Hot Springs, Cold Fish, No Rings

So we'd been in Canada for over 2 weeks.  We visited Kokanee Provincial Park, Bugaboo Provincial Park, Mt Assiniboine Provincial Park, Mt. Revelstoke National Park, Kootenay National Park, Glacier National Park, Nelson, Revelstoke, Kaslo, Golden, Radium.  We even splurged on a night at Fairmont Hot Springs.  It was amazing!  But we couldn't deny that the weather was wet.  Wet and cold for most of that time.  It was time to head south and seek out sunshine and warmer conditions.  What better place than Idaho, which is always sunny and littered with hot springs!

Well, almost always sunny.  As we drove into Stanley the peaks were covered in snow and the clouds hung low.  So much for alpine hiking.  Fortunately, our next destination was in the bottom of a valley and we held onto hope that the clouds would lift.  I also had a secret weapon tucked in my back pocket.  Our next destination would be a base camp and it included the perfect soaking pool right alongside the river.

Every time I come to Idaho I become more enamored with this place.  Past trips have included hiking and fishing.  It's really the fishing that I come back for.  I just can't resist those beautiful Westslope Cutthroat.  This time I can add another reason to why I love Idaho - the hot water.

Our fishing trip didn't turn out to be epic as I'd hoped for.  The cold weather put the fish in a slump and it took a bit of work to get them out of hiding.  We did catch fish and some very nice ones but they were not the voracious eaters I'm used to in this part of the country. The hot springs on the other hand were just perfect, a great temperature for lounging and we even had them to ourselves a few times.

I wish it would have ended there but this story has a sad ending.  On our last morning beside the river, slightly upstream of our epic basecamp, we lost something.  Laurel had placed her wedding rings (attached to a silver chain) into the tent pocket.  While we packed up they never made it back to her neck.  They were shaken out of the tent onto the beach. We must have missed them in the final sweep of camp.

We believe they have been picked up by rafters because this beach is normal scouting location for Sulfur Slide rapid just below.  We were back to the camp within hours and turned over every stone but found nothing.  So if you know any rafters with a new set of rings please have them contact us.  There's a certain young lady that would very much like to have them back.

Canadian Adventure (Part 3) - In the Shadow of the Bear

I am not fearful of most things in the woods.  I know that spiders, snakes and other critters are there but I don't worry about them.  I know how to manage the dangers of avalanches and moving water so I'm not terrified of them.  The Grizzly Bear is different.  I have an unsubstantiated raw animal fear that one will leap out of the bushes and gnaw me to pieces, or worse eat me in my sleeping bag.

We'd been on the road for about 2 weeks but hadn't left the comfort and hard sides of the van too far behind.  Day hikes are a good warm up but I know that to experience a place you really need to be present in that place.  That means spending the night there.  That means sleeping in bear country.  Canadian bear country where Grizzlies are common and encounters frequent.

The Rockwall trail in Glacier NP traverses below a prominent ridge of towering cliffs and peaks.  You can spend 4-5 days walking along it.  It's spectacular from beginning to end.  It was a place Laurel and I both wanted to experience.  The only problem was I didn't want to make the conscious decision to sleep bear country with nothing but ultra-light nylon between me an the beast.  So I left the decision up to her.

So be it, we were going deep into Grizzlies' layer.

Have you ever thought about how close to death you are every time you drive a winding road at night.  As little as 3 feet separates you from tons of oncoming steel with a closing speed of 120 mph.  That's scary.  But we don't give it a second thought, right?  Maybe because it's so common.  Maybe because statistics tell us we'll probably be okay.  Maybe the destination is worth the risk.  None of this reasoning seemed to help when the rangers told us about the fresh Grizzly track just above our first camp.....

We passed the first night without being eaten.  And then the second.  The designated camps were full of people and the risk of an encounter seemed to be low.  Soon the rain let up and we began to experience the Rockwall and the destination became worth the risk.  Thoughts of the bear were overcome by the beauty around us.

On the last day of our traverse the weather had finally broken.  We didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of fair skies in the high country.  Feeling bold from not being eaten on the Rockwall we signed up for something bigger.  We'd enter Mt Assiniboine provincial park from a remote entrance.  One because it was the closest entrance and two because the hike in promised to be spectacular as it crossed to high passes.

This of course meant we'd enter bear country again.  This time it was much more remote.  We were the only car at the trailhead and we didn't see a soul until we had walked 10 miles into the heart of the park.  Passing this sign on the way in reminded us we were visitors and we did everything we could to avoid an encounter.  Loud noise the whole way and of course bear spray at the ready.

In the end we completed our hikes and only saw one bear, a very comfortable distance away.  We only saw a few tracks and diggings.  We heard reports from several people about sightings and we knew they may have been hiding only a few hundred feet from us.  But what we came to see made every anxious heartbeat worth it.

Will I travel in Grizzly country again?  Yes, of course.  Will I ever be as comfortable as driving down a country road late at night?  Probably not.  But there are too many great things in the north country that cannot be missed just because I'm a little scared of a fuzzy wuzzy bear.

Canadian Adventure (Part 2) - Illecillewaet Glacier

During the next few days we would learn that "the forecast" in Canada was just something they post to entertain the tourists.  Their forecast actually has no relationship at all to the weather that will take place.  Every time we checked the weather it would say, "two days of wet, then clearing".  It was the same for a week and a half.  That elusive sun was always just 2 days away.  When I asked one ranger about what weather was coming he simply said, "Look up, you can't get much better than that."

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not complaining.  Hiking among shifting cloud was incredible.  Much more dynamic than hot days of high pressure with full sun.  And even with the high levels of precipitation we did find some better breaks.  We hit one in particularly good window that would keep us inspired for awhile.  The day broke clear and we had a good hike planned.   A little chance encounter shifted our plans and a good day turned into a great one.

We don’t normally seek out company but there were bear restrictions in effect for most of Glacier NP.  The park requires that all hikers go in groups of four or more to reduce the risk of bear encounters in certain areas.  Janek & Zoa, a local couple we bumped into at the ranger station, proposed a more interesting hike, a hike in bear country, a hike to the Illecillewaet Glacier.  We gladly accepted.

When we reached the normal terminus of our selected trail Janek made a suggestion – “We could go check out the glacier toe?”  Janek is a geologist with experience in this area and his plan was to go cross country to the glacier snout and return by another trail making a loop out of the hike.  After a good bit of cross-country scrambling and some route finding we had made it to the foot of the glacier.  As you can imagine this was a special powerful place.

Zoa, Janek & Laurel

It was the first good weather of the trip.  We only were spit on once during the day and with the positive vibes under our belt we were ready to tackle something bigger.

The Faithful Chico

Canadian Adventure (Part 1) - The Wet Days

Our adventure begins as we cross the border to the north, as we enter the realm of Canada.  Crossing the northern border is usually uneventful – do you have any drugs?, no, lots of booze?, no, small children you plan to leave in Canada?, no, and then you drive off.  This time the crossing was coupled with a distinct shift in weather that marked our entrance to a new realm.  We went from the hottest, driest northwest summer on record, where the air was thick with smoke from all the fires, into rain.  Good old northwest cold, drenching, drizzling, soaking rain. It was about the last way we expected to start our trip.

The first morning as we lay in our cozy van bed near Kokanee Glacier Park we heard the pattering of drops on the fiberglass roof and there was absolutely no motivation to get up.  We were exhausted from all the packing and finalizing of details for our trip that a little precipitation was the perfect excuse to sleep in.  I don’t think we got out of the van until noon.  (Well, except for a early short fishing excursion but that hardly counts.)

We’d make the best of the next few days.  We went on a short wet hike that afternoon and a longer wet hike the next day.  Of course the namesake of the park couldn’t be missed so we marched all the way over Kokanee Pass, around Kokanee Lake to within sight of the Kokanee Glacier.  I wish we’d had time & energy for the final push to the toe of the glacier but maybe that should be saved for next year’s ski trip.

In the morning we headed north with the promise of better weather on the horiozon.  We were stumped by more that just weather this time.  On the road to the MacBeth Icefields, a hike recommended by more than one local, we encountered a fire.  The rain had bedded it down but it was smoldering within a few hundred meters of the road and in the same valley as our trail.  The last thing either of us wanted is to return to a crispy Westy so we moved on.  Our second stumping came when the road petered out and finally ended in a big fat boulder many kilometers from the Marion Lakes trailhead.  Walking was not in the cards so we made our way toward the ferry and Revelstoke.

Camped in a great spot on Upper Arrow Lake we were greeted again by heavy rain.  Despite being in a van everything was soaked so the next morning we went into Revy for a decent breakfast and some coffee.  We finished up some work at the wi-fi cafe, did laundry, planned our next assault and then the weather broke.  It was the first sun we’d seen in days and we charged up Mt Revelstoke National Park for an afternoon hike.  The weather held and we had an amazing hike through the high country with views of changing fall colors, fat marmots, boiling clouds and snow covered peaks.  Things were looking more positive.