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canada general

decapitated in a blogging accident

Last weekend was lovely and sunny and warm, so I was out stocking up on Vitamin D for the Winter. And climbing, and jumping into lakes, and scrambling up small mountains.

 

I’m not the bearded one in the water, this is just to demonstrate the fact that it really was warm. This is Lake Minnewanka, a glacial lake that probably isn’t pronounced how you’re thinking it’s pronounced, and that’s Mt Rundle hanging out in the background.
 

It seems like the sun has cut down on it’s visiting hours considerably over the last fortnight. Suddenly we’re getting up in the dark, and walking to catch the bus along murky streets lit sporadically by street lamps, with silhouettes of mountains hanging in the gloom on either side of the valley. And it’s actually dark when going to bed at 10pm now. It might be warm for a few weeks more, but Summer is on its way out. By the time we get back from our visit to Australia (September 23rd to October 12th), no doubt it will be cold and rainy and snowy and generally a bit unpleasant until it gets cold enough for the snow to start building up properly.

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canada general

your daily rodent

 

 

One of the noisy pikas from the scramble up the Tower of Babel (the one near Moraine Lake in the Canadian Rockies, not the one from Babylon). One of the pikas we saw on the way up was carrying a small leafy tree branch, and as it ran across the scree it looked exactly as if it was pretending to be a bush so we wouldn’t notice it. It would have worked perfectly if it wasn’t for the fact pikas are incapable of the sort of slow sneaking movements you need to use to pull off “No honestly, I’m a bush” trick.

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canada general

the wednesday wolf

 

 

This wolf came wandering past the office at work on Wednesday. It seemed fairly unconcerned by any of us, and trotted on its (her?) merry way.

(It’s strangely warm here at the moment, and apparently I’m not longer used to the heat as I’m finding 30oC heat meltingly hot. Nonetheless – today, bike and climbing; tomorrow, bike and scrambling; Sunday, either day of rest or some hiking/scrambling.)

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canada general trip reports

yukon, ho!

Yukon River paddling. Drifting along in the current. Serenity. Eagles. Splashing paddles. A deserted island (except for the Swiss). Camp. A beaver! Marauding insects. Dinner. Hanging food out of reach of animals. Can bears swim? Random haircuts. Cards. Ever-present sunlight. Sleeping bag. Sleep. Sleep-in. Lake Laberge. No more fast current. Tail wind. Wind blown waves. Paddle paddle paddle paddle. Shuttle to Whitehorse. Icecream. Aeroplane. Home.

 

Mum and Emma
 

 

Me in a boat – I got to sit in the back, and hence got control of the rudder, fun!
 

 

The morning view from our island
 

 

Rougher paddling on Day 2
 

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canada general travel trip reports

66° 33′ 39″ (in which we breakfast at the arctic circle)

There were no polar bears at the Arctic Circle. There was no snow. No seals, or ice, or igloos. All in all a fairly disappointing experience.

 

 

We stopped for breakfast there though, and revelled in the Northness. And to be fair, the lack of snow or polar bears made it a lot easier to sit around on the ground eating muesli than it would have been otherwise.

 

 

Fireweed lined the road as we drove to and from Eagle Plains to the Arctic Circle. But after our morning trip up north, we turned around and started the trip back down towards Whitehorse.

 

 

Stopping along the way in Tombstone Territorial Park, which had some of my favourite scenery from the bits of the Yukon I saw (although all of the Dempster Highway was lovely). We went for a hike up Goldensides Mountain.

 

 

Its sides were sort of golden, and it had ground squirrels. And it was a lot further to the top than it looked from the bottom.

 

 
Tombstone mountain