2010 - Diamond Head, Spring in the Rockies, My solo "Photo Safari", Chemin de Saint Jacques

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January - Diamond Head
Location of Round Mountain, on the route into Diamond Head

Chuck McCafferty

In early January Ken Willis, Chuck McCafferty, Chris Cooper, and I went up Diamond Head for a ski (or snowshoe ;-)). We even met Steve Grant on our way up the road!

Sadly, there was no call for an AGM this winter. :-(

March - The Rockies
Location of Burstall Pass trail

Chris Cooper and Bob Needham enjoy a chilly break at Lake Agnes.

So there we were with another spring and time on our side. What were we to do? The Rockies called again. Chris Cooper, Bob Needham, and I had done this kind of trip to the Rockies in the spring a couple of times before and we thought with more practice we might get it right. ;-) We spent the first night with Bob and his wife in Kamloops and drove north the next day to Helmcken Falls, which I had never seen before. (picture of the falls on my flickr page) Before spending our first night in Valemount, we drove up to Robson to take pictures of Mt. Robson during sunset. We just couldn't pass up the blue sky possibilities. (picture of Robson on my flickr page) 
The next day we drove on to Jasper, and as the weather forecast was for a snow storm the next day we decided to drive the Icefield Parkway to Canmore instead of the next day. We made stops at Athabasca Falls (picture of the falls) for some photography and the Athabasca Glacier.(picture of the area) 
We had a very enjoyable drive to Canmore and settled in to the Bow Valley Motel. 
The next day we made a trip to Sulphur Mtn, but as the trail up was very icy, I decided to not risk an injury, but Chris and Bob made it fine. Bob and I are now proud owners of slip on "crampons". ;-)
The second day in the area we went to Lake Louise to go up to the Lake Agnes Tea House. It had snowed the day before, making me glad we had driven the parkway the day before, so Chris wore his skis and Bob and I walked up. It was a great day.

Bob Needham skis up the old road toward the
Robertson Glacier/Burstall Pass area.

The last two nights were spent with Chris's friend Richard Wagers who very generously provided us with luxurious accomodations. The four of us spent our last day in the Rockies skiing up the old gentle road towards Burstall Pass and the Robertson Glacier. We went as far as the open area where the trail branches to those two areas. It was a gorgeous day. Richard brought along with fixings to an enormous and delicious sub sandwich!

My solo "Photo Safari"
Location of the Pavilion road

Relics can be found if you look for them

In mid April I took off by myself on a “photo safari”. I knew that I made myself good company, but it did feel a little weird driving up the Fraser Valley towards Hope by myself.

I drove up the Fraser Canyon to Lillooet and over the Pavillion Mountain road to Cache Creek where I spent the night in a campsite. It wasn’t until I drove the Pavillion Mountain road that I found good reasons to stop and take pictures. I also know it was a matter of adjusting to the situation and simply stopping the car and getting out when I saw something interesting. I simply wasn’t very used to doing that. The road came out just a few kilometers north of Cache Creek.

The next day I drove through Ashcroft and then back down the Fraser River to almost Lytton because I wanted to check out the morning light on the large gravel cliffs on the north side of the Fraser just north of Lytton. It was interesting, but not inspiring.

I then made my way along highway 8 to Merritt where there were a number of interesting ranching relatedtopics of interest.

By the afternoon I decided to spend the night in a motel in Penticton and call up my old friend Bob Cuthbert. He very kindly treated me to breakfast the next morning and after that I made my way down to Lanny and Julie Martiniuk’s place in Oliver where I spent the next two nights. Needless to say I was able to sample some of their Stoneboat wines. :-) As it turned out, my high school friend Todd arrived as well. While there I drove up to the ski area at Mt. Baldy where my mom used to ski int he 1940s and discovered some interesting old buildings just south of Oliver.

I went home realizing that doing a trip like this was an excellent idea and should be repeated. It is so wonderful to be able to go off and see what the world has to offer and the time to soak a bit of it in. :-)

Chemin de Saint Jacques 2010

Location of Le Puy-en-Velay

Randy Wheating and Chuck McCafferty cycledfrom Le Puy-en-Velay to St. Jean-Pied-de-Port. 774 km (481 miles) over 22 days from May 30, 2010 to June 20, 2010 . Randy did a great write-up of the trip in www.crazyguyonabike.com. I highly recommend the full read of the article.