A beautiful blue sky day greeted us... you know after the sun got up. Met at Shouldice bright and early as I had to return to the city by 6 pm for an evening gathering. It was just three of us heading off to get a good ski in up Moraine Lake road. The trail was fairly good, even if the snow wasn't too deep. Andrea found the only rocky patch, which was about a foot long in the trail. The highlight of the day: huge frost on the tree branches, sparkling against the sun between the trees. So gorgeous! Read more...

The day was overcast, but precipitation free as we headed off to Moose Mountain. Right off the bat we encountered a couple rapidly returning who immediately stopped to inform us: there was a bear on the trail. And it won't get off! Though after a few moments of consultation, it sounds like the bear did actually start meandering off. Just not immediately. Heh, at least it wasn't charging, eh? Read more...

The ideal social network allows one to call up a good friend and be able to go do something mutually enjoyable on decently short notice. Enjoying fun activities with friends while being able to catch up and have a good conversation with is fantastic. I was able to kidnap one such friend after a mutual social engagement in Cochrane and go check out the newly constructed Frozen Thunder, out in Canmore this past Sunday. Read more...

Repeating the Volcano Ridge hike from 2012 - in the fall this time, rather than the spring, Nhu and friends, and Mike and friends. The first 400 metres of trail were fairly muddy and well trodden by horses, but afterwards it dries up. The trail passes through open meadows, and gently rolling terrain until the good hike up to the ridge itself. We took the extra stretch to the nearby peak, where we could see the Calgary skyline to the east and a beautiful fall mountain view to the west. A spectacular day out! Read more...

Rounding out the Thanksgiving weekend, Monday was another glorious fall day with a high of mid teens and no precipitation. Some cloud cover looked a little intimidating out by Canmore, but the forecast indicated it would come to nothing. Met up with my good friend for our first post-pregnancy hike. While she'd taken in Lake Minnewanka (likely less than an hour after being given the go-ahead) with her husband, and breaking in the new carrier, it was great to have her out on the trails again. Jumpingpound Loop was a family default growing up - close to town, not too strenuous, and often with wildlife (cows). When my friends headed home for their thanksgiving feast with family, I headed off to Canmore for a few errands, and decided to get a bit more elevation in by heading up Ha Ling. Since its such a busy trail, I didn't feel anxious about more threatening wildlife - and it was so much fun to see the climbers popping out at the top, before disappearing back down the cliff face. Read more...

I joined up with the local Thirty-Something's group for what appears to be another annual trek for me - this time to Fairview up by Lake Louise. It was a glorious day on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend (hmm... de ja vu you say? from 2012), with a yellow brick road of larch needles scattering the trail up, and a fantastic, albeit windy view at the summit. Read more...

Lidia, Lisa, Eileen and I met up and decided to go hike Old Baldy according to the "Where the Locals Hike" guide book this past Sunday. It was a glorious day, with +15oC weather. The leaves were changing colour and falling, and there was a gentle crispness of fall in the air. And brilliant blue sky too! While the trail itself was impossible to find after a stretch, we did get a good hike in, going up in the direction of the Old Baldy Knoll. Read more...

This will be my third, unintentionally annual hike up going from Paradise Valley over Sentinel Pass to Moraine Lake. This year was hosted by Lisa, who came along for the Piper Pass trip, and consequently not the 24-26 km loop that I've done in the past. She found a handful of fun hikers to get together for the trek, and when one of them brought along a crew of friends from work, the group turned into a collection of 15 friendly individuals.

The day, Sunday, September 21, 2014, was glorious, with 22^oC weather, larches changing a beautiful yellow/light orange colour, grasses turning yellow and fresh almost brisk air that makes fall so delightful in this part of the world. We all made it over, and the fantastic part this time included finally discovering how to safely get up the scree side of Sentinel Pass. Read more...

A three-day backpacking trip along Brewster Creek with intern Kirsty, helping collect remote cameras for a grizzly research project in Banff National Park. Saturday, September 6 to Monday, September 8th, 2014.

It may have taken all summer, but I finally stumbled across a volunteer activity that could expose me to the inner workings of remote cameras within the nearby parks. The volunteer coordinator for Banff National Park pointed me in the direction of Sarah Elmeligi, a PhD student at Queensland University (yes, in Australia - its complicated, but her supervisor moved down there, and he's pretty good with bears and large wildlife apparently) exploring the use of human trails by bears. Her grizzly research needs volunteers to help with camera set up and take down, pouring over images for accurate tracking of critters (bears, people, horseback riders, and other such things), trailhead surveys for hiker-wildlife encounters, and collection of hiker gps data for overlay with collared bears. Fascinating, but lots of work required to cram it into our ever so short hiking season in Banff, Yoho, Kootenay and Jasper National Parks. Read more...