fun in them thar hills!!! - Carthew Pass and Akamina Ridge Hikes in Waterton National Park, Canada.

it has been a long, long, time since i walked in the mountains. when my friend, ahmed, called me a couple of weeks ago about the possibility of traveling to waterton national park for a couple of days of hiking, i jumped at the chance. i packed up my boots and "walking sticks" and off we went last wednesday.

what a great time in a very beautiful park.

Carthew Summit/Alderson Lake...
on thursday, i set off alone to tramp the 20 km trail from cameron lake to the townsite via carthew summit and alderson lake. it's a great classic hike in the park. very popular. the vistas were far and wide.

carthew pass, to the right of the horizon, was the "crux". it looks a bit daunting from a distance but pretty easy to surmount.

3 hrs from cameron lake (the start), i reached carthew summit, a knobby hill that forms the southern point of the pass, for lunch...

look!! akira kurosawa (center) was at the summit as well. i don't know who that dude was in the background. mountains in the background are in the american glacier national park.

where ever i go, a crowd gathers. but, here of all places?! this is a friendly group of minnesotans... to the left is the knife-like edge of carthew pass.

heading down to carthew lakes... them red hills are made of a 1.5 billion y.o. rock called argillite. fascinating...i thought i was on mars.

them's are the lakes!!! purdy, eh? waterton townsite is about 10 km and 1000 m down the valley. if it weren't so hazy, you could make out the prairies in the upper right hand corner of the pic.

after a knee jarring downhill jaunt from carthew lakes, i arrived at alderson lake. from here it was a long walk through a grizzly bear infested forest back to town.

Akamina Ridge...Forum Lake to Wall Lake.

on friday, ahmed and i tackled the 20 K akamina ridge walk.

the ridge, which is actually in BC, was one of the most incredible, mindblowing walks i've ever done. it gave us brilliant views of glacier national park (montana to the south) and waterton.

the guide book and BC parks service recommended that ridge be best walked by experienced hikers. pffft. i didn't think so. yes, there was a bit of scrambling to attain the ridge proper but it wasn't so bad. my advice to anyone of average fitness or better: go.


peaceful forum lake. akamina ridge is far above the lake.

ahmed having a snack, along with 10 other friends (they had cheezies and really annoying loud walkie talkies), at forum lake. to gain the ridge proper, our immediate goal was that low notch in the background.

this is the swell view of wall lake in the next valley once we climbed to the crest of the low notch. akamina ridge is in plain view high above. holy crap. that view was a little intimidating. the walk would take us clear across the top of this pic.

not so intimidating after minor scrambling to the ridge. here was ahmed walking along the broad slopes of scree and stunted vegetation. waterton is in the background. nice easy walking if it weren't for the gale force winds. in short bursts, the wind would pick up large pieces of rock, throwing them metres at a time. the wind sounded like a locomotive was coming at us.

akamina ridge in its glory. along the way, we had to scramble up 4 peaks (about 100 m each and not too difficult) each separated by stretches of broad ridge. we ate lunch here backs to the wind and clutching our flimsy sandwiches...

on the way up peak #1. wall lake far below. waterton national park in the background.

ahmed on peak #2. montana on the left.

peak #2. mindblowing vistas of montana.

akira kurosawa on peak #4. wall lake below. waterton to the rear. the ridge nearly complete on the right. it looked really daunting at the beginning but turned out to be a piece of cake. ha!

after 4 hrs. from atop the ridge, we rapidly descended to the clear waters of wall lake -- apparently BC parks doesn't believe in switchbacks, eh). the ridge is high above. i think we got back to the car at 1930h. ten hours of amazing hiking!!!

my suggestions: carry at least 2 L of drinking water (one frozen litre), start early to escape some of the high velocity winds, don't walk too close to the edge, and go for a refreshing dip in wall lake.

i'll share more photos in the next little while.

1,000,000 little calgarians or bottles of beer on wall...

an apple pear in portland courtesy of my sis.

happy millionth citizen, cowtown...

ahhhh... mayor bronconnier's on the boob tube announcing a newborn baby as calgary's millionth inhabitant. how glorious!!! how the hell does he know this particular baby is the lucky millionth? it could have of been some guy from lebanon just stepping off the plane. i was confused until my bro pointed out the bronco's PR ploy of exploiting this poor cute infant.

why would he need to pull off a PR stunt like that? i dunno. unless he wanted to hide the fact that the population explosion has resulted in unmitigated suburban sprawl (which he denies to this day), huge taxes, out-of-this-world real estate prices, massive construction, and billions spent on more roads/overpasses, and above all, dilapidated bike paths.

i'm all for living in a vibrant, exciting calgary but c'mon it's outta control.

i guess i should just feel lucky that i live in such a fantastic city. can't wait to read the first comment telling me to get outta town, eh.

i had a dream...an awesome dream.

some lebanese observations...

the evacuation so far has been a boondoggle. i love saying boondoggle.

having said that, it's a miracle the government has actually moved this fast considering how much real world experience it has.

there is something like 40000 canadian expats/tourists in lebanon (crap, that's alot of people) of which only 15000 are tourists. there's been alot of discussion over the net about the status of the rest being canadians of convenience. personally, if we're going there in the debate, we might as well lump in the bazillion snowbirds that inhabit the warmer climes of arizona and florida.

why were all these canadians in war-torn lebanon in the first place? what were they thinking? good questions but not everyone's an amazing kreskin or karnak. 6 years of relative peace followed by a idiotic hezbollah move to abduct a couple of israeli border guards. who would of thunk? i could have been there.

DO NOT rely on canadian consular services while travelling. the canadian passport is meant for foreign governments. other than to finance another tier of canadian bureaucrats, i'm not sure what value you get with an 85 dullah passport.

looks like globetrotting steve has ordered his plane to make a u-turn from france to pick up 120 evacuees in cypress. there better be a really good onboard movie or methinks its going to be a long long measured flight home for steve.

other news...

talking about a boondoggle, they should drop the proposed passport requirement to get into the states. first, it's a cash cow. second, travellers are law-abiding citizens. canadians have been traveling for centuries. it's a right. third, real terrorists don't declare their intentions. so, how's a passport going to stop them from doing their thang?

i saw a bit of the new karaoke reality show, the one, last night. pretty boring. i felt kind of bad for strombolopoulous. what was he thinking?

wherethehellisbubba?

thought i'd post this measured response to brighten up everyone's day...

i can't believe this guy has sponsorship... live and let live i guess.

check him out.

plenty of peas in portland...

photo courtesy of my sis...

breaking news.

it sux to have a midsummer cold.

more sidewalk carnage...

(top to bottom): right hand, right knee.

i tripped while running yesterday. must remember to lift my feet when running. damn those sidewalk cracks.

all aboard...

got some news from my asian friend, fellow raconteur, partner-in-travel-in-crime, the wasta.

i'm not sure it's good news.

the great maoist train from beijing to lhasa has been completed (with the shameful aid of bombardier - a canadian company).

despite the fact that it will result in massive immigration of ethnic chinese to tibet, the extreme marginalization of the tibetan peoples, filling the coffers of the communist party, the prospect of traveling on this train is intriguing to say the least.

the train is the cat's ass mode of travel.

the fares are outrageous though. beijing to lhasa, one-way, 2 days, starts at $102 USD.

train fares to lhasa...

anyone game?

a sad day...

as of today, LB and LG no longer live in calgary.

they will live in BC.

it's a sad day for our family.

it will be really quiet around here.

i wish them well.

mish mash, again... and a world cup 2006 update.

after a dismal winter on this tundra, i love the hot weather. makes running a little tougher but i'll take the heat for it.

reality tv is killing me. i watched snippets of america's got talent tonite. it bad. really bad. it's really a poor knock off of the 70's the gong show. let's see... regis philbin was chuck barris, david hasselhoff was an unfunny version of soupy sales, and brandy was an equally unfunny version of j.p. morgan. all that was missing was mean gene the dancing machine, the unknown comic, and, of course, the gong. the gong show was horrendously bad. so was america's got talent. america's got to get a life, eh.

what the hell's going on in ottawa? looks like harper writing cheques left and right buying up killing machines. where's he gettin' all this moolah? hmmm... 5 billion from kelowna 1st nations accord, 10 billion from the ex-universal childcare program, and probably the rest from making absolutely no effort to satisfy the terms of kyoto accord. it all adds up, eh. (the only purchase i've agreed with so far was the order for heavy lift aircraft.)

world cup coverage has been skimpy for the last few days. too many sportsnet games. the best game so far was the elimination game between portugal and the nederlands. fights (ok, pushing matches), chippy play, players gettin' thrown out. i thought it was ice hockey on grass. excellent. worst game was same day coverage of switzerland vs. the ukraine. soooooo boring. i don't think they should let those bastards off the hook by ending the game with penalty shots. they should have kept playing till someone scored.

due to circumstances beyond my control, i have to make revisions to my predictions. for the quarterfinals: argentina, italy, england (i would have picked portugal except for the fact that half the portuguese team got red-carded the last game - but i'll hoping for an upset by portugal), and brazil (unfortunately, france finished second in their pool) will prevail...

sorry means nothin'...

my great grandpa (l), my grandpa (r)

my great grandpa was born in china in 1868. to seek a better life for himself and his family, he journeyed to canada in 1888. he was smart. he didn't work on the railroad. instead he set up a shack at the side of the railroad and sold cooked oysters to fellow chinese and da man. to maximize profits, he only sold oysters.

he left canada for good in 1930. in between time, he took the slow boat to and fro home in china 3 times. he missed home and was afraid he would forget his roots if he didn't return home.

my mum remembered the forks he brought back from the new world. he taught her the first english she knew. the phrases were: hand towel, the same thing, chicken hen, chicken cock. it was ironic that he didn't learn the word oyster.

by the way, he moved on up from his oyster shack to a real restaurant in kamloops, bc.

he died in 1961.

my grandpa (father's dad), was born in 1906. at age 16, he came to canada to seek a better future for himself. he would run a laundry in golden, bc.

he would make two trips back to the homeland. one of those trips, he married my grandma.

on his last trip, he took back to kaiping, china, the money he made here and started construction of a family tower. he would not see the completion of the tower. in 1949, the communists took over. he fled back to canada.

he would spend the rest of his days in canada. his family would join him. my dad, in circa 1950. my grandma and auntie, in 1952.

my great grandpa and grandpa knew each other over here. it was a small world.

they both had to pay the head tax.

my great grandpa had to sell off parcels of land in china to finance the tax. he never mentioned anything to my mother about the tax.

my grandpa never mentioned anything to me about the tax.

the great stephen harper is suppose to offer an apology tomorrow to all those who were subjected to the tax.

i'm not sure if the apology would mean much to either man if they were alive today.