CR2015: From Mistaya Lodge to Mt Engadine Lodge

Today was a transit day; Joan and I are flying out of Mistaya Lodge and driving to Mount Engadine Lodge. Our pigs, Knuckles and Pierre, were ready to go first thing in the morning. They like helicopter rides.

It promised to be another sunny day.

There's a hummingbird feeder on the south side of the lodge that is much less fought over than the east side feeder.

After carrying departing guests' gear out to the helipad, David and Sandra struck a well-practiced pose for the camera.

Our chariot arrives.

Joan and I, on the first group out, will be dropped off at a back-country landing point, and then driven the rest of the way back to Golden. The chopper will also drop off garbage and pick up supplies and incoming guests at the landing point. Only the last group in the changeover will fly all the way to Golden.

The latter half of the flight follows a valley with a braided glacial river.

Today I had the privilege of sitting in the jump seat, up front next to the pilot. Here's what the instrument panel looks like.

This video clip covers the first 90 seconds of our flight, and the last 90 seconds.

As you can see, the whirlybird kicks up a lot of dust. As a confirmed eyeglasses wearer and a camera-pointer, I hate dust, especially gritty outdoor chaff. While the others huddled behind an SUV while the heli took off, I hightailed it across the road.

The Mistaya Lodge folks drove us back to the heliport in Golden, where we retrieved our rental car. The remainder of the day would be spent driving to Mount Engadine Lodge. We could pick up some new road, and road we hadn't driven on in several years, by driving down to Radium and then back up Highway 93. It would be longer, but also avoids a chunk of driving on the Trans-Canada at the end of a holiday weekend.

The drive down to Radium had little traffic. The sharp northward jog on Highway 93 after leaving Radium hosts a viewpoint that looks up and down the Kootenay Valley. The haze in this photo was generated mostly by forest fires elsewhere.

While at this overlook we saw bicycle riders obviously participating in some event; there were support vehicles parked across the road from the viewpoint, they had numbers on their jerseys, and so forth. We chatted with one of the organizers, a guy originally from Chicago, and discovered that this ride was one of the ongoing activities of Sea-to-Sea, an anti-poverty organization.

On arriving at Mount Engadine Lodge we were told that the Moose suite, our favorite, was not available, even though we had reserved it nine months before. As we unpacked in the Elk suite, Joan and I discovered that two light bulbs were burned out. They were quickly replaced by the staff, but we knew the Lodge had changed ownership and management since last year, and this was not an auspicious start. That night's dinner was still excellent, however, and the major question seemed to be tomorrow's weather.