Training Archive: SliceIn the 7 days ending 2007-08-25:
| [csv] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||
| S | M | T | W | H | F | S | |||||||
Friday Aug 24 | ||
| Trekking 3:00:00 [3] | |
| Plain of 6 glaciers trail. | ||
Wednesday Aug 22 | ||
| Trekking 5:15:00 [3] | |
| Another blissful day in the rockies. This time I was lucky to catch a spot on the covetted Lake O'Hara bus. I don't blame the Park for controlling visitors to this amazing place because it was truly one of the most spectacular places I've ever seen. A georgeous emerald blue lake surrounded by magnificent peaks. Summer is coming to a close here and the freshly fallen snow on the mountain tops only added to my the awesomeness of the scenery. I started the day from Le Relais - a little cabin at the lake which serves delicious coffee and homemade carrot cake!
I decided that I'd do all the alpine hikes in the area with a possible side scramble up Schaffer Peak. You can see a map here: http://image59.webshots.com/559/4/98/71/2211498710... It's not a very good copy but you can see the route that I took. It's pretty much the outer perimeter of the main trail system surrounding the lake. I started on the Wiwaxy Pass trail which provided some excellent views back down on the lake and across to Mount Schaffer. This is a picture from midway up the ridge: 
I made my way back down to Lake Oesa and then around the Yukness Ledges to Opabin Lake. The alpine routes were fun and technical and rocky and the valleys were lush green pastures full of wildflowers and cute little pikas! Here's a picture of the valley: 
I followed the trails through the meadow to the All Soul's alpine route which brought me past a huge marmot (!!) and to the base of Mt. Schaffer. The plan was to scramble up to the top, but I chickened out about a third of the way up. I'm looking for volunteers to come back with me next time so I'm not so sketched out up there by myself! I was scared that I was going to climb up something that I couldn't get down and I would turn into some strange hairy mountain woman and have to live up there for the rest of my years with only occasional visits from those who sought out my eternal wisdom. Oh, and I stopped on the highest point I got to where there was a nice little ledge and I took this photo: 
Okay, so then I scooted down the painfully steep switchback trail down to Schaffer lake and the meadows below. I did a little bit of running around the meadow trails before heading back to Lake O'Hara and the bus back down to the highway. I truly loved my day up at Lake O'Hara. Sitting up on the Schaffer ridge I didn't really want to come down knowing that it would probably be the last time for a while that I would get to hang out peacefully such a beautiful spot. I didn't really run much during this day - pretty much only some running in the meadow trails. Most of the trails I was on (all the alpine trails) were either extremely steep or technical and rocky. Or, I was just so blown away by the beauty of it all that I'd rather just stand there with my jaw agape anyway! I think we should talk to the Ontario government and see about getting some mountains brought out from the west. These westerners are REALLY hogging them all to themselves!! :) | ||
| C • Great Report! 4 | ||
Monday Aug 20 | ||
| Running 5:05:00 [3] | |
| Amazing day up in Yoho Valley. Drove from Golden into Field for some coffee and a muffin before venturing up to Takakkaw Falls parking lot to begin my loop. The weather was looking kinda questionable with periods of raininess and a low ceiling so I made sure to add a warm layer and some windbreakers to my little pack. I started off up the Whiskey-jack Falls trail and climbed up to the Iceline Trail. Iceline was beautiful and great for running. The trail was relatively flat once it got up above tree line and fun with twists and turns and rocks to skip along. Eventually made my way back down into the trees and to Stanley Mitchell hut where I checked out the sweet ACC cabin there. Very cozy spot to take a break and it was tough forcing myself back into the wet grey day! Here I had route decision to make and I opted for the extra challenge of making my loop longer and harder by heading up and over the Whaleback Trail. I ran into a couple of hikers who were on their way down from the trail summit who described a pack of "aggressive" mountain goats up top. The woman said that she'd had to climb the tree to get away from them. I hummed and hawed over whether I should continue or not but finally decided that I'd never heard of death-by-mountain-goat before so I continued on up and took my chances. Rounding the corner at the lookout at the top I saw the three white beasties who were busy munching on some ground cover and little trees. I tiptoed by on the trail and as soon as I got out of their eyesight I ran quickly away before they spied me and decided to switch to carnavore-ism!
Anyway, I ended up down at Twin Falls chalet which was built in the 1920s by the CPR for hikers. Cute little place and full of tourists. If I'd brought some money I could have had afternoon tea at the chalet too! The trail headed pretty much straight down the valley from there and after a few ups and downs I ended up back at the car at Takakkaw Falls. It was a totally amazing day. One of the most beautiful and inspiring runs I've ever had!!! According to the trail map I probably did about 1500m of elevation gain and about 29kms of trails. 
 | ||
| C • Fantastic! 5 | ||
