Club Events 2004
| 2004-01-10: COC - Grotto and Heart Creek Canyons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| We started out today with the largest group we've had in a long time - 17 people! We headed out to Grotto Canyon, and started out from Dave's favorite 'unofficial' trail head. The canyon is beautiful this time of year, albeit a tad bit treacherous. There is a LOT of ice in the canyon, difficult to walk on at times. Unfortunately, I broke one of my ice cleats early on, so I had one foot that was good-to-go the whole time, and one that wanted to go out from under me. We were all envious of Holly's deluxe ice cleats, and Dave's crampons. We made our way up the canyon, had a brief visit to the pictograms, and then reached the Grotto Falls. The \"His\" and \"Hers\" ice climbs were gorgeous. Most of the group hiked right up to Grotto Falls. I had to stay behind because of my back injury. At the top, Dave gave the group a demo of ice climbing. When they'd had their fill of Grotto Falls, the group made their way back down to the stream, and crossed the treacherous thing to get to the other side and continue down the canyon. Further down into the canyon, we found the funny 'mountain' with the cave. Our brave Safety Officer charged right up toward the cave, and several of the other folks followed along up - once again, I took a bye. What goes up, must come down, and I think a few of them had a bit of a thrilling moment trying to come back down from the cave. There was more than just a little butt-slideage going on. Coming out of the canyon, I'm sad to say, Jon turned his ankle and came out much more slowly than the rest of us. He was a trooper, though, and was self-propelled the whole time. On to our lunch spot! Dave chose a roadside turnout and we tromped down the hill, over the tracks, and into a small but snowy clearing. We each cleared a bit of a cubby hole and made ourselves at home. Rob made himself a very dandy little seat padded with pine branches - watch out for the pointy parts! Dave fired up his hibachi, and Gerry and Steve built a small campfire. Some of us just munched on our regular hiking fare, while others roasted some weinies, and Jerry even had some marshmallows. After lunch, Jon (turned ankle), Michelle (wet and frozen feet) and myself (back injury) bailed on the second hike and came back to Calgary. I'll have to let someone else pick up the story from here. -- Rhonda The rest of the group headed to the Heart Creek Trailhead and soon were slowly making progress up the trail. The group encountered a few trail obstacles such as a bridge, that was to be used for crossing the creek, well frozen into the creek. However we managed to use the hand railing for some support as we crossed the ice. There were a few spots where the creek had overflowed its bank and spilled onto the trail. We eventually made our way to the end of the trail and a few climbed a small ridge for a closer view of the falls. As we descended, many took pictures as the sun was close to setting and one attempt was made to break some ice via some jumping, but nothing broke. At one point, we thought we had lost some members only to find out that one was holding one's pole. (Group funny moment) We made our way safely back to the parking lot and a few even turned up at the new meeting spot, Kilkenny's, for a pint or two. In all, a very fun filled day. --Dave
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-01-11: COC - Pocaterra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The weather this weekend was perfect, and the turnout for our snow shoeing and cross-country skiing at Pocaterra showed it! We had a total of 24 people out today! We set out from Pocaterra Hut and into the meadow. From there, we joined the snow shoe trail which meanders up and down through the hills and trees. We crossed the cross-country ski trails several times, and crossed a stream a couple of times. We stopped for a snack in the snow, after which, Ethel and company took their leave of us (they probably would have enjoyed snow shoeing more if they'd had poles... live and learn). The rest of us shoed back out, ending up in the meadow, where the more competitive among us had a race to the end of the meadow and back (for the record, Jerry won). Back to the hut where we re-joined the skiiers and headed back to town. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-01-22: COC - Ice Skating in Calgary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It was a balmy 1 degree for ice skating on the lagoon tonight. Claire and Tara tried to join us, but alas, they weren't able to get skate rentals (well, they could have, but it was 8:30 and the rentals were due back at 9:00). So, the remaining six of us made a few laps around the lagoon, and down the dead-end trail at the end. There were only two minor wipe-outs - Lana as she was attempting to do the 'Turney Thing', and Dick, who momentarily forgot the 'Bend your Knees, Stick out your Butt' rule. It was Dick's first time in his life on ice skates - he's from Atlanta. He caught on fairly quickly, and kept up with us more 'seasoned' skaters (hah!) pretty well. Dick and Jason were both out with the club for the first time. Bowness Park is definitely the place for outdoor skating. The lagoon is huge compared to most outdoor rinks, and the ice is in pretty good shape. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-01-24: COC - Dog Sled Tour with Howling Dog Tours | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I knew this was gonna be an especially cool trip when we awoke to snow. There was a blanket of fresh snow covering Calgary. And it was coming down strong, with big fluffy flakes, my favorite kind! We had some running around to do, so I even got a chance to drive out in it. My compliments to the Alberta Department of Transportation, if there is such a thing. It was much easier to negotiate the highways there, than the last snow I drove in through Western North Carolina last fall. First of all, let me say that where I live, people would pay just for the view we got to see in the motorcar ride up to Canmore. Rhonda, Wendy, Scott and I took Wendy¹s Honda Civic to The Bolo Ranch House, where we met up with Howling Dog Tours' shuttle van. We all paused for more tasty beverages, and put on more layers. If the ride in Wendy¹s Honda was worth money, the shuttle van ride is something I am trying to burn into my memory. I should have been running my video camera. Along the way, we ran upon a large herd of Mountain Sheep. They were in two groups. We never did see the one male that was supposed to be with that herd. Our driver knew all about the sheep, and the roads around the area. There was so much to see along the road, that I found I had in fact missed most of it on the way up, but marvelled at the views on the way back down. The road follows some kind of hydroelectric, pumped storage system. We drove along side man-made canals. The sheer vertical rise of our journey was more than I had expected. By the time we arrived at the Howling Dog Sled Camp, the snow had changed just a little. It had gone from those big fluffy flakes I love, to slightly smaller, harder ones. It may have had something to do with our outrageously high altitude. We were in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, looking at the BACK of the Three Sisters Mountains. The dogs were a trip. I have been around a number of different kinds of ³working dogs² but these were among the most hyper while not at work, and yet the most natural and relaxed, but still focused, dogs when working, I have ever seen. It seemed to be pretty important where they put each dog in the line. One of ours kept snapping at the larger dog beside her. That dog just ignored the smaller dog. But our musher, Graham, told us that if the snappy dog was put beside this other dog, it would fight back. I got to ride on the back of our sled for a while, and so did Wendy, on her and Scott¹s sled. After a ride that I wish had lasted much longer, we stopped for hot chocolate, and snacks. The beef jerky was good, but I really dug the big chunks of smoked salmon. They had cheeses and dried fruits also. While taking the break, we hiked through the woods, down near the lake. It was frozen over, and ice fishermens' huts dotted the smooth white surface. It was another nice view of the BACK of the Three Sisters. That seems to be something that a lot of people familiar with Canmore don¹t get to see. We all got an eye full, and made our way back up to the sleds. After getting our fill of more of the authentic munchies, we loaded our sleds back up. The dogs all stopped their anxious bickering, and got into their grooves again. They all seemed most happy while pulling our sleds. Every now and then, one would scoop up a mouth full of snow, without even breaking stride. Graham, our musher said they do that for water, but mostly to cool themselves off. I took plenty of digital still pictures, as well as running video for a good while. I wish you could all see at least an MPEG or a QuickTime of part of this. I had never seen or done anything quite like this before. As one of my friends in Georgia, who grew up in Michigan put it ³How many people do you know who have even seen a dog sled?² After some thought, I had to admit, that I probably didn¹t know anyone who had seen a real dog sled. I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, and we had all kinds of sleds. I think we even tried tying our dogs to our sleds a few times. But, Howling Dog Sled Tours is about as real as you can get. The staff was very friendly and professional. Our Musher also did work with animals for movies. Our shuttle van driver, drives shuttle vans in the summer, for white water tours. I think a lot of them do white water tours in the summer. They also race dog sleds. I think that is how they help sponsor, and practice their dog sled racing. I thought the racing involvement was a nice touch. I wonder if they raced our dog named Tron. After an amazing ride back down the mountain, we went for some dinner. We did the smart thing though. We drove back into Calgary for dinner. That way we didn¹t have to drive a snowy, Trans Canada Highway after dark. We all enjoyed stuffing our faces on the fine Ethiopian cuisine at Marathon. I think I slept well that night. -- Dick Brown
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-01-29: COC - Evening at Schank's (Crowfoot) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What can I say, it was a social. We ate drank and met some new people. There was an interesting split between those who were new to the club and those who'd met before. We chatted about past events, upcoming events, and gathered some ideas for possible upcoming events. Some left earlier, some came later but the table always seemed full of folks telling each other about themselves. Later on a couple of us broke free of the crowds to take on the race track and to try our hand at the \"Ice Cold Beer\" game...quite amusing for the record! It was a nice respite from the cold and a good night out! -- Lana Jorge is thrilled to be experiencing some true Canadian winter days. The rest of us aren't so sure... especially the west coast representation... We welcomed a couple of newcomers into the fold tonight (Crystal and Philip), and had a record number of club officers out for the occasion... probably because we have a record number of officers now (having grown from two to nine in the last month or so). Anyway, thank goodness we have Schank's to keep us busy when the weather dips below -25C. Brrrrrrrr! -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-01: COC - Avalanche Awareness Course | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Avalanche Awareness The six of us headed out to Canmore at sparrow fart (credit: Juliana L) this morning and met up at Starbuck’s in Canmore where we got our first round of instruction. Dave told us about the Canadian Avalanche Association’s web site which has all the information you could hope for about current avalanche danger in the Canadian Rockies. The avalanche danger for today was considerable:
which means that Natural avalanches are possible, and human triggered avalanches probable. We had to exercise extreme caution today heading out into avalanche country.
After we had our “classroom session”, we headed further west, to Highway 93 south, where we headed in and parked at the Continental Divide parking lot, and hiked into Chickadee Valley (which, incidentally, is difficult to impossible to get into during the summer due to heavy brush and deadfall). Along the way, Dave explained what to look for on the mountains to identify avalanche areas. Further along, he spotted a high avalanche danger area that we had to pass in front of – whoever had broken the trail in, had swung further to the right than usual, into avalanche danger territory (on the way back, Dave broke us a new trail in a safer spot). Anyway, while we passed in front of the avalanche “runway”, we crossed single file, spaced 30 seconds apart. Our considerate Safety Officer, Rob, was kind enough to test out all the places on the hike in where a person may fall into a sinkhole, or get sucked into the running stream. Once we were deep into the valley, we stopped and had lunch where Zachary invented and demonstrated the new club dance (see below). After filling up, Dave dug us a test pit and demonstrated how to test and analyze snow layers according to how packed or loose they are, and how thick the layers. Today, the top 18cm of snow (the new fall from this week) was sitting on top of a very unstable layer, and therefore, skiing on the backcountry slope we were examining would have been unadvisable. We all agreed that it was really freakin’ cold out there in the valley, so we would finish our avalanche training back out at the entry to the valley (near the road) where it was warmer, so we hiked back out. Back at the trailhead, we completed our avalanche (intro) training by playing \"hide and seek\" with our transceivers. This day was an excellent introduction to avalanche awareness, even though I never heard any of the whumps. Oh, and the scenery didn’t suck either. We headed back to Calgary, where Debbie and I bailed, and the rest of the group went for fish and chips and Guinness at Kilkenney. At least, I think they did. I’m sure they had a wonderful time… much better than if I’d been along (my feet were wet, my head was pounding, my lungs were shrieking, I was cold, tired and crrrrrabby!). Oh, and for the record, let me just say that I know that it was my own stupid fault that my feet were wet and cold. I didn't have proper winter boots. Learn from my mistake - don't do what I did! If you're going out in the snow, use proper boots! The U of C Outdoor Program Center rents Sorels if you don't have your own. On the lighter side... 1. We have a new official COC Dance. It’s called “The Zachary”, and is to be done to the tune of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” (original version). Study it well – you will need to know this: ![](\"http://www.calgaryoutdoorclub.com/image/TheZachary.gif\") Perform steps 1 through 8, and repeat, in deep fluffy snow until you have a cozy little spot flattened out. 2. Debbie’s favorite quotes of the day:
3. Near the end of the day, we found a genuine Canadian Crop Circle! Check it out:  What's even creepier is that the crop circle wasn't there when we entered the valley... -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-06: COC - Micetro Impro at Loose Moose Theatre | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Michelle and I were the first people through the gate, but then we loitered around to gather everyone up, and by the time the group got through the door, the theatre was pretty much full. D'oh! So, we ended up sitting in two groups of four. The fine young actors of Loose Moose were in prime shape this evening, and a good time was had by all. My personal fave was the skit about the kids from the North East. Also liked the abandoned farmhouse and the 'happy place' song. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-07: COC - Chester Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The sun tried to shine today, but didn't really succeed until we were leaving Chester Lake to head back to Calgary. It was still a great hike (ok, ok, snow shoe) up to the lake - very pretty in spite of a hazy sky and a bit of snow fall. This is my favorite kind of hike (ok, ok, snow shoe)... the kind where you do all/most of the work on the way in, and then just saunter your way back out. We had two pooches along today, Sadie (with Marcel) and Rothco (with Scott). Rothco enjoyed sampling everyone's lunch snacks, and I'm sad to report that even my yummy cheese (Babybel with Maasdam) couldn't compete with Holly's chocolate bar. Along the way, Holly convinced Jerry to run around in a big pristine opening so she could get an 'action shot' of him running in his snow shoes. I hope she got a good one, and I hope she shares it with us. All I got (while photographing the same session) was a pic of Jerry falling in his snow shoes, and a pic of a snow-covered Jerry standing in his snow shoes with Holly photographing him. Super Dave made it out today for the first time since his accident, and did a great job considering he has a couple of broken ribs and an injured lung. He had a headache while we were stopped for lunch and looked like the walking dead (ok, ok, the snow shoeing dead) when we started back down. Jennifer and I were hanging back with him, and all of a sudden he transformed into \"Second-Wind Man\", and zoomed ahead on the trail with his usual twelve-foot paces. One thing that I thought was really cool was that Stephan wore his traditional snow shoes. I had always wondered how they could possibly work without the crampons on the bottom that the newfangled ones have. He learned (and shared with us), that as you walk along in them, the snow squishes up between the weave of the shoes, providing great traction. Ingeniuous! The group, which was actually split into two smaller groups, had run-ins with a guy who I call \"Mr. Happy\" (for those of you who are Robin Williams fans, the reference is intentional). He was a belligerent solitary cross-country skiier who had made it his mission for the day to verbally abuse all snow shoers on the trail. For a few moments there I thought everybody would be kung-fu fighting, with our pacifist, Clay, leading the charge. Fortunately, once a few rudenesses were exchanged, \"Mr. Happy\" went on his way. I'm sure he had a great day with the snow shoers - there were at least a million of us on the trail today. After hiking (ok, ok, snow shoeing), about half of us (including me for once! yay!) headed to our unoffical clubhouse, the Kilkenney Pub, where we were joined by Debbie who said she knew we'd be there because \"we always go there\". OK, so I guess we're predictable. The beef boxty was even better than I remembered, and the Strongbow didn't suck either. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-08: COC - Johnston Canyon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It turned out to be a perfect day for a winter hike.not too cold, not all melty and drippy either, and only a couple of renegade snow balls to speak of (boys will be boys after all!) We took off in two cars for Banff National Park and met up at the Johnston Canyon parking lot and set off from there to the Upper Falls. Sharing the snowy trail with us were some die hard ice climbers, families with young children, and even a couple of elderly ladies with little picks at the bottom of their canes (pretty neat idea actually, like a cross between a ski pole and a cane). We made several photo stops along the way admiring the blue ice and the frozen falls. Our ultimate destination proved to be worth it. The frozen Upper Falls were pretty spectacular. This was our \"lunch stop\" with the various groups of ice climbers providing us with some in house entertainment. We took turns picking on various members throughout the walk with Rhonda getting it more than most. (Thanks for being a good sport Rhonda. I really need to work on not saying every little thing that comes into my head!) We were all back down to the parking lot by 1:45 and still ready to go, so we took in another small loop in Banff before hitting the highway home. The event unofficially continued at Kilkenny's over dinner and a couple of drinks. Merv joined us for a drink and some of us (OK me and Dave) pigged out on the BEST Chocolate Mud Slide Thing EVER! Some interesting conversations ensued involving cotton, probes, little Johnny jokes and pigs.not necessarily in that order. -- Lana
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-12: COC - Ice Skating at the Olympic Oval | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-15: COC - Party for Dave B | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This does not seem to have been a club party - just an unofficial gathering.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-26: COC - Pool at Stix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We met up at Stix at about 7:00, and had a couple of new members (Tara and Marc) as well as an out of town visitor (Cheryl's sister, Lori). We had our own little tournament on two tables with: 1a) Scott and Cheryl against Dana and Lori 1b) Tara and Marc against Rhonda and Betty 2a) Scott and Marc against Tara and Cheryl 2b) Dana and Betty against Rhonda and Lori 3a) Scott and Betty against Rhonda and Marc 3b) Dana and Cheryl against Tara and Lori Each round was a best out of three. We were a pretty evenly matched group overall with no real \"sharks\" (although a few of us had a moment or two), and no real novices. Stix is a great venue for pool, and their food is REALLY good. My cheeseburger was to die for (as cheeseburgers so rarely are), and everyone else raved about their food, too. Dana's friend, Roy, and Merv and Cynthia stopped by to visit for a bit, too. - Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-28: COC - Kananaskis Village: Tobogganing and/or Ice Skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It couldn't have been a better day for tobogganing! The sun was shining and the air was warm. Rhonda, Cheryl, Michelle and Scott all drove up from Calgary and were met on the road by Jon, Dave, and Rob who had just come from ice climbing Troll Falls. We pulled into the parking lot and Rhonda and Michelle decided to go skating on the pond while everyone else went tobogganing. Dave and Jon pulled out their Snow Boogie Thunder! boards and applied what the third coat of Pledge wax! Everyone headed for the so-called \"Suicide Hill\" and the fun began. We screamed down the hill at speeds of at least mach 2 and over the bumps at the bottom. Rob on his Crazy Carpet set the distance record for the day. We decided that their was better \"Alpine Sliding\" to be found at Nakiska so we rallied and headed out. We got distracted by a slippery slope off Hwy 40 and made a few tracks there before hitting Nakiska for a few runs, only a few though because the groomers were coming out to work. The day ended with a few pints a Kilkenny, as all good days do. Thanks to everyone for an enjoyable day. - Jon
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-02-29: COC - Ice Skating at Chateau Lake Louise | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It was a very casual event. We all got to Lake Louise at different times, and some left earlier than others. Some skated and some just hung around by the fire taking in the scenery and meeting other folks. Some did a bit of both. Officially, the core skating group met up at the ice castle at around 1pm. The day was sunny and clear and the temperature was just right. The ice sculptures were on display for all of us shutter bugs to snap a few shots. The crowds were in control and no one took out anyone else on skates! (although there was a dog out on the ice for awhile on a leash that was a bit of a concern...) We logged about 3 and a half hours of \"ice time\" punctuated by coffee runs, skate rental returns, photo ops (both other people's photos as well as our own), fish bite admiring, and snack breaks. And, just like a group of teens at the mall, we did some standing around in a circle *gossiping* and chatting about nothing in particular. That's what we were up to when Karen and Leesa found us. I guess we were obviously a group and Karen figured we might be the Calgary Outdoor Club, so came up and joined us. We're glad they found us 'cause we just love meeting new people. They might not have been so keen to join us earlier when we were posing poor Cheryl by the blood spatter for the new promo photo for future skating events!! It was a great day overall. There's something about skating, especially outside on a lake, that brings out the kid in you...complete with rosy cheeks! And as an added bonus, all of our gear that we left on the bench, smells like camp fire, and there was slight hint of sun on our faces the next day. It simply doesn't get any better than that now does it? A few of us continued our day at Kilkenny's (quelle surprise!!). Things got interesting when we figured out that pints of Sleemans were $2 after the Flames won 4-2 over Phoenix. Thanks Michael for that extra round...you big spender you! At the risk of sounding like a beer commercial, some good company, good food, good beer - it was the perfect ending to a perfect day! -- Lana
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-05: COC - The Arrogant Worms at Jack Singer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Arrogant Worms rock! I've seen these guys close to about ten times now and I never get tired of them. I have to kind of wonder, though, if they're not getting a bit big for their britches... I mean, this was the first time they brought an opening act with them. A guy named Ben Something-Or-Other who was really good and funny, too. Of course, I'm hoarse this morning from yelling out all the right stuff in all the right places (like a true uber-fan should... yes they did SO write \"Creepy Stalker Girl\" for me). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-07: COC - Beginner Snow Shoeing at Pocaterra in K-Country | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Being the first timer on the Calgary Outdoor club Sunday snowshoe hike I have been nominated by my colleagues to file the event report. The day was windy with some cover in Calgary but the wind left us once at Pocaterra hut and although the skies had a white snow cover the light filtered through and it was comfortably warm. The group of six started off in the meadow below the hut for my benefit, never having put a pair of snowshoes before, and then we trekked off to the woods that flank the meadows side. The trip was published as being easy and doable for beginners and it was. Rhonda’s friend Bridget said that the snow had a crust and wasn’t the greatest – I was just wondering how far you could sink in!! Five minutes into the woods a steep descent appeared and the question for me was- do you do this vertically or just slide ungracefully to the bottom of the decline – I chose vertical. Signs of wildlife- a big fat grouse off the path that looked like a football with a head. As a newcomer to the group I find it amazing that a total stranger can pick up the phone and arrange to get to one of the most magnificent areas of the country, have a minimal cost and meet a gang of friendly and helpful like minded people. Thanks everyone for a great Sunday. -- Jacqueline
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-12: COC - Winter Weekend in Nordegg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This was the Calgary Outdoor Club's very first 'overnight' event. First off, I would like to thank Dave Biesbroek for organizing it... in spite of his 'real life' being thrown into utter chaos just a couple days before, Dave found a way to make sure everything to do with this event still came off fabulously. A handful of folks headed up to Nordegg (3 1/2 hours Northwest of Calgary, near the east border of the Banff and Jasper National Parks) earlier in the afternoon on Friday, and some followed later in the evening. Most of us stayed in a dorm style cabin, which holds a maximum of 20 people. There were ten of us in the dorm, and Debbie got her own cabin which she generously shared with the group for partying on both Friday and Saturday evenings. Unfortunately, it wasn't very wintery in the Nordegg area this weekend, so we weren't able to do a few of the things we'd hoped to. We had planned on some snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, and ice skating, as well as ice climbing. The ice climbing went ahead as scheduled, but the rest of us did a couple of hikes, and we all played floor hockey instead of doing that other stuff. On Saturday, we (the non-ice climbers) hiked Crescent Falls. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the hike had some terrific views. Once we got past the falls, our safety officer, Rob, tested out the ice on the river by tromping out, jumping around a bit, and writing his name in the snow (no, just with his feet, silly!). Once the rest of us were satisfied that it was safe to go out onto the ice, we ventured out and walked a ways further down the river. We found some very odd tracks, which we determined were made by amphibious, gravity-defying bigfeet (bigfoots?) who made the curious outward impressions by walking around upside down inside the river. Sunday we hiked up Allstones Creek with the climbers, where they proceeded to climb the icy gorge wall. We watched for a while and then headed back out. This was a very nice, albeit short, winter hike up a frozen creek. Beautiful and interesting rock formations, and some funky spanish moss (note the \"moss-taches\" on the \"bush people\") were some of the visual highlights. An unexpected highlight of the weekend was playing floor hockey in the Goldeye's little gymnasium. My team, which consisted of more of the 'older' folks in the group, kicked some big young-folk a$$. Our goalie, Debbie, did a stellar job of keeping the ball out of our net, and the rest of us, powered by enthusiasm and beer, soundly whupped the whippersnappers on the other side (or at least that's how I remember it)! Another high point for myself was the Goldeye's enormous crib board/table in their rec room where Scott and I played our early morning crib tournaments while waiting for the rest of the gang to get up each morning. I'm sorry to say I lost every game, and at a nickel a pop, I will have to take a second job soon to support my crib-playing habit. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-13: COC - Winter Weekend in Nordegg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-14: COC - Winter Weekend in Nordegg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-20: COC - Grotto Canyon Ice Hike | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today was a fabulous day! The sun was shining; it was warm and we got to try crampons for the first time! We met at the usual spot, the Brentwood LRT station. Luckily, Alan and Rhonda knew what kind of equipment was needed because a couple of us had to return to the UofC for another type of crampon. Once the proper equipment was on hand, or foot, we were off. The drive was spectacular. We took Hwy 1A and got to enjoy the wonderful views. Those of us that haven't seen that sight before, or very often, were (almost) speechless with the grandeur. The walk up to the creek bed was easy and clear and the fun soon began once the crampons were put on. There were some equipment difficulties but that didn't deter any of us from trying out the crampons to the max. Those things are way too much fun! It is such a novelty to be able to walk on ice comfortably without a worry of slipping. I highly recommend it to everyone to try. We watched some folks climbing up a ice fall, then carried on up the creek. Alan and Ichiro climbed the hill to look in the cave while the rest of us watched from below. Our return was just as much fun with some barbs exchanged (they started it!) with some ladies we passed that were trying to walk up in running shoes. Oh well...poor them... Of course we went to the Kilkenny upon our return to Calgary. Bridget met us there and we allowed her to sit with us because she wasn't \"too\" tanned from her recent holiday. -- Cheryl
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-03-27: COC - Calgary Outdoor Adventure Show at Roundup Center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-04: COC - McConnell Ridge/Barrier Lake Lookout | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| As a group, the ten of us would just like to say \"Nyah Nyah\" to last Sunday's group. They did the same hike, and only three of them made it to the absolute top lookout. We ALL made it. Nyah! Scott promised us a fairly relentless hump up the hill, and we weren't disappointed. This was a really good early season hike, in spite of quite a bit of slippy, slidey half-melted snow. We slogged our way up to a great lookout where we had lunch and ooh'ed over the mountains on one side, and ah'ed over the prairie on the other. After lunch, we climbed the rest of the way up to the lookout. Gee, did somebody say it wasn't really much steeper beyond the first lookout!?? This was quite a steep climb, complete with more of the slippy, slidey half-melted snow, and some thigh-high snow that Ichiro decided to jump into. The views from the fire lookout at the top were spectacular, and it was around that time that the sun decided to start trying to shine for us a bit. We ran into some folks from the Alpine Club who beat us up there and grabbed the bench, but we outsmarted them and hung around long enough for them to leave so WE could grab the bench for a while. Returning down the still treacherous trail, we had one minor butt-slideage (Misa) incident, but pretty much just strolled our way back down. Naturally, once we returned to Calgary it was out to Kilkenny where a very high percentage of us indulged in boxtys for dinner to go with our beers. We were joined by some of the folks from the Urban Hike as well, where Scott proceeded to chide them for doing a mere \"half-beer hike\" while we had done a \"six beer hike\" (although I think six beers is a bit of an exaggeration, personally). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-06: COC - Pool at Stix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Good game, good company, good food. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-08: COC - Officers' Meeting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minutes Following are the minutes of the Officers' Meeting, which went three hours (whoa). If you have any questions, or want to make any suggestions or requests of the club, please see the Officers page and contact the appropriate officer for your inquiry. Club Direction - Year 2
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-10: COC - COC One-Year Anniversary Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saturday , April 10, What a beautiful day! I have a sneaking suspicion that Rhonda put in a special day order for the celebration of the first year of the Calgary Outdoor Club! Well- it worked! Umpteen people showed up at the little café in Bowness Park where a lovely setting of coloured tablecloths, nice white china and comfy chairs made a real afternoon tea setting- not to mention about 6 kinds of sandwiches, juice, all the coffee you could drink and THE CAKE- a monument to creative thought and enough for everybody!! The rest of the afternoon was spent in(order goes down according to energy expended)a very active football (soccer) scrimmage led by Brad, Scott, Merv, Allan, Ichino and Goda and badminton, frisbee, walks around the park and then those that simply lay back and enjoyed the sun and the light breeze. A lovely afternoon- felt like those lazy hazy days of summer. -- Jak One person at the event remarked that different people like different outdoor activities but everyone seems to like eating cake on a Saturday afternoon, nothing could be closer to the truth. Approx. 30 people showed up for the COC 1-year anniversary party, probably a record for one event. The merry band of gluttons converged on the \"Lagoon Cafe\" at 2:30PM sharp and gathered at the door waiting for their hunger to be satisfied. Once the doors opened, the crowd flowed in and demolished five plates of sandwiches and gallons of orange juice. Once the main course was consumed it was time for cake. A wonderful cake was provided with a little group of hikers drawn on the top in icing (I'm not sure which members they were supposed to be). I was put in charge of carving the cake and was forced to butcher the unfortunate little group of hikers. There were several requests for the skull cap from the guy on the left side (I was told that it was quite good). After the cake was devoured, we all headed for the field where many games were played. These included badminton (with no net), baseball (with no bat), soccer (with no goals), and Frisbee (we did have a Frisbee). The soccer game soon consumed the players from the other sports and ended with everyone losing and everyone winning (because people kept switching sides). Following the games, the most hard-core COC members had to keep the event going and headed to Kilkenny for a beer where many rousing discussions were had about subjects that I cannot write on a family type page. -- Steve I have just a few additions to the submissions already made… The playing field enthusiasts did indeed risk life and limb in the pursuit of Fun, but it must be mentioned that two particularly brave souls, Lana and Lora, took on an even greater challenge: Despite all warnings, they conquered their fears and rode the mighty rails around the park with a hearty whoo-whoo. Everyone else took one look at the engineer, shook in their athletic shoes and stepped away from the train. Regarding the die-hards at Kilkenny’s. Yes, the subject matter was at times a bit risqué for young ears. Let’s just say that we talked about philosophy and phraseology (after much foodology and boozeology). Happy belated birthday. Many happy returns… -- Cynthia
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-11: COC - Roxboro/Stanley Park | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wow! Where did this weather come from? It felt like the middle of summer out there today. This was a great little Easter hike through Calgary, including some time in parks, and some in the neighborhoods. There were a few minor up-hill sections to make us feel like we worked today, and lots of great views of the city. Kathy's little pushed-in-face dog, Ernie, provided lots of entertainment, and we truncated the end of the hike in favor of stopping at a patio on 4th St for beers. This hike started with a climb up from Roxboro to the back side of St. Mary's Cemetary. The path is heavily treed, but alas, the trees are still naked, so I've set up a couple of return trips - one for July to see it when the trees are \"full\", and one in September, to see it when the trees have turned colour. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-15: COC - Evening at Schank's (MacLeod Tr S) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D'oh! Unfortunately, due to the Calgary Flames game this evening, Schank's was the epicenter of the media event of the century. Only about half the folks signed up showed, and I'm not sure if maybe some of them accidentally went to Schank's North, or if they showed up a bit late and were put off by the line up of ~100 people waiting to get into the place. Next time, better planning... I promise. -- Rhonda Update:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-18: COC - Bridgeland/Bow River | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This Urban Hike didn't suck if your name was Doug. That's right... lucky Doug got to spend two hours of his day with SIX women. Life doesn't get any better... right Doug? ;) We actually did take about two hours to do this hike (the book says an hour and a half). It may have had something to do with waiting while Bridget ran up and down the 121-stair staircase near the Ukranian Cultural Center. After her tenth trip, the rest of us had to force her to move on for the rest of the hike. OK, seriously, Bridget's advice to those considering an Urban Hike: try NOT to do one immediately following a trip to the gym involving numerous leg presses, squats, extensions and calf raises. Hmmmmmm.... We had some great views of downtown Calgary, and some of our bridges, as well as a great stroll along part of the Bow River Path, east of city center. It was a pleasant day, 11C with a somewhat cool breeze. For a brief moment during the hike, I went into a trance and channelled my (still living, thank goodness) Mother when I instructed all the hikers to please not accidentally step on the mating bugs that were in our path. Oh boy.... After the hike, I invited the group to join me for the muscle car show at McMahon Stadium, but alas, no one took me up on it. Hmmmmmm... -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-19: COC - Douglas Fir Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you like hiking in the mountains better than in the city (d'uh), this is the urban hike to do. At times, it's not hard to forget you're even in a city at all. The path meanders up and down on the side of the hill behind Riverside Club. There are lots of wooden stairs, lots of dirt trail, and lots of trees. Not too much city. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-04-25: COC - Jewel Creek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A most excellent early easy, easy hike. The \"view\" portion of our day pretty much happened at the beginning and end, with great views of Barrier Lake and the mountains around it. The rest of the time was up and down through forest, which was still very nice. A definite highlight was the appearance of several crokuses. On our way back, as expected, we ran into Steve's group who started one hour after us. Many continued on to Kilkenny, although I think they spiked our drinks with sleeping potion as we were one sorry-butt bunch of people sitting around the table. -- Rhonda Note that:\n (1) I am hiking in sandals\n (2) We had to hike some parts in snow
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-01: COC - Powderface Pass via. Powderface Creek Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apparently this was international day for the COC. Out of 14 people, we had five ESL folks with us: Misa (Japan), Sun (Korea), Donald (Quebec), Claudia (Mexico) and Wood (China). Cool! Misa entertained us with her newly acquired Canadian slang expression (Suck it up princess!). Hee hee. We were also joined by a crew from Lethbridge. As per usual, we had an absolutely perfect day today. The sky was impossibly perfect blue. The temperature was warm, and even though Powderface Ridge has a reputation of being very windy, we hardly had any wind today. And you have to love hiking comfortably in shorts and a tank with snow on the ground. Not too far up the trail, we started to see some fresh bear tracks, and saw them for a few km up. We stopped for lunch at the end of the Powderface Creek trail, and yakked briefly with a few folks from the Calgary Ski Club before trudging up the ridge to check out the view from up there. Returning to the bottom, we ran into Scott's group who was doing the same hike an hour later. Scott made the ultimate sacrifice of leading that hike today in spite of the very important hockey game being on this afternoon. We celebrated with some good old fashioned sword-fights between members of the two groups. After the hike, Philip, Wood and I headed to Kilkenny where we were joined by Alan and his friend, Stephanie. Soon, half of the later hike joined us, and we all gave Jessica (our new waitress) a hard time. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-08: COC - Elbow Valley/Sulphur Springs Loop | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Whether a divine visit from some Norse goddess or simply a reworked member of COC, the Saturday May 8, 2004 hike to Sulphur Springs/Elbow Valley was graced by the leadership of one who history will come to know as 'Rhonda the Red' (see photo section). On a splendid but cool morning, our original group of 11 was culled, leaving only 5 elite hikers to tread out into the wilderness on this as yet, uncharted area of the Elbow Valley hiking area near Elbow Falls (the other members took the less risky route via Sulphur Springs). The wildflower gods were smiling on our group as the earliest ever occurrence of the Calypso Orchid (see photo section) was observed along with fine specimens of Forget-Me-Nots, Jacob's Ladder (see photo section) and many other species. Our intrepid group unquestioningly followed our inspired leader's direction, exploring a new and uncharted leg of this trail (not recommended for future expeditions!) which forked off west further than any other group was to travel on this most auspicious day. It was on the return from this perilous side trip that we discovered the concealed entrance to the lair of some mythical creature (a dragon, bear, ?? - see photo section) but time (and prudence!) did not allow for an in-depth investigation of this creature's abode. The remainder of the journey assumed a more tranquil and measured pace (mostly downhill!) later meeting up with the party of 6 and we became one again as we returned to our cars at Station Flats parking lot. Faithfully recorded unembellished by your humble servant and scribe, the deliriously sleep-deprived one, -- Marco Polo Due to some Doggie Disagreements, we split our group into two today, with the \"Spur\" group going one way, and the \"Rothko\" group going the other way around the loop. Without further ado, and with Rhonda's new Burgundy Hair lighting the way, the \"Spur\" group (Rhonda S, Keith, Kevin, Kat, Mark and Lora) set out along the Elbow Valley Trail. Unfortunately, due to Montezuma's Revenge (or some other such malady), we lost Keith early on when he had to turn back. Per Lora's request (or was that Rhonda's screw-up), we missed our intersection at Sulphur Springs and switchbacked an extra 1.5km or so down Elbow Valley to Canyon Creek Road so that we could turn around and switchback all the way back up the trail. Due to this faux-pas, we missed running into the \"Rothko\" group on the trail, but we backtracked and got onto Sulphur Springs per the original plan and coincidentally ran into the \"Rothko\" group near the \"great conjunction\" where all the trails meet up. The \"Rothko\" group, you see, being the disobedient souls that they are, pooh-poohed the hike plans and instead of returning along the Elbow Valley trail (which is boring anyway), crossed the highway to return on the Riverview trail, which is, admittedly, much nicer anyway. The usual Kilkenny wrap-up, and (presumably) all were satisfied with a lovely day. -- Rhonda S Notes from \"Rothko\" Group (Rhonda M, Scott, Jeacqueline, Cynthia, Danielle, Sun): Unfortunately, our day began with having to split into two groups as Rothko was a bit grouchy and could not be bribed with \"Robin Eggs\" like the rest of us. So we had one dog per group. \"Our\" group's hike started out on Sulphur Springs Trail in which we walked up rolling hills and through forest. Toward the end of this trail we reached a lookout in which we ate lunch (sharing with Rothko) while viewing Prairie Mountain and Nihahi Ridge. A great spot for lunch. The group decided to head back via Riverview trail along the Elbow River. We were being drawn to the water. It was beautiful. We took a side trip down to the river so Rothko could have a swim and cool off. Throughout the day we talked about how \"odd\" it was that we had not come across the other group who were going in the opposite direction. However, ironically enough our paths crossed at the end of the trail. It was perfect timing as they needed some trunk space to hold packs so we could get the extra person back. It was a tight squeeze in the \"other\" Rhonda's little car. It was a great day with beautiful views, no rain, and always interesting conversation. Both groups returned and proceeded to the Kilkenny for supper and drinks. -- Rhonda M.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-15: COC - Yoho National Park | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The 'fabulous five' (Rhonda, Wood, Mark, Holly and Jacqueline) decided to go to B.C. for a wonderful, long day of hiking in Yoho National Park. The day started with a lot of low cloud in the mountain valleys which provided some remarkable photo ops and the group stopped many times to capitalize on these fleeting windows revealing sunlit peaks here and there. The first hike to the lower Mt. Hunter lookout was a steady climb (485 m vertical gain over 3.6 km) with many scenic viewpoints to stop and take a breather before carrying on to a the lookout where the group enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the fire lookout tower/cabin site. Eager to take in the Hoodoo Creek hike as well, the group chose not to carry on to the upper lookout and headed off to the hoodoos. This trail was a very challenging 365 m gain over an alleged distance of 1.6 km but was more than worth the effort with some spectacular 'sculptures' which yielded countless opportunities for photos from every angle. The trail was steep but very well maintained and in top shape on this very mild and dry day of hiking. Once again, the Calypso Orchids were out in abundance along with many other wildflowers. This awesome day of communing with nature took us out to Emerald Lake for a quick reconnoiter before heading back. Lively banter and high-spirited repartee characterized the ride back to Calgary in an effort to arrive before dark. Overall, a wonderful trip and all the hikes and Emerald Lake are heartily recommended and certainly merit a return visit! -- Mark
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-16: COC - Calgary Pathway/River Cleanup - Volunteer! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thank you Calgary Outdoor Club volunteers for coming out to help clean up the riverbank today!! We had THIRTY people out today to help clean up the north end of Fish Creek Park (east side). Our most interesting finds were a GT Snow Racer and a Pink Flamingo. We were allowed to keep the recyclables we found today, too, and all together, our \"take\" at the bottle depot was $13.25. OK, so that also included the bottles and cans that have been accumulating in my apartment, but it seemed like a good excuse to get them out of my kitchen. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-17: COC - Beginner Inline Skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This was a great evening for roller blading down by Glenmore Inn. The permanent resident wind decided to take the night off, so we had a beautiful skate down the perfectly flat, smooth, and (mostly) empty trail with the sun and just a light breeze. To my surprise, the whole gang wanted to go to the 5km mark, so we all did a total of 10km. Not bad for a beginner outing!! -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-18: ANDWA - Sulphur Springs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hiked Sulphur Springs with friends, Karen and Dave
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-19: ANDWA - Wood's Final Fling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I was sure this was a COC event, but it's not on the website, so maybe we went on our own? It looks like me, Wood, Ryan, Mark, and maybe other people?
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-24: COC - Nihahi Creek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An unexpected return visit from Old Man Winter today meant our usually serious and somber group had a chance to kick back and have a day-long frolic in the snow. When we arrived at the trailhead, I think we were all a bit surprised to see how much snow was out on the west end of Highway 66. Donning our shells, gaiters and senses of adventure, we set off on the trail which was somewhat mucky but mostly snowy. On up the campground road, and then the first part of the Little Elbow Trail we trudged until we reached the start of the Nihahi Creek trail. A steady switch-back climb up through the forest which spat its melting snow down on our heads, we enjoyed a couple of views of the mountains, and a surprise mini-blizzard on the way up to our lunch spot, about 2km before the end of the official trail. Invigorated from their lunch, some of the more playful members indulged in some extended snow frolic while others of us watched from a safe distance. After lunch and \"play time\", seven headed down into the canyon for a bit, to eventually rendezvous with the rest of us who were retracing our route down the trail. Another surprise mini-blizard in the exact same spot on the trail, and then we were out and back on the Little Elbow Trail that had become a mucky, slushy mess, which of course invited yet more shenanigans from the playfuls. Afterward, on to Kilkenny, where we were joined by Cheryl, and indulged in a stimulating game of \"Telephone\". A bit later, we were joined by Dave and Jon who had been out on their own adventure for the day. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-27: COC - Day in Waterton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wow - what a day we had in Waterton! With her special guest Dawn (who is webmaster of the Atlanta Outdoor Club) visiting for a bit, Rhonda led a small group (rounded out by Jacqueline and Mark) down to our most southern and perhaps, least explored national park. In a wonderfully successful attempt to avoid forecast poor weather, the group enjoyed an all but rain-free day (a brief, light shower was all that the group had to contend with), exploring 3 uniquely different and wonderfully rewarding trails in Waterton Park, where mountains seem to leap out of the prairies with little transition in the way of foothills. First the group explored the much-touted Red Rock Canyon Trail, a short loop through stratified, iron-rich sedimentary formations which produce a vivid red colouring over which a rushing mountain stream tumbles (see photos). There was a great photo opportunity at the top end of this trail, when a small herd of sheep slowly wandered through our sights. There were also other sightings of these creatures, particularly down at the trailhead when the group gathered around our fearless leader as she lectured them on matters of etiquette and how good sheep ought to behave (see photos). Heading off from the same trailhead, the group then explored the Blakiston Falls Trail where there were some wonderful photo ops and several viewpoints of the falls and Blakiston Creek. Wildflowers were in abundance, especially Glacier Lily. Last on the hiking trails was the more arduous but still manageable Bertha Falls Trail which starts in the Waterton town site and affords an incredible view of Upper Waterton Lake, the town site and especially, the Prince of Wales Hotel (built in 1927). There was also another great stop at Cameron Falls (see photos) in the town site and a much-enjoyed drive along the scenic Highway 22, which parallels the mountains, affording views not possible from the Highway 2 route. An intriguing feature down around Highway 3 was the presence of numerous electrical power-generating windmills, lined up along the ridges (see photos). A long day but well worth it, and highly recommended to others! Looking forward to the camping/hiking weekend later in the season. -- Mark
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-05-30: COC - Grassi Lakes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Well, another spectacular but short hike to Grassi Lakes for COC members Rhonda, Dawn (Rhonda's guest visiting from Atlanta Outdoor Club), Bridget, Ray, Rosemarie, Jacqueline, Jennifer, Mark, Doug, Parry, Jorge and Merv. The trailhead for Grassi Lakes is found right up behind the town of Canmore, opposite the Nordic Centre. There are two ways up the trail - the 'easy' route follows an old fire road and, as our fearless leader most correctly identified, it is boring! The more difficult (but very scenic!) route is highly recommended as the preferred route for both the ascent and descent for this short, 3.1 km loop (with a fairly modest elevation gain). Along the way, the Calypso Orchid can be found, though it's early yet for them at this location. Proceeding further up the trail are some wonderful views of a spectacular waterfall cascading down from the Grassi Lakes outflow (see photos). Continuing on over a steeper portion, the trail takes the form of a stone 'staircase', modeled after the original stonework done by Lawrence Grassi, for whom the lakes are named. Crossing a small bridge near the top, soon appears the first of the 2 Grassi Lakes, each of which display the most vivid, surreal colours which change constantly with the sunlight and the surface disturbance from the wind! Only a few metres further on is the second lake, distinctly different from the first. Further up the trail above this lake are Indian petroglyphs (see photos) estimated to be a 1000 years old! Also above this lake, rock climbers were out in abundance (see photos), practicing rappelling down the sheer cliff face. Upon returning to the parking lot one member of the group (Bridget) , seeking respite from the car companions she'd traveled up with (Rhonda and Dawn!), asked if she could join another group for the return ride and once she'd safely retrieved her belongings from the other car, amused her travelling companions on the way back, with amazing anecdotes about our fearless Club President, the most embarrassing moment stories etc.! As a final note, rumour has it that our American guest, Dawn, was seeking political asylum/refuge status and was not wanting to return home to Atlanta! Welcome to Canada Dawn! Pretty interesting people here, eh? -- Mark
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-02: COC - Beginner Inline Skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Short and sweet, this skate was. It was Cheryl's first time on Inline Skates, and I have a boo boo (cracked heel) so we only did about 1.5km out before turning around. The great thing about that is that it left us time to hit Pegasus on the way home and have some Greek munchies and listen to the Hipsters. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-05: COC - Upper Kananaskis Lake Circuit, and Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Upper Kananaskis Lake Circuit\n Well, the rain gods were not smiling on our group, and the suggestion to sacrifice a young virgin to appease them was rejected, as this writer was considered too old and there were no other virgins in the group. The rain continued throughout most of the trip with teasing moments of sunshine peering through once or twice, having group members lining up to worship this welcome event! Nonetheless, despite the dampened clothing and the need for emergency blister first aid for one member (who declined the offer to have her appendix removed at the same time!), the hike was an enjoyable event and spirits remained undampened. Our fearless leader Rhonda, kept egging us on, insisting that according to her GPS, we had not moved in the 3 hours since her last reading! There was also some dispute as to whether or not the posted distance (16.6 km) was accurate as we felt we kept up a steady pace for most of the 6 hour duration of the hike. As some of the 'mice' appeared to tire during the course of this event, Rhonda kept pulling out little bits of cheese, holding them just out of reach in an effort to keep certain members moving. One member attempted to clear the trail of deadfall trees (there were many!) for the benefit of others, but misunderstood the offered suggestion of 'use your head!'. No harm was done, as evidently there was nothing up there to be harmed. The 'fast' group (lead by Phillip) made the circuit more than an hour before the 'slow' group (Rhonda kept stopping to take pictures and begging for more cheese!) but forgot to take any car keys with them. Kevin, (from the fast group) made Phillip jog back with him 4 km (rumour is that Kevin carried him!) just to get a little exercise. Then, just before the end of the trail, the group discovered a sign (see photos) which to their consternation, adivsed that there was a bear in the area! One member (to remain anonymous) shrieked \"There's f#*^&$# bears out here???!!\" but after we calmed Rhonda down and reminded her that she was the only one carrying bear spray, she seemed to be alright. Meanwhile, Kevin, wanting a little more exercise, had completed 14 more loops of the lake. All in all, a rather uneventful and still enjoyable trip. (Note: not all of the information in some of these reports is necessarily entirely factual.). -- Mark the prevaricator Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir in Canmore\n After getting rained on most of the day hiking around Upper Kananaskis Lake, three weary travelers joined Joel at the Canmore Hotel just before 8PM. The game was already well in progress (boo Tampa), and we enjoyed some not-bad pub food while waiting for the band. The bar had an irritating sound system with even more irritating canned music in the interim, but at last the band started. We stayed for one awesome set and heard lots of tracks that aren't on the CD we're familiar with. There were lots of young folk there; unusual characters that are either artists or hardcore mountain people - we're not sure. Personally I was very relieved when the blonde dreadlock fellow (from the audience) who thinks that playing a harmonica requires only blowing into it enthusiastically (rather than having any skill, knowledge or talent) mercifully decided after \"playing\" one song at the table next to us moved across the room. The crowd danced up a storm to the frenetic rhythms much to our amusement, and Philip and I braved the dance floor only once. A cool show, but probably not a venue (or start time... 11PM eek!) that I'd choose again. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-06: COC - Heart Creek (not Fullerton Loop) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Flexibility is the word of the day. For those of you who have heard of my Good Weather Karma, I'll let you in on the behind-the-scenes truth about that. I had planned to do Fullerton Loop out by Bragg Creek today. The forecast called for rain up until the day before and then it changed to cloudy, so I decided to go ahead with the event. Well, it was apparent this morning that the forecast was wrong and that torrential rains were hitting everywhere around Calgary. Mark \"gently\" pointed out at the carpool that we \"may not\" be able to hike in the Bragg Creek area. That, plus a well-timed phone call from Joel (who was heading out with one of the Stanley Glacier hikes) telling me that the weather was clearer out toward Canmore, led me to suggest to the group that we should maybe head out west and do Heart Creek. We decided that we would assess the sky at the turnoff for Highway 22, and likely pass on by to head out to Canmore. If it was gross there, too, we'd just settle for coffee in Canmore. Well, true to my \"Good Weather Karma\" (otherwise known as \"flexibility\" - there's that word), we actually got in a good hike today. We did Heart Creek just on time for the weather to move in. We had a brief discussion about going up to do Grassi Lakes as well, but voted to just hit the coffee shop in Canmore instead. We enjoyed some snacks and warm beverages and then headed back to Calgary. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-08: COC - Beginner/Intermediate Inline Skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Due to a mess-up by the event leader, three people ended up at the RIGHT meeting spot, while the other two ended up at the spot that the leader goes to on \"auto pilot\". Rhonda and Philip started from the \"wrong\" place - the official parking lot at the end of Shaganappi Trail. Cheryl, Nadine and Tabitha went to the right meeting place, where Nadine and Tabitha got in a skate (thank goodness), and Cheryl went home and missed out on the fun. Yikes! I promise I'll be more careful from now on! - Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-10: COC - Movie: Super Size Me | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mark said that I should have rated this event \"Difficult\" because it would be hard to watch. There were a few places where I'd say that was definitely true! I know I'll personally be trying to cut back my McDonalds consumption to absolutely no more than 14 times/week. Bleah. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-12: COC - Sulphur Mountain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After much fretting and gnashing of teeth over the weather as the forecast changed every five minutes for the last few days leading up to this event, the decision was made to go ahead with Sulphur Mountain. Eight of us set out for what turned out to be a pretty good hike today. We hardly got rained on at all - it was overcast, and it rained a bit once we got to the top and were warm and toasty in the observation cafeteria, then it cleared again until we were back warm and toasty in our vehicles. Four of the group zoomed to the top in one hour fourty five minutes, and the rest of us dawdled up in two hours. The big mystery came when an unknown fellow traveling alone down the trail passed us... the encounter went as follows: Fellow: hi Matt: hi Fellow: hi Iren: hi Fellow: hi Rhonda: hi Fellow: bonjourno!! Jacqueline: bonjourno!! a five-minute conversation in Italian ensued. Us other three decided that Jak must know this guy from another hiking club or something. Once she re-joined us, the mystery began... she had never seen the guy before. So, how on earth did he know that she is fluent in Italian. We inspected her closely for signs and tattoos that said \"Please Speak to me in Italian\", but we couldn't find any. We speculated that perhaps he'd seen/met her before and she didn't remember; maybe he'd found her through a search for Italian artists... long shots, all, but we couldn't come up with any other explanation. The mystery came to a screeching, and somewhat mundane, conclusion when we reached the top and Mark asked \"So, did you talk to the Italian guy?\". Well, of COURSE, Mark had met the guy at the top, and told him that one of our party still on the way up was fluent in Italian. So, properly reunited with the rest of our group we relaxed, ate some snacks (everybody tried my Indian trail mix) and some of us sinned with some hot chocolate. Shortly, Steve's group of five joined us. Some of the group went on up to the weather station for a better look at the cloud cover, and the rest of us loitered around in the cafeteria. A quick carpool shuffle upon their return, and four gondola'd back to the car to get an early start back to Calgary, while the rest of us walked down the way we'd come. Back at Philip's car, Matt learned his new word for the day: Overshare (ie. sharing more information than your companions necessarily want to know). I used it in a sentence (properly footnoted to Cheryl, of course), and he found it quite amusing. They say that you have to use a new word ten times in order for it to become incorporated into your regular vocabulary, and Matt wasn't taking any chances on forgetting his new word as he proceeded to use it several times, especially calling foul on Philip's many overshares of the day. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-14: ANDWA - Foran Grade | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Foran Grade Trail hike with Bridget and Cheryl
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-15: COC - Mt Indefatigable Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Off to a bit of a slow start this morning, we set out with clear blue skies until... well, right until we pulled up to the trailhead. Then the cloud cover started setting in. Originally signed up for this event, Peter decided that hiking with five women was too much excitement for him, and he raced ahead to catch up with the guys doing the Indefatigable Scramble, who had left only about 10 minutes before. A steep and somewhat technical trail with loose rock, tree roots, and steep rocky sections, we grunted our way up to the lower lookout at 2.7km and 300m elevation gain. By that time, the sky was socked in completely, the icy wind was cutting through us, and we felt some snow flakes. We decided to defer the upper lookout for another day and headed back down. Once at the trailhead, we decided that it was still nice enough at lower elevation to do a portion of the Upper K-Lake lakeshore trail (clockwise). We set out, ooh'd and ah'd over the cool cliff, and then stopped for lunch. By the time we were done eating, the weather had caught up with us and we were getting cold, a bit tired, and a bit cranky (ok, only some of us), so we called it a day and headed back. Once we reached the cars, the rains started, and we knew, deep in our hearts, that we'd made the right choice for the conclusion of the day. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-16: COC - Nihahi Ridge and Thai Dinner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nihahi Ridge\n A pretty nice little hike this was, with a reasonable workout for the heart , legs and lungs with some very rewarding views of mountain valleys and rivers, greenery all around and interesting rock formations at the upper end of our trail. We (Rhonda, Merv, Mark, Kevin and Cheryl) got an early start, inspired by our wise leader, Rhonda, (recently dubbed as the 'Weather Witch') who has trouble sleeping in past dawn and insisted that everyone be up early for an 08:00 start. Not a problem for this hiker but Merv grumbled about the 'ungodly hour' all day, even after his lunch hour nap! The trip out was a quiet one as we discovered that our driver, Cheryl, did not like friendly banter or comments on her driving and threatened to eject anyone who smart-cracked (Rhonda had warned us all of her temper and demanding nature.). This writer timidly acquiesced to her intimidating behaviour and behaved ALL DAY (it's true, really!!)! At the starting point for our hike, Rhonda, feeling that this hike alone was not sufficient challenge, insisted that we leave our vehicle several kilometers from the trailhead, thus extending our 8 km hike into something more like 20! However, for young Kevin (with the overactive thyroid), this was still not enough and he made the actual summit of the mountain while the rest of us lunched below, enjoying awesome views of the western ranges. Coming back down the mountain at a run, it soon became evident that he'd brought something back - a bag full of snow which he started a one-sided snowball fight with. After we beat him soundly, the group returned to the vehicle just as the rain started to fall (Rhonda the Weather Witch no doubt responsible for this!). All in all, a really nice hike and definitely worth a repeat. - Mark MPS File (for GPS) Thai Dinner Out \n The dinner at Thai Sa-On was great! Having never tried Thai food before, it was an experience for the writer. A very enjoyable experience, I might add. The table was broken into groups of four so there was plenty of sharing going on with the opportunity to try new dishes. The menu was rated 1 - 3 chilis for degree of heat, which was very handy. Some folks got the 3 chili dinner items and others (me) got the no chili items. Everyone was happy. The conversation was lively with many staying out until after the witching (traffic and weather) hour. the Medicine Man couldn't keep up, unfortunately (?), and had to leave earlier than the witches. Poor Medicine Man! -- Cheryl
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-17: COC - Prairie Mountain, and Porcupine Valley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prairie Mountain\n TOWANDA!!!!! That's how Claudia and I felt this afternoon as we reached the top of Prairie Mountain, which has an elevation gain of 715m over about four km!! Whooo-eee!! Luckily for me, Claudia is about the same level of wimpiness as myself, so we took our time going up, huffing, puffing (and, don't forget, smelling the roses). Boy, when she decides to try something harder than an \"easy\" hike, she really goes for it. As promised, the views up top are spectacular, and I have decided to move the Perseid Meteor Shower event up there - it will be perfect. Coming down, I missed that dreaded left turn at Albequerque and took us into uncharted territory. We were descending on a steep rocky section, paying more attention to where we were putting our feet than thinking about the trail veering off suddenly. Finally we realized that where we were, although very cool, wasn't \"the trail\". Whipped out the handy-dandy GPS, which promptly told us we'd missed our turn, so we bushwhacked (ok, mostly grass-whacked) our way back over to the trail. Gave the GPS a quick kiss and went on our way. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS) Porcupine Valley
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-18: COC - Wilcox Pass, Columbia Icefield | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bright and early, Kevin, Jacqueline and I set out in the Fozz-Meister (aka Fozzie, aka my Ford Festiva). Our constant chatter became a reverent silence (punctuated only by the occasional “oooooh” and “aaaaahhhhhhh”) once we turned north onto the Icefields Parkway with the eye-popping mountains and spectacular blue sky. Wilcox Pass is a great little hike up through light forest which opens up quickly into scrubby parkland. Past the roaring stream we found oodles of bighorn sheep with REALLY BIG HORNS (coincidence? I think not…). A bit more elevation gain and we made it into the meadows of Wilcox Pass. We trekked further into the pass, for a total of about 5.5km in, where we learned and practiced many new skills, including runoff stream fording, snowbank traverseing, marsh hopping, tundra whacking and runoff-stream-fording-and-snowbank-traverseing-and-marsh-hopping-while-tundra-whacking. Once we reached the food court (aka the picnic table and public washroom, aka a few rocks and a little bump of a hill that obscured the lunchers’ view while essential business was conducted), we stopped for lunch where some candid photos were snapped of Kevin and I while we ate (grrrrreat… can’t WAIT to see those ones….). Returning the way we came, we encountered no more sheep, but plenty of chubby gophers and a few humans in search of the sheep. Back down the Icefields Parkway with more reverent silence (punctuated only by the occasional snore… thankfully NOT from the driver), and approaching Lake Louise, Kevin and Jacqueline were overcome with joy to listen to my Disco CD at ¾ volume which was required to stave off the highway hypnosis that was setting in. -- Rhonda PS… Thanks to Jak and Kevin for taking pictures today, since somebody (use process of elimination) forgot her camera and GPS at home...
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-19: COC Elbow Lake and Rae Glacier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An absolutely spectacular day today! My group of 11 set out 30 minutes ahead of Joel’s group of 11. We quickly discovered that it was a bit early in the season to do Rae Glacier, as there was still a LOT of snow (and muck) on the ground, although last year, we did the same hike on June 17th, and there was hardly any snow left on the ground (see last year’s version of the event). In any case, we hiked up to the pretty lake, and then beyond, where we encountered the serious snow where we had the fun of route finding through snow, muck and forest. The second group had it SO much easier because all they had to do was follow our footsteps through the snow (although they didn't actually know whether it was OUR footsteps they were following). Past the lake, we gained some more elevation, and made a final trek across a long patch of snow where Jennifer and I managed to fall into a deep footstep never to be seen again (just kidding… obviously we were rescued, or how could I be writing this). Before we even reached the glacier, Joel’s group started catching up with us (we'll chalk that up to Ray's competitive streak). We all made it up to the glacier at about the same time, and sat down to lunch. Several of us tried out the crazy carpets on the glacier (thanks to Emanuele from last year’s event for tipping us off to THAT idea!), and we sat around waiting forEVER for the snowboarders to climb up the glacier and give us a show as they boarded back down again. Back down we came, satisfied with the great day’s hike. A bunch of us headed in to Kilkenny (where else), where we rendezvoused with Gen and Merv from Jerry’s ‘Ha Ling Peak’ event today. We were also joined by Alan who mountain biked by himself today but decided to grace us with his presence for beers at least. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-20: COC - Greek Festival in Calgary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The music was Greek - it was great (the Rembetika Hipsters were wonderful, as usual)! The dancing was Greek - it was awesome! The food was Greek - it was yummy! The weather was Albertan - it was crummy. It was a perfect day to be under a huge tent. :) Stephanie, Clay, Cecilia and I went together on a $20 raffle ticket to win a Mercedes, a trip to Greece, or some other stuff. We didn't win. :( -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-21: COC - Douglas Fir Trail, and Powderface Ridge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Douglas Fir Trail Powderface Ridge\n This is an excellent hike for a hot summer day. There's a lot of shade on the way up, and then up on the ridge, there's a nice cool breeze. We hiked up the south approach to Powderface Ridge. The first couple of kilometers are a fairly steep grade through a forest. It opens up for a while beside a meadow, and then after that, there's a lot of up-and-down as you follow the side of the ridge (again, in the forest). A final 150m ascent at the end, and then suddenly the ridge is right on top of you. Spectacular views at the top, especially of Nihahi Ridge to the west and Prairie Mountain and Moose Mountain to the east. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-22: COC - Afternoon/eve Canoeing at Glenmore Reservoir | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A beautiful evening, and a lovely relaxing paddle around the reservoir. Not a thunder shower in sight, proof once again that it pays to completely ignore the stupid weather forecasts. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-24: COC - Barrier Fire Lookout via Prairie View Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With more than a little trepidation, the three of us set out into the fog and black clouds this morning. Due to a minor carpool fiasco, Claudia and I met up with John at the Barrier Dam, where we decided that... hey! The weather here is kind of good... why don't we do Barrier Fire Lookout instead of driving all the way down to do Picklejar Lakes!? So, that's exactly what we did. There was a lot of cloud in the morning, but otherwise a beautiful, and surprisingly humid, day. Lots of folks out on the trail as we hiked up to the Prairie View Viewpoint, and then continued on up to Barrier Fire Lookout. A great day, and no one... I mean NO ONE... from this group fed anything to any Whiskey Jacks or Chipmunks. If you've heard something different, it's all vicious lies. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-28: COC - Johnston Canyon and Ink Pots | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ignore the hike books when they say that hiking from Johnston Canyon up to the Ink Pots is 'disappointing'. We had an absolutely perfect day for hiking today, and being a weekday, even the first section of the trail wasn't too badly crowded. I have been into Johnston Canyon several times, summer and winter, but this was my first trip up to the Ink Pots, and they were really neat. We had lunch with a big ol' raven, which was also really neat. This was Jak's last trip out with us before she moves back to Toronto, and we'll really miss her! Hopefully she'll be able to visit often. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-29: COC - Rawson Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Two lucky people from today's hike got to see four black bears (mama and three babies) beside the road on the way to this hike (unfortunately, this writer wasn't one of them). The rest of us saw lots of gophers... how exciting (not). At the trailhead, per Dave's advice, and the swarm that greeted us, we slathered on the bug spray real thick and then started out toward the Rawson Lake trailhead. A quick stop at the falls, and then we headed up into the forest on the uphill walk toward the teeny lake. Once we reached the lake, we trekked about 1/3 of the way around, part of the way in snow (with Dave and I in our sandals... which was not all that unpleasant given how warm it was today). A quick stop for lunch where Dave demonstrated his quick-dry pants by walking into the frigid lake up to his knees, and then back down the hill. Due to weather and time constraints, we decided to take a miss on Black Prince Cirque this time, and did the Canadian Mount Everest Expedition Trail instead (which sounds much more impressive than it is). This is a short interpretive trail in between the two K-Lakes, formerly known as the Interlakes Trail until it was renamed in 1982 in honor of the first Canadian expedition to summit Mount Everest. Rumor has it Dave, Carissa and Julie hit the Kilkenny for wind-down time after, while the rest of us scattered to our respective evening plans. As we drove up Highway 40, the rains started, and kept with us almost all the way in to Calgary, when they stopped again. I *AM* the Weather Witch. -- Rhonda MPS File (for GPS)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-06-30: COC - Big Hill Springs Provincial Park | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This evening, we decided to try the unofficial Scramble and Bush-Whack Big Hill Springs Hike. We started off innocently enough, obediently following the official trail up through the very pleasant, albeit artificial and \"enhanced\" landscape. Arriving shortly at a barbed wire fence, with a small trail leading straight up into the trees, Philip and Jennifer forged on up ahead, with the rest of us following behind with a small amount of trepidation. Sure enough, once we reached the top, the trail continued merrily along, but then all-too-soon started leading us back toward the cars. Surely we missed something... Back down at the parking lot, we decided to follow in behind a couple of folks that we saw squeeze under a different barbed wire fence, along a little-used trail that followed along in the valley, with some side trips up the hill. We all \"limbo'ed\" under the fence, making sure to take a photo or two of the minor law breakage. Down into the valley, at a very enticing rocky outcrop, Karen S and Jennifer had to scramble up to the top to do the \"Towanda\" thing, while Philip and Ryan headed up the hill and announced they'd found a \"trail\" up there. After a few minutes, the rest of us made our way up the hill to said \"trail\", where most of the group decided to \"scramble\" up to the top of the... um... pointy hill thing. John, Jane and I chose to bushwhack (ok, weed-whack) our way around the hill to rendezvous with the others, only to find a thick forest with no rendezvous-opportunities in sight. So, more bushwhacking and weed-whacking, until we finally reached one of the \"side trip\" trails up. We headed up to try to find the rest of the group, which we did eventually, naturally because of our superior route finding and orienteering skills. Together again, we twelve headed across a meadow and back into the forest in search of the trails. Jennifer was dismayed to learn the reality of running gleefully through a lovely meadow... it really just involves getting eaten alive by swarms of rabid mosquitoes. We didn't find an official trail again, but we found a great unofficial one that had lots of hidden logs waiting to bite unsuspecting hikers' legs, a neat little campfire ring, some cool rocky outcrops, and a big old owl that swooped down in front of us and then posed up in a tree for us to take her photo. Our unofficial trail spit us out near our barbed wire fence, where most of us again opted for limbo, while a couple opted for the pole vault (over the metal gate). We must go back and actually do the trails sometime! On the way back to town, John, Philip and I discovered that MacKay's (ice cream shop in Cochrane) is open past 9:30 on Wednesday evenings. Mmmmmmmm.... ice cream... -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-01: COC - Mt. Burke at Cataract Creek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Once upon a time, the Good Witch of Weather cast a spell that whoever carried metal hiking poles while traversing beyond the tree line of high mountainous areas would be spared from imminent lightning strikes. She ensured safe passage from savage bears that lurked in the area….unfortunately, her spell did not carry on towards creepy crawly critters. Chivalry was in the air with the sharing of highly prized wild strawberries, water and ice cream. Alas, all was not well in the Land of Hike, as the Bad Witch of Blisters did arrive. She ensured two members of the hiking crew had a rough go of it. On a positive note, the price of Dr. Scholl common shares increased dramatically after this hike as the supply of mole foam has suddenly become rather scarce while the markets continue to rally in the duct tape arena. The hike included a number of people with their own magic, who could easily morph into goats and thus climb at break neck speeds passed sheer cliffs and among steep craggy rocks. The group was once again divided into the fast and slow groups….apparently, one hiker insisted that she was in the moderate group (Tip: when the slow group passes the moderate group, I think you lose that title)! The goats (I mean fast group) had sufficient time at the summit to gather wood and build a shelter for latecomers. Arguably, the shed had its limitation (we’re not talking the Taj Mahal); however, it was a thoughtful gesture for weary travelers who tested their mental ability to reach the summit. The lack of oxygen nearing the summit had an adverse affect on some hikers; one is still singing something about Dora the Explorer and keeps repeating the words “back pack” numerous times in slow motion…. The hike was spectacular with distance views of peaks and valleys… the group finished off the night with beer and grub at Dixon’s Pub. -- Rosemarie (The Happy Wanderer)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-04: COC - Cirque Lake (was Galatea) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| So I see by the writing on the wall that my penance for dishing out justified abuse and sarcasm is to write a highlight reel of our day's follies and accolades. Sooo, where to begin. Ahh yes, I must first apologize for my grammar, lousy sentence structure and extreme run on sentences, and as Cheryl says my \"Simple\" mind. Now then, where to being again.....ahh yes... The rain fell gently. Ten anxious yet slightly cold travellers stood around their fearless leader as the seldom seen duo of Lana and Cheryl came to grace us with their presence. But unbeknownst to them the scent of fear was in the air as the weary travellers feared our exciting adventure was to be quelled by the weather spirits. Fortunately, the Weather Witch promised us good weather in the backcountry of the Great White North and assured us that our \"Limping Switchback\" friend wouldn't prevent, or slow, our journey (but, may take a spill or two into the mud. However, that spill would not prevent her from her renditions of children's classics for Ray's benefit). So after our Dictator for Life arranged the vehicles, making sure that all the men, plus herself and Misa (who is leaving us. But I'll get into that later) were in the same vehicle. Oh, but of course, our red headed leader did have a cheesy excuse. ; ) We journeyed on to Lake Louise for pastry, coffee and a long lineup of tourists at the coffee house. Then, to the troop's glee, a blue patch of sky was found and a nearby trail found worthy of our exploration. But, unbeknownst to this motley crew of hardened travellers, our feared, relentless and blood thirsty archenemies (no not Philip), the Mosquito, had also found and inhabited this marshy, dank, glacial run- off system. However, it was a very nice campground which even had, although there are no pictures to confirm it, a single bathroom with running water and get this, soap (not sure if the soap is scented). However, once again, this is unconfirmed by the men. So, with a roughly 4 km hike through forests, over meadows, along roaring and rushing rivers, past spectacular Devonian and Cambrian Sandwich Mountains (each peaked with the hardened Eldon formation), over Potentilla Fruticosa and Artemisia Tridentata shrubs, under \"Water falling from Trees, or multitudes of insects spontaneously jumping up and down on the lake\" (but not raining) our slightly Mosquito-bitten group reached the end of the muddy path. A mighty 200 metre vertical climb (199 when Jen \"Switchback\" B was holding the GPS... sorry couldn't resist) was reached. Fortunately, our tired and wounded could enjoy a peaceful and relaxing lunch under the shadow of the glacier until someone happened to keep mentioning Broccoli Sprouts with decomposing fur-ridden Sour Cream. This of course prompted everybody into sharing their family secrets for culinary delights. With that being said, the debate raged over chocolate covered fish and, over course, different types of vomit. Ahhh where is Monty Python when you need them. However, between these intellectual debates of philosophy we were fortunate to quietly watch an eagle carry home a fish for dinner. Or, as the peanut gallery noted, the bird was just taking the fish for a tour of the lake. Then after a quiet and relaxing hike back to the cars we all witnessed a rare sight of a little red car displaying violent and evil types of road rage. Fortunately, she only had one throwing fit at the Kilkenny. This is where we all learned from \"Rhonda\" that Misa from Japan might be on her final hike as she's going to Montreal for the remainder of her stay in Canada. Fortunately, none of us had to dwell on this bad news as we got the terrible and tragic news from CNN that our Head Coordinator had a defective Boxty which led everybody into a panic over possible lugies in their food. So, best of luck Misa, long live our touring friend the fish, howz the leg/blisters/muddy bottom Jen, hopefully we've helped out the endangered species of mosquito by donating our blood, and finally, provided each other with new ideas for cooking dinner. -- Alan
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-06: COC - West Elk Pass and Fox Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Mosquito God smiled upon us today... um... no, wait a minute... she smiled upon the MOSQUITOES by bringing them nine fresh juicy humans to feast on today! The trail was nice and easy, with some elevation gain at the beginning, but mostly flat the whole day. The mosquitoes merrily ignored our Deet-doused bodies and nibbled at every available patch of exposed flesh. The feast continued all the way up the trail to the AB/BC border (a thrill for some of us to hike in TWO provinces in one day), and in to Fox Lake, where we took a brief respite from the Trail Mosquitoes to give the Lake Mosquitoes their fill. While at Fox Lake, we were very fortunate to spot the very rare Alberta Mountain Seal swimming across the lake, her petite nose etching a perfect triangular trail in the pristine water. Allison insisted that, viewed from closer up, it was just a duck, but the rest of us know better. Once we, and the Lake Mosquitoes, had finished our lunch, we returned down the trail the way we'd come to give the Trail Mosquitoes a second helping (from those of us who had any blood left to give). Back at the cars, Carissa kindly decided to help us take our minds off of the pasty whiteness of our drained bodies and accidentally locked her car keys in her trunk. We rallied around promptly to rescue her... we used knives and keys to try to jimmy the trunk, the trunk popper, and the back-seat lock, to no avail, when someone (Cheryl?) noticed that the keys were visible inside the crack at the top of the trunk. Swiftly, she used the pocket knife to skootch one of the keys out slightly and grab hold of it. From there, with Cheryl on the pen knife, and Rhonda on the vice grips and wrench (to lift the trunk crack open slightly further), we expertly snagged the keys out far enough to detach the car key from the keychain, and Carissa's untimely misery was abated. -- Rhonda For anyone wondering why the Mosquito God is a \"she\", it's because, as we all know, it is only FEMALE mosquitoes that bite.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-07: COC - Hill Training, Endurance Exercises - 4 Wednesdays | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-08: COC - Movie: Fahrenheit 9/11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-09: COC - Beginner Inline Skating, and Race City | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Race City: Secret Street Drag Racing Beginner Inline Skating
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-10: COC - Wind Ridge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| At long last we got some brilliant blue skies today befitting of the Alberta summer. It was a beautiful and warm day – perfect for hiking. Wind Ridge is approximately 750m of gain over approximately 7.5km… problem is, most of it is right at the very end. By the time we’d hiked in about 4km, we’d only gained about 2½m of elevation. Then, the trail started getting steeper… and steeper… and steeper yet. Due to a severe case of Acrophobia, one hiker had to turn back early, with her understanding pal in tow. Not too long after, the fainter of heart on the trip declared the 6.5km/550m gain point as the “summit” where they relaxed and enjoyed their lunch in blissful denial of their lack of reaching the true summit. The ten true adventurers continued on up… and up… and up… some reaching the top by climbing the rock face, and three explorers choosing the bushwhacking “go around the side of the rock face” extended route, which, we will take their word for it, was a lovely diversion with excellent views. Rendezvousing back at the cars, we realized that we were one hiker short, and were just about to send out the search dogs, when the previously “nice sane guy” Marcel re-joined the group from the other direction with a wild and haunted expression. We haven’t yet discovered what happened to him, but alien abduction has not been ruled out. Since the club is unable to spring for counselling, we are requesting donations be dropped in the form of large cash bills in the COC name at Kilkenny Pub until we’re able to come up with enough for some proper care… or at least a straight-jacket that we can put him in for a photo shoot. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-11: COC - The Ice Hike that Almost Happened | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The six of us leaving from Calgary met promptly and set out eagerly with our crampons, harnesses and helmets. Far, far away, we drove. Two unfortunate souls who were to hook up with us along the way had to bail early due to Westie problems at Mosquito Creek. The rest of us (in three vehicles, due to carpool complications) rendezvoused up at the Columbia Icefield where the event was called on account of rain/sleet and lightning strikes (not a great time to be out on a glacier). Four of the disappointed rendezvoused at the coffee shop in Louise, while two boneheads missed the turnoff and didn't realize what they'd done until they were almost at Banff. D'oh! All returned to Calgary in their respective vehicles, hopeful to try the trip again in August. Highlights of the trip (from the Cheryl and Rhonda car) included a brilliant rainbow near Canmore, a mama bear with THREE cubs crossing the Icefields Parkway on the way up, and a big ol' moose parading around on the side of the Icefields Parkway on the way down. Yes, I am aware that the photo in the album is of an ELK. That photo is from Mehran and Debbie's car... we didn't manage to get a pic of the MOOSE. Good conversation (yakking) in the truck, plus a wolfed down lunch at Joe Btfsplk's in Banff (where the yakking actually ceased for approximately 3 1/2 minutes while said lunch was inhaled) rounded out the day. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-15: COC - Horseshoe Canyon by Drumheller | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The day started well, with high cloud and the promise of heat already being fulfilled as we coasted off the flat prairie east of Drumheller into the Horseshoe Canyon parking lot. The view into the canyon was spectacular; our first sight of Alberta’s badlands, and it was surprisingly green. With a high of 28.3C for the day, everyone took their headgear out shortly into the hike, and we now have a new subgroup: The Hideous Hat Club. New members welcome. Down in the canyon, wildflowers were flourishing after the recent rains (see some of the amazing pics Rhonda and Kevin took), wet conditions which made for some interesting hiking. As Marla noted, there were so many different types of mud to enjoy… hard, dusty, brown sugar, a little mucky, more mucky, REALLY mucky, and boot-sucking mucky. The hike held its challenges as we scrambled along soft, clay cliffs, and – when the heat intensified on the way back – along the shaded (mucky) creek. We were the only ones in the canyon the entire time, and when Kevin disappeared for a while, the rest of us realized what a great setting it was for a murder… Rhonda’s scheduled two more Horseshoe Canyon hikes for the fall, wonder if that means anything. Better keep on her good side! -- Dina
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-16: COC - Dinner - All You Can Eat Sushi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It was a hot evening...a perfect night to not cook and go out for raw fish and rice. Which 15 of us did. It was a hot restaurant...which wasn't so perfect, but we still didn't have to cook and got to go out and eat raw fish and rice! Unfortunately, the BBQ's didn't get fired up because of said heat, but we managed to gorge ourselves any way. We filled two tables which meant there wasn't alot of conversation going on between the two groups, but as far as this writer is concerned, the other table was probably better off. We were visited by a mountain biker that had broken his bike. The tears flowed freely upon hearing his sorry tale, but alas, he was unharmed, so all was not lost. We felt his pain, he felt our pain; it was a beautiful thing. At 8:00 the group disbanded to go on our separate, merry ways; none the wiser, but definitely, none were hungry! -Cheryl
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-17: COC - Kart World (Go-Karts, Bumper Boats, Mini Golf) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What a great time!! And, a stroke of luck (or perhaps *genius*) that we booked it during Stampede, so all the crowds were down there instead of at Kart World this afternoon. We had a couple of Kart rides... watch out for Jennifer... especially when she's wearing the pink helmet. She's a mad-woman! Then, we took a short break while eight of us played Laser Tag. Girls Rule; Boys Drool!! That's right - we played boys against the girls, and Sandra, Cheryl, Jennifer and Rhonda were more than happy to wipe the floor with John, David, Mehran and Dave. Jennifer (again, the mad woman) got the high score for the day - some kind of high ranking official according to the score board. A couple of the boys (who shall remain nameless) ranked as \"Space Cadets\". Well, uh... yeah... A bit o' ice cream, and one more kart ride for a few folks, and we called it a day. Definitely a lot of fun - we'll have to do again, for sure, and probably Laser Quest in the winter, too. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-18: COC - Picklejar Lakes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Except for a few minor skirmishes over who got to stand in the limited shade today, we had quite a lovely and civilized time. It was a scorcher, and the views were astounding today. We set out up the hill, and managed to stay together for about 3 1/2 minutes before splitting into our usual \"fast group\" and \"slow group\" (we prefer the \"stop to smell the roses group\"). Incidentally, the Picklejar Lakes are named for the number of fish in them - they are so plentiful it's like pulling them from a picklejar. We did see several fisher-people today, but none with a catch to speak of (apparently the fish were small and got thrown back). The \"smell the roses\" group reached the first Picklejar Lake about half an hour behind the \"fast group\" who were already lounging around digesting the \"beer and trout\" that they promised us once we got there. Without fanfare, all the guys, with the exception of Ken (the only smart one...?) set off to find the remaining Picklejar Lakes while the gals and Ken lounged around eating lunch and sunning ourselves at the first lake. Along the way, Cheryl made many friends from the insect kingdom, including a moth who thought her chest was a rest area, and a funky beetle-thing that thought her hip was much more comfy. Because of the heat, I guess, the mosquitoes virtually non-existent, and the biting flies were few, with some exceptions (see Mark's favorite photo - the crushed horsefly). I'm very proud to report that the American among us was razzed with affection and tenderness, and we didn't even TRY to throw him off the mountain. Returning down the mountain, the \"smell the roses\" group was joined by a couple of guys normally from the \"fast group\" who became the \"whingeing about going so slow with the smell the roses\" group. After trying, unsuccessfully, to get them to just pass us and get on with it, we decided it would be more fun to thwart their efforts and FORCE them to walk behind us while we dawdled along... um... well... smelling the roses. A brief scuffle on the hill, during which I'm relieved to report that the Dictator was NOT thrown from the mountain, and some minor trauma over wet underwear slung from a daypack (wet from swimming in a lake, apparently) and the mental image of said swimmer hiking commando down the hill left us all giddy but satisfied that we must have had a great time. -- Dictator
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-21: COC - Officers' Meeting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Missing: Jerry, Claudia, Dave, Jennifer, Bridget Cancellation Policy: We have had our new cancellation policy in place for two weeks now. It is going well, and has dramatically reduced the number of no-shows we’re getting on events. As a group, we agree that our ‘discretionary’ guidelines regarding recording/reversing no shows should include the following: - We will not reverse a first no-show without a good reason, since there are really no ‘consequences’ to a first no-show. - In cases where a no-show does not inconvenience anyone (ie. for a casual/social event), we will encourage coordinators not to record no-shows. Code of Conduct - We have a code of conduct, which is implicit and generic. We will continue to deal with situations on a one-off basis rather than try to define an explicit code of conduct. - We will compile a list of ‘trail etiquette’ items which will be posted on the web site similar to our checklists. Mark, Philip and Joe will send ideas to Rhonda for inclusion. COC Swap Meet - There are lots of good swap meets already existing in Calgary; the COC does not need to try to have one of our own. Instead, we will keep an eye out for swap meets put on by other organizations, and post them on the COC calendar (as ‘member postings’, not official events). Election for new President - We will have yearly elections for all positions at our fall General Meetings (see below for more information). Event Coordinator Policies and Procedures - We will continue recruiting event coordinators from the club populace per the current process (ie. Rhonda begging people to organize events). No change required. First Aid Education - Joe has some contacts who provide First Aid training. He will try to arrange some group training (hopefully with a discount) which will be made available to all club members. He will also arrange for someone to come to the next officers’ meeting to discuss first aid legalities and such. - A note has been added to the Rules and Waiver page of the web site encouraging all event attendees to carry a first aid kit and have first aid training. Outdoor/Wilderness Training - Through his company, ICanada Adventure Training, Joe is going to offer some Outdoor and Wilderness courses available to all club members. These courses will be defined and posted soon. Event Coordinator Training - Rhonda promises that with Claudia’s help, the back-end of the web site will be made easier to use over the next couple months, thereby making coordinator training on web site usage redundant. Officer roles, Responsibilities, Titles - Steve has relinquished the role of ‘assistant legal coordinator’, however he is still willing to house our waivers for us in a safe location. - Gen may be interested in doing some more work for the club, possibly in advertising/promotion. Waivers - We are currently recording that a waiver has been received by the event coordinators, but we are not recording that the waiver makes it into the filing system. We will add that into the process, and the web site will be updated so that we double-record waivers, indicating first that they’re received by the event coordinator, and then second that they physically make it into the file. Additionally, we will update the web site so that a ‘waiver received by coordinator’ can be ‘cleared’ by Steve in the event that the waiver does not physically make it into the file. - All event coordinators are cautioned to please be especially careful with waivers collected and to deliver them to Steve (or Rhonda) at their earliest convenience. General Meetings - We will start having general meetings two times a year, in October and May. - Meetings will include information relevant to activities for the upcoming season, for example, trail etiquette, bear safety, equipment/safety requirements for hiking (summer), snowshoeing (winter), etc. - October meetings will include elections for all officer positions - Rhonda will research a venue for the general meetings. If we are able to use Cardel Theatre for the meetings, they will also include a movie to follow the meeting which will be ‘relevant but entertaining’ (ie. “Touching the Void”). Bulletin Board vs Forum - We recently sent out a survey regarding usage/relevance of the bulletin board and the forum. We will wait to get the results of the survey, although the initial feeling is that people want the bulletin board but may not want the forum. If that is the case, we will try re-assigning the forum to be an officer forum. If we are able to make use of it that way, we’ll keep it; otherwise, if it still doesn’t get used, we will get rid of it. Bulletin Board vs Classified Ads - Our bulletin board has been getting filled up lately with lots of “Classified Ads”. We will set up a separate area for classifieds, and reserve the bulletin board for “activity partner” and other outdoor-related postings. - Classified Ads will live for up to a month. Miscellany - Constitution: The question was raised whether the COC needs a constitution and such. The group agreed to keep it casual and if we need to use Roberts rules we will, but we don't want to make the club too bureaucratic. - Web Site: Want to be able to select events by type (ie. hiking, mountain biking) and difficulty. This will take a bit of time because it will require adding event ‘type’ as a field in the database. - Difficulty: For hikes, it would help people to gauge the subjective difficulty of the event if the distance and elevation gain were included in the itinerary of the event. Coordinators are asked to include this information when applicable.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-22: COC - Hiking and Canoeing at Emerald Lake in Yoho | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A spectacular day, and... drumroll please... NO BUGS!!! Yay! Eleven of us set out from Calgary in two vehicles (we LIIIIIKE Ryan's new van!). We met up with the Lethbridge Faction (Shannon, Lydia and Cheryl) at Takkakaw Falls where we walked in to bask in the spectacular views and spray of the water (you gotta love those switchbacks on the road up… wow!). Continuing on to Emerald Lake, we set off on the lakeshore and then up and in to Emerald Basin. This hike is listed as a ‘less popular’ one with nothing really ‘special’ about it, but I think it has been given a bum rap – it’s really a great little hike through a magical green mossy forest and then into the great little basin with a very nice little stream running through it. Several folks took the opportunity to dip feet (and other body parts) into the cool water, and lounge around on the rocks, while others continued deeper into the basin and up part of the far slope. Returning the way we came in, the Lethbridgers bugged out early to hit the Calgary Folk Fest. Roger, Claudia and Rhonda chose some quiet time on the lakeshore, while the rest went for a paddle around the lake in the canoes. Heading out, Ryan’s group of seven (including himself… boy, do we like that new van!) bypassed the natural bridge in favor of snacks in Lake Louise while Suzanne’s group of four stopped to check out the natural bridge (I think we got the better end of that deal). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-23: COC - Waterton: Camping/Hiking Trip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I am going to try to keep this brief and let the photos speak for themselves. On Friday, a few of us arrived early in Waterton and set up camp and then headed into the town site to do the Bear Hump hike. As the day progressed, the rest of the crew dribbled in, with the last arrivals being well after dark. Due to some exceptional conniving and scheming by the dictator, over 300 water balloons were prepared in the afternoon, known only to the women on the trip. At 10PM, a few of us excused ourselves, and before they knew what hit them, our male companions were being barraged with water balloons. Unfortunately for us, the balloons bounced right off of them, rather than breaking properly, giving our targets a great opportunity for full participation (ie. retaliation) on the spot. I am dismayed to say that in spite of said brilliant conniving and scheming, the dictator, and a couple of the other gals, took the worst of the evening's soaking, but I guess that's the risk you take! After a cold night's sleep listening to some obnoxious neighbors in the other group camp, we got up to a glorious day on Saturday where we had three separate groups set out for our preferred hiking activities: - Moderate/Difficult: Crypt Lake - Moderate: Goat Lake - Easy: Five mini-hike marathon Thankfully the obnoxious neighbors pulled out and we had a better sleep on Saturday night, which was warmer AND quieter. On Sunday, a few folks set off to do their own thing, while two groups set out for more hiking: - Moderate: Bertha Lake - Easy: Red Rock Canyon and Crandell Lake My personal thrills for the weekend were: - the stars and Milky Way on Friday night - when Mehran, Karen S and I got to see a cinnamon bear hanging out on the trail coming down from Crypt Lake. Note that there were several bear sightings over the weekend (among other wildlife sightings), but all the rest were from the comfort/safety of our cars. Nyah. - Kate's papaya that she shared with us at the end of Sunday's easy hikes. Lastly, what would a camping weekend be without a little personal growth? Our friend Cam came down the mountain with a new piercing, care of a fly-fisher up at Crypt Lake. Way to go, Cam! (Seriously, he really did take a fish hook in the ear on Saturday, but fortunately no permanent harm was done, either to Cam, or the fly-fisher). -- Rhonda (Dictator for Life) We speculated for a bit during the first part of this hike, how Goat Lake got its name. Well, it soon become obvious that goats were the only creatures meant to climb up and along the side of the cliffs to get to it! Then we wondered where the goats were, until someone's heat and sun-stroked mind figured that the goats weren't stupid enough to be out on these slopes in 30 degree heat with not a speck of shade in sight! I very much agree. We all made it without any serious heat stroke, in part thanks to the most well placed waterfall EVER!! Seriously though, even those complaining the loudest (me) concurred that it was an amazing hike. In the end, the frosty beer mug mirage was what got us back to the car. We never did see any goats though... As a side note, Michelle and I finally saw the mountain goats in Glacier National Park - Montana. That's why they weren't on the trail to the lake! Glacier National Park is FANTASTIC!!!!! The Road to the Sun is the most amazing drive! We had a great day on Sunday, not returning to our site until about 9pm. It was much warmer at night and drier (dew on tent drier) there. Explored some more today before hitting the road home - the drive home was the biggest anti- climax in history though... Lana
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-24: COC - Waterton: Camping/Hiking Trip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-25: COC - Waterton: Camping/Hiking Trip | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-27: COC - Karst Spring | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A long drive out, followed by a long approach, followed by what we came for - the gorgeous hike up through the magical forest to the awesome Karst Spring, and then back to charming little Watridge Lake. A perfect afternoon getaway, and an event that we're sure will be even better as a winter snow shoe when everything is snowy and frozen. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-29: COC - Afternoon Getaway: Grotto Canyon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mmmmmmmm... afternoon getaway.... Followed, of course, by an 'evening getaway' at Kilkenny. :) -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-07-31: COC - Grassi Lakes and Grotto Canyon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A great day. Grassi Lakes was beautiful. The food at the French Quarter Cafe was Cajun. Grotto Canyon was spectacular. Followed up by a rendezvous at the Kilkenny with Mark and Dave's event groups. For a much better write-up, see the one from Mark's group who did the same hikes as us this day. -- Rhonda PS... Grotto Canyon is NOT to be missed in the winter, and while I'm thinking about it, ditto for Heart Creek and Johnston Canyon. See last winter's hikes: Grotto Canyon: Mar 20, 2004, Jan 10, 2004 Heart Creek (same as Grotto Canyon Jan 10... it's the one with the bridges). Johnston Canyon: Feb 8, 2004, Jan 4, 2004 Or sign up for this winter's coming events: Grotto Canyon: Jan 13, 2005, Feb 12, 2005, Mar 5, 2005 Heart Creek: Jan 18, 2005, Mar 3, 2005 Johnston Canyon: Jan 9, 2005, Feb 26, 2005
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-01: COC - Mount Yamnuska | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today, Pooh (Stuart) brought out two Leors with him. Now, without getting too sidetracked, I would just like to ask, WHO THE HECK KNOWS TWO GUYS NAMED LEOR!!?? Well, I guess, now I do. Anyway, Pooh brought two Leors with him, but no Tiggers, Roos or Piglets. The fog was so thick today that we never did figure out for sure if we were on Mount Yamnuska, or in Wal Mart. The greeter in the blue vest did nothing to calm our fears about the latter. So, perhaps it was the fog, but I would have to say that the views from Yamnuska are slightly overrated. Susan said it looked way better if you closed your eyes and remembered what it looked like last time you were up, but that didn't really help me at all. We hiked up the east side of the mountain, where some of the group decided to try for the summit. They never found it, but they did find Steve's group at one point. The rest of us went straight out to begin traversing the base of the cliff in search of the famous scree slope which is a \"must run down\" highlight of the Canadian Rockies. We overshot the scree, and at one point our group of six accidentally went off trail and onto a really treacherous (IMHO) slippery clay slope which freaked a few of us out pretty good. Mehran, on the other hand, trooped across it as thought it was his living room carpet. One good thing about overshooting the scree is that we were eventually joined by the \"fast group\" who had left Steve's group and come back around to join us. When we realized that we'd overshot the scree, we turned back, taking a lower trail and bypassing the stupid clay that tried to fling me into the abyss. Soon, the \"fast group\" (aka The Sarcastic Four, aka The Flying Rappeler, The Human Slide, Monkey See and The Group Wife... sorry Jana) decided that to heck with finding the 'official' scree slope... here was a slope, and it was scree, and off they went running down it while the rest of us sensibly carried on to where we found the good scree slope. For the record, YES, the Scree Slope Rocks, And YES, you MUST run down it once in your life! We ran down the slope, and at the end, five hearty souls decided to run down a little bit MORE scree that didn't look very run-able to myself, Susan and Mehran. I do believe this was the first time in my life I was the first one back from a hike. Mehran, Susan and I made it back to the cars first, joined soon after by Cam, Tanya, Stuart and The Leors. As we waited for the \"fast group\", pondering exactly how long we had to wait before we could just say screw it and head for the pub, they were bushwhacking their way back from their inferior scree slope (although they seemed to enjoy it), and, I understand Jana stopped once to don some lip gloss so she'd look good for the helicopter rescue guys when they showed up. Soon, Ray called in on the radio to confess that they were lost, at which point I held up my radio as everyone at the parking lot laughed their guts out. Once we settled down, we told them where they were and how to get back to the parking lot (they were only 10 minutes away at the quarry). With everyone safely returned (I find it terribly amusing that all three groups returning took the wrong turn that brought them out at the quarry), we headed off to the Kilkenny, where we saw Dave's group (Stanley Glacier), Steve's group (earlier Yamnuska trip), and Cheryl brought her son, Aaron, in to say 'hi' on his visit to Calgary. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-02: COC - River Float: Bowness to the Zoo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| An Uneasy Float Down a Lazy River Or River Chickens on the Bow Bowness Park: Monday morning…10ish... clouds hovering – gray, air cool. PFD’s secure, 14 people carefully entered the water on two large rafts with a smaller third to carry packs etc… so named the pack raft. Barking orders and dressing down slackers, two brave and fearless captains exerted control of their crews. Each leader narrowing their sights on getting to the zoo, crew and rafts intact. A perilous journey lay ahead. It covered water never fully navigated by either of the old salts at their respective helms. Eager rafters snapped to attention and paddled smartly as the nearly ceaseless volley of orders disturbed the morning calm. Finally, upon catching the current, provisions were laid out on one raft as the crew of the second raft was forced to work without reward. While kindness was being shared through the calm, giving nature of the first raft captained by Cheryl, the second raft captained by Mehran was busy hatching a wily plan as they paddled grimly. Generous gifts of fruit, raw vegetables and Miss Vickie’s lime and pepper flavour potato chips were passed from Cheryl’s raft to Mehran’s. The kindness was returned only with vicious snipes of the Alberta river chickens darting between the rafts, their loyalties lying with the highest bidder. Mehran forced his crew to work. It would later be revealed that this treatment would cause his crew to become mean and sharpen their cunning. While all of this was happening Cheryl’s crew was warily resting and enjoying the scenery. Uneasy feelings spread through Cheryl’s raft as her crew began to suspect the river chickens were being trained to act as spies and Mehran’s raft was armed and a devious plan already underway. As awareness of Mehran’s intentions increased so did the distance between the two rafts. Cheryl and her brave crew were often forced to navigate dangerous rapids and treacherous shallows in order to maintain a prudent distance from Mehran’s raft. As the day wore on the skies lightened and the sun came out to lift the spirits of both crews (as predicted by the “sub-weather witch”). Perhaps it was the warmth or maybe the hypnotizing drift of the current that led Cheryl’s crew into harm's way when Mehran’s crew signaled to join rafts. Seemingly without care or regard for her crew’s safety, Cheryl maneuvered her raft close to Mehran’s. At the very moment the rafts were side by side, an order was given to attack. Blasts of cold river water were sent over Cheryl’s bow by unseen water cannons, flashing paddles dumped water into Cheryl’s raft freezing the bums of her crew now soaked and stunned by this act of ruthless aggression. Cheryl’s peaceful and trusting crew frantically tried to return fire with hands and paddles but the effort was futile. Her raft and crew retreated; beaten, wet and cold. Once again the two rafts took different paths down the river. Mehran taking the easy lane and Cheryl the more dangerous route less traveled. At about Prince's Island Park, Mehran was forced to go ashore to tend to the needs of a crew member that had become overly taxed during the mêlée (or maybe it was just a pee break). Once seeing Mehran’s raft on shore, Cheryl, found her competitive spirit and devised a plan that would avenge her crew and forever put an end to Mehran’s evil ways. On they drifted, looking for the zoo pull out and the location of their last stand. The remainder of the trip down the river was guarded yet uneventful for Cheryl and her crew. With the shore in sight, Cheryl’s crew was on full alert. Like a well-oiled machine each member knew his or her job… get the raft on shore, get it deflated and prepare to greet Mehran’s raft. Once belongings had been accounted for and the raft somewhat ready for transport, all hands armed with water bottles were stationed on the bridge watching Mehran’s raft draw nearer. Mehran’s crew was confident and self-assured waving happily as they approached the take out point. Suddenly, as if the sky opened, Mehran's crew was drenched from above. As they floundered and struggled to get out from the under the deluge it became clear that Cheryl’s crew was to be victorious in this battle. The last skirmishes on dry land finished in a draw as both sides ran out of water. And so ended the battle of the Bow. A truce was established, and to celebrate, all provisions were gathered together and a great feast marked the end of the day. Despite the cunning and underhandedness of Mehran's crew all was not lost and everyone parted company under a banner of peace to float the Bow another day. -- Shaun
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-07: COC - Elbow Lake and Rae Glacier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nope, we didn't go to Elbow Lake and Rae Glacier. It was raining all over the mountains this morning when I got up (at 5:30), but clear in Calgary, so being the flexible event coordinator that I am, I figured we'd go on an urban hike, probably Bowmont Park, and if everyone was into it, hit the Kilkenny breakfast buffet first. Well, naturally, by carpool time (8:00), Calgary was socked in, too, so I was officially out of ideas. When I got to carpool, though, Dave saved the day with a suggestion of heading out to Cave and Basin in Banff and doing the Sundance Canyon hike, weather permitting, and weather NOT permitting, we would just check out Cave and Basin. So, like Mark's group, we headed out to Canmore for coffee and to decide whether to continue west. After a lovely coffee at Infuso, we decided that we would, indeed, carry on, and headed out into Banff, where we were greeted with cloudy (but otherwise dry) skies. We did the Sundance Canyon hike (about 9km return) and then returned to Cave and Basin where Chris opened up her bottomless daypack and pulled out a snack buffet spread to rival my river float buffet. After munchies, on to Cave and Basin, where we smelled (and saw) the stinky sulphur hot springs, saw the various and sundry plants and animals that thrive in said stinky sulphur hot springs (including the snails, and a bunch of mosquito fish, and one fishy that looked like all the others but with some flourescent blue coloring on its tail (well, the water is slightly radioactive, after all), and didn't find any ice cream at all. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-08: COC - Lake Agnes Teahouse and Big Beehive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Twenty enthusiastic souls left the rain of Calgary behind for the beauty of Lake Louise, joined by two from Okotoks at the trailhead for a total of twenty-two out today. Dave and Val, having canned their scheduled grinder, decided to join our group and offer a 'variation' on the scheduled hike. The whole gang went up to the Lake Agnes Tea House where we all paused for food, and then Dave and the ambitious group set off for the top of Mt. St. Piran. The remaining nine proceeded, per \"Plan A\" up the Big Beehive. An absolutely beautiful day for views, including excellent reflective waters in all three lakes: Lake Louise, Mirror Lake and Lake Agnes, and a brief appearance by a daylight moon over top of the mountain. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-09: COC - Plaid Tongued Devils at Brew Brothers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-11: COC - Perseid Meteor Shower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This was my first Meteor Shower in my life, and it was absolutely AMAZING. We hiked up Prairie Mountain in the evening, strategically placing several glow sticks along the trail to help with navigating down in the event that someone wanted to leave early. It was hot hiking up, and we arrived at the top just as it was starting to get uncomfortably dark (for hiking). When we got to the top, out of the trees, the wind and cold didn't waste any time setting in, and we didn't waste any time adding layers and getting out our blankets and sleeping bags. Note that Brian made good and sure that EVERYONE knew that it was his 35th birthday and we were to treat him real special (at least until midnight, when we quickly reverted to normal). Almost immediately (around 10:30 or so), the meteors started, and the sky was punctuated with various types of shooting stars: drunk ones that wobbled all over, fast ones that zipped across and died quickly, and big fluffy ones that took longer going across the sky, leaving a trail behind them. As the night wore on, tiredness took over for many of us and we set an alarm for 2AM and went to sleep. We lost two groups in the night: Peyman, Amit, Jeff and Richard who bailed first, and then Ryan, Mehran and Susan, who left at around 4AM. The remaining six (Debbie, Bac, Philip, Shauna, Rhonda and Brian) watched some more meteors, but mostly slept until the sun came up. The sunrise was also spectacular, starting with a pink glow over Calgary, and then finally the blood-red sun that shot up noticeably fast about 30 minutes after. A faster hike down, collecting the glow sticks, and the magical, wonderous (and flippin' cold) night was over. We assumed that since we didn't hear any weak cries for help on the way down, that the glow sticks (and flashlights) did their jobs and all the early leavers made it down the mountain safely. Don't miss out on next year's trip! -- Rhonda PS... I just have to say 'thanks' to my good friend, Karen, for suggesting this event. I would have never thought to do it on my own, and she suggested it for last year. I'm so glad we were finally able to do it!!
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-13: COC - Housewarming Party - Hat Theme | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-15: COC - Biking/Skating and Picnic at Chestermere | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Under a warm but cloudy sky the bikers and the skaters began their trips with the goal of meeting up for lunch for a Chestermere Lake picnic. With opposite start points, the bikers left the quaint town of Chestermere for a round trip that would take them away from the lake's activity, alongside the irrigation canal system that feeds the lake and finally into the more industrial area of Calgary. The skaters took the same path but left on a one-way route towards Chestermere. With flat terrain both teams made good time, and the dry surroundings provided us with an interesting contrast to the usual forested destinations we often travel to. Despite the staggered start times, and double the distance travelled, the bikers still managed to outpace the skaters and arrive at the picnic site with plenty of time to spare. After 18 km on rollerblades the skaters didn't seem to mind at all. -- Cam
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-17: COC - Beginner/Intermediate Inline Skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clouds and wind threatened all day, but the lion turned to pussycat under the Weather Witch's powers for the evening, and we had a fantastic skate from Riverside all the way to Chinatown and back this evening. The main highlight came on the narrowest part of the trail where, right after a bend, Tabitha unknowingly skated right into the path of an oncoming bicycle traveling at breakneck speed. To the tune of \"Free Falling\", provided synchronicitiously (is that a word?) by a spectator's ghetto blaster, Tabitha executed a splendid arabesque triple-lutz, and with a perfect five-point landing she deftly avoided certain destruction from said bicycle, but landed square in the path of Rhonda, who slightly less gracefully ran straight into Tabitha's skates and did a much simpler three-point landing, sans arabesque and triple-lutz. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and quite pleasant, and all returned home with happy thoughts, especially Tabitha who was planning on putting her cat to work helping her clean her wounds (eeeuuuuuuuwwwwww). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-18: COC - Galatea Creek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We started off the day today with an enthralling conversation about what to do when/if someone dies in the woods (prompted by Dave's notice of Joel's note in his emergency info to just 'dig a hole and chuck him in'). One wise soul shared that the correct procedure is to hang them from a tree (so the wild critters don't feast on your departed friend). We then discussed what we thought would be some good ways to accomplish this, using duct tape, triangular bandages, and pantyhose. We decided that some practice would be in order, so if you'd like to volunteer, we'd like to talk. Off to the creek we went, where we discovered that the trail reminds Lana very much of winter hiking on the west coast because of the lushness, the smells, the fabulous green stuff growing everywhere... we could see her aura visibly fluffing as she revelled in the experience. I do believe it was glowing cyan by the time we emerged from the woods. The day started off cloudy, and we all said a silent 'thanks' to Kryptonite (Ray, dubbed Kryptonite for his uncanny ability to jam the Weather Witch's powers) for backing out of the trip at the last minute, otherwise we would have surely been rained on. The six of us who went, as well as numerous Caddis Fly Larvae had a lovely day, but I am getting ahead of myself. So, imagine Rhonda S's glee at discovering that Alison is a BUG EXPERT. Well... whether the rest of the folks enjoyed it or not, Rhonda was enthralled with Alison's tutorials about the Caddis Fly Larvae, of which we managed to torment many on our travels today. At one bridge, Alison jumped down to the creek and pulled a couple of rocks out of the water, turning them over and showing us some small Caddis Fly Larvae which build themselves a shell out of silk (among other things), and which look like small pine needles. Not too much excitement there. However, up at Lilian Lake, we saw many 'moving sticks' in the water which Alison informed us were of a couple of other, larger, variety of Caddis Fly Larvae. She grabbed one out of the water, and she was passed around and inspected, and christened 'Lilian'. The bug itself is like a caterpillar, or inchworm (with six legs in the front and two pseudo-legs in the back), but you can't normally see that because of its stick-like casing. For everyone's benefit (ok, for Rhonda's benefit), Alison 'peeled' another bug out of its shell and we all got a look at what they're like on the inside. Tragedy was narrowly averted when we accidentally dropped the bug into the mud instead of back in the water where she belonged, but after frantic searching, we located her and returned her to her lake home. The total trip took us about 5 hours. The 'Slow Group' (aka Dave) was jet-lagged and not nearly as talkative as usual. Rhonda S, Lana and John took turns at the front of the pack (that has to be a first). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-20: COC - Columbia Icefield and Jasper Sampler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eight of us set out this morning from Calgary with best intentions of meeting Hana at the Parker Ridge trailhead. Due to some equipment complications at carpool, we were late leaving town, and the trip took longer than anticipated, so by the time we got to Parker's Ridge at 12:15, Hana had already started the hike without us. We decided that the weather was too nasty to do Parker's, as it was raining and windy, and the hike is pretty much exposed all the way up the side of the mountain. So, we said a silent farewell to Hana, and continued on to Stanley Falls, which Dave figured would be a good hike even with the rain. Well, he was right. This was a beautiful little hike into a great canyon which is reminiscent of Johnston Canyon, but without the boardwalk and the go-zillion people. After Stanley Falls, Carissa and Stuart, who were driving back to Calgary rather than camping for the night, decided to take their leave of us, and relieving me of my \"Columbia Icefield\" GemTrek map, started heading back toward Calgary hoping to do a hike in the Columbia Icefield area, or perhaps in Lake Louise or Banff, depending on the weather. The rest of us continued to Honeymoon Lake to pitch camp for the night, and then on to Mt. Edith Cavell, and Mehran's favorite mountain road (note sarcasm). It was quite cloudy/foggy, and raining slightly as we went up the hill. The glacier and pond here are AMAZING - we definitely have to come back here sometime for more hiking. We walked up in the moderate rain to the pond, where Super Dave took a dip in the pond with the icebergs. Suddenly, the sky opened up and it was the four horsemen of the apocalypse (or was that just rain and mudslides?). We high-tailed it back to the cars, absolutely and thoroughly drenched. We thought briefly about going into Maligne Canyon, but mother nature seemed to want us to head into the town of Jasper instead, which we did. The rain had pretty much stopped, so we took a quick walk around Jasper and had dinner in a nice family restaurant which, to our dismay, did not have a fireplace for us to warm our butts at. It was at this dinner where Vampire Kate got her nickname. She was telling us about how she doesn't care for the meat in North America because in China they prefer to drink the blood of the animal first. The meat just doesn't taste as good if you don't drink the blood first. We were all a bit taken aback at this (after all, we thought the Chinese were much too civilized) until Kate realized that we were misunderstanding her - she was actually saying DRAIN the blood, but because of her accent, we were hearing her wrong. After dinner, a bit more Jasper, and then back to the campsite where, thanks to the Parks strike, we were able to camp for the night for free. The next morning, while the others slept in, Mehran and I jumped in the car and headed back into Jasper for Smitty's pancakes. Along the way, we visited Athabasca Falls, which had NO other people at it. It was awesome! The Smitty's pancakes were pretty durned good, too. Meeting up with the others back at the camp site, we checked out Honeymoon Lake, and saw the very rare Rocky Mountain Pterodactyl out for its morning cruise around the lake. We packed up and headed out - John back to Jasper for more solo adventuring 'til Sunday, and Kate joined the rest of the group who were heading to the Athabasca Glacier for the Ice Hike on Saturday. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-21: COC - Athabasca Glacier Ice Hike | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Some of the group came in from camping in Jasper to rendezvous with the rest of the folks coming in from Calgary. Kate, who was camping from yesterday's event was along for the ride home and had to wait for us while we did the ice hike. We recommended that she do Wilcox Pass hike, but she never made it to the trailhead, in spite of her valient attempts at hitchhiking the couple kms down the highway (perhaps next time she'll heed my advice and show some leg). The rest of us did an equipment check at the parking lot, and then we walked up the trail to the toe of the glacier. As we donned our equipment (harnesses, helmets and crampons), we discovered a grave problem with Dusan's crampons and woefully, he was sent away to try to catch up with Kate, or otherwise amuse himself for the day. The remaining eleven hiked up the toe of the Athabasca Glacier, and received some basic instructions on walking on the glacier with our crampons. Up and up we went, beyond the point where the 'official' walkway is on the ice that Parks has set up for public use. We passed the Snocoach base, and proceeded beyond the marker pole to where we found a most spectacular crevasse. Dave scouted out the crevasses for us while the rest of us ooh'd, ahhhh'd, and photographed what we could see from the top. We played in \"our\" crevasse for the rest of our time on the glacier, exploring from the top, walking down from the side, and (almost) everyone rappelling down into the wet dirty ice cavern. A quick hike down and a look at another smaller crevasse, and then we joined onto the 'official' walkway, turning the heads of all the tourists sliding around on the glacier in their runners, sandals and shorts. At the bottom, one man approached to get his photo taken with a \"mountain man\", and first Mehraniac, and then Dave, were happy to oblige. Some Asian ladies with pink boas for scarves then accosted Rhonda to videotape her crampons. Back at the parking lot, Dusan and Kate rendezvoused with the group for the 'important' parts of the day: Hot Chocolate at the Icefield Center, and then dinner in Banff. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-28: COC - Race City: Caltronics Saturday Night Stocks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-29: COC - River Float, and Global Fest 2004 Fireworks Competition | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| River Float and BBQ: Cushing/17th Ave SE to Sikome Lake (Fish Creek)\n The Chicklet Boat (Pumper, Bumper, Humper and Stroker, aka Cheryl, Cecilia, Rhonda and Jennifer) ruled the river today. The trouble started early with Joel's boat initiating water fights, but anyone who came near us today learned their lesson about picking a water fight with the Chicklets. No one splashed like us. And believe me, the only reason why we were soaked by the end of it (and most everyone else was completely dry) was just because we were sweating so hard from all the paddling and splashing (and the destruction we wreaked on everyone else was contained and hidden using sun and battery-driven hair dryers). And that is the truth (as we see it) about today's river float. The river itself was very nice today, and very different from the first float we did on August 2nd. The Aug 2nd float was an interesting float through the city, where today's was more of a nature float... lots more trees and lots less sky scrapers and neighborhoods. We had a lot more people out today, which was a bit of a logistical... um... 'challenge', but lots of folks stepped up to help out in various ways, and we had a great time. At the end of it all, we met up with the sub-COC group organized by Barbara M and had a barbecue. The tragedy of the day came when I dropped my ostrich burger into the campfire (they don't call me 'Grace' for nothin'), but Philip lept in and saved the day, salvaging the burger and helping me finish cooking it on his much safer camping stove. We finished off the afternoon with some birthday cake for Joel, and then Cheryl, Joel, Cathy and I raced off to go watch the Canadian competitor's display in the International Fireworks Competition. -- Rhonda Global Fest 2004 Fireworks Competition: Team Canada\n If you're a fan of fireworks, the International Fireworks Competition at Elliston Park is the place for you to be when it is held there in conjunction with the One World festival in August. The competition runs over the course of about ten days with approximately five competitors from different countries. The object is to put on an impressive fireworks display that is themed and choreographed with music selections. Tonight we watched the Canadian competitor (last year's winner) as they did their \"Shark Attack\" display. The fireworks were AMAZING, but to be honest, we couldn't figure out what a lot of the show had to do with a shark attack (they used \"Purple Rain\" and \"Wonderful World\" as two of their songs). If they don't win this year, it will be because their display didn't really adhere to the shark attack theme very well, but it was really a wonderful display anyway. The coolest items (IMHO) were the sort of mushroom-shaped fireworks that flew up, then floated down and kind of opened up a bit like a parachute, and then a second rocket took off from the center. I have never seen a firework go up, then down, then back up again (and they probably didn't, but that was the illusion, anyway). Tres cool. Another thing that was just too cool was the 'happy face' fireworks that they used during the \"Wonderful World\" song. At the line where he sings \"the colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people going by\" there were three fireworks that went up and when they exploded, the little 'stars' went in the exact shape of a happy face. Now how in earth did they DO that!!?? Last year when I went, I arrived a bit late and didn't know what the 'theme' was of the American Competitor's display that I saw, but I think I enjoyed that display better. I still remember how well he choreographed his fireworks to BTO's \"You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet\" and Queen's \"Bohemian Rhapsody\". We had taken the shuttle bus from Marlborough Mall, which was much slicker than the old Pavilion shuttles they had last year for getting to the grounds. After the show, though, we briefly entered Shuttle Hell where we spent about ten frustrating and futile minutes jostling in the street competing with the 50-buhzillion other people who were trying to get on the buses. We called an end to Shuttle Hell and instead followed up the fireworks display with an \"Urban Hike\" from Elliston Park to Marlborough Mall, which, because a lot of the street numbers in Calgary seem to be MIA, wasn't as long of a distance as we feared it would be. Next year, we may try meeting somewhere in Forest Lawn and walking to Elliston Park, or jumping on the #1 bus and taking it down rather than using the shuttles. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-30: COC - Douglas Fir Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-08-31: COC - Ptarmigan Cirque | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This was our fourth attempt at this hike. The first time we tried was last October when we were foiled by snow. This summer we've tried twice before and been shut down both times by rain. Finally we got to do the hike today, and it was definitely worth the wait!! If there were such a thing as a hike 'theme park', this hike is exactly what it would look like. It's a gorgeous hike up through lush green mountains with spectacular views on all sides. Then, you come to a magical meadow with a pretty waterfall and creek running through it, back-dropped by the Ptarmigan Cirque (a cirque is a bowl underneath the mountains which used to have a glacier in it, but which has disappeared). We hiked part of the way into the bowl to take a look, and then headed back down to lunch by the waterfall. On the way down, 'Wrong Group Feldman' (aka Sarah) was soaking in the view when she saw a group of hikers pass by her. Not realizing that the rest of us were still soaking, 'Wrong Group' joined on the end of the other hiking group thinking it was us. We eventually started down the mountain, but couldn't find 'Wrong Group' anywhere. We figured she was probably ahead of us on the trail, but weren't sure, so we did a bit of calling her name, hiking ahead, waiting behind, and so on, to try to locate her. Finally, we found her on her way back up after she realized that she was actually tagging along behind a group of TOTAL STRANGERS (unlike us, who were her 8 new best friends, having known her for at least four hours by then). An absolutely wonderful hike, and a fabulous day for it, too. Poor Claudia (aka the Rain Goddess) missed out, and we'd like to all thank her for staying away (and thus keeping the rain away as well). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-06: COC - Chester Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chester Lake is a favorite hike for many people, and it's easy to see why. It's short (8km round), with all of the elevation gain in the first half of the hike, and then a great stroll through forest, and mountain-framed meadow to the great little lake. The views up here can't be beat. In spite of having BOTH the Rain Goddess (Claudia) and Kryptonite (Ray, who has an uncanny ability to override my good Weather Witch powers), we had pretty durned good weather today. It started off overcast, but then cleared off for a while. This was my first time hiking to Chester in the summer - I snow shoed to it once last winter. Lana was happy to finally make it for this one as well, as she had to back out of last year's trip at the last minute. That's her second such triumph for the week, as she also finally managed to make it to Ptarmigan Cirque last Tuesday (on the fourth attempt). At Kilkenny, about half of our group, and about half of Marg's group showed up for our usual apres-hike cheer. A few of us left early to go check out the Steam Train, but only Mehran was lucky enough to see it. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-07: COC - Beginner/Intermediate Inline Skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-11: COC - Healy Pass | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The weather was beautiful. In Calgary. There were spectacular views. Yesterday. Did we hike 20km in the rain? Yes, some of us did, but some of us actually hiked 22km in the rain. This hike is, unfortunately, a do-over. Most of us hadn't done it before, and were driven there by stories of the wonderful hike and amazing views that reward the hiker. We didn't cash in on that promise today... but there's always tomorrow... -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-13: COC - C Level Cirque | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After being rained on for 20km on Saturday, this great little hike is just what I needed! We had beautiful blue skies, a lovely damp forest, some great views, and a cool cirque. Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-14: COC - Dinner - Marathon Ethiopian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WOW!! What a fun night and a great way to eat! No cutlery needed!! By using Injera, an unleavened bread, you rip off a piece and use it to scoop the \"stuff\". Everything is cold and of a mushy kind of consistency, but very tasty and colorful. Presentation really is everything. My group had the vegetarian platter which had a variety of 5-6 different things on it. To date, I still don't know what I was eating, but I did enjoy it...even though I was sitting between Hustler and Cougar. I do know there was cabbage in one thing. One thing, it's very deceiving how much of this food you can eat. It's very filling, so go hungry and go slow. As promised, Ethiopian food is not FAST, and we were there the prescribed 3 hours. Well worth the wait, though. All in all, everyone seemed to be having a good time trying this style of eating. A few had experience, but the rest of us were newbies and having no trouble eating with our hands! I'm wondering if I can throw out all my cutlery and try this new method with everything?! -- Cheryl The food was certainly interesting; I went with the vegetarian combo. It was good but another time I'd go with one of the spicier meat dishes. After that meal my stomach felt the same way it does after 16inch Pizza supper - FULL! I really enjoyed some of the conversations I was in. Poor Kate at our end of the table got caught in a 3 way discussion between Joel, John and myself on the topic of amateur radio. If that wasn't enough, Richard jumped in and then we had Kate caught once again, except by then the topic switched to Linux. Then Kate got a doggie bag and made a run for it! -- Cam
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-16: COC - Beach Volleyball at Shaw Millennium Park | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| My heart sank when I pulled into the parking lot tonight and saw that they had taken the nets down - oops! Note to self... next year, make sure to bring a rope so we can make our own if need-be. Laura and I showed up right at 5:00 and amused ourselves playing badminton for a little while until some more folks showed up. Sandra Lea volunteered to run home in search of rope, and as more people joined us, we began playing with our 'imaginary net'. We played like that for about an hour, and then Merv and Sandra Lea fashioned us a net using their ropes, although we never did agree on whether the game was better with an 'imaginary' net or a real one. We played boys against girls all evening, with Brian (aka Doctor Death) standing in as a surrogate girl when that side was short a player. We started off waxing their butts (figuratively speaking) but it didn't take them long to catch their groove and overtake us. Despite a few offers of mixing up the players, we persevered, and enjoyed a few good point-runs throughout the evening. With frozen feet, bruised arms and a satisfied grin, I bid the group adieu at about 7:30 to finish out their battle without me. No matter what Mehran says, the girls ROCKED (selective memory is a wonderful thing...). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-17: COC - Slide Show/Book Signing: Journey Through SE Asia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-18: COC - Fall Colours in Horseshoe Canyon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In Search of Dinosaurs OK, we didn’t spot any dinosaurs but we sure had a great time! Fourteen of us headed out in 3 vehicles to the Drumheller Badlands, specifically Horseshoe Canyon. A slight delay in departure (darn map was out of date, eh Rhonda ….) got us trekking around 12:00. The diversity of plant life (e.g. cactus) and rock formations/strata made for spectacular views. One of the joys of this trip, besides being able to walk the next day as there was distance, but no real ‘vertical’ to this trip, was that you could meander and explore in small groups as we made our way through the valley of the canyon. Conversation was lively and entertaining, thanks in part to Mehran’s humor and Darryl’s enlightenment of 2005 flying cars. We closed the day off at the small town of Wayne just east of Drumheller, as well suggested by Darryl. Neat little town, lots of bridges and motor bikes (Pete felt right at home as an owner of 6 bikes !). Enjoyed some homegrown buffalo burgers, c/w a fly or two. The trek back to Calgary was uneventful other than a momentous event of wrapping my truck by the 100 000 Km mark. Great job organizing Rhonda ! Cheers … Mike
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-21: COC - Pool at Stix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-22: COC - Roxboro/Stanley Park | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We could tell as soon as we set out that we wouldn't have much daylight left. So, per the hike directions, we headed up the ridge, but soon decided to forget the directions and just do our own thing (aka. noodling around in the nearby trails). At the bottom of the ridge, we detoured down a path back into the Roxboro neighborhood and then over into what I think may be part of Upper Mount Royal. After a short (unintentional) loop through that area, we crossed over the Elbow River on 4th Street and headed down into the Elk Island Park trails where we made the tall people duck under and through some really low-hanging branches (heh heh). After we were finished, about half of us went to The Planet for a quick coffee, while the others headed directly back to their cars. I grabbed a coffee and then had to race out the door as I was driving to Red Deer where my Dad and I went out to see Thunder Rhodes, the best Country/Classic Rock cover band I've seen in a while. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-25: COC - Sulphur Springs, Riverview Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Has summer finally arrived? It would almost seem so as we hiked on this beautiful fall day in 20C weather! This was a very nice fall hike, with lots of pretty colourful trees. The big thrill came when Debbie used her wildflower book to identify a flower at lunch time! Wow! After lunch, we headed down the hill to the intersection with the Elbow Valley trail, which is where Petar joined us having shown up late for Joel's trip. The big scare came when we forgot to wait for our stragglers at a confusing intersection and they managed to walk quite a ways down the trail in the wrong direction before our hero, Alastair, saved the day by running after them and finding them. Finally, the big stink came when the Poo Shoe Sisters stepped in some especially stinky poo, with Jacqueline taking the plunge first, and woeful Karen following shortly after (and also after severe mockery of Jacqueline). People who live in glass houses... -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-28: COC - Powderface Pass and Marathon Ethiopian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Powderface Pass via. Powderface Creek Trail\n What a perfect day for a hike - I don't know how Rhonda does that weather thing! After meeting on the street and introducing the new first timer COC members - \"the BC contingent\" (Benita, April & Vincent) we left early Tuesday morning to drive to Powderface Trail Head. Rhonda pointed out a herd of bears during the drive which turned out to be of course the usual cattle (however Joanne did agree that if you squinted your eyes right, you might think in the distance one of the cows might just look like a bear). The trail followed a meandering stream uphill a good part of the way to a most magnificent mountain vista viewpoint where the group stopped for lunch in the sun, surrounded by mountains, fall colours (no red in Alberta!) and great camraderie, always a plus in the COC. A group discussion left Rhonda and Patricia deciding to supervise the packs while the rest of the group took 20 minutes to trudge up the arduous slope to reach the fantastic ridge viewpoint. Cheryl managed to lose and find her glove on the slope but unfortunately Vincent never did reclaim his lost sunglasses on the slope (note if you're hiking this trail, keep your eyes open!) The downhill return featured the entertainment of the young songster Sean who broke into song on several occasions, accompanied by this reporter's Julie Andrews interpretation at one point (if for no other reason than to scare away bears). The group commiserated sympathetically that others had to work while we were enjoying this absolutely magnificent Fall day hike. Looking forward to the next. -- Joanne Dinner - Marathon Ethiopian
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-09-30: COC - Play: Fahrenheit 7-Eleven | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-01: COC - Ice Skating at Jimmie Condon Arena, S.W. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I'd like to thank Kate for this one... if she hadn't been called out of town on work (and asked me to take over this event), I would never have gone ice skating on Oct 1st (how depressing), but it was an AWESOME time. Thanks also to Marvin for lending Verde a pair of his son's skates... they were a bit big, but did the job nicely. Typical arena skating... there was ice... we went around and around... Murray showed off... Michelle did figure 8s... Merv did figure blobs... Claudia stopped clinging to the boards... Camila made us all smile... Verde took our pictures... everyone had a good time. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-02: COC - Foran Grade Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Due to a miscalculation on the part of the trip coordinator, most of us ended up at the trailhead a half hour early. Normally, this would probably be a good thing, but given that we were meeting three people AT the trailhead, and they would be arriving at the correct time, we had to kill 30 minutes. We went and noodled around on the end of the trail, where we found lots of cows. Noisy ones. By the time our whole group was assembled, Cam's group was starting to arrive, so they were in the same situation as us. They gave us a fifteen minute lead, and we set off. It took no time at all before we were shedding layers - it went up to 20 today, and it was balmy! On we trekked until the views started opening up onto Windy Point Ridge, and then down the switchbacks to the intersection where we stopped for lunch. Soon we were joined again by Cam's group, so after we exchanged the obligatory slings and barbs, we allowed them to sit with us in our patty-infested lunch spot. With another ten minute head-start, we hippie-walked down through the meadow, across the highway, and to the Sheep River, where we enjoyed some more wonderful views. It was right about this time that many of the group, trying to keep up with Cheryl, the sharp-witted and silver-tongued, really kicked into gear. Rumor has it that normally sweet Jane actually called Rhonda a Wagon Ho at one point, although she denies this, stating that she was just instructing Rhonda on the proper way to get a group moving again once they've settled in somewhere. On the return walk, a very valuable lesson was shared with the group. After the trail bit a couple of the hikers, one hiker announced that she never got bit by trails... probably because she wears trail repellent. Another hiker, picking up the lead on that, realized that this was probably an excellent way to stop from falling down so often on the trail - spray the trail repellent on her butt! As we finished off the same stretch of trail that we noodled on at the start of our day, we noticed the distinct lack of cows (especially noisy ones), and so had to fill the air with our own cow sounds. Karen would like to point out, for the record, that at an intersection, she was RIGHT about which direction we were to go, and if we had only heeded her in the first place, we could have shaved at LEAST ten minutes off our hike. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-05: COC - Prairie View and Barrier Fire Lookout | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It was a glorious day. They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Please see the photo album for approximately 19,000 words. -- Cheryl I would just like to apologize to Sean for giving his dog a nickname before he even got a nickname... I guess this means that \"Stirfry\" will have to attend the Twenty-Smacker Party. :) -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-06: COC - Dinner and Rembetika Music at Pegasus (Greek) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-07: COC - Officers' Meeting | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Who makes decisions for the club? - For small daily operations decisions, the president will continue making decisions, with or without consultation with volunteer team members at her discretion. - For larger, especially policy-related decisions, all members of the volunteer team are all invited to participate in decision making. Members may participate in whichever discussions they choose to participate in. The president facilitates the process and articulates the final decisions. What is the decision-making process (for larger decisions)? - The team will utilize an online forum, accessible via the web site. Topics will be introduced there by any member of the volunteer team. Everyone will participate in topics as they choose. The facilitator/president will facilitate the discussion and articulate the decisions, as well as send an e-mail as required to all volunteers when a final decision is being made on a critical issue notifying them and inviting them to participate. - In the case where forum discussion is insufficient and further discussion is required, a sub-committee may be formed, and/or a meeting may be held to discuss that topic. The results of the sub-committee discussion and/or meeting will be compiled into a proposal which will go to the entire volunteer team (via the forum) for approval. Note that the decision-making processes will be up for review regularly as the club continues to grow and evolve. Our next scheduled “check-in point” is April 2005, although we may choose to revisit sooner if required. Voluntary donations - The voluntary donations and corporate sponsorship income streams have proven to be very successful. Enough so that we are going to reduce our ‘suggested donations’ for trips as follows: suggested for in-town events: $0, suggested for out-of-town events: $2. This change will go into effect immediately. - At the start of the year, an e-mail will go out to the club membership that the voluntary donations are ‘reset’ for a new calendar year. We will continue to encourage people to donate no more than a maximum of $20/year, which is, as always, voluntary, and which they can pay on a trip-by-trip basis (according to suggested amounts), or they can pay in a one-time amount. Safety policy - The new safety policy is still incomplete and must be revisited and tweaked to arrive at something that is appropriate for the club and that all volunteers are satisfied with. - This topic has been off-lined to a sub-committee headed by Rob, with participants being Bassam, Mike, Joel and Philip. How to spend the club’s $ - We will keep one year of operating cash in ‘surplus’ as long as it is available. One year’s worth of operating cash required at this time is approximately $1500. - Surplus above one year’s worth of operating expense coverage (if we ever happen to achieve that) will be decided on by the volunteer team, with the following mandates in mind: spend responsibly, and with consideration to the club body who are the ones who have donated the money; spend surplus on things that can develop the club in some way (not frivolously, or on ‘causes’). Attendee and Waiting List Policy - All club event sign-ups, and waiting lists, are first-come first-served. There is no line-jumping permitted except in the following exceptional cases:
All members currently have the option of participating in the member network (sharing their contact information with other members) or not. To address some privacy issue concerns from members who want to participate in the member network but not necessarily share their phone numbers or e-mail addresses, we'll be making some changes to the web site which will allow members to: - Participate in the member network, but hide their phone number and/or e-mail address - If the e-mail address is hidden, a 'contact me' form will replace it which will allow another member to contact them via e-mail but which will not divulge their actual e-mail address.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-19: COC - Dinner - Shawnnessy Vietnamese Restaurant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I think we all had a satisfying dinner tonight at the Shawnessey Vietnamese Restaurant. The food came really fast and the prices were very economical. We shared some good conversation and laughs on a variety of subjects. Special thanks to our newest members Bubbles and Shirley for coming out and joining our club.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-22: COC - General Meeting and Movie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did Happen: - Technical difficulties with the A/V equipment - Volunteer introductions - Rhonda did a brief tap dance on the stage to kill time while waiting for Rob to address A/V issues - The pink gorilla coat was worn by Rob - A very entertaining slide show about the start of the club (5MB), and a gift presented to Rhonda (followed immediately by an exclamation of \"You guys rock!\"... and then upon spotting the amount on the gift cert, followed by \"You guys REALLY rock!\"). - Kilkenny VIP Cards were handed out - Informative presentation about beer, equipment and safety. In that order. - Rob's original club nickname, Chunks, was upheld in spite of his efforts to have it changed to \"Big E\". - Sam's impressive and inspiring slide show (23.5MB) of photos from the club collection - Announcement of Cheryl and Rob as new VPs - Movie: Touching the Void (boy, was that intense!!) Did NOT happen: - Philip doing the naked chicken dance
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-23: COC - Paintball at Capture the Flag | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It must have been fun because we have the bruises to prove it!! Nine intrepid warriors met at the carpool amidst the gray skies, flying snow and slushy roads. Three were to meet us at the battlefield. During the ride out one member in our car, who's name I won't mention but it starts with an \"I\", was getting very excited about the possiblities of shooting everything that moves, things that don't move and anything else he felt like. His enthusiasm was infectious, if a little scary! Once we reached Cochrane, the skies turned bright blue, the sun was shining and there wasn't alot of snow at the side of the road. It was like we had entered a parallel universe. Well, not really, but it was sure a lot nicer than Calgary! The weather was beautiful and warm all day with only the camo and a fleece shirt (and pants) for warmth. Couldn't have asked for better weather. I digress.... Upon reaching the battlefield, we donned our camo and helmets with only one person opting for armour. One of the men was interested until a worker told him that he would be laughed at because the armour was for girls and little kids. He took the armour off. We chose our guns and headed out to the practice range for a yak yak (not the animal, a safety chat) and some practice. Then, back to heaven for more yakking, then we were off. As our vicious band of 12 was heading out to wreak havoc, we were approached by another band of 10 who asked us to play against them. Seeing that they were all big, burly men the consensus was that they would make bigger targets and we would go for it. MISTAKE!!! They were all cops and cleaned our clocks!!!! Over and over!!!! During the second game, though, we did capture the flag....OK, it has to be said, I captured the flag.....but was then shot dead. We continued to hold our own with Jennifer H. finally getting the flag and making a run for it. At that exact moment, the rest of their team came back on the field after correcting equipment malfunctions. Shoot! We were doing so well when we only had to play half of them!! Anyway, Jen was a short 10 feet from the finish line when the rest of the bad guys entered the field, and shot her dead. THEN, they had the audacity to pick up their flag which happened to be almost right beside our flag at this point, and return both to their base. RATS! Lost again!!! The good part of that story is that the girrrls got the flag! We continued to play several more games, or should I say get beaten several more games, until we had enough. As the other team was finished pummelling us, we were informed that it was actually one of the guys stag and he had to don a bright green POLICE vest and run down the road while everyone lined up and shot at him. Poor b**t**d!! I can only imagine the bruising! A few of us had equipment failure which dampened their fun, and poor Rhonda had her glasses shmooshed, so she couldn't play either. But, I got to play the whole time and I had a blast. I'm definitely going to put this on the calendar again! Of course the obligatory photo shoot followed our day with many a Charlie's Angel pose taken. Just in case you don't recognize the poses... We then went to the Kilkenny with 100% showing and Philip and Stephanie and a friend came which meant we had 3 pitchers of free beer and 75 free wings. That was good. It was Steph's birthday so we sang to her and she shared her piece of mud pie, in spite of the singing. I think a good time was had by all. I think if it wasn't quite so damp, there would have been less equipment failures and the men could have played a bit more. Oh well. The girls did OK. Cheryl
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-27: COC - Pool at Stix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-29: COC - Ice Skating at Jimmie Condon Arena, S.W. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-30: COC - Bow Falls Hike, and Halloween Hippie Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bow Falls Viewpoint to the Hoodoos at Banff \n We left beautiful blue skies and lovely temperatures in Calgary and drove out to the wind and flurries of Banff. Fortunately, the flurries were short-lived and the day turned beautiful once again (with a couple of minor digressions). As promised, this was an easy hike, except for a few hills which were treacherous with ice. We took the wrong fork at the trailhead and went down the Hill of Death, but soon joined onto our proper trail. On we continued, on the easy meandering trail, and on down the Hill of Certain Doom. Before we even reached the Hoodoos, Cecilia and Jane's group caught up with us, and after greetings and snowball fights, we became one group. At one point, Samantha had to stop to remove a layer and Cheryl and I nearly saw HER hoodoos. We reached the (Banff) hoodoos and most of us decided we were satisfied with the view from above, while several brave souls tromped on down the hill to get a good close-up view. We all rendezvoused back at a picnic area along the way and then headed back. I, as usual, brought up the rear and gathered up Samantha and Cheryl on their respective potty breaks. When we caught up with the rest of the group, there was absolutely NO chocolate on our breath. If anyone says something different, it is vicious lies. We retraced our steps (mostly), on up the Hill of Certain Doom, and then, since we took the proper trail back, up the Hill of Imminent Injury (but bypassing the Hill of Death). Some folks may have hit the Kilkenny, but most of us bailed at the carpool to get ready for Halloween Parties! -- Rhonda Guido's Halloween Hippie Party
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-10-31: COC - Chester Lake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To all of the nay-sayers (and there were plenty) who thought we couldn't go snow shoeing today, we just have one thing to say... pbbbbbbbbbbbbtttttttt!! Not enough snow, eh? Feh! Actually, on the whole drive out there, we were thinking \"There's no WAY we're snow shoeing today... there's just not enough snow\", but lo and behold, just like magic when we got to the Chester Lake Trailhead, we were greeted by PLENTY of snow! We started off to blue skies, with a snow cloud behind us, giving it to Burstall Pass. Before we reached the halfway point, that cloud caught up with us and started giving it to us, but good. We had to describe the spectacular views for Tammy so that she could enjoy, in her imagination, what we were enjoying in our memories of previous trips. We encountered several telemarkers rocketing down the hill, and managed to jump out of the way of each one of them as they sailed by. There were a couple more snow shoers, and a couple of hikers on the hill, too. We had a quick re-fueling stop up by the lake, while the snow continued to fall. Once we started heading back, the sky opened up, and voila! there were our wonderful views! We got several eyefulls, and a few good photos as well. On the way down, it was amazing to see how much snow had fallen while we were out. Nay-sayers... your powers of negativity are no match for the COC Weather Witch (especially on Halloween)! Try again another day... -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-03: COC - Beginner Belly Dancing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-05: COC - Hogarth Lakes, and Sahara Lebanese Restaurant | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hogarth Lakes\n It was a fabulous day today, and we appeared to be the first people EVER to do the Hogarth Lakes trail (ok, maybe just the first people since the last snowfall). This is a perfect beginner trip, but crosses some water in a few spots, so will hopefully be a bit better deeper into the winter. -- Rhonda Sahara Lebanese Restaurant: Dinner, Belly Dancing and Rhonda's Birthday\n Sahara's team did an amazing job of keeping up with our group. The food and drink flowed endlessly. Eli's food was to die for. The belly dancer was spell-binding. The cake was yummy, although only one person in attendance would know that... Thanks to everyone who came out tonight - it was an absolutely wonderful evening. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-06: COC - John Farewell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-11: COC - Jumpingpound Loop and Aussie Rules | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jumpingpound Loop\n Although we were hiking in Sibbald Flats, and the terrain there, relatively speaking, is flat, we went up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down. Anyone who hikes with me regularly knows that I like hikes best when you do most/all of the work on the way \"out\" and then cruise on back easily. That would be the only thing I didn't love about this hike. Even though we were hiking in the foothills, and we were always near the road, we also had some fine views of the mountains, and we were given an absolutely gorgeous perfect day for a tromp in the woods. We even had our moment of silence at 11:00 (Keith would like the record to show that it was actually 10:57). -- Rhonda Aussie Rules\n See photo... 'nuff said...
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-13: COC - Horseshoe Canyon by Drumheller | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What a gorgeous day!! Uncertain of what conditions would be like this time of year, I had stopped in last weekend to check. The canyon was dry and hikeable, but there was a cold nasty wind blowing through that gave me concerns about hiking today. Turns out those concerns were unfounded - it was a beautiful warm day with nary a wind gust in sight (if wind gusts COULD be in *sight*). It must have been up to 15C at times, and many of us spent the day with just short sleeves on. Interestingly, there were a few bits of snow and ice in the bottom of the canyon, although I suspect they would have been gone by the end of the day. This was my third time hiking in Horseshoe, and it is always a different experience. Read: I can never manage to find the same path twice. Oh well, such is the adventure, and we all survived coming down the \"Hill of Imminent Injury\" (some of us getting by with a little help from our friends). I'm sure Jane will never be the same, though, after hearing me behind her thundering down the hill on my butt, completely out of control, yelling \"Jane! I'm comin' to git ya!\". She just barely leaped out of the way on time... we shudder to think what could have happened. After, we all stopped at the crafty tea house on Highway 72 where many indulged in enormous cinnamon buns. Note: these cinnamon buns really ARE enormous. When Petar says something is BIG, pay attention! Also note, the crafty tea house is closed on Sundays (and closed for the season from late Dec to early March), so if you take a trip up to Drumheller specifically to hit the tea house, you'd best to it on a different day. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-14: COC - Nihahi Creek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With 6 degree Celsius and a thick overcast the hikers met for carpool and then headed out for their destination just outside of Bragg Creek. Just before leaving, our Safety guy, just made it in time; he said that he was out checking the trail for us and that was why he was late however we all know that he slept in. Once suited up and ready to get hiking, final head count was taken and then we were off. We walked along the creek bed which led us toward the trail through a Provincial Park Campground, where there was one brave soul camping (not a COC member) and stopped to observe bear tracks (that made a few nervous), yet marched on. The hike continued up the creek bed (we were without paddles) with Rocky, Stephanie's dog, leading the way. The group was hiking along nicely with spectacular mountain views, chatting about various topics, when the trail just ended-- a few went ahead to scout the area and realized we should hike further around the gorge- some found the path and other tipped toed through the bushes (myself included). We stopped for lunch and ate with the other COC group who left earlier and chatted with them until they continued on with their hike. After lunch, we headed up a small canyon that has been sculpted by years of spring run off. The canyon has logs, placed naturally or by humans, that aided the hikers up through it bringing us close to the rock and seeing crevasses to which one could take a nap(yet no napping was an option). Once at the end of the canyon we all gathered to listen to Elissa explain theories on how the rocks were formed by the water (she's a geologist). We hiked a little further and then voted aimlessly to head back, again with Rocky leading the way. Our descent was met by a brisk wind and great conversation; I think Oprah's name came up and it wasn't us girls talking about her if you know what I mean, SIRS............! Walked back along the trail, stopping again to observe the bear tracks and headed for the cars with some of us taking bathroom breaks. In our vehicle, there was striking conversation about the recent increase in our road funding and the way Michelle S. was chatting about it you thought she assisted in the planning of the infrastructure projects. Oh yes, thanks to Ralph for not snoring as he napped in our smooth driving mini-van and once we convened at Kilkenny the same stories could be heard of other car-poolers doing the same (napping and not snoring). After a great hike and great food at the end of the day, it was a fun filled day. Thanks to Rhonda for leading the way and for Steve having the map. -- Michelle
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-15: COC - Movie Night: Shark Tale (IMAX THEATRE!) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The movie went without a hitch and we all had a great time! The movie was very funny, colourful and enjoyable! The movie even had JAWS music in it, but they used it in a funny way. LOL Very worth seeing if you have not already! -- John
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-16: COC - Dinner - Restaurant Indonesia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-19: COC - Twenty Smacker Party - Nickname Theme | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You had to be there... - \"Dictator\"
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-20: COC - Heart Creek | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What a great day. The weather was just about perfect, the trail was in good shape, and we had some great views. We were treated to the company of Diesel, Kitten and Jasper along the trail. An odd smell came from up the trail, which Cheryl quickly blamed on one of the dogs. We thought it was a little too convenient. Two overshare citations were given out and if there is a web link made for these, then they can be viewed by all. The hike was only 4 km. round trip, so it did not take very long, but it is well worth going as it is quite nice. A few of us went to Killkennys afterward and we agreed it was a good hike. Cheryl was very satisfied bringing home tired dogs. Thanks to all that came out. -- Glenn
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-21: COC - Lake Louise Lakeshore Trail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The photos may *LOOK* black and white, but nope... these are just the colours of our world today. A positively beautiful day in the Canadian Rockies. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-22: COC - Ice Skating at the Olympic Oval | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-23: COC - Mars Lecture (and Kilkenny) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tonight we traveled through a century of Martian understanding. Long gone are the images of the 'fuzzy' red distant planet. They have been replaced with high resolution pictures that illuminate surficial meter-scale features. Lowell and his theories of Martian canals that transported water from the poles to equator started off the talk. Dr Hartmann quickly moved into a discussion on surface cratering and identifying different landforms that indicated wind directions, lava flows, volcanic strata, frozen H2O/Co2 polar icecaps and water flow. Throughout the rest of the talk he concentrated on water and compared modern Earth analogs with images of Martian landscapes; showing us that processes that occur on Earth could also occur on Mars. And if life occurs on Earth, could it be found on Mars too? He talked about UV sterilizing soil, breaking down DNA and if organisms were to survive, it could be in subsurface water bodies. In the last century Lowell was ahead of his time and used a different scale to identify water flow, he was not too far off. Hartmann's (and others') theories stride a thin line between reality and science fiction. He crossed over into a more philosophical realm when he mentioned that Earth could become contaminated with Martian debris/organisms (or vice versa) and how can the purity of either be maintained. Although remote sensing is a good tool to determine the livelihood of the red planet, we will only have true understanding when we bring some rocks home. Sign me up for a night flight to Mars!
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-25: COC - Pool at Stix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-28: COC - Doggiepalooza!, and Dim Sum at Regency Palace | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Doggiepalooza!\n The day went to the dogs at COC's first ever Doggiepalooza!! It was a beautiful day, although a bit chilly especially for the little guys, but that did little to deter them from having a good time. There were a few dog tussles, but for the most part everyone was on their best behaviour. Especially when treats were at stake! Special thanks to our three judges and brand new COC members who took on their role with enthusiasm - Jen C, Twila T and Holly T. It was hard to pick winners because every dog was special, however we did have 10 hotly contested categories... And the winners were: Best Trick: Eskie, for her 'high five' and dancing moves Most Obedient: Magic, for her ability to not only come on command, but was able to stay without being held Best Dressed: Kitty and Diesel for their matching bandannas and hats; Cheryl also wore her matching outfit Best Retriever: There were a lot of competitors, but first prize went to Zena for her ability to catch and retrieve when it wasn't even her turn! Goofiest Dog: Cabo, for wearing his goggles with pride Mr. Congeniality: Cairo, for being a super relaxed generally sweet guy Grand Dame of the Park: Chelsea, for letting everyone know where things stand (and helping herself to some treats) Most Unusual: This was a tight race between Quinn, the Catahoula and Jasper, the Portuguese Water Dog, but majority ruled and Jasper trotted away with the prize King of the Park: Buddy (I) the exuberant Staffordshire pup got extra friendly with all the participants Most Courageous: Buddy (II) the Cocker Spaniel cross puppy also tried to get friendly with all the participants - size was not an issue! But every dog was a winner just for coming out and showing us all how to have a good time, so everyone went home with a prize. Rocky, as co-leader, would have liked to have added a few words, but he fell asleep shortly after getting home and hasn't budged since. I'm sure the other Doogiepalooza participants spent the rest of the day doing the same thing! - Stephanie Dim Sum at Regency Palace
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-29: COC - Kananaskis Fire Lookout, and Buddha's Veggie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kananaskis Fire Lookout\n Nine hearty souls set out this morning in cold and windy conditions. The snow was deep and crunchy enough to make it a tough slog without snow shoes, and we decided that we'll likely reserve this hike for summertime and nicer weather. All that said, though, it turned out to be a beautiful day, we had a lovely time, and Cheryl and I discovered how to get Ed to hang in the back of the pack with us for a change - get him to injure himself on the way up. Only two of us - Joanne and Ash - made it all the way to the top. Alan made it most of the way, while the rest of us wimped out at the intersection of Whiskeyjack Trail and Pocaterra Trail. -- Rhonda Dinner - Buddha's Veggie
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-11-30: COC - Pool at Stix | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-01: COC - Beginner Hip Hop/Funk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-04: COC - Fullerton Loop, and Debbie's Housewarming Party | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fullerton Loop\n Fullerton isn't exactly the most breathtaking or challenging hike out there, but it does make for a lovely winter dawdle in the foothills, and have a lovely winter dawdle we did. A bit of snow fell on us and the temperature started dropping... foreshadowing what is to come for tomorrow (alas resulting in a couple of cancelled hikes). Jackson and Harry (the dog) showed us all how to properly frolic in snow, and for a moment there I almost thought we might get Glenn down there rolling around with them too. ;) -- Rhonda Debbie's Housewarming Party - Christmas Decoration Theme
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-06: COC - Ice Skating - Olympic Oval | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-11: COC - Hogarth Lakes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We got off to a slow start today, with high winds at carpool, treacherous road conditions out to K-Country, and a diversion to a new location. The Smith-Dorrien was snowy, slick and getting worse by the minute, so we rallied up the crew and went instead to do the Lower-K-Lake trail (per advice from the info centre, care of Debbie and Barry). The further the day went on, the more beautiful it became, and I enjoyed every sublime minute of it with my new eyebulbs - I had lasik on Wednesday and this was my first winter event without foggy glasses - yay!!! It really was a spectacularly beautiful day. I couldn't go to the Kilkenny because of my eye surgery, and couldn't go to Shelley and Samantha's wine and cheese because of my allergies, so we finished off the day with a \"pre-wine-and-cheese\" at my apartment that wound down somewhere around 12:30 (note to self: there is a good reason why you don't drink!!! Although, it wasn't *me* in the belly dance costume. As usual, there is no evidence of Rob wearing my belly dance costume... save our memories, and the discarded costume on my floor). -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-12: COC - Death Valley - Windy Point - Foran Grade Loop | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What a magical winter wonderland kind of day! This hike is an admittedly boring and somewhat unpleasant hike during the summer. Views are ok, and the trail is often mucky and chewed up from horse and cattle tracks. Perfect wonderful winter hike, though - especially with a fresh four inches of snow like we found waiting for us when we got there. The trees and weeds and ground were covered in a beautiful, pristine, shiny blanket of white. The views were more appealing because of the contrast that the fresh snow provided. The footing was a little tricky due to the frozen horse- and cattle-hoof chewed up muck. Definitely ought to have done the hike the other way around, and will next time (do the work up front instead of near the end). Jennifer the Geologist joined us for her first hike today (one more Jennifer in this club and we'll have to rename it the \"Calgary Outdoor Jennifers Club\"... one more Geologist and we'll have to rename it to the \"Calgary Outdoor Geologists Club\"... one more Jennifer Geologist and that would just be plain weird) and entertained us with stories of her parakeet, Bob, calling people 'peckerhead' and whistling at the 17-year-old paperboy (yeah, sure Jen... it's the BIRD doing it all), and her geophysicist co-worker lighting his farts in her office. She is just lucky that our Oversheriff, Cheryl, was away in Victoria, otherwise it would already be time for Cheryl to pick up a new citation book (Oversheriff: the official in charge of giving people citations when they overshare, or share too much information). This hike has hit my top-ten favorite winter hike list (being promoted from my \"shoulder season, we'll take what we can get\" list), but really ought to be done right after a fresh snow. I can't stress enough how fabulous it was today!! -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-13: COC - Canyon Snow Shoe Trail Devt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| We went, we worked (hard), we enjoyed a beautiful day, we feel good about ourselves, and we have a new trail to go snow shoeing on. Life is good. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-19: COC - Beginner Snow Shoeing at Sawmill | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A fine beginner tromp through the woods on snow shoes, with some folks going great guns, finding some fresh snow, and falling down the hills, and others taking it somewhat easier, sticking to the official (ie. pre-tromped) trail. A few of us turned back early to plot an ambush of snowballs. Drove back through a white-out, and finished the day at Kilkenny... you know... the usual. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-21: COC - Escape to Africa (for dinner) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2004-12-23: COC - Johnston Canyon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What a glorious day, made all the more special by the presence of our friend, Jacqueline, who is out visiting her folks for Christmas (Jak hiked with us for several months this year before moving back to the centre of the Universe). We set out to some cold temps and light flurries in Calgary, which quickly turned to warmer temps and clear sky the closer we got to Banff. The ice in the canyon is new, and there are plenty of areas where things are not completely frozen over yet. The lower and upper falls have yet to accumulate their most impressive depths of ice, but everything was very pretty and magical nonetheless (look for canyon trips in January and February when I think the canyon will be at its most picturesque). We all got a good giggle near the end of the trip when Ben, decked out in his woolen overcoat and Russian fur hat, was accosted by a woman to get her picture taken with him. -- Rhonda
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
