Travel – Page 7 – HIKES & HAMSTRINGS

A Ski Weekend Getaway in Montana

I’ll be the first to admit that the winter season is not quite my thing. Don’t get me wrong: I do enjoy winter activities like skiing, both downhill and cross-country, snowshoeing, and winter hiking. But I just don’t enjoy the cold. There’s something about -20 degree weather that forces me indoors and cozy under a blanket. I know I’m not alone in this.

With that said, 2014 is a year of travel and adventures, irrespective of the season, and this past weekend was the first of several getaways planned for the year. Last fall, Robbie and I were at the Calgary Ski Swap in search of gear. Lo’ and behold, we found nothing, but we did manage to come across an awesome winter ski getaway package to Meadow Lake Resort in Columbia Falls, Montana! Continue reading “A Ski Weekend Getaway in Montana”

Going Home to Milton

So after a super quick trip back home, I’m back in Calgary. On the flight back I was thinking about some of the things I managed to do while I was at home. In addition to spending lots of time with my family and cousins, I had a nice walk through downtown Milton and visited the Mill Pond; headed to Toronto for dinner on the bustling night of Nuit Blanche; and took a fall drive on the escarpment.

I realize that I miss the area. I miss home. Milton has grown so much since I was growing up. The city that I remember to have a population of 30,000 has now exceeded 100,000, and it is the fastest growing city in Canada (apparently!). It’s filled with diversity and strong communities in sports and the arts. There are simple things too: I’m able to walk a few minutes to Target to get a Starbucks. It’s no longer Becker’s and Zellers. There was a time when Milton did not have a movie theatre, or Walmart, or laser tag. Now it’s quite the place to be, with a full bus transit system. And I never took advantage of its close proximity to the escarpment where one can find Rattlesnake Point, Kelso, and the cliffs of Mount Nemo. And I miss the fall. A lot. The yellow, orange and red colours that one can see during the fall months in Ontario are gorgeous, and even though I didn’t have spectacular weather during this visit, the colours were still incredibly vibrant.

But then I think about where I am now. I love how I can go home to Milton and visit family when I can. But I also love my life now. I love the relationships I have with people in Calgary. My work is enjoyable and challenging. And not surprisingly, I love the mountains. It’s difficult to imagine what it would be like to move away from here. The world is so full with opportunity that moving away may very well happen, and I know I’ll approach that transition with a positive attitude. But boy is it difficult to imagine a weekend without Kananaskis being 45 minutes away. All in all, the weekend definitely made me think… about life changes, city changes, and how exciting the future seems. Who knows what’s next! And at the same time, I was reminded to just enjoy the moment. While in Milton, enjoy Milton for what it has to offer. Walk to Starbucks. Visit Toronto. Spend time with family. And take a drive to see the fall colours.

Backcountry Camping at Cracker Lake (Part 2)

The next day, we were off to Cracker Lake in the Many Glacier area. After checking out the hotel there and eating our lunch outside, it was time for the backpacking portion of the trip. We gathered all of our gear, adjusted our poles, changed our shoes, and we were on our way. Jennifer had warned us that the first bit of the trail would have a lot of horse poop, but we underestimated how much there would be. It was everywhere! And we had to stop at the side several times because of horse rides that were happening. Nothing we couldn’t handle though…

As this was my first backpacking trip, I had never experienced what it was like to carry that much weight on my back while hiking. There is definitely a difference! Certain muscles in my gluteus area have clearly never been used. Eventually, my body adjusted to the weight and it was smooth sailing, but I was quite tired by the time we arrived at the lake. Also, apparently we had just missed a moose spotting. Argh!

I'm happy to be here! — I’m happy to be here!

Cracker lake was absolutely gorgeous. The campsite was located on the hill beside the lake and near a cliff. The views from the food area and our tents were quite nice: we overlooked the lake with mountains surrounding us, and not too far off, we could stand on the cliff and gaze upon the area from where we had hiked in. After roping up our food and toiletries and setting up our tent, we headed to the food area to mingle and make our dinner for the evening. On the menu: a soy-based veggie pasta sauce and spaghetti. Unfortunately, it was a little dry, but it was edible nonetheless. The night ended with David and I stargazing. The sky was clear and with no light pollution, we could see endless amounts of stars. Off in the distance, a storm was passing through and every now and again, lightning would flash and light up the night sky. It was a beautiful evening with great conversation. I slept a bit better that night, and waking up in the backcountry the next morning felt quite serene.

After hiking out, we were thrilled to return to East Glacier for a hot shower and luxury motel living. We gorged at a Mexican restaurant (Serrano’s) and relaxed afterwards. (I watched a pretty bad movie: “Something Borrowed”. Not so good. At all.) The following day, we decided to spend a few hours driving along the Going-To-The-Sun Road, a must do when in Glacier National Park. Those are some windy roads, but the views are incredible. After that, it was a long drive back to Calgary, where I was exposed to the music of Ben Folds. Not too bad at all!

Roping up our food, and later, cooking soy-veggie pasta

When I think about the trip, it was super quick, but I love the fact that I met Anna, David and Malene at a pretty nerdy workshop/course and we have managed to stay in each others’ lives in some capacity over the years, whether that’s meeting up for vacations, liking Facebook posts, or the occasional random message from time to time. It was awesome we were able to coordinate a little reunion and enjoy each others’ company like it was three years ago :).

So what was the fail of the trip? We basically saw no wildlife. It’s not like I wanted to encounter a bear on the hike, but it would have been nice to see one from afar. Or a moose. Or even bighorn sheep. I think we saw a fox though… or maybe it was a coyote. Either way, I’m sure next time I’m there, I’ll see something. Another fail? Accidentally having blood from my nose bleed drip onto the toilet paper supply. Eww. Gross.

Ready to head back to civilization :) — Ready to head back to civilization 🙂

As with any road-trip, there are always memorable sayings. For posterity, here are some of the “inside joke” quotes from the weekend:

“Perfect, entering Glacier with Beyonce.”

“Is that a flying skunk? No, it’s a magpie.”

“83% of all bear deaths are caused by their only predator, the T-Rex.”

“I hope you don’t get Wood’s Diarrhea.”
“What’s that?”
“Diarrhea in the woods.”
“I think we need a field guide to diarrheas.”

“Do you think the logo is a dinosaur because that’s where oil comes from?”

“You’ve gone from the OC to the BC.”

“‘Cause you know, hiking’s a fashion show. You never know what bear will eat you for your looks.”

“It’s a squarmot.”

About the horses/riders: “They’re so ugly you can’t blame them.”

Sitting in a hot tub being spoon-fed chili. By David.

David- The epitome of rugged and macho, while listening to a college acapella group.

And just like that, the weekend has come and gone. So much fun! Thank you David and Anna for an awesome reunion. I definitely can’t wait to do it again. Next time, it seems we may convene in the east for shenanigans and adventuring. Boston anyone? 🙂

Stopping for a photo on the Going-To-The-Sun Road

Stats:
Hike in: 2:50 – 3:50
Hike out: 11:35 – 2:15
Distance: 6.1 miles (9.8 km) oneway
Elevation Gain: 426.7 m

Reunion at the Dawson Pitamakan Trail (Part 1)

So it seems like just yesterday I was attending Fundamentals of Epidemiology in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I remember running in the beautiful arboretum at the university; visiting its natural history museum and law library; exploring the town and trying restaurants; and taking day trips to Port Huron and Detroit. That was three years ago during the summer of 2010. But the best part of that entire three weeks? It allowed me to experience all of those things with some pretty amazing people: David, Anna and Malene. It’s pretty crazy where you can meet people. I never thought that spending three short weeks in close quarters of the residence hall would lead to me seeing David every summer since then, one of those times being two years ago when we traveled to Denmark to visit Malene. And then there’s this summer, where a surprise e-mail from Anna would initiate a nerd reunion in Glacier National Park.

Requisite Timmies road-trip stop... especially for my American friends — Requisite Timmies road-trip stop… especially for my American friends

It started when Anna, out of the blue, sent an e-mail saying that the PhD was “back on the table”. The PhD had been “off the table” for many years as we all worked, so to receive this was exciting! I thought: “Hmm. Something tells me David will like this information. Maybe it’s on the table for him too.” So I forwarded the e-mail to him, and lo-and-behold, he was in Madison, WI at a graduate studies fair! As it turned out, he was also on the verge of starting his PhD. In the end, Anna chose to leave the big city of New York and begin a PhD this fall in environmental health at Boston University. David decided to leave Seattle and head to the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall to begin his PhD in biomedical engineering. I had just quit my job and was job hunting. Although it wasn’t school, exciting things were on the horizon. Naturally, it seemed like a perfect time for a reunion. And so with one google video chat, a few e-mails, and minimal planning, we decided that we’d all converge in Calgary and drive down to Glacier National Park in Montana for a lovely weekend of backpacking, hiking, and reconnecting. Unfortunately Malene couldn’t make it. She was in the midst of working as a doctor in Greenland during the planning phase and would be arriving back in Denmark at the time of the trip, but she was definitely there in spirit.

On Wednesday, David arrived after spending a few days in Field and Jasper. After our trademark awkward hug, we were off to gather food for the trip. Anna arrived later that night to an “Anna” sign, and with all smiles, we all hugged it out, ready for a weekend of fun. The next day, I sent them to the Calgary Farmer’s Market to get a little taste of something Calgary, and then after I was done work, we packed up the car and drove down to the East Glacier Motel and Cabins. Of course, there was a Timmies stop in there (I couldn’t let my American friends get away without one!) It was quite cloudy and foggy that evening, which made the scenery a bit eerie… perfect conditions for those pesky ghost bears…

David, Anna and I celebrating at the top of Dawson Pass

Friday morning we were up early and off to the ranger station to book our backcountry camp sites. Our goal: conquer the 17-mile (27.4 km) Dawson-Pitamakan Trail Loop Hike over the course of three days. But by happenstance, all of the sites were booked up! After much discussion with Jennifer (aka Jenny, aka Jenn shakes fist), we decided to set up camp at the Two Medicine campground and complete the entire hike in one day. All I can say is that it was exhausting, but an absolutely stunning hike. Our trek would take us around the Rising Wolf Mountain, first along Dawson Pass, and then returning along Pitamakan Pass.

There were many peaks and lakes to view. What was especially awesome was that Dawson Pass rests on the Continental Divide, which resulted in some incredible vistas. Pictures don’t do it justice! After 9 hours, we were back at the campsite, where we feasted on chilli with tortillas, dark chocolate and red wine. What a day! (As a side note: some yogurt and half a banana are not enough to sustain a long morning. I hit quite the wall while hiking, which made the ascent a bit tedious. After lunch, I ended up slipping on a rock and almost sliding down the side of the mountain! I have a nice knee scar to show for it :S.)

The next day, based on Jennifer’s recommendation, we would head to the Many Glaciers area for our backpacking experience at Cracker Lake. There was lots of poop. shakes fist!

Stats:
Start: 10:45 am
End: 7:50 pm (~9 hours!)
Elevation Gain: 895 m
Distance: 27.4 km. Makes for a long day…

Ireland: Farting Our Way Back to Canada

Well, we didn’t really, but that phrase came up at some point, which made us laugh. I think it was in reference to yet another full Irish breakfast that probably didn’t do wonders for our stomachs. I guess in colloquial terms, we could say that we farted around the rest of the trip, because after Killarney, we were exhausted. Just done. As much as we love vacationing, fatigue had set in at that point- from different hotels, to eating at restaurants, to driving, to seeing yet another town. We were zombie-walking. And we couldn’t wait to eat some home cooked meals once we got back to Canada. Alas, there were more sites to see, and we made sure to make a good attempt at finishing the trip strong! I think we did a good job. After Killarney, the next few days went like this:

Day 12: Left for Kilkenny with a stop in Cork for lunch. Checked into the Kilkenny Ormonde Hotel. Went for a walk, found a mediterranean restaurant and had a chicken kebab. Yum!

Day 13: Explored the grounds of Kilkenny castle and visited St. Mary’s Cathedral. Then it was off to see the Rock of Cashel, a medieval cathedral set upon rocks. We headed to Waterford, where we checked into the Faithlegg House Hotel outside of the city and napped. We ventured into Waterford and had a nice dinner at Emiliano’s (bruschetta for a starter, funghi pizza and pasta for mains with tiramisu and pistachio ice cream for dessert). I also ran through a red light! Oops.

Day 14: Not a great breakfast at the hotel. The atmosphere also reminded me of a scene out of the show The OC- a country golf club where everyone seemed to know everyone and there was an air of gossip. Weird. Sent a postcard or two, walked around the Parade Quay and city square in Waterford, then headed to Glendalough (a medieval monastic settlement) in the Wicklow mountains. Then it was off to Dublin to check into the Clarion Airport Hotel and return the car. We were super hungry that day as we didn’t eat for the majority of the day… and it felt like near death ;). We gorged on club sandwiches and scones at the airport, and finally tried Irish coffee, which is pretty much coffee and whiskey. It was strong! That night, we watched Denmark win Eurovision 2013. If I lived in Europe, I’d be hooked!… though I didn’t quite get Romania’s flamboyant entry.

Saying goodbye to our VW :( — Saying goodbye to our VW 😦

The next day, we had an early morning 6 am flight back to Calgary. We were quite tired, and we would be for the next many hours as we had two flights and a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam. As much as I was sad to see the vacation end, I was happy to be heading home. But what a great vacation it was! According to the odometer, we drove about 2255.3 km around Ireland! When coupled with my road trip across Canada, I have been in a car for almost 6000 kilometres in 3 weeks. Needless to say, it was good to take a bit of a rest this past week.

I can’t say that Ireland was at the top of my travel list, but I’m so glad that it was on Robbie’s list. As I began researching, Ireland began to grow on me. Travelling through the country, with it’s greenery, amazing history and wonderful people allowed me to experience Ireland in a way that I never imagined prior to this trip. The vacation was wonderful, and it was really special to share it with Robbie. So thank you, Robbie, for a great trip, and for experiencing Ireland with me! We have so many amazing memories and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.