My Trip to the Mountains...or, how things went wrong.
Time for an update? Oh, I think so.
As you may or may not have been aware, the original theme of this blog was centered around the observation that, upon reflection, work is not actually that fun. I know what you’re thinking…what a startlingly brilliant observation, hereto unknown by Rob’s reading public! Or something like that. Whatever. Anyways, in the interests of alleviating the pain that has become my working life, I booked a couple of days off last week and took my girlfriend out camping to Gregg Lake, which is west of Hinton but just outside Jasper National Park. It’s a beautiful region in the foothills, usually not too busy, and usually with beautiful weather in mid August.
See how I used "usually" like that? It’s called foreshadowing.
We arrived at about ten pm on Wednesday night. It was already pretty dark, and visibility was steadily decreasing. For those of you who haven’t experienced true “wilderness-darkness”, it’s a bizarre sensation, especially compared to “city-darkness”. In the city, even at the darkest part of night, you can find your car, see where to put your key in the door, watch out for that cat that’s running across the road…in the mountains, the phrase “can’t see your hand in front of your face” takes on a whole new meaning. Still not getting it? All right, let’s try a little exercise. I want you to close both eyes. Now try to find your way to the nearest bathroom. Now pretend the bathroom is just a deep pit with a wooden shack over the hole. Now give yourself a slap, cause if your eyes were closed, you wouldn’t be able to read this. Yep, it was a trick.
Anyways, the next day it proceeded to rain. And rain. And rain some more. And then it rained a little. Thank goodness we had rigged up a giant 40 ft. day-glo orange tarp over our campsite. Not that it kept us that dry, but at least the rescue helicopter would be able to see our campsite and air-lift us to safety from the flood. Barring that, we should be able to attract a tribe of “lost children of the 80’s” with our spectacular color scheme. I hear dem’s good eatin’.
In spite of the rain and damp wood, we managed to build a fire which we could huddle around. The majority of the day was spent chopping firewood, leaning firewood up against the fire-pit to dry, feeding the semi-dry firewood into the fire, and poking the tarp with a stick to prevent too much water from accumulating in the middle and dragging the whole precariously balanced structure down around our ears. However, I did manage to cook up a delicious dinner including pan-fried salmon steaks with a creamy lemon and dill sauce on the side, sautéed peppers and mushrooms, and a broccoli and rice side. Not too bad, huh?
Now up until this point I have neglected to mention the other trump card that fate was holding in her fickle little hand. Remember that foreshadowing about it not being too busy? Well, the campsite itself wasn’t too busy. In fact, it was mostly empty. Except for the site next to us. Which housed a furious and foul-mouthed country woman and her brood of (children/slaves/demon helpers). Throughout the day, this woman kept up a steady litany of curses and threats at her misbehaving children, which ranged from two screaming ten or eleven year old boys, a chain-smoking girl I estimated to be about fourteen, and assorted “visitors” that I can only assume were from Hinton and who had driven out to the campsite to curse, drink and blare eighties and nineties music from their Olds Cutlasses. And to top it off, they brought their two dogs. A Rottweiler and a Doberman. I’m dead serious. These people actually exist. Anyways, needless to say the weekend was not quite as peaceful as I had initially hoped for.
We made it through a very cold and rainy night and arose the next morning to marginally better weather. By noon it was starting to feel quite pleasant out, so we decided to hop in the car and drive into Jasper park to do a hike I’d read about. The Sulphur Skyline trailhead is located right next to the Roche Miete hot springs, which suited us just fine. The plan was to take a brisk hike, enjoy the incredible vista that the trail boasted, and return for a soak in the mineral springs of Roche Miete. I’m sure by now you’ve realized that nothing was going exactly as planned this weekend.
We started the hike in t-shirts and hats, walking up an ominously steep looking segment of trail. Unsurprisingly we were soon to realize that the trail only got steeper as we climbed. For two hours we struggled up the mountainside, covering six kilometers in distance and approximately eight hundred meters in height. We reached what we thought was the top, up above the treeline, marked by a few benches and a stunning view. Our moment of accomplishment was quickly snuffed out as we noticed the trail continued up the bare mountainside to the very summit of a series of ridges. It was at about this time that we noticed the clouds of rain approaching over the valley to the south east. With a little grumbling, we took out the raincoats and began to struggle up the last section of the trail. After an agonizing fifteen minutes of zig-zagging up a slope of what felt like at least sixty degrees, we staggered over the ridge and into a truly incredible panorama of the surrounding mountains. It was about this time that the snow started falling. We managed to hunch behind some boulders and eat our packed lunch while taking in the view. Finally, cold and tired but proud of our accomplishment, we headed down the mountains to a welcome soak in the hot springs.
Wow, this is getting long, so I’ll finish off with the fact that in spite of the trials and tribulations we faced, it was an awesome trip. There is something about the mountains that seems to recharge your energy and make you feel incredibly healthy.
That is, until you return to your cubicle. Which brings me to the present…
Catch you around. ;)
As you may or may not have been aware, the original theme of this blog was centered around the observation that, upon reflection, work is not actually that fun. I know what you’re thinking…what a startlingly brilliant observation, hereto unknown by Rob’s reading public! Or something like that. Whatever. Anyways, in the interests of alleviating the pain that has become my working life, I booked a couple of days off last week and took my girlfriend out camping to Gregg Lake, which is west of Hinton but just outside Jasper National Park. It’s a beautiful region in the foothills, usually not too busy, and usually with beautiful weather in mid August.
See how I used "usually" like that? It’s called foreshadowing.
We arrived at about ten pm on Wednesday night. It was already pretty dark, and visibility was steadily decreasing. For those of you who haven’t experienced true “wilderness-darkness”, it’s a bizarre sensation, especially compared to “city-darkness”. In the city, even at the darkest part of night, you can find your car, see where to put your key in the door, watch out for that cat that’s running across the road…in the mountains, the phrase “can’t see your hand in front of your face” takes on a whole new meaning. Still not getting it? All right, let’s try a little exercise. I want you to close both eyes. Now try to find your way to the nearest bathroom. Now pretend the bathroom is just a deep pit with a wooden shack over the hole. Now give yourself a slap, cause if your eyes were closed, you wouldn’t be able to read this. Yep, it was a trick.
Anyways, the next day it proceeded to rain. And rain. And rain some more. And then it rained a little. Thank goodness we had rigged up a giant 40 ft. day-glo orange tarp over our campsite. Not that it kept us that dry, but at least the rescue helicopter would be able to see our campsite and air-lift us to safety from the flood. Barring that, we should be able to attract a tribe of “lost children of the 80’s” with our spectacular color scheme. I hear dem’s good eatin’.
In spite of the rain and damp wood, we managed to build a fire which we could huddle around. The majority of the day was spent chopping firewood, leaning firewood up against the fire-pit to dry, feeding the semi-dry firewood into the fire, and poking the tarp with a stick to prevent too much water from accumulating in the middle and dragging the whole precariously balanced structure down around our ears. However, I did manage to cook up a delicious dinner including pan-fried salmon steaks with a creamy lemon and dill sauce on the side, sautéed peppers and mushrooms, and a broccoli and rice side. Not too bad, huh?
Now up until this point I have neglected to mention the other trump card that fate was holding in her fickle little hand. Remember that foreshadowing about it not being too busy? Well, the campsite itself wasn’t too busy. In fact, it was mostly empty. Except for the site next to us. Which housed a furious and foul-mouthed country woman and her brood of (children/slaves/demon helpers). Throughout the day, this woman kept up a steady litany of curses and threats at her misbehaving children, which ranged from two screaming ten or eleven year old boys, a chain-smoking girl I estimated to be about fourteen, and assorted “visitors” that I can only assume were from Hinton and who had driven out to the campsite to curse, drink and blare eighties and nineties music from their Olds Cutlasses. And to top it off, they brought their two dogs. A Rottweiler and a Doberman. I’m dead serious. These people actually exist. Anyways, needless to say the weekend was not quite as peaceful as I had initially hoped for.
We made it through a very cold and rainy night and arose the next morning to marginally better weather. By noon it was starting to feel quite pleasant out, so we decided to hop in the car and drive into Jasper park to do a hike I’d read about. The Sulphur Skyline trailhead is located right next to the Roche Miete hot springs, which suited us just fine. The plan was to take a brisk hike, enjoy the incredible vista that the trail boasted, and return for a soak in the mineral springs of Roche Miete. I’m sure by now you’ve realized that nothing was going exactly as planned this weekend.
We started the hike in t-shirts and hats, walking up an ominously steep looking segment of trail. Unsurprisingly we were soon to realize that the trail only got steeper as we climbed. For two hours we struggled up the mountainside, covering six kilometers in distance and approximately eight hundred meters in height. We reached what we thought was the top, up above the treeline, marked by a few benches and a stunning view. Our moment of accomplishment was quickly snuffed out as we noticed the trail continued up the bare mountainside to the very summit of a series of ridges. It was at about this time that we noticed the clouds of rain approaching over the valley to the south east. With a little grumbling, we took out the raincoats and began to struggle up the last section of the trail. After an agonizing fifteen minutes of zig-zagging up a slope of what felt like at least sixty degrees, we staggered over the ridge and into a truly incredible panorama of the surrounding mountains. It was about this time that the snow started falling. We managed to hunch behind some boulders and eat our packed lunch while taking in the view. Finally, cold and tired but proud of our accomplishment, we headed down the mountains to a welcome soak in the hot springs.
Wow, this is getting long, so I’ll finish off with the fact that in spite of the trials and tribulations we faced, it was an awesome trip. There is something about the mountains that seems to recharge your energy and make you feel incredibly healthy.
That is, until you return to your cubicle. Which brings me to the present…
Catch you around. ;)
posted by Rob at 4:15 PM
2 Comments:
awesome camping trip, weird that we were both in jasper at the same time but didn't bump into each other.
that trip sounded painful. but oh-so-much better than my life.
even that cubicle sounds really cozy right now. I hate popcorn.
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