CR2014: Lake McArthur and Marmot Madness

July 27th was the final day of this year's visit to Lake O'Hara. We were determined to extract the most out of it, and opted for the late afternoon bus down to the parking area.

The sun had not yet reached the lake when we walked to breakfast.

It took a few extra minutes to zip up our luggage, and then we set out for today's destination, Lake McArthur. Immediately after starting, Joan and I spotted these resting mergansers just offshore in the northern lobe of Lake O'Hara.

For variety's sake we didn't take the Big Larches route again, but passed through the Alpine Meadow and up the McArthur Pass trail.

At the pass we could see across to the Odaray Highline trail, which we'd taken four days before. There were hikers at the spot where the Highline ends and the much steeper Grandview trail heads up.

There is both an upper and a lower trail to Lake McArthur; we tackled the upper.

Which includes a big step.

After reaching the top of the climb (this photo looks back),

we reached a cairn.

The trail splits into several braids as you approach the lake.

The view from the lakeshore demands a panoramic photo.

Joan and I climbed back to one of the rocky promontories for lunch.

It was a warm and scenic place to stretch the legs.

Then we realized we weren't alone. A hoary marmot was lunching in the foliage just to our left.

Joan and I waited patiently. The marmot decided to cross to the right side of the rocky area, and I snapped a closeup.

Then one of us moved just enough to spook him, and the marmot dashed to cover on the left (click on the image to enlarge).

After lunch we began our return by repeating the upper trail, and struck the wildlife jackpot. A weasel dashed across the trail with a pika clenched in its jaws, doubtless taking lunch to babies hidden in the rocks. (Even weasel babies must eat.) This was the first weasel we'd seen! Not long after, a marmot shambled up and down across the rocks with a mouthful of greenery.

We reached Lake O'Hara in good time, and stopped at a bench to drink in the view. There was a lot to see, including a kayaker.

Across the lake rock climbers were practicing (click to enlarge).

A spot Joan and I have dubbed "lunch rock" caps the face the climbers were tackling.

Alison and Bruce, the lodge managers, came by and we chatted about weasels and the voluntary Odaray Grandview sign-in procedures. Tea-time at the lodge arrived; Joan and I stopped there for drinks and snacks, then reluctantly boarded the departing bus.

We moved our stuff into a cabin at Cathedral Mountain Lodge, and preemptively asked for help in unscrewing the autonomous porch light that otherwise shines all night, unhindered, through the clerestory windows of the cabin.

Tomorrow the next leg of this Canadian Rockies saga would begin.

CR2014: Wiwaxy Gap, Huber Ledges, Yukness Ledges, and a Show

July 26th dawned cold, and clear as only mountain skies can be. The slopes around Lake O'Hara were tinted blue -- from the shadows, not the cold.

In the lodge first breakfast had been laid out. This included juice, muffins, fruit, yogurt, hot oatmeal, and Joan's favorite-in-the-whole-world berry buffet.

During first breakfast the staff comes by your table and inquires about hot breakfast, which can be the special of the day, or eggs (any style), meat (bacon or sausage?), hash browns, and toast. At some point during breakfast you're asked what kind of sandwich you'd like for a trail lunch, if you're not lunching at the lodge. There are three choices: a vegetarian offering, a meat offering, and a classic Lake O'Hara peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich.

At the end of breakfast the buffet is cleared and sandwiches in tupperware are set out, along with muffins, cheeses, trail mix, carrots/peppers, lemonade, and the Best Cookies In The World. Three kinds. Rotating each day. Pack a lunch, and head for a morning of hiking!

Joan and I started out for the Wiwaxy Gap trail. The sun had risen over Lake O'Hara.

The hike to Wiwaxy Gap is something we tackle every year; this year, a distinguished promontory and photo-op is the only en-route image.

Depending on our conditioning, and time at altitude, it takes Joan and me about an hour and a half to reach the gap. Our pigs didn't even break a sweat.

There is a small knob to the north of the pass, in front of the Wiwaxy Peaks.

I took this panoramic image from the knob. I've admired this view several times, and never tire of it.

Using the full zoom of the camera I photographed Sleeping Poets Pool, on a ledge above the Yukness Ledge trail. We plan to visit it today.

Below, others have almost made it to the gap.

Then they reached it.

Joan and I continued on the Huber Ledges trail, towards Lake Oesa.

It's the sole route out of Wiwaxy Gap, except to go back the way you came, steeply downhill. Others followed us; in this picture the camera is looking back the way we've come.

Our next goal, Lake Oesa, is the large body of water at left.

The past two days of drizzle have left a fresh dusting of snow on the surrounding heights.

In this photo we've drawn close to, but are still above, Lake Oesa. The rocky "picnic ground" at the edge of the lake invites people to linger, to sun, and to lunch. Click on the image to enlarge, and you'll spot some.

From this point we also saw climbers making their way down from Abbot Hut, at Abbot Pass, 9600' altitude. To reach the hut requires genuine climbing skills and equipment, including helmets. Probably not for us! Here, on the way down, the climbers are past the scariest parts.

After enjoying our lunch -- including, as I said, The Best Cookies In The World -- at Lake Oesa we continued on the Yukness Ledges trail. A short distance before Yukness joins the East Opabin trail a scruffy track leads up to Sleeping Poets, our next goal. Here, we look back at Oesa.

Halfway along the Yukness Ledges our plans vanished. Just ahead of us, an older man missed his step and fell among some rocks. Joan and I reached him just before his grown son turned around and came back to join us. The older man was a physician, and decided, once back on his feet, that he was bruised but nothing was broken.

But he was shaken and unsteady on his feet. The father and son pair were moving very slowly. The son insisted that they would be OK, and the father insisted on continuing around the Yukness rather than returning by Oesa. Joan and I moved ahead, but only a short distance. And waited. At the pace the two were traveling, we were uncomfortable leaving them high on the ledge. A few other hikers came by, but had little to report.

When father and son came into view it didn't look good. Dad needed frequent breaks, and wasn't steady yet. Joan and I offered assistance again, and what we hashed out was this: Joan and I would go along the Yukness to where the son's wife and two daughters would be waiting for the pair, at East Opabin, and tell them what had happened. Then we would continue to the lodge and tell the staff what had happened -- but, grandfather repeated, do not summon a helicopter. No helicopters!

When we reached the rest of the family, Mom decided to walk back to join grandfather and husband, and the girls were to go back with us. Joan had slipped once during our dash across the ledges and her knee was twinging, so I conducted a forced march with the girls and let the staff at the lodge know what was up. I got a long, cold drink of lemonade and another to take back to Joan, who I met along the shores of Lake O'Hara.

Grandfather must have continued his recovery and returned more or less under his own power. There were no helicopters, and his son thanked us at dinner for our assistance. They were more than welcome to it; the very thought of someone being stranded on the cold alpine mountainside gave me the shivers. Sleeping Poets Pool? Next year.

Tonight was Saturday night. Showtime. Every Saturday night the staff puts on a show for the guests, never the same twice. It consists of a series of acts, some involving one person,

some a small group, such as this edition of Marmot Talk,

or a larger group, such as this fabulous rhythm band, joined by a great fiddler,

or the whole ensemble.

What a day it was!

CR2014: Opabin Prospect and Linda Lake

July 24th started with rain, snow, and hail during breakfast. We left our cabin 45 minutes later than usual, and headed for our preferred messy weather destination, the Opabin Plateau, which we had already visited two days earlier. It's a good place to wander when you don't wish to get too high up or too far away.

This photo shows how the bluffs of the plateau appear from lake level.

We decided to walk around Lake O'Hara clockwise to the East Opabin Trail, the longer way to go. In this image Joan and I are at the head of the northern, smaller lobe of Lake O'Hara.

The east trail is wider, wooded, switchbacked, and less interesting than the west trail, but the footing is better in borderline weather. As it was, the rain/snow mix abated as we climbed.

Joan and I were thrilled to encounter a varied thrush on the trail, a bird we never see in Ohio. So even if the image is fuzzy, I'm including it!

We continued on to Lake Opabin, where we ate lunch. The cold persuaded us not to linger. We began our return on the west side of the plateau, and encountered a hermit thrush being pestered by two chicks. You can't feed those beaks fast enough! We also saw the three baby marmots from two days before, in the same spot, but not a parent.

We made a brief stop at the Opabin Prospect even though the rain was developing again. Even with low clouds the view was something to appreciate.

Joan, on far right in the blue rain jacket, provides scale. There's a cairn dead center. Let's take a closer look.

Closer yet.

Then we descended by the West Opabin Trail and returned to our cabin after an outing of five hours.

July 25th began with a cold, light drizzle. Joan and I didn't shove off until 11:00. We were headed for Linda Lake via the Lower Morning Glory Trail and the Linda Lake Beeline Trail (click on the map to enlarge).

This view looks back to the Elizabeth Parker Hut at the start of the Lower Morning Glory.

We lunched at the extensive rock pile on the southern shore of Linda Lake, where we often see pikas.

We briefly saw a couple of pikas, but today's gloomy weather seemed to be keeping them indoors (in their rock warrens).

The clarity of the water here makes for color shadings you wouldn't find anywhere less transparent. The transition from brown to green is sudden.

Joan and I swung around the west and north sides of Linda Lake and hiked down to a four-way junction. Technically the junction is only three-way, but the closed fourth trail is still visible. At one point I slipped on some moss, but the same moss made a soft landing for my posterior. 

At the junction we turned right towards the Lake O'Hara campground. We saw varied- and hermit- thrushes, and heard winter wrens. This trail is much less rocky and root-strewn than the Lower Morning Glory, which we shall remember for the future.

After the campground we took the Cascade Route, which crosses the outflow creek and put us on the east bank of a lake just downstream from Lake O'Hara. It's the small oblong in the above left of this satellite image, almost touching the road.

Here we saw pipits, sandpipers, mergansers, yellow-rumped warblers, a golden-eye duck and six small ducklings. The sightings were exciting through binoculars, but too far for my camera.

After a clean-up in our cabin it was time for dinner. In this photo the gong hasn't rung yet.

Tomorrow the weather should be better.