Trail Trial

My new x:(c skis have been sitting by the door to my basement.  They slowly worked their way there, from my front door that leads outside to exploring and adventuring.   I have opened that basement door many times with the intentions of taking the skis down those stairs and leaving them propped against the wall in the dark.  Why did I buy them?  It was a not so smart impulse purchase!  Yet, there has to be something to the fact that they remained by the basement door and never did make it to the dark dismal basement!  I question myself on this!

I had a three hour window of opportunity this morning to fit something in.  I made the most of it and went for a trail trial on my x:(c skis.  I had no idea what to expect having never been on these kinds of skis before.  I will admit, I didn't find it easy.  I'll admit I fell three times while standing still.  I have to admit I loved the fast down hill sections. 

I owned the stadium, thank goodness.  At times I was a menace.   I don't have experience elsewhere to compare today's trails to but I was fine with the snow conditions.  I liked the wide openness, it felt safe.  It was this mornings perfect sunny warm weather that swayed my vote for the trial run.

I knew I wanted to cover about five kilometers, even though I had no idea how long that would take me.  You can cipher from the digits below, I spent quite some time not moving.  Enough said on that! 

There were times I was happy to be on my x:)skis and other times I found them awkward and frustrating to be on.  I still have lots of questions about this sport and will need to spend more time looking for answers.

Today I learned that with regards to experience levels of cross country skiing, I am whatever comes before beginner!  It will take a lot of hard work to get to a point where I feel a little bit confident and comfortable.  With that being said, I was never one to shy away from hard work!

my version of "remember to breathe"

Did you check out the video on my previous post?  Or, have you seen the new Travel Alberta ad on television?  Well, I borrowed their theme "remember to breathe" for today's snowshoe to Tower Lake.  It was to be a snowshoe and I will record it as a snowshoe but for more then half of the distance, we were able to hike.  

The trail head is at the Rockbound Lake trail kiosk.

We owned the parking lot when we hit the trail around 9:00am.  There wasn't much snow and what was there was packed, so we hiked the trail where all the elevation was through trees with no views and managed to do it quickly.  

When we broke through the trees, going quickly ended quickly.  On went the snowshoes as the snow was deep and untouched.   With no visible trail and the area looking totally different to Short Stop then when she was there in the summer, yet with a general idea of where our destination was, we put our route finding skills to use to find our way to Tower Lake.

...but not before taking the time to admire Eisenhower Peak and Castle Mountain...

...and not before taking the time to appreciate the spectacular alpine meadow...

...but mostly importantly...

...not before taking the time to...

...remember to breathe...

I love winter wonderlands, only a trio of us today, owing the area.  What was a week that started out with life being put into perspective and being very thankful in the middle of the concrete jungle, was ending on the very same note in the center of an out there, in a playground, in a wide open space.    Out here, the little insignificant things are all that are truly beautiful and important!  Like...

snow covered rocks

that "V" between Castle Mountain and Eisenhower Peak

trees growing on top of boulders

We reached our destination of Tower Lake!  We took the time to enjoy the view and take photos under the blue sky.  We also took some time to have a look at the rockwall that leads up to Rockbound Lake and decided an unplanned extension was not going to be happening today.  Next, we followed the lake shore just about to the far end and took some time to find a nice sheltered spot in the trees to dine.  

...but most importantly...

...not before taking the time to...

...remember to breathe...

I am calling the above "remember to breathe" photo my summit shot for today!  

As we were finishing dining, the wind whipped up then flurries flew in and cold crept lower. We layered up in down to keep warm as we got going, then hit the trail to head home.  It was much easier going in our already broken track. 

I learned that when I am out here, I have always taken the time to "remember to breathe" but never knew that was what I was really doing!  I knew I was enjoying views, and appreciating being where I was and what I was seeing.  To me, that is what taking the time to "remember to breathe" really means!

remember.....

.....to breathe.....

STAY TUNED!

GOOD-BYE NOVEMBER! HELLO DECEMBER!

It's getting down to the nitty gritty with not much time left in the year to get the numbers up!  These total digits are for November.  I had intentions of skating twice this month but it never happened.  Maybe in December!  No more biking this year, probably no more hiking either unless it is an urban hike somewhere like Nose Hill Park.  There is the possibility of more runs and maybe one snowshoe trip.   Be sure to check back on December 31st for the final tally for 2011!

What will December bring?  

Playing in the Dark!

In the past, I have only ever admired the Lions Festival of Lights from the vantage point of a slow moving vehicle.  This year I had reasons to get up close and personal!  First, it was a great opportunity to play with the low light, night time, fireworks etc features on my new SX40HS.  Second, I could check off an item from my to-do list!  The item I got to check off was to particpate in a mob flash dance.   How cool was that?  Very cool!  Especially seeing the looks on folks' faces when the dance broke out.  

This is a sample of how my camera performs!

I am happy with the fireworks setting.

Night time burst works great!

Close up in the dark is perfect!

Auto focus does exactly what it is suppose to do!

Then there are the characters and face dectection, blink detection, red eye reduction!

Harvey!

The Mayor!

All in all, a fun and successful time out playing in the dark.  

There are roughly 50 pages in the camera guide yet to go through, so I still have lots to learn.  

ESCAPE! DISCOVER! ENJOY!

ESCAPE!

One of the adventures on my to-do list was to go to the Elk Lakes Alpine of Canada Hut.  On my list I didn't get into when I wanted to go, for how long, how I was going to get there, with who, I only knew that I wanted to go!   Check Mark!  I went!  It didn't take long before I began to feel like I had escaped.  Sign after sign proved I was getting further and further away.

We were able to hike until this point but from here on in, it was snowshoe time!  Just one thing, from here on in, it wasn't from here on in.  It was back track then aim for the Hydroline Trail and from there it was from there on in. 

There was much more snow then anticipated and that slowed our pace when we had to break trail.  (Note: This sign was actually taken on the way out two days later in daylight hours.)  Back to on the way in! We had already snowshoed an hour in the dark by the time we reached this sign.  I had snowshoed in the dark before and felt a little wobbly, but with a 42 pound pack on, I felt like a drunken sailor. 

Finally, just over six hours later after leaving the trail head, we arrived at home sweet home!  

DISCOVER!

Discoveries can be good and bad!  The good ones far out weighed the bad ones for me this long weekend!  I love being in new places with child-like wide eyes discovering new mountains, new creeks, new lakes!

I discovered that winter hutting takes work!  On top of trekking in through the deep snow with a heavy pack, I lost count of how many buckets of snow we collected to make water.  I'm sure that if all the logs I brought in to keep home sweet home toasty, were put on top of each other, they would make one of those gigantic B.C. trees.  It was work but work that I didn't mind doing at all!

The discoveries that I did make that were bad were that I had lost my down jacket on the way in (never to be found on the way out) and that when I dropped my camera the last morning some insides broke off (never to be able to work again).  Those are just materialistic things but I still had to have one of those "behind my sunglasses moments" without sunglasses, then carry on with life!

ENJOY!

I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh air, the exercise, the company, the scenery, the Hut!  There were so many reasons to smile and to laugh.  My most favourite moment was on Saturday morning when I got up before the rest and I was sitting on the deck by myself, sipping on my coffee, watching the stars disappear, the sky begin to light and the alpenglow put on a show.

photo by Adventure Designer

An enjoyable part of this adventure was spending looooonnnngg hours in front of the fire.

photo by Adventure Designer
I ESCAPED!
I DISCOVERED!
I ENJOYED!

One of the things on my to-do list is to go to the Elk Lakes Alpine of Canada Hut.  I don't know when I want to go, for how long, how I'm going to get there, or who with, I only know that I want to go back!

Red Sky........

.....at morning, hikers take warning!

We all did our homework last night and this morning checking weather, road and avalanche conditions and seeing that all was in check and A.O.K., we decided today would be a let's do it day for Sparrowhawk Tarns with the option for another close by Ridge! The sky was absolutely beautiful for the drive out with the pinkish red mixed in with the blue.  For us, this meant a nice day ahead! 

We found the trail head and parked on the side of the road to wait for our friends.  We got out to walk around and check the conditions of the surrounding mountains only to see these tracks at the trail head. We put our animal tracker skills to use and declared a cougar had passed by here within the hour.   Just like the red sky, new cougar tracks were no worries for us!

Our friends arrived, we joined forces then hit the trail!  We made it through the sheltered tree section then we were out in the open for the rest of the ascent.  From this vantage point we could see that Read's Ridge was a definite possibility on the way back.

We ascended between Read's Ridge on our left (above photo) and the beginnings of Red Ridge on our right (below photo).

 This cairn marked our way!

We layered up behind this boulder as the wind was picking up and it felt like the temperature was going down.  I looked behind and took a photo of Spray Lake thinking this could possibly be the only view I might get of it today.

We continued our determined ascent through swirling snow, paying close attention to foot placement through the gigantic boulder field.  At times we were able to walk on top of the snow, other times we sunk to our knees.  Our pace slowed.  Visibility was decreasing.  We would stop look at each other, no words being spoken,  then carry on.  

Thank you Smuts Fist for this photo!

When conditions deteriorated to this point where I could barely see my friends a short distance ahead,  we stopped then looked at each other, and this time words were spoken!  Smuts Fist made the call, to call it a day!  We couldn't see anything, it was getting worse, we couldn't tell what was a slope and what wasn't. We all quickly agreed with the call and hightailed it out of there.  

But of course, not before taking our non-summit shots!

We worked our way towards the trees finding a sheltered spot and stopped for lunch.  After eating and hiking back to the trail head, I checked my 60CSX to see we were going to be just short of 10km of hiking.  Now that's a short day!   Even though, it was still fun to be out adventuring with my friends!

If you check the google earth map below, you will see we almost made it to the Tarns.  Give or take another roughly .5 kms over approximately 50 meters up would have taken us to the beginning of our destination.  Today the smart decision was made though!  I know I will return one day in favourable summer or autumn conditions where including a close by Ridge won't be an option but a definite instead!