We spent a week in Canada at Panorama which is located 18 kilometers up toby creek from Invermere on the Lake near Radium hot springs. We were joined by our good friends Jim and Rosie and Jacob and Margo. On our first day we headed out for a short hike
to see the Hoodoos above Dutch creek.
These hoodoos were created out of sediment that were previously had been deposited on a large lake. Those ridges are only about 6 to 12 inches wide..
All in all it was a beautiful day for hiking.
Then one day we headed off to another valley to hike, but we were under equipped. In Canada you have to carry chain saws to cut down trees to get across streams. We built a bridge across the first stream
but two miles up the road was another stream which was too large to cross without cutting trees. We turned back, but on our way out, we met a hiker carrying a chain saw to lay down a couple of trees to get a cross the creek.
The trails can also as the guidebook states, “be a little indistinct.”
But we did find a beautiful hike that headed into the Earl Grey cabin.
Note to tea aficionados, This is the fourth Earl of Grey and Earl Grey green tea was named after him. He was governor general of Canada an built the cabin for his family in 1909. Earl Grey black tea is named after the second Earl of Grey. The wood on the cabin had a gorgeous texture and color, but there was no place to get tea.
and there was some interesting things in the rooms
but in one of the back rooms we found the nest of something that was very large and not human. I didn’t take a picture because it was freaky and I wanted to get out as quickly as possible. Jim and Jacob were no where to be seen and naturally, I heard the sound of twigs snapping in the forest behind me on the rest of the way hike back to the car. I finally got more comfortable as I caught up with my hiking partners in an open field.
Our way out was blocked by a baby moose, but he didn’t seem too threatening. We figured the plan was to entice us out of the car to take his picture where upon his mother would charge from the woods and crush us leaving our back backs for them to eat from at their leisure. We didn’t fall for it.
One day we headed off into the bugaboos, which were beautiful.
One of the issues in hiking here is that all of the trailheads were20 to 30 miles in the back country along dirt roads filled with large mining and logging trucks. The guidebook states that road etiquette says “you should yield right of way to fast moving large trucks.” Some roads require high clearance ( to get over the ruts) low roof line (to get under the fallen trees) vehicles.
Once we got to the trailhead, we had too wrap chicken wire around the bottom of the car to keep the wolverines from eating the hoses on the car. They are very fond of salt cured rubber.
The mountains were great, that’s the hound’s tooth in the background, Jacob in the foreground
but the car got a little dusty on the drive out.
And one day, since it was raining and we would get wet no matter what we did, we went white water rafting.
It had a lot of ups and downs and was only a little bit wet, but we all had a good time.
It was a great trip with a lot of opportunities to be out of doors, be with friends, eat snacks, and drink wine. What more could
you ask of life?
