Category: canada

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canada general hiking trip reports

Read’s Tower (a.k.a. Read’s scree slog)

In front of Mount Sparrowhawk in K-Country, there sits a little jutting lump of rock, covered in scree. I didn’t know beforehand that it was covered in scree, I just knew it was called Read’s Tower, and we were going to hike up it instead of Mount Sparrowhawk as it was supposed to lack the slightly dodgy-with-baby scrambly sections.

Spray Lakes views from Read’s Tower

 

It was completely lacking in dodgy scrambling, but the trail had plenty of steep and unpleasant dirt sections, and lots of the slogging variety of scree. Not the worst track in the world, but I certainly wasn’t hiking up it thinking “Golly, isn’t this a delightful track, lets go and have tea over by that large rock.”

Having a tasty lunch of sunglasses

 

At least the views were good, and it was a gloriously warm day, and we had the entire area to ourselves – apart from those pesky scenic tours helicopters, the place seems absolutely infested with them sometimes.

Looking up to Read’s Tower on the right and Mount Sparrowhawk in the distance

 

Elevation gain: 920m
Round trip: 6.8km
Height: 2,663 m

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canada general moosling

And it was still warm!

Warm days in early September were great for hanging out at Quarry Lake, and for having esky (a.k.a. cooler) baths out on the balcony. Especially after a hard day hiking in the warm (25oC) weather.

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canada general hiking moosling

Ye Olde Faithful hike up Ha Ling Peak

It was a gloriously warm and still day for hanging out at the summit (for babies and ground squirrels alike).

And I finally got around to hiking up Miners Peak as well, the peak just a few hundred metres away. It’s a nice wander too, and it’s probably a good option to turn right and head up there instead if it’s a really busy day. The hike to the summit is a little dicier, with some spectacular cliffs within feet of the track.

On the whole the view is pretty similar – but you do get to see Ha Ling Peak from a different angle for once.

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canada general hiking

Healy Pass – the wildflowers were already dying

The wildflowers at Healy Pass hadn’t disappeared entirely by the time we hiked there, but they were looking decidedly limp and not terribly photogenic.

At least the weather was nice. Although the hike in and out to Healy Pass from Sunshine Village takes a lot longer than the ski does.

On the way back we managed to find Bill Peyto’s trapper cabin. It’s in a state of disrepair now, but you can still see where he had anti-bear measures in place in the windows, even if you wouldn’t want to walk around inside (although if it can stand up to the snowfall over winter, it probably isn’t about to fall in on anyone’s head any time soon).

This will probably be the last Sunshine Meadows adventure before the snow comes – which will be all too soon now.

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canada general moosling

An early first birthday

We’re about to head off to Iceland for two weeks, so the first birthday celebrations came 13 days early… because otherwise we couldn’t have guaranteed that we’d be able to make a cake from the Australian Woman’s Weekly Birthday Cake book, and what sort of birthday would that have been?

The boy and his cake

And now for a flashback to 30 years prior to this cake, to another remarkably similar cake…

The girl and her cake

Anyway, the cake was enjoyed, even if it did initially cause a little confusion…

There was cheese and chocolate fondue as well, although he found that a lot less exciting than the CAKE.

The sugar rush afterwards was worn off with some intensive periods of crawling like an maniac, standing up and not quite walking (unless hanging onto something), trying to catch bubbles and chewing on things. Remarkably the whole thing was followed by a good nights sleep, and today he’s trying to overcome his fear of balloons (thanks to Brendan), and battling with the yellow shaped blocks which are supposed to fit into his new Tupperware shapes ball (thanks to Kristy and Joel).