Hang-gliding!

Tom and I took a beginner hang-gliding class this weekend. We had a few hours of ground school on Thursday to show us the basics of how to do it, then we got to do some practical air-time on Saturday and Sunday morning. Saturday was really windy and chilly, but meant we didn't need to run as hard to get in the air. We got a couple hours of practice with the instructor's assistance before it got too windy and we had to call it a day. Today was colder but the wind was calmer, and we got to stay out for the full four hours. We were on our own today for balancing the glider, which was a fair bit more difficult. The glider we were on was actually a bit too big/heavy for me so I was pretty sore by the end of the day... Both Tom and I managed to get some brief lift, but it was a bit difficult to catch it in the photos. I think we've found ourselves a new hobby... just have to wait until spring for more practice time and the intermediate gliding class!

Mt. Burke

On Thanksgiving Sunday we decided to be thankful for a bout of nice weather... +10 C and seemingly sunny (although a bit chilly to start). We chose a "shoulder season day hike" from our trusty guide book and made the 2+ hour drive down through Turner Valley & Longview and then into Highwood Junction. Mt. Burke is a 16km round trip with 935 m elevation gain. The book says it takes 5-7 hours, we did it in just over 5. Lots of long, pleasant switchbacks made for a relatively moderate ascent.

We got a bit of a late start, not leaving until 9;30, but it was still fairly brisk when we first left the trail-head... as this fringe of snow along the river bed attests.

Hiking in the sun we warmed up fairly quickly though... Even with snow still covering the path in shaded sections...

Part way up the mountain we could see a cold weather front starting to move in... there's a mist over the back mountains and clouds starting to move in. We paused at this sunny patch just under the tree-line to enjoy a snack.

Above the tree-line the path got rockier (but still packed enough for Kali not to have trouble). The clouds began to move in a bit more and the wind really picked up. I had to pull out my toque!

First glimpse of our destination: the old fire-lookout on the very tip of Mt. Burke! We could really hear the winds howling at this point, and the sun started to dip behind the clouds. We decided to push on anyway!

... even once we hit this narrow point. The trail was at most 4 m across, although it followed the right side of the ridge-line with large boulders that provided periodic wind-breaks. The trek made us think of hiking to a remote monastery...

Success! The fire-lookout... still clamped down by 1 or 2 of the cables holding it in place... Tom of course popped into it before I had a chance to get up there and remind him he wasn't supposed to because it's unsafe (being perched on a peak, dilapidated, and not secured to the ground). We both couldn't help thinking of Kerouac meditating and writing away in that isolated fire-lookout he manned decades ago... I guess it was just one of those hikes that inspired poetic thoughts...

Hand-stands on the edge... Jumping shots (even Kali's getting in on the action)...

Tom posing as the clouds envelope the top of the mountain, the odd snowflake mixed in with the mist and gentle rain. We decided to boot it down at this point because all three of us were starting to get cold and wet.

Once we got back into the trees the weather at least seemed a lot more mild, although still a slight mist that left the trail slick... and for some reason there seemed to be more snow than I remembered! We paused at this tree because the shape of it reminded me of the snow gums we saw in Tasmania, although of course lacking the beautiful red tones... maybe it was also because the weather was so similar (we ended up hiking in some Yuletide snow on a hike down there too).

Garden Harvest

We pulled out the rest of the garden this week since some killer frosts were on the way (no snow like they were calling for though). This is what we've got still.. a bunch of zucchini (more in the freezer) and bags of tomatoes in various levels of ripeness... lots of delicious yumminess ahead though!

Sweet Husband!

Tom and I had our 2-year anniversary on Wednesday! When I got home for work Tom surprised me with my favourite flower and a white chocolate smiley "sucker". You're awesome Tom! =o)

Jumping Pound Ridge Revisited

Kali & I biked this trail earlier in the season, starting at the north trail-head and heading out on the Summit trail. This time we were with Tom & Susanna and started from the south trail head (I recommend this direction!) with the intention of coasting down the ridge-line to the Jumping Pound Ridge-Cox Hill junction, then turning around and coming out the Summit trail so Kali would have less time on the gravel road. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. It started spitting before we got to the top, but we pushed on anyway. Once we hit the summit it started to rain harder, and combined with a cold wind, so we just turned around from there. My fingers were a bit numb by the time we finished the descent to the road, but we still had a lot of fun... definitely will need to make another attempt with nicer weather!

Here are a couple of pics from a look-out close to the ridge-top. I had planned to take some more scenic shots and pics of all of us together, but the rain kind of put a damper on that... not much view by the time we got to the top.

Road to the north where we'd come out of the trail:

View to the south where we started from:

Little Arethusa

Once again I'm behind in the postings. Tom came home the same day the folks left back in mid-Sept, then I left for a 2 day work field trip, but when I got back home we decided to make an attempt at Little Arethusa Cirque/peak since I did Ptarmigan Cirque (located just up the road from Little Arethusa) with the folks. It was a bit of an aggravating start to the day, we got started a little late, but mostly it was because I apparently did not read the directions very well so we had three starts. On the way to the trailhead we saw these mountain sheep hanging out and licking the road... maybe they were from the same herd I saw with the folks at Ptarmigan Cirque.... The sign for Little Arethusa is right next to the Ptarmigan Cirque parking lot so I assumed (and therefore erroneously read the instructions) that we started from there. We began by following an obvious trail, but one trail that ended up being a rugged portion of Ptarmigan Cirque that I didn't do with the folks...

Once we realized we were heading in the total opposite direction of where we wanted to go (maybe 20 min of hiking) we back-tracked... saw this moose on the way out.

I checked the directions from the parking lot (but didn't check at that point we had the right parking lot!) and we headed off from the southern point. Fortunately we had our GPS with us, thinking we might snag a cache, and realized we actually wanted to be on the other side of the road. At this point I read the directions more carefully, realized the appropriate parking spot was actually a couple of km further down the highway (d'oh!) and we hopped in the car and headed to the right spot.

We finally headed out on the right trail and fairly quickly entered into Little Arethusa Cirque and had a snack next to the talus and a very pleasant little stream.

From there we made the executive decision to keep going even though it meant that I wouldn't make it back to Calgary in time to curl... it was a gorgeous day and it was worth it!

Heading up from the cirque involved a bit of trail finding, but Tom's quite good at that so we didn't have too many problems from this point on...

View down to the cirque: Looking up to the top of Little Arethusa:

The "route" to the top was pretty rubbly and Kali wasn't comfortable with the full ascent so we chilled out on the side of the mountain enjoying the view (we got fairly close to the top) before heading back down.

On the way out we thought about grabbing one of the many geocaches near this spot... dumping tbe "unnecessary bush-whacking" geocoin that I was sure was jinxing our trip, but we didn't have any luck finding the cache near this creek quickly... and we didn't feel like spending much time on it at this point.

Anyway... gorgeous, fun day in the end... and learned an important lesson on reading directions!