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.

CR2016: Down and Up to Grizzly Col

On the morning of August 4th the weather was good, but the prediction included a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Today's hike headed for Grizzly Col, the pass in the ridgeline just east-southeast of Copperstain Mountain.

This meant that we would descend ~300 meters, or 1000 feet, from the lodge before starting a 486 meter (1600 foot) climb up to 2386 meters, or 7830 feet.

At our first stop we inspected the Lodge's dam. Joan and I had encountered various electrical generation schemes at different "helicopter" lodges; Talus Lodge originally had a liquid-fueled generator that shut off at 9pm, but now has solar panels that minimize the use of the generator; a run-of-the-river micro-hydro generator at Mistaya Lodge, supplemented by solar panels, can handle lights and battery chargers but not hair dryers, just as at Talus; here at Purcell Lodge there is a diversion hydro generator that can handle one hair dryer with prior warning.

Halfway down the 1000 foot descent we visited the dam that supplies water to the hydro generator.

The dam provides a pool from which some of the water continues over the creek bed, and some of the water is piped to the generator at the bottom of the hill.

Screens keep debris out of the water fed to the pipe.

They periodically need cleaning.

But not today.

It's a long run of pipe down to the generator hut, and sections need replacement from time to time due to tree falls and other damage.

We had seen both spare and mangled pipe glistening in a small meadow from the top of Copperstain, and would again today.

The generator hut is small,

and the maintenance log unofficial.

Sarah adjusted the feed valve half a turn, but a few minutes after we departed she received a radio call from the Lodge that the power had dropped to 1 bar out of 8. The "hammer" that protects the generator from overload might have dropped. She ran back, restarted the system, exercised the valve wheel, and the power returned.

On reaching the bottom of the hill our group saw the site of the original owner/builder's yurts and a still-functioning outhouse. Then we started up the valley of Krummholz Creek, hoping to reach Grizzly Col despite the forecast thunderstorms. The early trail was in the woods, which thinned as we climbed; the trees spread out and the flowers and rocks became more alpine. The cloudiness increased.

In this photo we've already gained altitude. Back the way we've come the Lodge is near the top left, and halfway down the pipe "farm" is visible in a clearing (click on the image to enlarge).

More hiking ensued, followed by our lunch break. The col was in sight ahead, but it'll still take some effort to get there. Kristin and Sarah were keeping a wary eye on the sky.

Our group pushed on. After a cool-down and water break below the pass, Kristin said it was turn-around time, but if we wanted to "run up to the pass" we had ten minutes. Say no more.

We made it!

Up here the snow lingered on the north slopes and in shaded pockets. There was a hiker in the middle of this snowbank.

Looking south.

Two panoramas, the first looking from the northeast (at right) to the northwest.

Overlapped by this panorama looking from the northwest (right) to the southwest. The peak at right is Copperstain.

The descent back down to the valley was not as difficult as we had dreaded, and the rain held off. The climb back up to the Lodge was a slog and I suffered from end-of-the-hike letdown, but then there was surprise champagne in honor of Sandy & Kelli's 15th anniversary (observed) as we arrived at the lodge.

That evening it was time to pack. Tomorrow would require multiple helicopter flights to swap the guests and some of the staff, and exchange garbage for supplies. Joan and I volunteered to be on the first helicopter out.

CR2016: Bald Mountain Lookouts

August 3rd began cloudy, cool (4°C), and damp,

but the rain began to stop, and our group shoved off at 10am for a tour of lookout points on Bald Mountain; the meadows are on the gentle south slope of that mountain.

We dressed warmly and with rain gear. Our first stop, at an unnamed viewpoint, looked down into (Canada's) Glacier National Park.

A closer look.

Zooming in on Sir Donald, in the mist.

We proceeded a short distance to Tumbledown Point, where we paused and enjoyed a snack.

This young tree, twisted by the winds, clung to the mountainside.

Fog and clouds continued to blow up the valleys and along the ridge, revealing and obscuring the view. Some of our group decided to return to the lodge, and the rest began to work uphill, a warming activity, towards the high point of the Purcell Meadow. 

This photo looks back at a creek we crossed.

The whitebark pine in this region is endangered, facing multiple threats including white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, climate change, and fire exclusion/suppression.

We continued uphill until we simultaneously reached the National Park boundary, the edge of the meadow, and the summit of Bald Mountain.

We happily shed our gear and dove into lunch.

However, Barry had a mishap. Placed on the edge of a scenic but steep drop on the north side, his pack began slide down the mountain. He grabbed it in time, but his water bottle flew out of the pack and didn't stop until it hit the rocks below. This concerned him. He called on Sarah, our guide, to help.

Now what? Sarah?

Sarah calmly made her way down to the rubble field, and with Barry directing, found the errant water bottle. (Click on the image to enlarge). She spritely made her way back up, and handed the cracked bottle to Barry.

Sarah is the red dot right of center.

The skies began to brighten after lunch, and we wiggled and wandered through the flower-laden meadow on the way back to Purcell Lodge, rejoining the Copperstain trail we had hiked yesterday.

As we neared the lodge Mount Sir Donald became a weather vane.

Hors d'oeuvres were waiting for us when we arrived at the lodge, 3pm. Wonderful!

Tomorrow was to be another ambitious hike, to Grizzly Col.