Old Goat Glacier

Well, Tom's back at work so Kali & I gave my friend Mike a call to see if he wanted to go for a hike today. We originally planned to do Mt. Indefatigable (aka Mt. Fatty), but at the last minute decided to hike Old Goat Glacier instead since it was supposed to be around 30 Celsius today. Definitely ended up being the way to go! It was 10.5km round-trip with a 620m elevation gain. It started off really pleasantly meandering along a packed dirt and pine needle path that paralleled a rushing glacier-fed creek... but eventually led to a steep climb along a trail that became rubbly in places and could have used a few more switch-backs. The view was spectacular and there were neat glacial erratics the size of a trailer home poking out of the talus slope. Once we reached the top we picked our way along a huge moraine right up to Old Goat Glacier. Kali was pretty ecstatic to see nice cold snow at the top and gobbled some up and pranced around... I guess we did work up quite the sweat getting up there! The glacier was encrusted in rubbly debris that kept cascading down the side as it melted and gushed water into a stream. We hung out on some erratics, eating lunch, and enjoying the cold adiabatic winds blowing off the glacier and the bright sunshine. Kali had a little bit of trouble navigating some of the bigger rubble on the top of the moraine, taking a super sketchy detour past a boulder along the edge of a shear drop that nearly scared me to death, so on the way back we opted to walk down the snow... slippery, but fun and a neat novelty for one of the hottest days this summer. The trip down went quickly and I was really appreciating my hiking poles for taking the pressure off my knees and saving me from sliding down the slope a few times. Kali of course was a little mountain goat making everything look graceful and easy. I'm feeling pretty good so far, although Mike was feeling a bit stiff by the time we got back to Calgary.

This cascade is coming off the glacier and feeding the creek we initially hiked along:

The trail up and some of the erratics and debris along the slope: View at the top of the climb looking down on Spray Lake (where we started from): First view of Old Goat Glacier and the moraine:Fun in the snow: Walking down into the valley, looking up at the moraine. There are people walking along the top for scale, but you have to zoom in to see them.

View of the glacier from the bottom... that's all ice - gives you an idea of how dirty it is! The water in front was black with silt, but was running crystal clear by the time it hit the creek below.Closer view of the ice, debris, and water pouring off of it:Wow... check out that geology! Neat erosion on the bedding.

Sulphur Springs

Sulphur Springs is a fun mountain bike trail just west of Bragg Creek on Hwy 66, starting from the Station Flats parking area. It's a good mix of up- & down-hills (rather than a single killer uphill followed by a massive downhill). It would have been really doable if we weren't a little bit tired still from the Rummel Lake hike we did the day before.

Here's a shot of Tom doing a victory pose towards the end of the ride when we came out at a particularly scenic spot. I attempted the same post but couldn't lift my bike as impressively... gotta work on the upper body strength! ... Kali seems impressed... or maybe trying to figure out what he's doing...

This is a classic grumpy Tom pose... I don't usually get smiling shots. This was somewhat of a prelude to the near-disaster Tom had a few minutes after taking to the trail again. He was going down a steep hill and his derailleur blew apart, jamming into his rear cog set. Fortunately Tom kept his cool and didn't lose control... and it was the hill coming down to a road. I rode back on the trail with Kali to get the car to pick him up... in the mean-time he converted the bike to a single-speed and coasted down the road to beat me back to the car. In hind-sight I should have left Kali with him and taken the road - would have been faster and saved my exhausted legs, but it was still a good ride and kept Tom from being bored. I think he only beat me by a few minutes anyway.

His bike is toast now... just good for parts unless we want to add a whole lot of expensive components. He's getting a bike from his buddy Mark though that has more travel (means he can do bigger, sillier things for those non-bikers) and should be arriving before he gets back home.

Rummel Lake

Our latest conquest was the hike to Rummel Lake... okay, an easy enough hike that it wasn't much of a "conquest" per se, but quite beautiful and we couldn't help taking a ton of shots. It's 8.6 km round trip to Rummel Lake with only 355 m elevation gain... an extra 5km round trip and 185m elevation gain to the pass that we didn't quite reach due to time constraints (it was a UFC fight night ... "date night") and because we hit a bouldery section that wasn't too fun for Kali's paws.

A pleasant cascade on the way to Rummel Lake:

We also picked up some hiking poles... here's a great shot of Tom standing on a big boulder modeling them: The pass above Rummel Lake: A sweet limestone erratic with Tom & Kali for scale. There were some stromatoporoids and colonial corals scattered about. On our way back down: A moose on the side of the road when we returned to the car:

Berry Picking

We took an "easy" day on Sunday and went berry picking at Bumbleberry Farms & Winery. We spent several hours getting a bit carried away picking a few buckets of raspberries and saskatoon berries (which are now completely filling our freezer, but that's about all it's used for anyway!). We also tasted the fruit wines they made. They were surprisingly delicious! We ended up picking up a few bottles of dinner & dessert wines - our favourites were Bumbleberry for a nice light, dry dinner wine, and then the fortified saskatoon berry wine that was kind of reminiscent of port and had a pleasantly complex taste, and the heavenly fortified raspberry wine. I rewarded our hard work by making raspberry/saskatoon berry mini-pies (fore-ground), which were also delicious and went supremely well with a bit of the raspberry wine.

My new yogurt maker is what started the whole thing off. I've been making my own yogurt for the last few weeks. Calgary doesn't recycle plastics and yogurt was our main plastic-creating waste so we decided to start making our own. It's easy and delicious (although takes a bit of planning so I can be home/awake when it's time to transfer the yogurt to the fridge because it sits in the machine for 5-7 hours depending on the size of the batch... NOT the 10 hours indicated in manual as I found out on my first attempt where I ended up making something that looked like lumpy curdled milk). Anyway, since getting this yogurt I've been making smoothies for breakfast every morning and going through lots of berries so I thought it would be nice to go stock up and freeze my own. I think we're set for a bit now.

Prairie Mountain

I picked Tom up at the airport Saturday morning and after a good breakfast and nap (it was a really early morning flight) we headed out to hike Prairie Mountain. It's about a 45-60 min drive away just west of Bragg Creek, about 687 m elevation gain, 7 km round-trip. Definitely worked the climbing muscles heading up (we're both still feeling it... and Kali was completely down for a day too). We lucked out with only minor spitting and very small hail that didn't last that long. The top of the ridge was a bit windy and cool, but we managed to get a brief bit of sun peaking out... long enough to lay out in the grass for about 5 min anyway and take some nice shots of Kali with the mountains in the back. There was also a geocache hidden at the top for an added bonus... one micro on the way up that we paused at, intending to look a bit more for on the way down but forgot about it . The whole hike took just shy of 3 hours... 2 hours up, 1 down. Heading up the ridge-line for the final ascent:

Hanging out at the top (sorry it's a bit dark... the sun wasn't cooperating at this point):

A view to the north of Moose Mountain from Prairie Mountain, and I think that might be Jumping Pound Ridge in the background on the left (for some kind of reference from previous posts):

The requisite shots of Kali the hiking Ridgeback... peering over the steep edge of the ridge (steep, shear drop off one side, gentler slope on the other):

Heading back down:

Eagle Hill

I went out biking with a Spin Sisters friend a couple of weeks ago... this time Eagle Hill. There was an option to add Deer Ridge at the end but we were all a bit too tired at that point. Kali was lying down in the shade when we stopped at the intersection and panting a fair bit so we just headed back to Sibbald Lake so she could have a dip. The ride took us 3 hours... a bit more of a moderate than intermediate ride with a nice mix of up & down-hill... although some Spin Sisters attempted it later in the week and apparently once there's a bit of a rain the hills get a lot more slick & difficult... just that kind of mud. This is the view from the top!