A hiking good time: Lake O'Hara

Andrew and I spent the last 3 days (July 30th to August 1st) camping at Lake O'Hara, a very scenic area in Yoho National Park. To camp at Lake O'Hara you must make a reservation. And to make a reservation you have to call at 8:00 a.m. MST 3 months (to the day you want to arrive) in advance and keep calling until you get through. Otherwise, you'll be out of luck. This is a very popular campsite, with only 27 spots per night. Since we made our reservation back in May, Andrew and I have been planning what we were going to take with us. Also, Lake O'Hara, is a back country campsite (albeit pretty "cush" i.e. it has running water and non-smelly outhouses). This means you cannot drive all of your stuff up to your site. You can either take the Lake O'Hara bus, or you can hike the 11 km access road.

Thursday, July 30th: Day 1
In the morning Andrew and I both went to work. We left our respective offices at 11:00 a.m. and met back at our car. We were on the road around 11:20 a.m. We arrived at the parking lot of Lake O'Hara (Yoho is in B.C., by the way) just before 6:00 p.m. We pulled together our packs and started up the road on foot. We completed the 11 km, 450 metre elevation gain, in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it started to rain just after we passed the 9 km mark. Not a complete torrential down pour, mind you, but plenty hard enough to soak us and some of our gear strapped to the outsides of our packs. We put up our tent as quickly as we could (putting the fly on inside out in the process) then hid under one of the shelters as we sorted through our food and clothing, etc.

Aside from arriving in the rain, we also ran into a bit of confusion about where our campsite and food locker were. Since we arrived after the park warden had left for the day we were assigned the extra (and no longer regularly used) campsite 3. The site wasn't labelled and so we wasted a lot of time (in the rain) trying to figure out where it was. We also didn't have a food locker (Lake O'Hara is in bear country and food lockers were a must), which added to our confusion. Thankfully, another couple who were headed out the next day allowed us to share theirs for the night. The rain let up and before going to bed we took a quick walk down to the lake (probably 1/2 km). We were snuggled in our sleeping bags shortly after 10:00 p.m.


All of our stuff in the back of our car.

Friday, July 31st: Day 2
Our second day started early. I think I was awake around 6:30 a.m. (Andrew woke up at this time too). Since it was light outside and I wasn't overly tired I got up. We set to preparing breakfast not too long afterward: boiling water for tea, preparing the pancakes (I put together a mix at home) and pulling out our lunch things. We ate standing, sharing one pancake at a time as they came off the pan. We didn't head off to the hiking trails until after 10:00 a.m. We wanted to speak with the warden to sort out our campsite and locker issues.


Cooking breakfast on our light-weight camp stove.


Our tent re-installed at site 13, fly readjusted so it faced the right way out.

We were on our way by 10:30 a.m., walking along the edge of Lake O'Hara until we came to the trail leading up the Huber Ledges/Wiwaxy trail. Now, let me pause here for a moment. I spent some time trying to figure out what to say about the hiking at Lake O'Hara. First off, the scenery is beautiful: mountain peaks in every direction, crystal clear lakes and streams, and lush forest foliage. But, I'm not sure it's the place for everyone. Most of the hiking trails take on a sizable elevation climb. Lake O'Hara is located at 2,035 m above sea level. The hike up to Wiwaxy took us up to 2,530 m above sea level (it took us around 1 1/2 hours at a leisurely pace). The trails are narrow and at times difficult to figure out where they lead. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, but we're also active people.


The trail on the way up Wiwaxy.


Us at the edge of Wiwaxy, stopped for lunch. Lake Oesa is in the background.

After lunch we headed on to Lake Oesa where we stopped, took off our socks and shoes and soaked our feet. The water was freezing, but it felt good on our tired toes as it was sunny and hot (+25C). From Oesa we carried on to the Yukness Ledges, mostly rocky terrain. We accidentally strayed off the path at one point and spent 10 or 15 minutes wandering around trying to figure out where we were supposed to go. When we reached a point where we could see the trail below us, but had no safe way to get down to it, we decided it was best to turn back to the last known marker. From there we managed to get ourselves back on route and continued around the mountain side to Opabin Lake. We took another short rest at Opabin, but found the bugs to heavy to want to stay for long. Once on the trail again we headed down East Opabin trail (thus not completing the full Alpine Route) and back to the campsite. The decent along the trail was steep at points (really engaging the quadriceps), but lovely amongst the trees. We returned to the campsite by 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, August 1st: Day 3
Having heard the night before about the adventures of a pair of guys who had climbed to the top of Yukness Mountain we thought we might give it a try. The trail up Yukness is not maintained. It is for the more avid hikers who don't mind sorting their way up by scouting for cairns (small man-made rock piles). We had been told by the two guys we needed to head back up to the Yukness Ledges and look for the trail that climbed up instead of down at the point where you descended. We reached the Ledges via West Opabin and without too much difficulty identified a thin trail working its way up the south side of the mountain.


Climbing the first stage of Yukness.

After a short detour to check out a lake on the first ridge of the mountain we followed the cairns around the southeast side, at which point the trail markers promptly stopped. We had been told the cairns at times were difficult to find, so when we made it around to the rock-covered southeast side of the mountain we were a little concerned. After consulting with our limited map and making some educated assumptions that we couldn't possibly go another way, we carried on further east hiking over the massive rocks for maybe 20 to 30 minutes. We broke for lunch still uncertain of where exactly we were going next when Andrew notice other people on the mountain. They were climbing up a ledge farther east of us, right up against a sheer mountain wall. We quickly finished off what we were eating and continued to cut across the mountain until we reached the ledge where we'd seen the other hikers. We caught up with them after a little ways as they'd stopped to eat. After a brief chat they pointed us in the right direction: farther up along the scree, switch backing until we reached (what I believe is called) the crux gulley*



It was here in the crux gulley that we were no longer mountain hiking, but actually mountain climbing. I think Andrew and I both enjoyed this section of the trek, but at the same time experienced a good healthy dose of terror. One miss-placed hand or foot could have left us tumbling down the mountain; however, this section wasn’t too difficult as neither one of us have done much wall/rock climbing and we were still able to clear the gulley without concern. Once we got over the gulley we realized that reaching the peak of Yukness would probably take us close to another hour and we had already been out 4 at this point. We sat on a small ledge to finish our lunch and decided that this would be the peak of our climb. The summit of Yukness reached 2,847 m above sea level. By our guestimation we probably made it to around 2,700 m to 2,750 m.


Andrew at our stopping spot at Yukness

We returned to camp via Opabin Lake, through the Opabin Highline and back down through East Opabin. It rained that evening, but not until almost 9:00 p.m., well after when we'd finished up with dinner so simply returned to our tent. We were pretty tired after two all-day hikes anyway.

Sunday, August 2nd: Day 4
Day 4 was home day. You're only allowed to reserve spots at Lake O’Hara for 3 nights and I'm not sure we would have had the energy for much adventurous hiking this day anyway. We did, however, walk the road back down to the car, rather than taking the bus. We met a number of tourists (mostly Asian for some reason) heading up the road for a day-hike.

I think we would probably be happy to return to Lake O'Hara again sometime. Maybe we would try to get right to the top of Yukness Mountain. Next year, we're thinking about trying the Jasper Skyline Trail.

Ciao,

Andrea
*Not being a mountain climber and not knowing the lingo, I am not sure if crux gulley is the right term. After a quick online search the reference appears to match the terrain, but I'm not sure if this is a general or specific term.

Mandy the awesome

Andrew and I looked after our friend Mandy's apartment (i.e. picked up her mail and watered her plants) while she attended conferences/vacationed. While away, Mandy spent time in North Carolina, Woodstock (ON), Toronto and her parents' cabin located in the vicinity of Timmins. In total, she was gone for around a month. As a thank you, Mandy gave us this bag. Her mom did the sewing, Mandy did the decorating.






Andrew is even wearing his trademark beret and Tabitha is following happily behind us.

Ciao,

Andrea

Garden balcony 2009: Day, lots.

Quick update: We have blossoms on our strawberry and tomato plants. We might get all of one strawberry, but we're growning these things on the 12th floor of an apartment building in downtown Edmonton, so I call it a success. All of the tomato plants (there are 3) appear to have blossoms. I might be able to make some tomato sauce yet!



Ciao,

Andrea

Harry Potter and the inclement weather

Oddly enough, I find myself unmotivated to blog about the two major events of Saturday night.

1) Andrew and I and a friend when to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince; and
2) The massive thunder/wind storm Edmonton suffered.

I think my lack of motivation is also twofold.

1) I feel busy (work, school work, editing); and
2) I suspect there are many other people out there who will summarize these events better.

I will give a brief account of the two experiences for prosperity's sake anyway.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The extra-long wait for HP6 to be released was worth it. Although it's been quite some time since I read the 6th book (I actually held out for over a year after the book's release before reading it) it seems to me that much of the first half of the movie was completely re-written. Normally I don't like it when movies veer-off drastically from the original book plot, but I didn't mind it here. This may be because I have often complained that HP6 was lacking a little in the conflict/plot department. The movie was also quite light and funny, especially given how it ends. The scene where Ron was under the thralls of the love spell was delightful as were the scenes of Harry while he was experiencing the effects of the luck potion.

Perhaps one of the best parts of the movie was the vast improvement of the portrayal of Dumbledore. I think many people were unimpressive with the Headmaster in HP4 (i.e. when he grabs Harry by the lapels and demands to know if he put his name into the goblet of fire). In this movie he was gentle, a little whimsical and kooky (he took a knitting magazine from Slughorn's bathroom) and wise--just as readers of the series have come to expect from Dumbledore. Overall, HP6 was an enjoyable movie and I'm definitely looking forward to the last installment. Andrew commented to me several times yesterday about how much he liked it.

Storm
A major wind/thunderstorm trampled through Edmonton Saturday night. We had just left the movie theatre (around 10:00 pm) and were on our way home when we noticed a bad patch of weather moving in. I don't recall noticing anything unusual for the first few blocks. The sky was still light, although it was noticeably cooler than what it had been when we arrived at the movie. After a couple of blocks I started to notice it was really windy. So windy, that as the dust and dirt from the streets swirled around us it hurt when it made contact with our bare skin (I had to shampoo twice to get all the junk out of my hair). Not long after that we noticed the huge black cloud hanging above much of downtown Edmonton. We were blown sideways a couple of blocks later. Not long after we were running through the wind and rain to get back to our apartment.

We spent the better part of the next hour keeping track of the storm's progress on twitter (Lisa's idea), other websites, watching the lightening out of the balcony window and eventually CTV news at 11:30. A good chunk of the city to the west and north of us was dark due to power failures. By 11:45 the rain had stopped and the wind had died-down considerably. The next day CBC reported the winds had reached up to 106 km/hour. Trees, either in entirety or just branches, are down everywhere. It's shocking how big some of the downed trees are. The whole experience reminded me of my family trip to Boston in 1991 when Hurricane Bob rolled through. We spent the entire afternoon trapped in our hotel room watching weather reports.

Much of the city seems back to normal now, aside from the trees. I don't think I heard any reports of deaths or even injuries.

Ciao,

Andrea

We have worms and yes, we're happy about this

Aside from attending Green Day, this week has been a quiet one around the Milne household. I was worried I would have to dredge up some whimsical blog ideas (such as my life's ambitions--I'd thought up three) just to post something. Instead I'm going to briefly blog about our newest addition to our apartment: worms.

That's right, you read it correctly, worms.

I received a call on Friday from the Earth's General Store to inform me that our vermicomposter had arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. Once home, we filled our bin (a large Rubbermaid, I'm not sure what the capacity is, but it's probably 1m x 0.5m x 0.75m) with soil and worms, and installed it into our storage closet that afternoon. So now we have worms in our apartment, munching on our produce scraps. We've already set aside a couple of litres of scraps to feed them throughout the week. I'm hopeful that the worms will help us cut down on the amount of garbage we produce. We expect to have fresh, nutrient rich soil in 4 to 6 months. We'll use it in our balcony garden next year.



A note on our balcony garden: It's going...so-so. Our peas shot up very quickly, but many of the plants were baked in the sun. We've been eating the occasional pea off the vines that have survived, but we don't feel it's worth it to plant them next year. I had to re-start the carrots about 3 weeks ago. We think we started the first batch too early and weren't getting enough sunlight hours to thrive. Hopefully the new plants will fair better. Our tomato plants are full and healthy, but I've yet to see any tomatoes sprout. I think this may be due to the cool temperatures we've been having this year. Our strawberries are much they same. We've got several large plants, but no berries. I think its unlikely that any will be produced either. We'll try again next year.

Ciao,

Andrea

First real rock concert: Green Day, July 6, 2009

I realize that for a 28-year old I'm a bit odd. The number of Symphony-Orchestra concerts I've attended greatly overshadows the number of rock-popular music concerts I've attended. I can count the latter on one hand: Paul McCartney (awesome), BNL (loved), Sarah Sleen/Rufus Wainwright (I'd never heard of either of them before I was invited, but highly enjoyed) and now Green Day. Andrew and I are not, in particular, Green Day fans. I like the songs of theirs that I know (mainly those played on the radio), but the only album I have is Warning, which is definitely not their best work. We were offered the tickets by one of Andrew's prof's (who's also the husband of one of my co-workers) as they were unable to use them.

And so we went. And we enjoyed ourselves. I'm not going to dive into an in-depth description of the night's events, since as I've already mentioned, neither Andrew or I are Green Day aficionados nor do I expect are any of my readers. Just a few words:
In general: lots of fireworks, flame bursts and lighting changes. Very cool light-up city scape backdrop.
Green Day itself: Billy Joe Armstrong has a crazy amount of energy and spent a good deal of time running and jumping around the stage and working the audience. He used a little more profanity than I care for, but whatever, this was Green Day, they're supposed to be punk. I also think Billy Joe actually has a pretty good voice with an interesting tone. It's really noticeable in some of their slower songs.
Overall: the atmosphere in Rexall was great. I was a little concerned things could get out of hand, but everyone around us seemed to be enjoying themselves. We were on our feet the whole time and I danced for much of it. Ages ranged from little kids (say 6 years old?) to adults (probably around 40 to 50 year olds).

Finally, some fun things. Several people got pulled up on stage. A couple of little kids came up on at separate times. One led the crowd in hand waving and the other got to squirt people in the mosh pit with a huge water gun. Three people got pulled up to sing different verses of Longview, unfortunately they didn't all sing terribly well. Green Day performed a 50's rock medley including: Shout, Earth Angel and Stand By Me.

We didn't stay right to the bitter end. We decided to leave halfway through the encore in favour of catching the LRT home before the masses descended. Consequentially we missed Good Riddance, which would have brought the total of songs I knew all the words to, up to 2. If given the chance, I would be happy to see Green Day again, although perhaps I'd brush up on their catalog a little more thoroughly before going.

Us waiting to catch the LRT to take us to Rexall Place:


The stage when Green Day first came out.


These pictures were taken off of Andrew's palm, which doesn't have a very powerful camera. Unfortunately we don't have a tiny digital that we could have brought with us.

Ciao,

Andrea

Balloon Bling from the Busker Festival

Andrew and I finally hit up the Busker (or Street Performer) Festival in Edmonton. I incorrectly tweeted on Saturday that we'd been living in Edmonton for 4 1/2 years and hadn't managed to check it out until this weekend, but we've actually only been living in Alberta for 3 1/2 years. We walked down to Winston Churchill Square after dinner and caught a couple of acts, enjoyed some fried snacks and I got a fantastic balloon bling bracelet.

The first act we caught was a comedian, who described himself as a cross between Mick Jagger and Luke Skywalker. If you can imagine those two mixed together you can pretty much figure out what this guy looked like. His gimmick was that he caught a cabbage launched from a catapult on his head (while wearing a spiked helmet) but that only took up 2 minutes of the show. Mostly he told jokes whist having children race for a dollar (where the game is always the same and always fair) and bribing a couple to come up and answer yes/no questions about their relationship. Overall, he was pretty funny and displayed a lot of energy.

Having heard there was an acrobat show warming up, we immediately left the first preformer (once he was finished) for a dance/acrobat group. The troupe was made up of two men and a woman. The older of the two men, and the "leader" of the group reminded me a little of Al Pacino. The second, younger man was from Venezuela, had impressive guns and was a huge ham. The woman was very expressive and had clearly had ballet training (she was flexible and always pointed her toes, etc). They performed several choreographed numbers, some to music, some not, displaying strength and balancing moves. Toward the end of their time they performed an audience participation number during which the two younger cast members piled onto Al Pacino along with 3 young girls from the audience. They had to do it twice since they lost balance the first time.

After this performance we hit up the food vendors. Andrew picked up some fries and I went for a bag of mini doughnuts, or as we like to call them mini doughnus (Arrogant Worms concert). Then we joined in for the last 10-15 minutes of another comedian/musician/huge unicycle riding act. Once he was done the action seemed to lull a bit (it was 9:30). We checked out the balloon artist at work, it was impressive how fast he moved and how intricate his animals were. I kinda, sorta wanted a balloon, but I didn't know what kind of shape I would like and I didn't want a hat. Eventually Andrew convince me to get something. I ended up letting the balloon artist pick what.



We headed back after I received my balloon bracelet. The temperature was cooling off and I didn't want to be out too late. Andrew expressed an interest in returning next weekend to check out the "Midnight Madness" show on Saturday night. Our busker fun might not be over just yet.

Ciao,

Andrea