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.

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.

We hiked from the Illecillewaet Campground in Glacier National Park up the Asulkan Trail, upriver, through the giant trees, then up the Asulkan Brook Valley.     the trail emerges into a wide cirque below Asulkan Pass, with glaciers hanging off the mountainsides.    We hiked up to the Asulkan Cabin, then above onto the moraine ridges for views through the pass.    We have done this hike a few times and hope to return.

This was the first time we hiked The Narrows in Zion National Park, wading upstream in the Virgin River up to Orderville Canyon.   The water was warm for this adventure. We have since done this route 3 more times, including once from the top down (15.4 miles, mostly in the water).     Memorable moments!

• Narrows from the Top

We hiked and scrambled up Temple on a September day.   We started in the dark from Moraine Lake and hiked into Sentinel Pass.     From the top of the pass the rest of the way was very steep.     We managed to get over the 3 rock faces on the way to the summit ridge.     The peak stands at 11 726 feet.    A hanging glacier covers the north side of the mountain so caution is needed, but the last kilometer is just a step ridge hike.    It is a long day to hike the mountain (more info).

This photo shows lake Magog and Mt. Assiniboine from the trails, on our way to Wonder Pass.

A favorite hiking destination is the Stein River Valley.    We have backpacked the trail and we have day-hiked the trails from the Fraser River end.    Although it can be a popular hiking trail, it feels like a remote wilderness area.   Wildfires have hit the area so it will be time for a return visit to see its current state.

• Stein Valley Trail (2012)
• Stein Valley Day Hike
• Stein Valley Pictographs

In Cathedral Park, we can hike from Quiniscoe Lake up to the Rim Trail.   On the south end of the rim is an area called Stone City.     Many quarts monozite boulders are piled onto the ridge.    This is part of a longer loop hike along the top of the ridges that include a series of open, rounded mountaintops.

From the end of the Great Glacier Trail in Glacier National Park, it is all rock above to get to the toe of the Illecillewaet Glacier.   In the previous century the ice came right down the valley, close to the end of the trail.    to get up to the glacier, we have to scramble up steep rock, climbing for 1.5 km.     The granite of the rock shelves has only been ice-free for a century so it is scraped and striated.     Mosses, lichens and ferns have established a foothold in this barren terrain.    This photo was taken about halfway up to the ice.