There is a very interesting chapter on what it takes to fight a fire on a mountainside in Jasper National Park using volunteers composed mainly of hippies and Vietnam era draft dodgers. It really is amazing to see the methods that are required to bring a fire under control under such extreme circumstances and the type of men it takes to see the job through.

Throughout, there is a constant theme that the warden should not be in the townsite sitting in an office but should instead be out in the park, patrolling the back country, maintaining the trails and keeping tabs on the wildlife and the people who choose to interact with that environment. There are other stories he tells of wardens in the early days of the Park Service. Ones that spent winters holed up in patrol cabins waiting out blizzards in mountain passes. Another of a warden who falls off his horse and survives several days under a tree as grizzly bears prowl about waiting for him to die. The stories depict the life of the pre-centralization wardens. No one gets into that type job for the money, it is purely for the love of nature and the lifestyle.

Hike Into Willmore Wilderness Part Two

After we packed up on Sunday morning we continued on from Carson Creek along the Mountain Trail further in Willmore. The blister on my right foot was bugging me pretty good and I was cursing myself for having not got on it sooner. I think the new orthopedic inserts I was using in my hiking boots, which were supposed to help with my ankle problems, had raised my foot enough to find a new spot in my boot to irritate.
Harold was having a few problems with his heel so we decided that maybe we should hike the 4km to Eagles Nest Patrol Cabin and maybe plan to stay there for the night, rest up and do some day hikes the following day. Once we reached the Cabin, having to cross another creek in the process, we rested up and pulled some of our things out to dry in the sun.
It was early in the day however and it seemed a waste to seek the shelter of a cabin so early in the trip, we had not really roughed it at all yet. We decided instead to hike another couple of kilometres to a horse camp on the other side of the Wildhay River. The trail follows this river and it's tributaries so there are frequent water crossings, most of which require taking off your boots, putting on sandals and crossing the icy water. When we got to the planned camp we found that there was a couple staying there already along with their horses. They were pretty friendly and even offered us some canned food to take along with us. I decided against it as I had

Hike Into Willmore Wilderness Part One

Our original intention had been to hike from Rock Lake to Grande Cache but we had been informed by Parks services that some of the trails were washed out and we were concerned about high rivers. We decided to modify our plan and work mainly in the southern end of the park.
I left from Grande Prairie at about 7:30am to drive down to the Rock Lake Staging Area where I would meet up with Harold. We departed the trailhead at approximately 12:30pm following what is called the Mountain Trail. This is basically an old logging road from way back. Willmore is a protected area that it is off limits to vehicles. The only way to travel is by foot or on horseback.
The weather was quite hot (high 20's). The hike in was uneventful. There was the crossing of the Wildhay River which would have been mainly straight forward apart from when Harold's blind dog walked off the edge of the steep bank and ended up in the river. He had to perform a quick rescue and the dog ended up a little cold and wet but other than that she was unharmed.
At Seep Creek we again removed our hiking boots and donned sandals to wade across the shin high water. We were planning to stay at the outfitter's camp at Carson Creek for the night, approximately 12km down the Mountain Trail.  When we arrived, however it was occupied by a large group of trail riders

New Ace Doubles Added

When I was in Edmonton on the weekend happened upon a bookstore on Whyte Avenue that was selling a bunch of these. It had been a pretty expensive weekend already so I only picked up two.

I usually stick to a rule of $5.00 each but in this case I made an exception and paid $11.00! I really like the cover on this one. Nothing like the damsel in distress and it has all the imaginings of a sci-fi book published in 1960. The spaceship, the futuristic city and the weird space helmet with an antenna on the top. The image of the green woman in the background is pretty cool too.

The reverse side is "The Secret Martians". The male astronaut seems to be helping the woman astronaut figure out how to navigate a bridge over a sea of lava. Perhaps its her first time out in her new space suit.

The other one I bought for $5.00 mainly because of the title "The Ship That Sailed The Time Stream". The person who was selling these had made notes on a sticky note and stuck them to the covers. Apparently this story was nominated for a Nebula award. The reverse side of it is called "Stranger Than You Think" and is a collection of related stories published in various magazines between 1959 and 1964 by G.C Edmondson.





Check out my "Ace Doubles" page on the blog to see my full collection. If you have any of these or know of anyone looking to get rid of some please drop me a line.

Bob Dylan in Lloydminster

In August 1990 I was living in Edmonton. Bob Dylan came to town and performed at the Jubilee Auditorium with opening act Sue Medley. I remember it was very loud, Dylan had no interaction with the crowd, his lyrics were at best unintelligible and my general feeling about the whole thing was disappointment. Like many who are familiar with Dylan's most famous works, we have this picture in our head of what we think the concert should be like. Predominately we like to imagine him, alone on the stage, just a harmonica and an acoustic guitar, singing the songs of protest we have come to love. It is surprising then to realize that most of the Dylan work we are familiar with was written and made famous very early in his career. Blowing in the Wind came out in 1962 and much of his great work had been produced by about 1965, meaning that Dylan was only in his early 20's when fame came to him. With his controversial switch to electric I do not believe he ever really looked back. Those folksy roots were a very small part of his long career.

Flash forward 20 years. My wife had bought me tickets to see Bob Dylan perform in the border city of Lloydminster, Alberta. Of course I was not going to turn them down or raise a fuss. However after my previous experience I was reluctant to get my hopes up too high and decided to attend with an open mind. The first thing I had found out from some recent concert reviews was that Dylan tends to spend most of his performance at the piano. He did perform "Simple Twist of Fate" standing with the electric guitar, but there were no acoustic performances. There was no opening act.

The Grizzly Bear Part 2: Afterthoughts

After having a day or two to process the events that happened at Poboktan Creek I have a few thoughts on the whole matter.

• I have no anger toward the bear. When we choose to go into their territory it is the risk we take. We can do things to minimize those risks such as making noise and so on. I think my biggest worry is that the easy pickings he got by discovering our food bag will make him more likely to look again. This puts other hikers in danger. I don't know though. Perhaps another hiker had been in the area and left an easy meal. The warden did say it was unusual for bears to actually enter the campsites. If they are clean of garbage and offer nothing the bear would be interested in then he would have no reason to be there. They generally avoid human contact. We had only been on site maybe half an hour when it showed up.
• I am very proud of the way the kids responded to the situation. We so often see kids over exaggerating things like being sick or falling down and hurting themselves. I am just as guilty as others of wondering: Are my kids wimps? This incident proved to me that when things are really serious they were able to keep a cool head. As soon as they saw the bear they quickly but calmly left the area. They walked away and didn't shout or freeze. We had just hiked in 8 km. When we hit the trail again to get out of there we were slogging through the mud and water. We were in a dangerous situation. They didn't just stop and cry, they followed along at a good pace and we hiked 8km back. No complaining. No whining. They just did what they had to do.
• My son felt horrible for leaving his beloved teddy bear behind. My wife overheard him say that he was a "terrible parent" for doing so. I told him that what he did was right. We got out of danger so we could send someone back to save the teddy bear.
• We did the right thing by reporting the incident. We had a responsibility to let other hikers know that there was a bear in the area. It was a bear that may become aggressive given his actions. The trail was closed the next day and will remain so for at least 2 weeks.
• I am a little concerned because this was the first time we went backpacking as a family. We have hiked before but this was going to be a step up for us. I hope the kids do not get put off becase of the incident. We won't rush them though.
• I wonder about the bear. I hope this was a one off incident. I would hate to think that he may be put down for this or it may lead to more aggressive behaviour. There are between 600 and 800 grizzly bears in Alberta. They are an endangered species. Most of it is because of humans.

Looking back on the experience I have to say I am glad it turned out the way it did. We did what we needed to do. We have since been in contact with the officer who has sent us a few pictures of bears in the area he has been monitoring hoping he can find a match. So far no luck.