Long Weekend With Gord

In advance of spending a couple of weeks in Red Deer to help my Mum recuperate from her (upcoming) hip surgery, I flew in early to Calgary and spent the long weekend with Gord.

We had a busy weekend - I caught up with Jenny & Gord Friday night. Saturday morning, Gord took Jenny off to the airport (off to Ontario to spend a week with her Mum). Gord and I then drove out into the Kananaskis area and cycled the Elbow Loop. It was a great ride, about 45km long with ~900m of climbing, along mostly old fire access roads - up along the Elbow River, then over a pass of about 2200m, then back along the Little Elbow River. Great ride, great scenery, and only one flat tire.

That night, we ate T-bone steaks and watched the movie "300" (suitably violent).

Sunday morning, we woke up at 5:00am, and drove out to Banff. Our objective was a mountaineering hike from Morraine Lake (near Lake Louise) and over a couple of high passes to the Lake O'Hara area. It was a fantastic hike - definitely a top one-day hike in the Rockies.

We started up the Larch Valley trail from Morraine Lake, hooking up (briefly) with a group of 6 senior citizens 'cause we were supposed to be in a party of no fewer than 4 (a regulation for the area requiring, I guess, large groups that make lots of noise to scare off the resident grizzly(s)). Of course, the seniors were too slow for us, so we took off, and made enough noise by ourselves. The hike up to Wenkchemna Pass was a spectacular, easy trail up through the alpine. From the pass, a tedious scramble down on loose scree brought us into the "Eagle Eyrie" - a wonderful high alpine valley. We headed north up the valley and up to the glacier below Opabin Pass - a very small glacier which we nonetheless roped up for and put on our crampons for the (somewhat steeper) climb up to the pass. On the climb up to the pass, Gord noticed footprints from a Grizzly heading straight up the pass (then down the other side)!

From the pass, we headed down some steeper snow, then onto the (rapidly shrinking) Opabin Glacier. We crossed it easily (a rope definitely being necessary). On the glacier, and just below it, we found some glaciology recording equipment, placed there by Shawn Marshall of the University of Calgary. Once off the glacier, we unroped, then hiked across the scree to Opabin Lake. From there, we hooked onto the great trails surrounding Lake O'Hara, and decided to finish off with the spectacular Yukness Ledges Alpine Route to Lake Oesa - great views along a really cool trail. We had a good view up to the north/east face of Mount Lefroy - there was no snow on the face - usually, there should be solid snow/ice on the face - another sign of warming temperatures. Finally, down to Lake O'Hara, and from there, the bus ride out to the parking lot (where we had left one of the cars). Supper at Boston Pizza, finally getting back to Calgary at around 11:00pm.

We were pretty tired the next day, but nonetheless got up, had a big breakfast of Eggs Benedict at Ricky's, then rented a canoe from the Calgary Campus Outdoor Center, and paddled down the Bow River from the Ghost Dam down to Cochrane. That was alot of fun - I was totally new to the river paddling experience, so had a bit of trepidation. But, got used to it quickly, and we managed to stay upright the entire paddle, with one "near flip" as we incorrectly negotiated an entry into an eddy. We took a break at that point - Gord breaking out his fly fishing rod to (unsuccessfully) hunt for trout.

We finished up, and Gord grabbed a ride back to the Ghost Dam (after I had inadvertently left the keys for Jenny's car in Gord's car!). Back to Calgary, drop off the canoe, then a supper of barbecued pork loin, beer, followed by "Thunderball" (an old James Bond movie from 1965!).

Great weekend!