Island Rambling Part 1: Mount Klitsa

Kessa headed up to the Okanagan with the kids, which gave me some time to "bach" it out on the Island. I tried to take advantage of the free time and the great weather to do some exploring.

On Saturday, I headed up on an ACC club trip up Mount Klitsa in the Alberni Valley. It is a real landmark in the area. In spring it is a nice snow climb up one gulley and then down another.

Heading up "Russ's" Gully

Upper part of Mount Klitsa from the top of the gully



Looking back fown Sproat Lake. Mount Arrowsmith in the distant right


Group on the upper ridge

Powdercap Traverse

Headed over to the mainland for the May long weekend for a ski with Chris. We thought it would be nice to check out the Squamish-Chekamus Divide. En route up the Sea to Sky Highway we chatted about seeing if we could approach via the new Olympic X-Country Ski area up Callaghan Creek rather than the standard approach up Brandywine. Overall, this worked well for getting up onto the Powdercap Icefield. We came back along a valley further to the south was a little trickier for getting back to the car (lots of canyons and the rivers were running pretty full...had a hard time finding crossings).

Leaving camp on the second day. Note Chris's sporting harness. Given the low snowpack year and concerns over thin snow bridges over crevasses, we put the harnesses on "just in case"

Mount Cayley

The north ridge on Cayley. We had hoped to climb up this side, but it seemed a little sketchy given the warm day and really soft snow. The route has a pretty bad runout on the right.

Lots of fresh avalanche activity with the warming. Note the black dots of the snowmobiles in the bottom. This is a pretty busy snowmobile area. They are officially not supposed to be up the Callaghan in the winter, but the Brandywine area and access back to the Pemberton Icecap is fair game. Also this was outside of the "winter" season. Apparently they didn't mind the sketchy avi conditions so much (note high-marking).

As a consolation we skied up Brandywine Mountain.


Looking over to Mount Fee


On top of Brandywine looking back to Mount Cayley. The rocky stuff on the left is Pyroclastic Peak, adn the sharp spire on the ridge is known as the Vulcan's Thumb. It is unclimbed. The Mount Cayley complex and Mount Fee are extinct volcanoes (make up some of the northern range of the volcanic range including Mount Ranier, Mount Baker, and Mount Garibaldi)

In the backyard

The weather the past bit has been great. We have been spending some time in the backyard trying to get things ready for the summer.


Cherry blossoms ready to burst




Leif watering the plants


I started digging up the back garden bed. I thought it would be good to deal with our compost for a bit, so I pulled it out of the bins and let the compost dry on a tarp in the sun. I startled a large rat in one of the bins, and a couple of our cats gave pursuit. The smell of the compost was pretty pungent (we need to add more plant matter to balance out the food scraps). Part way during the day I noticed a bird-of-prey near the house, and then realized that the smell of the compost had attracted a whole flock of vultures, circling in the sky above our house.




The first salad of the season. I found a few left-over potatoes from last years crop still hiding in the dirt when I dug the bed up. Added in some kale, leek, and some shoots off a cabbage that were a lot like broccoli heads...yummm

Nanaimo Paddling

For some reason I always seem to be taking off far afield for adventures. With the nice weather lately we decided to do some exploring close to home. On the surface, Nanaimo is a bit of a sub-urban sprawl, development nightmare. But if you can get past that, there is some amazing natural places right in town.

Newcastle Island is a Provincial Park just off the Nanaimo Harbour, a few minutes from the house. We decided to take the canoe over there for a picnic, and picked up our friends Guy and Aia at Protection Island on the way.

Loading up the boat from the seawall

At the dock on Protection Island, looking back to the city

On the crossing to Newcastle Island

Leif beach-combing


Duke Point Ferry coming in


Inspired by our Newcastle adventure, we decided to get the canoe out again. Buttertubs Marsh is one of our favorite haunts. Last time we were there we noticed that the water level was pretty high, and could be a fun paddle. After dinner on Saturday, we headed out for a sunset paddle and explored the marsh.

Buttertubs Marsh


It was a great time to visit the marsh, as sll the birds were really active. We saw lots of swallows, and red-winged blackbirds are very common (and create quite an ambience with their calls). We also saw a heron, and an osprey which swooped in on the marsh, and looked like it grabbed a small chick of one of the nesting birds.




It was fun exploring little channels through the reeds. Nemiah had a blast with the cat tails.

Haida Gwaii

I some how managed to wrangle a work trip up to Haida Gwaii by helping out with some land-use planning and watershed issues. I managed to squeeze in some adventures and some visits with Adventurebraids.

Sleeping Beauty Mountain from the Skidegate ferry

Kagan Bay

Looking out to Skidegate Channel and Moresby Island en route to Sleeping Beaty Mountain

The weather got a little snotty up top. I was amazed at the alpine vegetation, which seemed to be very similar to salt marsh grass. Even the mountains in Haida Gwaii feel like you are by the ocean!

Woollen Knickers

Looking back down to Queen Charlotte City. Still a long hike to go!


Tlell River

Tapping the Big Leaf Maple

Our original inspiration for our foray into maple syrup came from the Maple Syrup festival in Duncan. There were some great demos on how to tap trees, and we picked up some supplies to try on our own.

Kessa having some maple sap tea




Train ride at the Forest Discovery Centre around Somenos Marsh

Prepping the holes. I think I drilled them too short (should be 2 1/2" deep) and that affected the sap flow early on

Hammering the spiggot on

The set-up. The hose goes in the jug. In theory you are supposed to check on how the jug is filling up every week or so. Unlike the spring sugaring off out East, on the Coast you can tap the big leaf maple all winter (Nov-Apr). We tapped them in February and in the first few weeks there was absolutely nothing in any of the jugs. At that point we had more or less given up on the project.

Two months later we decided to pull the taps for the season, and found our jugs overflowing with sap. Overall 13L.

We were hoping to get a outdoor burner for summer canning, so it seemed like a good time. The new paint on it let off awful amounts of smoke, and in the time vaccuum of parenting, abondoned this for the stove top and oven in the house.

The fruits of our labour- 2/3 of a cup of sweet, Big Leaf Maple Syrup.

Winter fun

OK. Given inspiration from NatureNerd, Adventurebraids, Curmugeonly and Granny Poppy, I thought I would give this blog thing a go. Seems like a good way to let people know what's being going on with the fam.

So to start things off.....A few pics from some winter fun over the winter. I have been doing a bunch with the Alpine Club on the Island.

In January, did a trip up Mount Phillips in Strathcona Park.


En route...

McBride Peak and Marble Meadows

Towards Mt Myra and Thelwood

Had spring-like weather in January!

Enjoyed the area so much, we heading back for a trip on the other side of the valley up Mount Myra in March.


Summit on Myra

Big Interior Mountain



The grand tour for the season was a week long trip up to Lake O'hara in the Rockies.

We stayed at the lovely Elizabeth Parker Hut.

The Rockies snowpack is pretty frightening. We stuck to flat terrain.


The food was gourmet. Yves with his roast chicken and apple-blackberry crumble


Roger, the historian, enjoying a cup of tea by the fire.


Mount Hungabee


Mount Oderay