Not All BackPacking Trips are the Same.

      Since I've been digging through my archives I've found some evidence of my backpacking trips. Not all trips are the same.

     I backpacked out of Canada only once and that was to Montana which is the state just bordering Alberta on the south.

    My friend wanted to do a trip to the southeastern part of Montana. He wanted to climb Flinch mountain which is a 9200 ft pyramidal peak. Montana doesn't have much for foothills so you can stand on a mountain or ridge and look far out into the flatlands of Montana.  The ridge we walked was bare, arid and open. The return trip was about 10 km ( 6 mi)

    We arrived in the area about 2 PM which gave us time to do a hike to the edge of the mountain and look out over Montana. It was a very hot dry day so it was tough going and the water went down quickly. We reached our goal, took the mandatory photo, had a rest and returned. Were we dry when we returned!

    The next day we planned to climb Flinch Peak. It was a long walk with a gradual incline. The last couple of kms were steep and the last 15 m (50ft.) of elevation was cliff like.

    Long before we got close to the peak , we ran out of water. Why did we run out of water? Where we hiked there were streams rushing down the mountain every 500 meters( 1600ft) so we could replenish our water anytime. We made the decision to go back. We rested before starting back. A lone female hiker came by and she was on her way back and had lots of water. She kindly gave us lots of water so we were able to finish.

    Now from the photo you will see that the last part of the peak seems to be a cliff. There was no trail. There was a nice chimney so I shinnied up the 50 ft. I was going to step out of the chimney on top. When I stuck my head over the edge there was nothing but space. There was a 2 ft ridge and there was no way I was going to stand up on that thing. By the time I got down my friend had found a very simple way to walk to the  top! The top being less than  1/2 acre of flat ground.

     We celebrated our climb with some photos and a break. We signed the register on the mountain top and started back. The views from Flinch peak were breathtaking in all directions.

    The return is always a long tiring walk. We did meet a rather scary hiker who was going out. We met and passed and never spoke a word.

    The campsite was in a valley lined with a 1000 ft cliff face that was a couple of miles long. All night you could hear pebbles, rocks and once or twice huge boulders that dropped off the cliff face and rolled to the ground. It's a good thing the campsite was 500- 1000 m away from the cliff.

    So, it was a great trip but a little different than our  usual trips.

Beautiful Flinch peak

The top gets steep

Old Man Lake

A rest on the peak with background scenery

Looking out over Montana to the east.

Yesterday a Tear Came to my Eye

       Now there are certain things that can bring a tear to my eye. I don't look at it as a bother or a weakness. Sometimes a situation overwhelms me and a tear or two fall. Yesterday something happened that brought a tear.

      As you know I spent 5 years in the Arctic and I've often said it was a life changing experience. I left the Arctic in 1969 but it's always remained close to me so I've read widely and gained much more insight about the people and the land. Experiences that happened long ago suddenly take on more meaning or a different meaning.

     In all too many cases the Inuit were moved without their consent or awareness as to what was happening. The part I was involved in was moving children 1000's of miles away from their homes so that they could go to a residential school. Communities were moved to where the white man wanted to build a town. Families were moved to isolated areas because the white man thought there was better hunting and trapping in an area. Many Inuit were brought south for medical reasons and some died and were not returned to their loved ones . More than that it seemed that records of these people were lost. In my settlement a toddler was murdered and the body taken to the south for a coroner's inquest. A year later one of the leaders asked me where the baby's body was. I couldn't tell him. I did refer him to those responsible and I'm not sure what he found.

    Before the 1900's Inuit were taken on trading and exploring ships as workers or pilots. Sometimes these people were taken back to their homes and many times they were just dropped off before the vessel returned to Europe.

    Yesterday, I listened to a radio interview about Inuit who were taken to France and exhibited as if they were in a Zoo. People payed to see an Esquimaux. Inuit today remember these people and continue to feel the loss of family and ancestors. At one point in the interview the Inuk was unable to continue and tell the feelings of his loss. There was a TV documentary on this event on the Nature of T

hings.

    The interview continued and at the end the inuk said "nakuriik" Which is thankyou. That is when the tear dropped. To hear the language again from an inuktitut speaker brought back so much of what I had experienced.

I Found My Archive

       A former student of mine (who reads this blog) has a long history of involvement with city archives. He started volunteering in the small archive dept. while he was in high school. So you can guess that his university degree was in history and he made his specialty local history.

      When his degree was finished he came back to his home town and guess what? He set up the archives dept in this town. He has been the city archivist since about 1976. What an archivist! He has set up a system that collects, catalogues and stores a wide variety of city material. Minutes from many local organizations are sent to the archives and kept. I taught at the same school for 28 years and had 24 or 25 school yearbooks. At this stage in my life I wanted to get rid of some of my treasures and I decided that I was finished with the yearbooks.. I didn't want to recycle my yearbooks so I asked the archivist if he could use them. Yes , he certainly would like them so off my yearbooks went to the archivist. 

     Now this guy is not just an archivist but an avid interest in local history. In fact, his interest is so keen that he has written books on our city's local history.  The local history books sell like hotcakes. He has  a weekly newspaper column on some aspect of our history.

    Now in the process of scanning photos I've found my  archives. Many photos remind me of events from many years ago in my life. I found photos to remind me of hiking and backpacking. There were many photos taken at school and somebody very carefully gave me any photos I happened to be in. There are many photos of those goofy   dress up days. Many candid shots were taken of me in the classroom or staffroom.

    I found very ancient photos of my childhood. I found things on my young adult life although those happened to be sporadic. And then the most precious photos were those of my kids when they were growing up. Today I got to the high school graduation photos.

    So I've found my archive and I wish they were as well organized as if our city archivist had cared for them.

This is something I was really good at!

     

I Had to Learn Something

     Recently I had to learn something and I found out I have much more to learn. 

     If you've been following me , you know that I have been mumbling about scanning photos for some time. So in January 2016 I was ready or so I thought. I have been looking at how things are done and what options there may be.  I wanted to be able to send all the photos to my kids as they are photos of them. So I have about 20 years of photos to scan and send. 

     So one of the first things I learned is that the photos I've been looking at for 40 years are not that great. The old cameras didn't take that great of photo. Sometimes they got lucky and everything was perfect. Photographers (me) didn't know much, so light was the last of things I considered. My wife always had some shake in the photo. Many photos we didn't take. Many photos were of high quality and reproduce well. School photos done be a professional turn out very well.

    I did not intend to scan all photos and I've found I've deleted many I scanned.

    I wanted to be able to put a caption on each photo. I wrote about this one before. 

    I had been given lots of advice. Make sure the photo surface is clean. I haven't learned that one yet. I can't see the dust so I go sailing on and guess what, the scanner picks up the dust. Keep your photos square. I'm pretty good at that one.

   I've had to do a lot of experimenting. You can set your scanner and then you can do more with the computer.  Some photos can be reproduced with a reasonable quality. Other photos, I can't do much with.

    So as I go along I learn more. What happens if I click on this? Oh, that's what happens! That makes a big difference. Today I clicked on a sun that's half shaded. I found it adjusted shadow and gave a much sharper image.

    Now there's also the issue of practice. Things improve as I move along. 

    I've sent some photos to the victims and they are very pleased with them. My son commented that they are "awesome."

   So guess what? With all I've learned, I've gone back and done many batches of photos over again

Must have been Hawaii Day at school!!!

!
     

The Hissy Fit

      Hissy fit was a term originally applied to adults who had a tantrum. Today it is a more general term and applied to all ages. I hate to see hissy fits period. It doesn't matter what age has a tantrum it's a very sad performance. People become very irrational and don't listen to anyone or anything. 

     So the other day I had to deal with a hissy fit.

     I'm the administrator of a small face book page for the Red Deer River Naturalists. The page was set up as an exchange of information and photos on anything to do with natural history. There are now close to 2000 excellent photos on the page. It's a closed group so you have to be approved by the administrator. Wow! We don't want hookers any other sales people.  So keep it to the topic.

     Yesterday, an information piece  comparing the Alberta Tar Sands to Mordor was posted. Somebody got in a flap and claimed this post wasn't suitable for the face book page. Very quickly others piled on this person and defended the Tars Sands piece.

     The complainant reported the post to the administrator..me!  What do I do? There's a big bar across the page saying that there was a complaint about a post. I didn't want this negative info on the front page.

     So I had to wade into the rhubarb which is dangerous. Everybody can sometimes end up piling on you.

     The big bad bar remained. How do I get rid of it? If you click on the bar you will be given three choices. One is to get rid of the bar.

     Most times when an inappropriate comment is made people will ignore it. I'm not sure why it wasn't ignored yesterday and why it blew up.

    Today it's all quiet on the Red Deer River Naturalist's face book page.

Eat Yer Heart Out DJan

       DJan has two very well written blogs: DJan-ity and Eye on the Edge.  DJan-ity tells about her physical activities to keep healthy and physically fit. Eye on the Edge deals with a heavier deeper  issue of where she came from, what she was and what she's going to be before she dies. Both blogs are interesting and well worth following. 

       DJan lives in the coastal mountains in the northwest corner of Washington state. It's a beautiful place to be outdoors. Each Thursday, without fail, Djan goes for a hike with 10-15 other seniors. Each Thursday there is a vivid account of the hike. I find out how long the hike was, how much altitude was involved , trail and weather conditions and social interactions along the way. Photographs are always included.

      Now I admit I get a tad envious of her hiking activity as at one time I was a hiker backpacker. I have lived every experience she has lived . I love the great outdoors.

     I live about 120 km(80mi) from the Canadian Rockies. The Rockies were my hiking and backpacking territory. I taught outdoor ed. and took many school classes to the Rockies where we backpacked, snow shoed or skied.

    I also went with friends on more strenuous trips.

     I've been scanning photos and found some of my backpacking activities. That's why this post is aimed at DJan. Most of my hiking was done well above the treeline which to me is the best area to be. The meadows are carpeted with flowers. Ground nesting birds are abundant

    The photos are from a four day trip over Jonas Pass in Jasper National Park , Alberta. The hike is about 72 km(45 mi). So off we go with 50 lb packs that carry food, clothing, tent and sleeping bags. It's back country and any facilities are primitive.

     Many people are familiar with the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park.  Jonas Pass takes you through the next valley east of gorgeous Athabaska pass(Columbia Glacier). The Icefield's Highway was built in the 30's. It wasn't built before that as the Columbia Glacier filled the whole valley and you couldn't put a road through a glacier. Horse traffic went through Jonas Pass. Nowadays 10 - 15 hikers a year go over Jonas pass following the old horse trails.

    The trip I took was in the first week of July. The 2 or 3 km over the Pass were completely snow covered. There were areas where snow had drifted and the snow bank was 10 m (30 ft) deep.

    Any backpack trip I've ever taken , I would do over in a heart beat. This was a great one.

I don't know where this creek was coming from but we had to wade across it.

That big deep snow bank

Watching a small herd of mountain caribou in the valley below.

There were many large boulder fields to cross.

The exact top of the pass

Moving toward the pass through the snow field

One of the 2 or 3 primitive bridges

Mr. Smarty Pants Gets Caught

     Now I make it well known that I am fairly active for my age...not super active but active. I think I am on the edge of bragging about it or outright bragging. I skate, ski and cycle. I do all my own maintenance.

     Well yesterday things came to a screeching halt. I fell and broke my collar bone! Yes me!

      I thought I go out and ski for half an hour yesterday afternoon. At the end of my driveway there was ice under a little new snow . I didn't see it so down I went.

     My ski boots are made of a hard plastic type material. I know they're slippery on ice so I'm always careful but I guess not careful enough.
     
     I got up quickly hoping that I wasn't seen...a little vanity. For  split second I thought I'd continue on my way skiing. Things really didn't hurt much. I went in the house to check and nothing seemed out of place but I decided not to ski.

     Between 5 and 6 the pain really set in. I could hardly change clothes to go to emergency. 

     I got to emergency at six PM and home by midnight. Then I still had to do dishes!

    I've been given a sling to wear for a month and exercises to do.

   I'm looking forward to this month! Well, not really! That's it for skating and skiing for me this year!

   So guys who show off get caught once in awhile!