Last winters snow still at Sunshine Meadows

Snow capped mountains and snow rimmed lakes-- Spring is late hitting Sunshine this year. With this clear weather it won't take long now before snows melt filling creeks and lakes like these.

Early season life at Sunshine Meadows

The larch cone looks like a beautiful flower when it starts out. So bright and red! Western anemone's bravely push through the snow. Grizzlies are up and at'em chasing sleepy ground squirrels. Both must be hungry after such a long snooze.

Summer snow shoe at Sunshine Meadows

The hiking season opened at Sunshine with the meadows snow covered, so out came the snow shoes. The clients loved the idea of snow shoeing instead of hiking in June! That's Canada. The biathalon team trained here as it was such a wet, late Spring. The grizzlies left muddy footprints everywhere, as they ambled about hunting ground squirrels.

Bow Valley Provincial Park - ERS Grade 4

I joined another school trip to Bow Valley Provincial Park. This time we spied lavish displays of colour. The Many Springs Trail is great for wildflower viewing. There was an amazing number of Lady's Slippers along the trail. Also Shooting Stars, Limber Honeysuckles, and Roundleaf Orchids. Spectacular!

The kids were studying different parts of the marshy ecosystem created by beaver dams like the one below.

Stanley Glacier hike

Went up to Stanley Glacier to scout out the hike before taking a group up. The scenery is dramatic as you pass through an old forest fire burn. These gorgeous, early season wild flowers are the glacier lily and the small flowered anemone. The adorable marmot family whistled, getting our attention. They'd made their home within view of the glacier. This is a good reason to have had Lucy-dog on a leash.

Road Trip to Jasper

On the road to Jasper I sited some amazing wildlife. This elk is showing off his beautiful rack and healthy coat.

Look closely at this mountain goat and you'll see a little baby peeking out from behind. What a view they have of the beautiful Athabasca river.

If anyone knows what bird this egg is from, let me know. I found it on the ground in the woods.

Banff Amazing Race

White Mountain Adventures hosted a team building event for the Mineral Springs' Hospital fundraiser. The Banff Amazing Race was a huge success, stretching limbs, making smiles and fortunes for the hospital.

White Mountain Guides sharing stories at Johnson Lake

Spring training for the guides of White Mountain Adventures. We all got together at Johnson Lake to share our best interpretive stories and most fascinating field facts.

Bow Valley Provincial Park - Grade 5 LGMS

I joined my daughter's Grade 5 field trip with Lawrence Grassi Middle School to the Bow Valley Provincial Park. It was a terrific day to muck about in Middle Lake. We're trying to catch larvae and bugs, invertebrates and other squiggly, fun things to study.

Banff Cave and Basin with ERS Grade 4 class

I spent the day on a field trip with Grade 4 class from Elizabeth Rummel School at the Cave and Basin in Banff. This is the hot spring that got Banff National Park started. Because the basin is filled with endangered snails, the area is protected and people are not allowed to bathe in this hot spring. This makes the snails happy. See them smiling below.

Hiking Mt. Lady Macdonald - Canmore, AB

Fresh snow on the peaks and warm sunshine in the valley. It doesn't get any better than this! We walked out the back door, up Cougar Creek and across the Lady Mac trail. Our friend & neighbour Jean McAllister set a swift pace.

Evening paddle on the Bow River - Banff to Canmore

Our friend Vicki had never paddled the Bow River from Banff to Canmore. We put in just below the falls and took out at the bridge in Canmore. If we'd left an hour earlier, we'd have enjoyed more direct sun on the river. Trip time 2.5 hours.

Columbia river photos

River Foam

Natural or man made? This was the debate that I had with my sweetie as we floated down the Columbia River. You can see that foam floated everywhere--often in sizable hunks (see paddle blade for scale). Was it man made, laden with nutrient waste and phosphates, or a natural result of fast moving water flowing over fallen trees and debris? I haven't yet found an answer.

Canoeing Columbia River

At 1:30pm of the long weekend, we just had to get outta town. I picked a river I hadn't paddled before, scanned where the weather would be best, and drove in the opposite direction:) Good thing too--kind of a pump-fake to the cold front which headed East while we went West to the Columbia River. Put in at Radium, planned a bicycle shuttle from Briscoe, and caught a ride at the General Store instead. On the river by 6pm with 35 km ahead of us, we settled in for a nice paddle. An hour later we found the most idyllic campsite--a beautiful sand bar--likely not even there in higher water.

After dinner we went for a stroll around the island and heard the slap of the beavers. Clearly we weren't alone!



We followed beaver trails through the willows, and snuck up on 3 beavers splashing about on the river. The third photo is of a beaver mid-slap!

After a lovely fire, a brief shower sent us to bed. We awakened early then skipped breakfast to catch beaver activity. This was successful as we found beavers every 50 metres down the river, fortifying their dams and slapping their tails.

We ate breakfast as we floated. Once sun came up, we found a grassy knoll to make coffee and tea for the morning. It afforded a perfect view of the river. 

We explored a logging trail and high ridge further down river to stretch legs and smell the spruce and fir. 

Later in the day we spied a massive eagle nest with 2 adult bald eagles very wary of us.

They hovered over us as we floated by. We also heard many songbirds, king fishers and waterfowl.

These cute goslings rustled out of the swamp grass as we paddled into a shallow cove.  Our ended our leisurely paddle about 4:30pm and were lucky enough to get a ride from a nice couple the 2 km to the van.

Stewart canyon walk

We've been dog sitting Rosie for 2 weeks. Today's the day her family comes home so we took her for one last glorious walk up Stewart Canyon. It was warm despite the surprise snowfall earlier in the week. The snow kept people away so we had the place to ourselves. We discovered Parks Canada's new interpretive info box which "talks" when you crank a handle. Too much noise for too little gain! Reading a sign would have been far more enjoyable and less intrusive on others' peaceful, outdoor getaway.

May Snowfall

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May snows bring? All of our budding flowers were buried in 70 cm of snow!

Here's Lucy the Chesapeake Bay retriever tunneling through to break trail for us. We hiked across the benches of Canmore marvelling at how much fun it was. If you are going to get snowfall, it would be fun to have this amount every time. Too bad it's not in January. Yes, there's still skiing at Sunshine!