For the 4th of July weekend, I went backpacking in Yosemite with Megan and Kenny. We had a really good time! It was a nice trail, the weather was warm, and though there were lots of mosquitoes and coming back out was all uphill I think we did pretty well for ourselves.

On Thursday I busted my butt and got off of work early. I also managed to save a Dublin survey for the last thing in the afternoon, and since I took my car to do it I was already on my way out of town at 2pm! Traffic was backed up anyway though, at least until I got to I-5. I was exhausted by the time I got to the campsite - probably about 6:30pm? I only stopped once, at the lookout to see Half Dome.

I couldn’t park at the campsite, I had to park at the wilderness center, load up my pack, and hike about half a mile in to the backpacker’s campground. It was on a hill above the RV campground, and a bit hard to find. I pitched my tent and dove inside to hide from the mozzies that were trying to eat me alive. Megan and Kenny showed up around dusk. We chatted for awhile before going to bed… I didn’t sleep though.

The next morning we re-loaded packs back at the cars, and then headed out to the trail. It was surprisingly un-crowded, it seemed as though everyone waited until Friday to leave home for the park. The hike was really pretty, along Tuolumne Meadows and Tuolumne River. It was fairly flat to begin, until we reached the canyon and it started heading downhill. I had neoprene braces on both knees, and didn’t have any problems (except that they were effing hot!). The river was gorgeous.. and huge.

Saw lots of pretty birdies on the way! We passed through some aspen, manzanita, and chinquipin - the birdies like these things. It was nice because they were being cooperative, and Megan and Kenny could actually see them too. Those two get a huge thumbs-up on the birding scale, they let me stop whenever I wanted and didn’t yell at me to hurry up!!! Happy Robin.

We hiked past the High Sierra Camp and down onto the flat area (Glen Aulin). There were lots of mosquitoes here, but it was also a perfect place to camp. There were lots of “campsites” people had made - flat areas cleared of leaves and rocks for tents, and little rock campfires with logs placed around them (these weren’t official sites by any means, just modified by other backpackers - we were totally in the backcountry). The site was right next to the river, and there was a nice waterfall around the corner.

Kenny caught us a huge trout for dinner. I had dehydrated food as well… I think I’m not so fond of that stuff. I’d rather just bring packaged soups and stuff from the grocery store. Though I’ll say the veggie ones are better than the meat ones.. the meat always tastes really funny. Western tanagers and other cool birds were foraging in our campsite at dusk, and there was a downy woodpecker nest in a snag right by our cooking circle (she didn’t like us very much). We went to bed pretty early, it was nice and warm and I didn’t even need to haul my rainfly. I slept a little… woke up a lot, but at least I got sleep.

The next morning after breakfast we headed farther down the trail. It was all downhill and followed the river, with huge waterfalls along the way. There were lots of little lizards on the rocks, and cool native plants, and mosquitoes. Not too many other hikers, but a good amount. We stopped at most of the falls for pictures, and to eat trail mix. It got really really hot after about noon, and when we finally reached Waterwheel falls I was pretty tired.

We hiked all the way to the bottom of Waterwheel Falls - I was getting a bit concerned that I wouldn’t make it back up if my asthma kicked in, but I actually did really well. We stopped at the bottom to pump water for drinking and dunk our sore feet in the frigid river water. Megan was funny and fell partway in, but given the temperature this wasn’t a bad thing. We finally started back up, stopping now and then, and we made it back to the campsite by around… oh, 4pm? I also ran into another birder on the way and exchanged bird sightings

Kenny failed to catch us a second trout, but that was ok. I made non-dehydrated soup and ate some other things to avoid the nasty food. The birds came back again, and we made a campfire at dusk. I fell asleep pretty early, but Megan and Kenny stayed up to stargaze. I slept a lot better this time, though I still woke up a lot.

On the last day I struck my tent early, cooked breakfast, and was ready to head out! Megan and Kenny took a bit longer (silly people stayed up late) but we were out of there pretty early. I went a bit slow up the hills, and it was a few hours of uphill before we got to the top of the canyon. It was pretty easy past that point, except that it was still gradual uphill and we’d just walked up a huge canyon, plus it was really really hot. We saw lots of deer in the meadows, and lots of backpackers hiking in. We even ran into a PCT-er walking from Mexico to Canada. We made it back to the parking lot at about 1pm, and I drove home - arrived back at about 6:30pm (traffic was really bad).

All in all a good trip! I’ve decided that I need a hiking buddy that I can share gear with, my pack was way heavy because I had to haul my own tent and cooking gear and such. I think I could also use an Ultralite for weekend trips… my pack is about 5 lbs and that’s quite a lot of weight that I don’t necessarily need. I did well with my other gear… tent, clothes, stove, etc. Megan and Kenny loaned me a bear canister, it was hard to open but I figured out that it worked if I sat on it ^_^

Oh, and what’s with the flying unicorn, you ask? Megan saw some random animal (a marmot), jokes were made that it wasn’t a bear, and it was theorized that it might be a unicorn. A flying unicorn, summoned telepathically to haul Megan and her pack out of the canyon and back to the car. He, he.

I met Stephi and Brian in the Calgary airport. We picked up a rental car and drove to the town of Banff for our first night. Banff is about 2 hours west/northwest of Calgary. It’s a really nice town, surprisingly large, and it was swarming with tourists. All the streets were named after mammals, which was excessively confusing. We managed to find our hostel, and we ate dinner on the balcony of a nice restaurant downtown called the Oar and something. We also wandered around downtown for a bit. There were loads of nice shops, though lots were touristy stuff. It was probably the best shopping in the parks, if anyone else happens to head up that way. Anywho, we stayed at HI Banff. It was ok, the doors in the hallway slammed kind of loudly all night and kept me up. And the room was stuffy. But otherwise it was a nice hostel.

In the morning, Brian got up early and went for a walk. Stephi and I got up, dressed, packed, spent 20 minutes looking for him, and loaded the car before he wandered back. Much harassment ensued, hehe. We drove to the trailhead for the C-level Cirque. It was quite an uphill hike for the start of the trip. Near the top was a natural amphitheater, where we saw golden-mantled ground squirrels and pika. Stephi liked the pika. Like, a lot. Like, obsessive a lot. Brian dragged us even farther down the trail up a really steep part, but I was too out of shape to quite make it.

After hiking back to the car, we drove to Lake Louise where we were spending the next 3 nights at the HI Hostel. This was a freaking awesome hostel. The room had a loft! There was a bunk bed on the bottom floor and twin beds in the loft. We played cards and spoons and were hyper all evening, and ate at the little hostel restaurant.

Quotable Quotes: Stephi and Brian while playing Egyptian Ratscrew.

Stephi: Where the hell’s my queen?
Brian: She’s with me.
Stephi: Oh, so that’s how it is.

Day 1 birdies: Rough-legged Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Northern Flicker, Gray Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, Common Raven, American Crow, Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Dark-eyed Junco

The next day, we hiked to Lake Agnes, the Plain of 6 Glaciers, and around Lake Louise. There were two teahouses along the way, the first was at Lake Agnes and had cute squirrels that jumped on me and stuffed their cheeks with peanuts. We hiked from there up to a viewpoint called the Little Beehive, where Gray Jays dive-bombed us for food. Seriously, they flew at our heads. We hiked from there to the Plain of 6 Glaciers. It was… far. And pretty. Brian at least seemed invigorated. After hiking all the way to the end (I made it!!) and collapsing, we hiked to the teahouse and had tea and cake and biscuits. Then all the way back to Lake Louise. Was very sore and had shin splints by the end.

Quotable quotes - Stephi, reading the map: “Wait, why are these all in kilometers?”

Day 2 birdies: Common Loon, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Gray Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, Common Raven, American Crow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Dark-eyed Junco.

The next day we hiked to Lake Helen. I liked this hike! There were lots of birdies and it didn’t hurt my legs as much as the day before. We saw hoary marmots and more squirrels and pika. The hike took us above the treeline to rolling tundra-type vegetation. We ate lunch at Lake Helen and watched the marmots gambol about. Brian decided to hike (at light speed) up the steep, steep trail to the next ridge and walk around for awhile. Stephi and I napped and watched furry things while he tired himself out.

Stephi and Brian were really, really patient with the birding thing. They rock! They let me wander off for 10 minutes or more hunting birdies. And made up funny names for them when they couldn’t remember what they were called (see blog title). I think they learned the difference between a crow and a raven on the trip though! Maybe.

Quotable quotes: Stephi and Brian during “brains in gutter”-type conversation. In the hostel with the loft.

Brian: “But that would just make me excited, and frustrated.”
Stephi: “You have the whole downstairs to yourself, just be quiet.”

Day 3 birdies: Bufflehead, Barn Swallow, Gray Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, Common Raven, Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, American Robin, Yellow-rumped Warbler (Butterbutts!), Wilson’s Warbler, Western Tanager, Dark-eyed Junco.

The next day we drove from Lake Louise to Jasper. The drive took up most of the day, with a stop at the Icefields Parkway. We took a special bus out onto a glacier at the edge of the Columbia Icefields and walked around. It was cold. But pretty, glaciers have cool blue-colored ice. We also stopped at Athabasca Falls. My shin splints appreciated the day off very, very much. In Jasper we stayed at the Seldom In, which was actually a house where they rented out rooms. It was nice, I slept on a cot on the floor but that was all ok.

After our nice day of rest, we got some advice from the hostel owner as to where to go hiking next and she suggested Bald Hills. This was a nice hike too! It started way down at Maligne Lake and went up an old fire road, though we took a fork farther up that was more of a real hiking trail. I saw a Boreal Chickadee!!! It was so close that Stephi and Brian got great looks at it too. Cute!!! Lifer!!! And a Gray Jay that was dive-bombing us for food came and landed on my hand! Robin the bird whisperer. Towards the top there was lots of ice on the ground, and it got rather cold and windy. By the time we reached the top it was really windy and standing on the hill was becoming unpleasant. We hid behind a bush and ate lunch while watching rain clouds pass over the valley we’d hiked over. We considered hiking farther but the cold weather and lack of interesting viewpoints farther on wasn’t motivating enough, so we headed back. We hiked to Moose Lake instead (Stephi and Brian were hoping to see a moose, but no luck). Then back to our hostel in Banff with dinner and some shopping.

Day 5 birdies: Common Loon, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Rock Pigeon, Northern Flicker, Gray Jay, Clark’s Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, Common Raven, American Crow, Barn Swallow, Boreal Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, American Robin, Wilson’s Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Gray-crowned Rosy-finch, House Sparrow.

Our last hike was the Mt. Edith Cavell trail. We’d been really lucky with the weather the previous day, all the clouds had bypassed our trail and hugged the surrounding mountains. Not so lucky today. There were lots of clouds, and there was snow on the ground. Predictably, the snow got chucked in ball form. I hit Brian square in the face twice! Muehehehehe. Stephi helped. I saw more cool birdies. We went up to one of the viewpoints, and when we got to the rocky habitat above the treeline we saw White-tailed Ptarmigan! Another lifer birdie! Stephi and Brian seemed to like them too, they looked like rocks only they moved. At the top of this trail there was half an inch of snow on the hill and it was slippery hiking up. It was pretty windy and actually snowing. Cold again. We didn’t eat lunch at the top this time, and decided to head back down. At the bottom was a glacier that was melting into a pond/puddle thing that had floating icebergs. We could hear the ice cracking as we hiked. We at lunch there before heading back to the car, and on to Pocahontas.

We stayed the night at Pocahontas cabins, which were really nice. They had heaters and I had a separate room from Stephi and Brian. We went to the Miette hotsprings in the evenings, which was wonderful. They had two giant heated pools and we soaked in them for an hour and a half. Happy sore hiking muscles! Of course, at that point in the week mine were pretty well built up and complaining at me much less than they’d been our first day. But I wasn’t complaining. I won’t go into details about the guys in speedos who shouldn’t have been and the naked european women in the locker room. That evening we sung along with my iPod and played some more cards before going to bed.

Day 6 birdies: Common Loon, Mallard, White-tailed Ptarmigan, Rock Pigeon, Gray Jay, Common Raven, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, House Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco. Also a probably White-winged Crossbill, which would be a lifer if I could confirm it.

Our last day was spent driving from Pocahontas back to Calgary. We stopped in Jasper and Banff for souvenir shopping. I spent too much money on art prints. Really nice ones. Of birdies. And horsies. Our hostel was Auberge Chez Nous in Calgary. It was ok. Reception was excessively annoying, they were positively incompetent when it came to directing us to street parking and we didn’t come back from that for an entire hour. We slept in dorm rooms and had 2 other roomates, though they didn’t bother us any. I actually slept surprisingly well despite general noise (earplugs happy) until I woke up early freezing my ass off due to excess air conditioning.

Flying out of Calgary was a bit more irritating than flying in. You have to take your bag through customs after you check in and get your boarding pass. That and the security line took forever. Stephi and Brian left first, so I stayed with them until their plane boarded. I flew to SLC where I had a long layover. On the flight back to SFO the couple behind me let their toddler climb all over the seats and cough on my head. I have a cold now, and I really wish I’d grabbed the little diseased pest and strung him up from the overhead bins by his ankles. Grr.

For photos of our Banff trip, click here!