Rae Glacier

I had missed the hike after the previous one to clean the traps that we took down from Sibbald. It was quite a relief to take this grid down. I think it was the prettiest one there with its carpet of moss littered with fallen logs and its really old pine trees that creak rather disconcertingly (like they’re talking to each other like Ents), with hair-like lichens hanging from the lower branches. It was, however, a real pain to climb up to get to and to run from trap to trap, since it is rather steep and there are fallen logs everywhere. During the 3 weeks when there were mosquitoes, there was just a ridiculous amount of them. If you stopped for a moment on the off-chance that there was something in a trap, the mosquitoes would cover you like a blanket. I think Crisia even waved a vole at them accidentally to keep them out of her face. Furthermore, we rarely caught anything there. More often than not, it would be nothing or simply a chipmunk, which didn’t really matter in our population studies. I think there was only one vole there that we caught more than once. We usually consider having low trap success in the mornings to be a good thing on the long term grids since we would be done sooner; however, it often made it seem pointless to even wake up at 6 in the morning when you weren’t likely to catch anything.

Anyway, to bring myself away from my rant about Sibbald and back to the point, Crisia and I went on the hike the next day with the Alpine Ecology students to Rae Glacier. We passed a pretty blue lake and a campground and had lunch by a small waterfall past the tree line. Crisia and I spent the majority of the time in the back conversing with Brent, the other professor of the course, which led to my observation that he is an all-around cool guy. We stopped every once and a while so the students could tell us about their chosen plants. We went so slowly that we were passed twice by this large group of old people with hiking poles, once on their way up and once on their way down.

Kurt, the student who became more and more similar to a crazy mountain goat, was already way ahead before Brent, Crisia, and I climbed up after him. The rest of the class stayed at the base, and as we got higher and higher up, we could only see specks of them sliding down the glacier. This was one of the scariest things that I have ever done. The rocks of the pass up to Pocaterra ridge were a walk in the park compared to this. This was steeper, and the rocks came in varying layers above a base of solid ice. Being much less sure on my feet than the others ahead of me, I mostly took it very slowly until I caused the rocks to slide down underneath my feet, in which case, I scrambled up as fast as I could as if my life depended on it. I don’t think my life was in danger at any point, but I could have been seriously hurt if I had wiped up and slid down.

When we met Kurt at the top (or sort of top... we didn’t go all the way up), I was very relieved and quite impressed with myself. My knees were still aching from the previous hike, and I have never and probably will not ever consider myself to be a hardcore hiker. Yes, what we did on our grids on a daily basis was certainly more than most people do on their walk to the bus stop, but it hardly compared to a half day hike up a mountain. Here we took a few pictures of ourselves using the timed functions on our cameras. We also got to taste and take away in our water bottles some glacier water. This was the best water I’ve ever tasted. This could have been because it was cold and straight off a glacier and because I had just come to the top of strenuous hike, but you’d have to try it to understand.

The way down was much quicker. I actually found riding the rock slides down quite enjoyable rather than frightening since they were travelling in the direction I needed to go, and I didn’t need to fight against them like I did on the way up. Crisia and I took off without the class again so that the day wouldn’t be a complete waste work-wise. By the end of it, both of our knees were shot, especially Crisia’s (I think she pushed herself harder than she should have even if she is a much more experienced hiker than I am), and we had another hike the next day to look forward too. This would sadly be my last full day in Kananaskis.

Pocaterra Ridge

These next few posts will be about my last week in Kananaskis, which was obviously busy enough to keep me from writing to all (or perhaps just one or two) of you. There a few reasons this particular week was so busy: 1. It was my last week, and I needed to pack up four months of my life; 2. To be able to leave early, I had to take on some extra trap and trailer cleaning; and 3. Jack’s field course was taking place, and every day of the first week, he took them on a hike, and we were invited to come along. We were therefore allowed to drive to wherever they were going, so we took full advantage of the guilt-free hikes.

The first hike was to Pocaterra Ridge. We joined up with the class prior to this hike after taking care of our grids. As with probably most field courses, the hike was slow-going since we had many plants pointed out to us. One particular plant that caught my interest was alpine sorel. This plant, similar to its relatives in the east, wood sorel and yellow wood sorel (shamrock – nicknamed “yummies” in Plant Field), is edible and tastes kind of tangy, even lemony. Crisia and I kept picking these and eating them as we went.

We eventually came to a talus slope where, to my delight, we discovered pikas (These were taken at another time; I got one picture from this hike, but it's not as good. Also, for those who are interested in what a red-back vole looks like, here is a picture.). Pikas are little mouse-like rodents that are bigger than the mice we work with and make high-pitched squeaks as they run along the rocks, which they blend in very well with, often carrying grass in their mouths. I am pretty sure these are the animals upon which Pikachu of Pokémon, a Japanese children’s cartoon, videogame, and card game, is based.

When we came to the beginning of a pass, Jack let us run off to climb to the ridge on our own. Crisia and a student of the course, who also happens to be named Kurt, ran off and speedily clambered up all the rocks. Nikhil and I followed along more slowly behind them, nearly stepping on a few ptarmigans that were camouflaged against the rocks. Rocks are rather frightening things to climb since there is always the danger of them falling as you are climbing on them. One of the worst sounds you can hear on such a hike is the sound of a rock slide. You also don’t want to be directly behind the person who causes the rock slide.

At the top of the rocks, we met the ridge. If I thought climbing up the rocks was hard, climbing up the steep dirt slope of the ridge to get to the summit was even harder. I think Nikhil and I nearly gave up a few times and may have stopped if we didn’t know that Crisia was already up there and that there may be an easier way down. We did eventually get to the top; we were followed by a couple students from the course, one of whom was deathly afraid of heights and was “shaking and terrified” the entire time.

At the top, we couldn’t even see where Crisia and Kurt had gone. One of the students said that she saw Crisia head running down the other side of the ridge, so we decided to go that way. We bounded down as best we could without killing ourselves, but either way, it was really tough on the knees. We finally found Crisia and Kurt, along with Jack and some other students at the bottom of the ridge. It had turned out that Crisia had bounded down at almost full speed and had even flipped over. Since it was so steep, instead of wiping out, she landed on her feet.

At this point we decided that it would be best if we headed back more quickly without the class so that we could get some work done before going out to set our traps again. The way back seemed much harder than the way there even though it was mostly downhill. I guess going slowly makes the hike seem much easier. At one point, we found ourselves off the path, and Crisia ran right into a moose. It stood there long enough for her to take pictures before wandering off.

For those of you who didn’t notice the links to specific pictures, here is the album for the entire hike:

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Last Visit to Calgary

Hello! I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve written here. This is not because I have had nothing to say; it has more to do with the fact that I’ve been so busy, there’s been no time to write anything. That said, expect a few catch-up entries. Since I last wrote here, I spent my last week in Kananaskis, spent a couple weeks with some of you in Montreal, visited my friends Brandon and Sarah in Ottawa for a night, officially moved into my apartment in London, and officially started my life as a grad student at the University of Western Ontario. Because it would be insanity to attempt to fit all this into one post, I will attempt to break it up into several smaller, but probably still long, entries. This first one will be about my last week in Kananaskis.

This particular week began on a Friday, when Nikhil, Crisia, and I had to drive in to help pick up the students for our supervisor Jack’s field course. Jack had flown in the previous morning. Nikhil was supposed to pick him up while Crisia and I entertained 13-14 year old Girl Guides with live and origami mice. However, Jack and Nikhil ended up waiting for each other at opposite ends of terminal, so Jack rented a car and drove himself back, while Nikhil waited for a long time until he called the field station to find out that Jack had called and said that he was renting a car and driving back. Jack was given a Cadillac as a rental car, so he was quite happy, especially since he had something with which to make fun of Nikhil.

The first thing we had to do that day was pick up Brent, who was the other professor of the field course. He is a young professor from New Zealand, is very sarcastic, and is an all-around cool guy. We waited where Jack told us we should wait, which was where Nikhil should have gone the day before. Jack went to find Brent inside to make sure he knew where to go. However, a guy from Air Canada, whose English was not very good, told us that since we were not waiting for an Air Canada Flight, we would have to go somewhere else, so we let Crisia out to find Jack to tell him the change of plan and went to the WestJet terminal, where Nikhil had actually waited the day before.

As soon as we got there, we noticed a guy matching Brent’s description, standing by himself with his luggage. It turns out that Brent didn’t understand Jack’s instructions either, and we weren’t sure what exactly had happened to Jack, who was supposed to find him. I don’t think I ever found out since Tracy and I were unceremoniously dumped off to wait at the airport because the car would have been crowded otherwise. After maybe 45 minutes, we were picked up again by Crisia. Jack had rented another car and had gone back to the field station to await the van in order to pick up the second batch of students, while Nikhil went in the van with Brent to direct him back to the field station after they picked up the first batch of students.

This was all done by late morning, so this left us girls to do whatever we wanted to do before having to go back to set that evening. Our first stop was a Best Buy, so that I could pick up a case for my laptop. We took a wrong turn getting there and happened to find a sign for a used book sale. Being the nerds that we are, we became very excited and immediately followed the signs until we found the book sale. It was much bigger than we thought it would be, and we ended up staying there for 2 hours. Those of you who know me well enough will be surprised to know that I only came out with 3 books. Yes, 3 is a lot considering that I already have a stack of books that I own that I haven’t read, and I would be taking a plane back to Montreal in a week with much less room for all my stuff than is needed. However, 3 is not a lot considering that Crisia walked away with more than 10, and Tracy came out with a box full of books.

We did eventually find our way to the Best Buy, and I really like my laptop sleeve. What was interesting was that we had been to this Best Buy before but had never walked into the giant shoe store right next to it. I think the reason for this is that we are always with Nikhil and, therefore, feel obligated to not be the girls that we undoubtedly are. Nikhil made fun of us quite a bit when we got back.

The three of us ended up buying very similar shoes. Tracy’s and mine are identical except for the size, pattern, and colour. The most amusing part about all of this was that Tracy, the least girly of the three of us, had been going on about why anyone would want to buy these flat ballet-like shoes that appear to be everywhere. Since I actually wear shoes like this on occasion when I’m not in the forest, I explained to her that these shoes are useful when one wants to wear somewhat nice shoes but does not want the heel. Some of you may have seen the shoes I bought, which are green.

After our little shopping spree, we went for Vietnamese soup and bubble tea, and then did our practical shopping by stocking up on groceries. All in all, I had a lot of fun on our girls day out, which actually had never happened before this point, and was happy with my last day in Calgary before I had to come back for my flight.

An Epic Quest

Doug from Kurt’s lab and the American butterflyers had invited Kurt and Tracy to join them to visit some natural hot springs in BC 3 hours away from here. They were going to camp there Wednesday night, spend the day in the hot springs, then come back to the field station. However, there was no room in Doug’s car and Kurt and Tracy insisted that they come as a package deal with the mousers, and we could not leave on Wednesday because we had long term grids to check Thursday morning. It was decided that if we could get a vehicle than we would just go for the day on Thursday, as long as we don’t mind driving 3 hours both ways in the same day.

Kurt emailed his supervisor, who said that it wasn’t a problem if he wanted to take their truck, and he could just waive it off as a research trip. Sometime Wednesday night it was decided that rather than drive back the same day, we would just rent a tent and stay over the Thursday. Thus our epic journey took form.

Thursday morning, which dawned cold and wet, found all five of us checking traps to get it done quickly. We rushed back, packed our stuff, and were out of the field station by 10am (which is record timing if anyone has ever spent any significant time with all of us). Our journey began with the epic theme music from the movie Dragonheart, as we set off to Canmore to rent a tent and pick up supplies. The tent place was out of 5 person tents and had only a 3 person one. We ended up taking that one and deciding that we would also take the one that Doug and the others had. We bought more than enough groceries to last us a day and grabbed food and coffee at a Tim Horton’s/Wendy’s. We set off and quickly lost our first casualty: Kurt’s Sprite was rapidly lost to Kurt’s shoes as he was driving.

The time was passed in the car by a rousing attempt at the “headlight game.” I skipped this one out, as I felt that sleep was much more important. The next casualties were therefore only temporary and were several personal items belonging to Tracy and Crisia and only a few belonging to Kurt and Nikhil. These personal items were eventually returned to their owners as we entered the “best place on Earth” and found the home of Jesus.

We passed by all the famous developed hot springs in the area: Banff, Radium, and Fairmont. To get to these ones, the Lussier hot springs, we turned in a gravel road at Whiteswan Lake. The drive to the hot springs from there was on a narrow, climbing, windy gravel road surrounded by mountains. One side of the road ended in an abrupt cliff, the kind of which one only sees in cartoons; it seemed a little too easy to drive over the edge of this cliff, especially with trucks appearing out of nowhere coming towards you at full speed.

We finally found ourselves at the hot springs and spent the afternoon there with the other butterflyers. Unlike Banff and Radium, these hot springs were not developed. Rocks were placed in a strategic manner and a steep path with a railing lead to the hot springs, but that was the extent of it. The hot springs consisted of several shallow rock-surrounded pools of descending temperature and ended in a freezing fast-flowing river. Although this was a much more natural setting than the hot springs we had previously frequented, it wasn’t nearly as hidden as we would have liked, so there were many more tourists than we would have expected. The majority of them were from Quebec, which was very odd for me because I felt like I had come home.

Although I preferred the much more natural scene of these hot springs, I do think there is something to be valued in the chlorine and the cement of the developed ones rather than foot-tearing and slippery rocks of this non-developed one. The pools were also much shallower than I would have liked even though the hottest pool was much hotter than we had experienced before. The fact that it smelled like you were sitting in an egg salad sandwich, as Kurt put it, took some getting used to. I think I would have preferred it much more if it was cooler out and if there were fewer people around.

Since there was a fire ban, a lot of our food suddenly became useless. Instead, for supper, we teamed up with the butterflyers and put cans of food and sealed bags of hot dogs in the hot springs to warm them up. The heat did a little good for soups and beans, but we had to eat the all-beef and tofu hot dogs cold. It was a surprisingly satisfying meal after all our energy was sucked away by the hot springs.

Before the butterflyers left, there was an all out burr war. I’m pretty sure Kurt lost this one. This was mostly due to Crisia standing quietly behind him and chucking them at his back. Soon, we said goodbye to the butterflyers and hastened to a nearby campground to set up our tent. We decided that we would come back to the hot springs at night when most people would have left.

After setting up our tents and hanging around the dock near the lake at the campground, we headed back to the hot springs. There were fewer people there, and as it grew dark, it became almost pitch black. The only light we had to go by were the stars, which were absolutely breathtaking. This was what made the trip totally worthwhile. The water was much more pleasant, as the air was cool, and we had but to lean back, and we would see more stars than any of us had ever seen in our lives. Since there were no large cities anywhere nearby, even the Milky Way was discernible as a large cloud-like stream. Since the Perseids were also just beginning, we were able to make out several shooting stars. It was simply magical.

Leaving late into the night was a feat in itself, as the rocks seemed even slipperier, and we couldn’t see them properly. Nikhil probably fractured his toe. We managed to change right there and leave without leaving anything behind; a few of us did manage to take some of the burrs away with us that were still being found a day later after laundry had been done.

We came back to our tents, and all of us hung around in one tent for a bit until we decided that we were much too wiped to do anything but sleep. We all wished that we could have had campfire to converse by, but without its comforting light, we were just too tired to continue. Crisia and Kurt left for their own tent, and Tracy and Nikhil quickly fell asleep, as evidenced by the snores that the rest of us could hear before we ourselves fell asleep.

It was quite cold throughout the night, but I slept comfortably with the hood of my sweatshirt over my ears. I awoke periodically since sleeping on the ground is rather painful to someone as bony as me. I also awoke once to Tracy’s infamous sleep-talking. She yelled, “Kurt, where are you?” and then muttered something under her breath and then “Jackass.” I was actually surprised that Kurt didn’t answer back, and it took all my effort not to laugh out loud. Everyone’s sleep was then broken several times by a child in the next campsite over who threw a seemingly endless tantrum over at least three separate occasions. She would wail and scream for her mommy, and both her parents would try to shush her in vain. Apparently, Tracy, awake this time, muttered something about wanting to “cheese” their family.

Not too early in the morning, long after the family with the crying child left, we packed up our stuff and had muffins and bananas for breakfast. We had determined that even though we had spent the entire summer together, we still did not have a group picture. It was sad because we had realized that there were only two weeks more for us all to be together and less than a week until our supervisor came to teach a field course, and then, we would have a very limited amount of time in which to just simply enjoy ourselves as a group. We, therefore, made several attempts to time a group photo by the lake, and you can see our best attempt along with a few other pictures here.

We then started our trek back, and soon all of us, except poor Kurt who was driving, had fallen asleep. We stopped for ice cream in Radium and had a late but good lunch in Canmore after dropping off our tents and soon found ourselves back at the field station where it was still cold and raining.

So ends our epic quest.

Canmore Folk Fest

On Sunday, Kurt, Tracy, Nikhil, Crisia, and I went into Canmore to catch the folk fest. Crisia and I were dropped off downtown, while the others went to pick up some groceries. We had already missed the day sessions I wanted to see (Harry Manx), and when we got there, we found out that the festival was sold out for that day. I was quite disappointed because I was looking forward to perusing the artisan booths and to seeing Chumbawumba Acoustic, which I thought would be very fun. I think Crisia was even more disappointed because she had been unable to make any of the Calgary shows. Crisia and I ended up wandering around downtown for almost 2 hours before we found the others. It would appear that Tracy doesn’t know how to check text messages. After searching for quite some time because Canmore was very crowded, we found dinner at a pub in an inn.

We decided to try the folk fest again on Monday. Kurt and Tracy went in at around 5pm to save us tickets, while we quickly went to set the long term grids. We got there at around 7pm and were worried that it would end early and that we would only have time for one show. The festival ended up going until 11pm, so we managed to get our folky fix. Crisia and I got to peruse the artisan booths, and we caught a few good shows. Peter Yarrow from Peter, Paul, and Mary played some old favourites and some new songs. My favourites were Puff the Magic Dragon and Leaving on a Jet Plane. A woman called Laura Love played some fun blue-grass style songs, and a group called the Compadres ended the night by playing some songs that they described as being “Celtino” (The lead singer is of Irish descent, but his partner is Mexican).

All in all we rather enjoyed ourselves. Monday was much nicer than Sunday in terms of weather. On Sunday, there were intermittent thunderstorms, and we would have most likely gotten soaked at some point or another. Monday was a nice, sunny day, but at night it started getting cool to the point that those in flip-flops were regretting it. It appears that real summer weather here lasts only 3 weeks.

Updates and Transformers

After many back and forth emails, I have finally booked a flight back to Montreal. My flight lands late the night of August 24^th, so I am free to spend time with anyone who wants to see me from August 25^th to September 6^th. Please let me know if you want to book any particular dates with me.

I have also uploaded the few pictures taken from when Jackie came to visit. There are pictures from our hike to Prairie View and from the Calgary Folk Fest.

Yesterday, Nikhil, Tracy, and I drove Yeen Ten back into Calgary, where she is staying for a day or so before flying back to London. She has been here for a little while now to run the long term grids in burnt parts Kootenay National Park, BC and to do some of her own work there. Most of her time and some of Nikhil’s and a lot of Crisia’s was spent in the Kootenay bunk house with Edith, so I and whoever else was staying behind, had a lot of extra work on our plates, which is apparently nothing compared to what they had to do in Kootenay.

We dropped Yeen Ten off at her car rental place, and then headed out for lunch and then to see the Transformers movie. If anyone hasn’t seen this movie but eventually intends to, I suggest going to see it in theatres. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if it wasn’t on the big screen. It wasn’t the greatest movie ever in terms of plot or screenplay, but it was certainly entertaining. Tracy and I finally got to figure out how Transformers procreate. We were very excited by this. Nikhil was a little upset that Bumblebee was a Camero rather than a Beetle, but not remembering any particular details about the cartoon from the 80’s, I didn’t really care so much. I did notice, however, the prevalence of GM vehicles and of Mountain Dew. Yay for product placement!

After running some errands of our own, we met Yeen Ten, Kurt, and Crisia for supper at a Korean place. We ate so much food that it made the car ride afterwards rather unpleasant. Kurt and Crisia had to leave early since they were coming in to go to some sort of concert in the evening. We said our goodbyes to Yeen Ten, whom Crisia, Nikhil, and I will be seeing soon in September. Nikhil was dropped off at his aunt and uncle’s for the weekend, and I drove Tracy and myself back to the field station after having lots of coffee to make up for waking up at 6am to catch heather voles for Nikhil. So ends another rather long day in Calgary.

Visit from Jackie

Jackie took a Greyhound from Montreal to Vancouver to visit her friend Josh and then took the bus over the mountains to Calgary to visit me. She arrived here on Tuesday. I was busy finishing up my project here at the field station, so I had little time to spare for my poor sister during the day. During this time, she entertained herself by getting a sunburn at the beach, writing in her journal, reading, and working on a crazy puzzle with unicorns on it. At least she got a bit of a vacation. She came out to do the long term grids a few times. I don’t think she enjoyed it very much, mostly because it involved waking up at 6 am. There were a few interesting things that I managed to squeeze into this busy week.

On Wednesday, Jackie and I took a hike up to Prairie View, which gives you a nice view of Barrier Lake and the field station. I have pictures that I’ll put up eventually. It wasn’t as difficult as the one I did the week before with Kurt and Crisia, but it was still tough work. We needed to take plenty of breaks and Jackie’s heels were bleeding by the end of it.

Jackie and I made it down to the Calgary folk fest on Thursday and Friday night. The bands of interest on Thursday included The Sadies, City & Colour, and Rufus Wainwright. Jackie and I met a couple of her friends for a drink afterwards. On Friday, we were joined by Kurt, Tracy, and Nikhil in order to see Final Fantasy, Hawksley Workman, and Neko Case.

My favourite performance was by Final Fantasy although it was a very short one that we almost missed; it was on a smaller stage, so the slightly more intimate setting made it better than the other ones as well. My least favourite was Hawksley Workman mostly because I didn’t enjoy his voice. The surprise of the two days was the fact that I actually found myself rather enjoying Neko Case who is a country singer. I believe this is because Crisia plays her music over and over when she’s doing dissections in the lab, so I found myself singing along because I knew all the songs.

As for the folk fest overall, I think I would much rather see many of these artists in a smaller, more intimate venues; however, the likelihood that I would go see most of these artists performing on their own is slim, and the setting of many artists playing over the course of the day allows one to discover something new. I did enjoy the atmosphere of the festival, but many, many people lazing around on the grass and getting up, talking, and walking around made it rather difficult to enjoy any one concert.

On Saturday, the field station had its annual open house. I had stayed up until 3 am after coming back from the folk fest to finish off my poster. Eliott’s hand will be made famous by my poster. The researchers from our field station and another one that belongs to the University of Calgary had to sit around for most of the day answering questions about our research, and in the evening, we had a huge barbeque. Jackie spent most of this day at the beach and then joined us for the meal afterwards. After lots of food, many of the researchers hung around taking advantage of the excessive amount of beer remaining. We started out on someone’s porch, and then moved back to the loft in the lodge, where Chey, one of the cooks, brought out a couple of guitars, and Olga, a field assistant from the other field station, brought out her drum. Jackie took over one of the guitars and the three of them proceeded to jam for a bit.

On Sunday, Jackie’s friends from Calgary came by to hang out at the beach, while I was busy doing work. Afterwards, we set two of our regular grids here and another one in Kootenay, BC before Crisia, Nikhil, Kurt, Tracy, Jackie, and I went on a long car ride to the Radium Hot Springs for an hour. Like the Banff Hot Springs, this was still basically a hot pool, but it was at least bordered on one side by cliffs so that the setting looked a little more natural. It made a rather nice end to the weekend, even though most of us had to wake up at 6 am the next day after only four hours of sleep.

Nikhil and I took Jackie back into Calgary to catch her bus on Monday. We had to make a brief stop at a grocery store so that Jackie had some food for her two days on the bus, and we stopped for lunch at a vegetarian Chinese place. Luckily we decided to take our food to go because we were only able to get to the bus station 10 minutes before her bus was to depart. I saw Jackie off, and then Nikhil and I had to rush to get to a movie theatre before our movie started.

We got to the theatre just in time to miss the regular commercials. We had gone to see The Simpsons Movie. I actually really enjoyed it. It’s been a while since I sat down to watch The Simpsons, but this made me remember why I did.

It was really nice having Jackie around since she can make me laugh and frustrate me with one single sentence. I actually missed her weirdness, and I’ve been told that she brings some of my hidden weirdness out, which is apparently good. I will not, however, miss all her stuff strewn all over my floor. :P