Hiking, Skating and Skiing

I would like to Blog about each outing individually because each walk, hike, ski or skate is unique in its own way. Fortunately I am getting out a lot which is leaving me little time to be pecking out text on my keyboard and uploading photos. Nevertheless, here is a list of activities that I have done over the past several weeks..

January 26, 2012, Skied Campbell Lake. This ski was solo.

Thank you again to the Hamilton's for providing such an excellent trail and track to ski. I often see deer tracks but on this run I noticed a deer track with blood in it. Was it from an accidental injury or was the animal ambushed by a coyote? It seemed to be the rear right leg that was injured which would be more indicative of an ambush attack. Either way it is another stark reminder of the hard and uncertain life these creatures live.

Distance = 4.18 km. Moving time = 1 hr 9 min. Stopped time = 8 min.

Walked back 3.7 km

Then I met up with my sister and did another short ski run.

Distance 4.5 km

Moving time = 2 hours 52 min. both walking and skiing.

Stopped time = 30 min.

Walked 2 km

Total distance skied 10.2 km

January 28, 2012, Skied Blackfoot Lake with a friend.

We started at the Blackfoot Lake Staging area at around 11 am and finished around 2 pm. The track that starts at the Blackfoot Lake Staging Area is a favorite place for me to go. We skied the track and then skied out to the Heron nesting colony on Blackfoot Lake. My friend was a novice skier and found the track challenging. It is always great to share favorite places with those who are visiting them for the first time.

Distance skied = about 6 km.

Moving time = 2 hr. 3 min. Stopped time = 30 min

January 29, 2012, solo skate on Hawrelak Park Pond.

I had an hour to kill so I went skating. The ice on the pond was in reasonable condition. I regret to think that this might be the only skating that I do in Hawrelak Park this winter. I have many happy memories about skating that park.

Distance = 6.21 km.

Time = 32 min.

February 1, 2012, ski with my sister and her neighbor, around Campbell Lake.

Again we skied on the Hamilton House trail and track. The track is becoming well set making it better to ski on every time we go. Most of the stopped time shown was so I could reminisce about my experiences in this area when I was young, like my buddy and I crawling into a bear den.

Distance = 6.65 km.

Moving time = 1 hr. 32 min moving. Stopped time = 20 min.

Max. Elev. 1805

February 3, 2012, ski with my sister and her neighbor, around Campbell Lake.

This was another skiing outing on the Hamilton House trail and track.

We noticed Muskrat tracks on the surface of the snow so somehow a muskrat must have found itself on top of the ice and it could not find it's way back into its more familiar and safe habitat under the ice. Then there were the tell tail flecks of blood in the snow and coyote tracks. The coyote got to eat and the muskrat got eaten, it is a harsh life for animals in the woods.

Distance = 7.34 km

Moving time = 1 hr 55 min. Stopped time = 26 min stopped.

February 10, 2012. Hiked in Waterton National Park, to Lower Bertha Falls with my brother.
We got started just after noon and finished around 4pm. It was calm with light snow.

There is noticeably more snow on the trail this time compared to when I did the hike with my grandson and granddaughter in January. There was a Montana Gov. truck and car in the parking lot and foot prints and toboggan tracks on the trail to Boundary Bay. We assumed they were officials checking the trail and boarder crossing at Boundary Bay and Goat Haunt Lake.
After the hike we checked out the beach. There is still some open water out in the lake. We found it a curiosity how the lake seems to freeze in stages.

Distance 7.9 km

Moving time = 1 hour 58 min. Stopped time = 1 hour 8 min. I Question that we stopped this long. I think we were just moving slowly and there was also interference with the GPS signal because of the surrounding mountains.

684 ft total ascent, 4788 max elevation.

Feb. 19, 2012, Woolford Provincial Park, solo winter walk.

There was enough snow to see tracks so I could tell that one person had walked there recently. I followed the general path that previous person took. I started walking around 4:30 and finished back at my truck around 6pm. The river is mostly frozen but there are areas of open moving water. I noticed green algae in the moving water, a reminder that even in winter there is sufficient sun for photosynthesis to be taking place. I saw a whitetail deer on the river. I might have seem raccoon tracks, or would the racoons be hibernating now?

3.14 km

1 hr. 3 min. moving, 6 min stopped.

Max. elev. 3786 ft.

Long Ski, Long Bay

January 25, 2012, Ski Long Bay, solo.

When I set out for Cold Lake Provincial Park my intention was to see if there were groomed ski trails in the park. The snow cover this year, as of January 25, has not been sufficient to properly set a ski track so I wasn't sure how the skiing would be on the Park trails. As I pulled into the parking lot near the beach I could see ski tracks were mostly nonexistent. Nevertheless, I skied south from the parking lot on the trail directly to Long Bay on Cold Lake. I I managed to stay upright as I expertly negotiated the tricky down slope to the frozen bay with little more than some slough grass lodged in my bindings. Once on the bay I found that a trail had been groomed that followed the shore line of the bay. Normally that ski trail crosses a portion of the bay and then continues onto land but, likely due to the reduced snow cover, the lake shore was the better place to groom a track. My curiosity over took me and I had to discover where this track would take me. I think I made the best time on this track that I ever made. At times I did over 5 km/hr, and yes that is good going for me.
The advantage of winder is that the marks in the snow, whether tracks or patches of blood, tell a story and shows me that, as my brother would put it, "a drama in life occurred". I found two such patches and my guess is something had been eaten by a coyote. Between the coyotes and the ravens not much, apart from a few red flecks in the snow, gets left behind. A stark reminder that for many creatures this is a harsh and dangerous world.
My skiing wasn't entirely tranquil. A car driven by an Icefisherman, I assume, pulling a large sled rattles by. A military helicopter flying at tree top level slinks along on the far side of a low hill. Military aircraft from the local military base do long loops in the ski overhead. This is all part of life in the Cold Lake area.
I reach the apex of the track and take a break to rehydrate before starting my return. I reminisce about days when I paddled this bay decades earlier. I resolve that, come summer, I will paddle this shoreline again. On my return I feel that my progress is slower as I am tiring now. A snow squall moves in bringing almost white out conditions. The aircraft are gone now and amidst the swirling snow my winter tranquility returns.

Distance: 12.5 km.

Moving time: 2 hrs 35 min Stopped 10 min

Moving average going 5.1 km/hr., Moving average coming back 4.9 km/hr

Max elevation 2094 ft.

Skiing on Home Town Hospitality

January 21, 2012. The Hamilton's ski track.

Is the place where, when people meet to on the street they know who you are, called home? If so then Cherry Grove is still my home. Just east of this the Hamlet is a marshy lake and near the lake is where the Hamilton's live and operate their Bed and Breakfast.

www.hamiltonhouse.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngJeVOW-3uE
GPS Coordinates are 54.369359,-110.052795

I would define Brian and Deb as avid outdoors people. Every winter they maintain a ski track on their land and an adjoining ranch which makes a circuit all the way around the lake which has no name on topographical maps but the local people call it Campbell's Lake. The circuit is about 6.5 km long. A nice 1 1/2 to 2 hour ski for me. The trail is entirely private but Brian and Deb work hard to maintain it and they have been most generous to allow me to ski there. I will be Blogging more about this trail because it is so convenient for me to ski there. On this particular day I went skiing with my sister. We started out around 2pm and finished in the twilight at around 5 pm. The track had been groomed at one time but someone drove their snowmobiles on it and wrecked much of the track. I had more than a few unkind thoughts about snowmobilers and I might have even verbalized those thoughts more than a few times. It goes with out saying to use respect when entering onto someones land.

There had not been a lot of snow this winter up until our ski so setting a good track had not been easy. During this ski there was a very welcome light steady snow fall, which allowed my sister and I to ski the 1km of road from her house to the Hamilton House ski track. Fresh snow is also excellent for observing animal tracks and I also got a fleeting glimpse of a Pileated Woodpecker in flight.

Total distance skied was 8.6 km.

2 hours 42 min moving

27 min stopped.

Maximum elevation 1851 ft.

On January 23, 2012. My sister and I Skied the Campbell's Lake track again. This time we went counter clockwise and took one of the short cuts back across the lake to make it a shorter route . There are lots of snowshoe hare tracks this year. Population numbers of the Snowshoe hare are known to go through extreme variations and the population is apparently rising or has peaked. There were also tracks of mice and voles, Red Squirrel, deer and coyote. You will be hearing more about the Campbell's Lake ski circuit for sure.

About 5 km.

Footnote: I also have notes for Nov. 16, 2011. when my sister and I walked around Campbell's Lake. This one didn't make it into my Blog.

That was an 8.5 km walk.