TRAILS – Page 4 – Skelton Sketches

The Sound of Autumn…

Posted on September 6, 2016April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

I heard them bugling with the light of dawn… an eerie hollow strained sound ending with a tinny whistle.
I snuck out of bed to watch them from the front window and then the porch—a whole herd of elk just outside my door, feeding on bushes and tips of spruce as they wandered along in the quiet of early morning…

The mothers keeping watch over their gangly half-grown offspring eyed me suspiciously standing there in my pajamas…The buck noted my existence but seemed unimpressed… and then a second larger grander buck came striding intently across my line of vision oblivious to my presence. All the others cleared out of his way, the younger buck taking the lead, and moved along out of view around the end of our string of houses… Rutting season has begun.

The following morning I came out to breakfast less impressed. Not only are elk wild, majestic and awesome to watch… They also eat petunias, ravage lobelia, and generally have no sense of the aesthetic value of a profusion of potted flowers on an otherwise sterile porch… They left me a straggle of pansies and a few token petunias, and the dirt. The time for flowers is past. Autumn is upon us, and with it, the elk.

So I took my camera and went scavenging for any remaining beauties in the meadow…

The bees are scavenging too.

We squeezed in another hike on a day of mixed sun and cloud…This time, Tunnel Mountain, which sits smack dab in the middle of Banff. It reminded us of hiking up Scout…

Here it is from the highway:

And here’s the view from both sides at the top…

The Bow River, winds its turquoise thread through the valley

The one remaining highlight of the week was getting to spectate ( : as The Tour of Alberta got underway on Day 2 from the heart of Kananaskis country just down the highway from us.

Pretty neat!

–LS

O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Ps.104:24 ESV

A cup of Tea?

Posted on August 27, 2016April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

Summer will not long be with us. Already a dusting of snow has appeared on the mountain ranges around us. So we’ve squeezed in a few hikes this month…I’ll let you guess which was my favorite!

Up, Up and UP we went to find the fabled ‘Teahouse’ on Lady MacDonald, which rises just across the highway from town…

The ascent was a doozer, steep and relentless, and we never did find the teahouse, only a helicopter pad…

Had we read more closely we would have realized that the elusive teahouse was never completed. This failed enterprise of some tycoon visionary was demolished a few years back. All that remains is the helicopter pad that would have saved the diners an arduous hike!

But had we come just a few years sooner we might have seen this:

[from Internet archives…]

Climbing three thousand feet in under 2 1/2 miles is difficult but the descent was at least as bad!

My quads complained for days! They are accustomed to pedaling, not climbing and descending.

At least now I can point to this mountainand tell you just where the helicopter pad sits and how once-upon-a-time we climbed up to it…

Well, that was last week. Hoping to ‘lock in’ these climbing muscles we went for another summit in Banff a couple days ago—Sulphur Mountain.

We once took the gondola but not this time.

A seemingly endless series of switchbacks tamed the 2,283 feet of rise, spreading it nicely over 3 1/2 miles. And this time there was a real coffeehouse at the top from which to survey the expanse of Banff

and to wait out a passing squall.

Then we hustled down the mountain to dine at McD’s and hurry home to get ready for the kids coming for a birthday celebration!

With them we did another sweeter hike the following day.

This time, just 2.8 miles round trip and just 853 feet of rise, but with smaller feet and shorter legs it was a triumph for all!

The rock faces around Grassi Lakes are a rock climber’s destination, so some of us tried a hand at that too…

It was a splendid day!

Ho-ho cake anyone?

–LS

Go and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me… Joshua 18:8

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. Ps.89:15

Climb, climb up Sunshine Mountain…

Posted on July 4, 2016April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

We set out to discover the fabled “Sunshine Meadows” on this fine summer’s day… prepared to skip the shuttle bus and hike the extra three miles each way for the full experience.

In the winter this is ski country! But in the summer and fall tourists are lured up to the alpine meadows above the ski runs with the promise of easy hiking and stunning wildflowers. A school bus shuttle will spare you the huffing and puffing of the final three miles to the treeline but at a cost which seemed unreasonable to us.

So we walked—at least until it began to rain, and then to hail as we approached our destination! OUCH! At which point we sped up to a trot and took refuge under a gondola lift till it let up!

We were soaked and chilled…

And the poor wildflowers we had come to see didn’t fare so well either…

It all seemed pretty bleak. Not only were we wet, and getting cold, but the landscape was a great deal bleaker than we’d anticipated. Some reward for a three-mile trudge…Even the flowers looked a little blue…

Behold, the continental divide. Look closely and you’ll see the post markers that separate Alberta from British Columbia…

But then, as we topped the rise to the meadows, leaving most of the straggle of visitors behind…

the sun cam out!

and we rounded a bend to find this little gem—Rock Isle Lake.

Things were looking up! Shortly thereafter we found a bench in a sunny protected spot, perfect for a cat nap– to dry out and to warm up!

But the mosquitoes were pesky and the bench hard and I was restless to find wildflowers and to see where the trail would meander next…

Intending only to snap a few pictures close by,

I had soon left both bear spray and good sense behind as I wondered on down the trail while Jim dozed oblivious to my whereabouts…

Every rise and bend in the trail lured me further along; the views were irresistible.

I strolled right on past a fork in the trail, never considering how Jim would know which way I’d gone…

But I was happy as a lark, or a Sal hunting blueberries* , or a Heidi in the Alps…whistling along, intoxicated with the beauty and the carefree delight of discovering more around each bend…oblivious to the passage of time…

This ground squirrel seemed to appreciate my song…

The earlier dismay at the stark, wet and chilled landscape had dissolved in the sunshine and birdsong. It was glorious!

The rest of the story was not as glorious.

For though I neither met a bear, nor got myself lost, and though I did eventually come to my senses and retrace my steps bubbling over with tales of the glory of the trail… by this time my husband was no longer drowsing but searching for me down the fork in the trail I had not thought to take. Sigh.

Still, we opted to extend our walk together and see what else was to be seen. We logged just over nine miles before we were back where we’d started, glad to have seen Sunshine, and wildflowers! on an alpine meadow.

–LS

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.Eph.5:1,2 ESV

All this business of hiking in the mountains is ‘old hat’ to these bighorn sheep
snuffling winter’s leftover salt along our way down the mountain…

* Have you read Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey? It’s a picture perfect summer’s classic you don’t want to miss!