A photo taken on a windy day on an exploration hike in the Barnhartvale Hills. This spot is south of Sunrise Mountain and I have been calling it GMS Hill. It is a fine viewpoint in a remote spot. The older tree is giving the space to the younger one, part of the story of the naming of the hill. I will be there again soon, back to pay respects to GMS.
We drove to Waimea Canyon on top of the island of Kauai, then continued on to the end of the road. The parking area is on the rim of the caldera with the NaPali on one side and the Alakai’i Swamp on the other. We hiked a trail along the rim of the caldera and then descended into the swamp basin. Uluhe Ferns (Dicranopteris linearis) covered the slopes on the way down to the rainforest of the massive swamp. The Alakai’i Swamp trail is a favorite, one we have done a few times.
I have portaged into Murtle Lake several times. on this paddle camp trip, I camped on Leo Island on the west arm. The next morning I paddled to the north shore of the arm and landed at the trailhead for Central Mountain. On a solo hike to this remote spot, I traversed the top of the mountain and looked down at the island from above, 3325 vertical feet below and 1.89 miles distant. I continued on to loop down into the north arm, then hiked back, a long route, before paddling back to Leo Island. Few people hike this route and the trail is overgrown and hard to follow. A once-only hike.
On August 1st, 2003, we were driving backroads from Green Lake to Kamloops. We came over a hill and spotted the smoke plume. We weren’t sure where it was but as we came into Kamloops it was clearly in the Dome Hills and on Strawberry Hill. There were two fires in the area, one caused by careless human activity. We have seen many fires since, but this one was clearly visible from town and was a frightening sight.
An older photo taken with a throw-away camera. The image was taken from Balfour Hut on the Wapta Traverse, looking up at Balfour Mountain. We had skied across the icefields from Peyto Lake to Peyto Hut. We skied down Vulture Col to the hut. The next day we were bearing south and climbing through Balfour High Col. Note the recent avalanche below the icefall. On our way up to the col, I triggered a slide and fortunately no one was caught in it. We spent the next night in a tent on the glacier.
Today we can take much better images with compact cameras and mobile phones, but the old images still bring up vivid memories/
We were hiking on the Galiano Mountain Trail in the Gulf Islands when we passed by this tree. Many of the cedars and fir trees had lichen covering the lower branches, below the canopy. This tree looked alien, with green arms outstretched.