Category: canada

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canada general hiking

Lady Mac solo hike (senses theme developing)

The Lady MacDonald trail had been re-opened, so I decided to head up there on Sunday. No-one to hike with, but it’s usually a pretty busy trail… then for the first hour of hiking I didn’t meet a single person. It was beginning to get a little spooky, and I was singing the Shoo Bears song (surprisingly similar to the Shoo Fly song… which apparently has a chorus, and completely different lines to those I know of, but anyway), and wielding my cougar-hitting stick, just in case.

People started appearing as I got higher though, and just as I was about to hit the final ridge to the summit, a group warned about a bear that was ‘just on the other side’. It must have wandered off, for I didn’t catch even a glimpse of it.

Towards Banff from the teahouse (other people were heading on to the summit proper today, but being alone and with a slightly dodgier centre of gravity than usual, I didn’t bother)

 

Lovely warm day for hiking – singlets and shorts and a dusty trail in the sun.

 

Back down along the ridge from the teahouse – this section was the only part of the trail that wasn’t dry. It was also the only part where I was promised a bear, but there was no sight of it.

 

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canada general hiking

Ha Ling solo hike (yes, again)

 

Summit views: Looking north along the Bow Valley from Canmore

 

 

Summit views: Looking south along the Bow Valley from Canmore

 

 

Summit views along the back of Ha Ling – towards the Goat Creek trail and Banff… Goat Range and Sulphur Mountain.

 

 

At the summit, with an in utero evilmoosling

 

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canada general

Dreaming of a brown Christmas

Airline tickets are now booked for Christmas in Australia! I’ve had three Christmas’ in a row in Canada, so my memories of Australian Christmas have become vague and clouded over time. However, I think it might look something like this:

 

Artists impression of Australian Christmas

 

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canada general

Aurora hunting

We’ve been keeping an eye out for any solar activity that might lead to aurora – we’re definitely far enough north, and there was a great display in the Winter of 07/08 that I missed thanks to being asleep. But right now there’s a lull in the solar cycle – it’s beginning to pick up again, but there still haven’t been many strong storms.

Finally there was a notification of solar activity the other night – and people were sighting aurora down further south than us over on the east side of the US. So we sat outside and stared at the gaps between the clouds for an hour, and saw nothing.

The camera on the other hand, could pick up a faint green glow with a 30 second exposure. I was unexcited by this. And cold. And so went to bed.

If you squint really hard and use your imagination, you can kind of see the faint green glow in the clouds to the upper right of the lights behind the lake. You can click on the photo for a larger version if you think that will help.

 

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canada general hiking snow

Easter hike

Another hike up Ha Ling Peak – the trail had a lot more bare and icy patches, but then there was a lot more snow at the summit, thanks to the fact we actually had some snowfall recently. Super slippery!

Looking out to Canmore from the saddle between Ha Ling and Miners Peak

 

The wind above the treeline was icy, and we didn’t hang around for long.

Hiking off the back of Ha Ling

 

And Easter hike was followed by Easter dinner (with ham!). However, the Easter bunny did not visit, and I was tormented by the lack of chocolate.