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.

CR2015: A Try for Windtower

Today, August 5th, was our day to tackle Windtower. Last year we'd run out of time before reaching the top, but this year the staff at Mount Engadine Lodge packed our lunches while we ate breakfast, and we were able to hit the road earlier.

The first section of the journey is the West Wind Pass trail.

There are two trails close together here, the good one that appears on the map and an old, nastier one that nobody recommends. As Joan and I approached the area of the trail head, we saw several parked vehicles, decided that they must mark the proper starting point, and we set off. At first the trail seemed merely odd, not quite matching our memories, but then we realized we'd started up the wrong trail, one likely to tire us out and slow us down. The thought of returning all the way to the trail head was also distasteful. Fortunately, we'd passed some work on the Trans Canada Trail; we ought to be able use it to cross over to the genuine West Wind Pass trail.

And we did. Perhaps the trucks were from trail builders.

The real trail climbs follows along and above Spurling Creek, so there were viewpoints along the way as we climbed through the forest.

We reached the pass but didn't linger long,

and started the traverse. Windtower's north face is a sheer drop, but by heading south for a while, an easier climb from the southwest can be reached. The following image was taken from another Windtower account. It's a GPS track showing the writer's outbound traverse (the lower blue line, clinging to the treeline) and return traverse, higher up.

The official status of the trail halts at West Wind Pass. From there, decades of hikers have created a multiplicity of starting options for the traverse (click on the photo to enlarge).

Joan and I started on one of the "middle" tracks. There are a series of short rock faces to negotiate, and we soon encountered a blue grouse atop one of them.

The views continued to open up, but clouds building just to the north worried us. The higher we would go, the more exposed we would be.

Here's a look back to West Wind Pass, in the lower right, tucked between our mountain and the one to the north.

Joan and I continued to eye the cloud buildup. We've hiked in the rain before, but the slopes here are challenging and, did I say, exposed? Here's a photo taken later, from a lakeside rest area, that shows the final section of trail. It's shale scree, steep and scrabbly in places, and utterly without shelter. The top is 8,842' altitude.

We decided to play it wise, and returned to the pass. Windtower would need to wait for next year. On reaching the pass we lunched, and discovered that, to make up for omitting the turkey in one sandwich yesterday, the lodge had put double turkey in our sandwiches today. Then we chatted with Wag, a 14-year-old cocker spaniel, and his master, who carries Wag when the dog tires. This is the view looking east from the pass.

Wag and his master started their return, and a few minutes later we stood to begin ours. However, a group of mountain sheep had reached the north side of the pass, and Joan and I were blocking their path to the south side.

We walked far enough to give the sheep room, but be able to still see them. They trotted across the width of the pass, with the biggest giving it a go first.

More followed.

The youngster came last.

As we descended there was still moisture from last night's rain on some of the foliage.

We arrived back at the trailhead -- the correct trailhead -- and saw these signs:

Don't forget the sheep:

Looking back, we could see clouds flirting with the Windtower. What a difference between the northern and southern faces!

Having ended our expedition early, Joan and I took the opportunity to explore the west side of Spray Lake. It's mostly camping sites, but offers a good view across the lake to the mountains we'd been in.

The clouds still can't make up their mind whether to rain or not.

We parked the car at the end of the road and walked down to the lakeshore. The beach of stones was wide, and we poked around a bit.

We drove back to the lodge, beating rain showers that came through about 5pm. Dinner was excellent, as usual.

And Mr. Moose visited again in the evening. The moose slurp up the muddy water for the minerals in it; someone suggested selenium. I couldn't ask, because I don't speak Moose.

Tomorrow we're off to Delta Lodge Kananaskis, on the other side of the mountain range we've been clambering on for the last two days.