CR2016: From Purcell to Kicking Horse to Mount Engadine

The deadline to vacate our room at Purcell Mountain Lodge, 6:30, gave me a chance to photograph Copperstain Mountain and Grizzly Col in early morning light.

After a continental breakfast Joan and I boarded the first flight, which had arrived earlier carrying technicians to work on the hydro generator.

This time I got the jump seat, next to the pilot!


Here are a few still images. First, the pilot's instruments, including a GPS-like screen on top.

Crossing a ridge.

Snowfields below.

Approaching Golden.

Now where's the airport?

After landing at the airport we threw the single duffel Joan and I had taken to Purcell into the car, and with the whole day spread before us, Joan and I visited the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, just outside Golden.

Our top priority was to see Boo, a now-grown rescued grizzly cub, but we arrived so early that the ticket office for the chairlift wasn't open. We strolled through part of the resort, an extensive spread of restaurants, shops, mountain bike trails, condominiums, etc. Along one road we encountered a mother grouse, likely a dusky grouse, with at least three youngsters. Mama was strolling without concern and rejected our efforts to prevent her from walking onto the road.

Here is one of the babies.

The time arrived (9:45) to take the lift up to the grizzly refuge.

Joan and I hadn't known what to expect. Was this a serious effort to assist grizzlies, or a sideshow?

We saw Boo shortly after walking up to the fence.

Boo's story began with tragedy. He and his brother, Cary, were cubs following their mother in the Caribou Mountains (and hence their names). They were foraging near a road when a man drove up, stopped, shot the mother, and sped away. There may also have been a female sibling who ran off. There were witnesses, and the assassin was prosecuted for not having the proper permit; his punishment was limited to a CDN $9,000 fine. Cary and Boo were brought to Kicking Horse so that more could be learned about raising orphaned cubs and possibly releasing them back into the wild. Rescue and re-release of cubs was not thought possible, but now about 18 cubs have graduated from facilities in Canada.

Boo's brother Cary died during hibernation from a twisted small intestine. On emerging in the spring Boo searched for his sib for a long time.

Boo has escaped twice, during mating season in 2006 and 2011. The first time, he kept digging until he could pass under the fence. Steel plates were then inserted to a depth of six feet, but in 2011 Boo found two plates that had not been welded together properly and ripped them out. Boo was neutered after his first fling, but DNA tests show he's a father. Each episode ended with Boo showing up 31-33 days later waiting to be let back into his 20-acre residence!

He enjoys the compound's pond.

My that feels good!

Time for brunch. Gotta go.

Back into 2010 a moose being chased by a cougar or wolf had smashed into the fence, flattening it. The fence rebounded, trapping the moose in Boo's territory. The staff later discovered a buried moose carcass with Boo standing guard. This photo is of a different moose.

Yum!

Joan and I took the chairlift back down to to ride a gondola up to the top of the resort, at 7700 feet.

In this panorama, the Eagle Eye restaurant is in the foreground and the gondola station in the background.

It was time to stretch our legs. The trail started out as a broad road, seen in the two corners of this photo.

We passed various rock formations,

including "seal rock."

There was a hut with rescue gear for the ski season.

Before the hut we investigated a narrow side trail and began to work up a ridgeline, sometimes with handholds, sometimes without.

I became uncomfortable at one exposed trail section and we didn't go further towards the peak. This was the view looking towards the restaurant.

Joan and I lunched partway back. From the restaurant we briefly explored one of the trails that led downhill. Returning to the resort by gondola we watched mountain bikers blasting down harrowing trails, and a roving Mobile First Aid van.

At the bottom we returned to our car, joined the Trans-Canada Highway, and drove east to Canmore and then south to Mt Engadine Lodge.

The post-dinner sunset was lovely.

Moose regularly visit the mud wallow just below the lodge's deck, but often not until dusk is well underway.

Tonight's moose wouldn't hold still, so this image isn't quite in focus! Nonetheless it was a thrill.

Like my rack?

Tomorrow's weather wasn't forecast to be nearly as pleasant as today's. We'll see what happened.

CR2013: Play Dates, Karst Spring, and Field

At breakfast we could see that the musicians were leaving Mount Engadine Lodge today, as were we.

The rain from yesterday had frozen overnight.

A bull moose was departing the frosty mud slough after an early visit.

Our traveling pigs, Danny and Pigtail (right in the photo) enjoyed a post-breakfast playdate with singer-songwriter Cara Luft and her traveling companions.

They posed for a farewell photo.

The monkey became overexcited, and leapt onto the lamp.

We said our goodbyes and then set off for an easier, nearby day hike at Karst Spring. This would leave us plenty of time to drive to Field, our staging point to catch the early morning Lake O'Hara bus tomorrow.

The Karst Spring trail is a spur off a major route used winter and summer. The main trail can take you to Bryant Creek Shelter and deeper, to Assiniboine Lodge, Wonder Pass, and other backcountry destinations.

The first part is an old logging road, crisscrossed by cross-country ski trails, and mostly uninteresting except for occasional views to the north.

After about 3.7km (2.3 miles) Joan and I took the signed spur heading south, past Watridge Lake. Soon you must cross a marshy area on a boardwalk, where sometimes we have spotted fabulous orchids. Further on, a narrower boardwalk spans a damp stretch.

The trail begins to rise, slowly at first, steeply at the end. The creek is tumbling down from the spring in full roar.

The energetic form of Nature's artistry was all around us.

A final curve with a railing conceals the spring, and the sound of the water is almost deafening.

The source is a deceptively modest-looking upwelling in the flank of the mountain.

In winter the scene would be much different!

On the way back we were alerted by other hikers that there was a creature at the far edge of the large marsh.

It's a moose, browsing!

After returning it was time to drive on, through Canmore and past Banff, Lake Louise, and the border of British Columbia. We would spent the night in Field, at the Kicking Horse Lodge, before heading to Lake O'Hara the next day.

Checking in was an adventure. At first they wanted to give us one of the basement rooms, which are poorly ventilated and are situated next to where people hang out to smoke. We had encountered this before, and Joan had asked how to avoid this, and the reply had been that rooms are handed out in order of reservations made, basement rooms last. Joan made it clear that we had made our reservations in January and this was the last day of August and just what did we have to do to get a non-basement room?! The check-in guy consulted his computer and then gave us room #14, in the main section.

But the adventure was not over. Joan was in the shower and I was in my bathrobe when the door started rattling. Somebody was trying to enter the room! Fortunately we had thrown the dead bolt. I peeked out, saw a couple, cautiously opened the door -- and discovered two German tourists who had just been given keys to #14. They were as astonished as we were. The man returned to check-in and apparently another room was found, as after several minutes neither of them was lingering outside our door. I stood down from my watch duty and finally got my shower.

Sheesh.

One has to take pictures of the trains in Field. It's a rail yard and switching point for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. If train noise bothers you, definitely bring earplugs.

We had dinner at the Truffle Pigs Café, part of the lodge building, and returned to our room. Nobody else had moved in while we were gone.