Lake O'Hara Hike 29th Aug '09

Yesterday the ThoughtWorks hike club set off for another adventure.... this time to Lake O'Hara, in British Columbia, Canada.

This was the most amazing hike I have been on so far. To steal JJ's phrase, "Maximum gain for minimum effort". This was certainly true. In a good way.

JJ and Sarah picked me up at 7am in the Kia Ronda partymobile. To my absolute delight I was greeted with a warm bacon sandwhich and a banana! Legend JJ. Went very well with my tea. Whoop.
The base of Lake O'Hara is just under 3 hours from Calgary, about 25 mins past Lake O'Hara. There we met fellow hikers Kim, Kunal and Mike. We all loaded up into a classic yellow school bus that was going to take us up to the lake. Lake O'Hara is in Yoho national park, and access is restricted to 40 or so people a day to preserve the park (see the national park site for more details). There is a private lodge up there and a campsite. Would be a lovely place for a relaxed long weekend.The bus takes you up the 15km to the Lake and drops you off in the area where the lodge and campsite are. Imediatly you are such a beautiful place. Lake O'Hara is a beautiful aqua marine colour and completly clear. We quite enjoyed throwing stones in and watching them go right to the bottom. The six of us trooped off along the edge of the lake and then took a right fork off the lake edge trail through a lovely forest up to Mary Lake. This lake was much greener in colour. The whole valley we were hiking we were surrounded by grey mountain sides and a view behind us out over the rest of Yoho National Park. Due to the restriction on the people allowed up the mountain we were blessed to hardly meet anyone on the trail. Felt very exclusive!

We then started climbing 200m or so up the side of the cliff onto to Opabin plateau. Amazing view on route of Mary Lake, Lake O'hara and the national park. This part was mainly scrambling up a rocky path. Wouldn't suggest going down that route, certainly not if you are scared of heights. Up is much better.
Once up onto the plateau you are greeted with a surreal world. Feels almost crater like, lush green and big boulders. There are a series of smaller lakes that lead up to Opabin lake at the top and the glacier that feeds them all.We were blessed with the most blue skies and lovely sunshine. Not too hot either. Meant that the lakes were super clear and reflecting the mountains in them. Absolutely beautiful. Feel almost spoilt to see that many lovely scenes in the one day!
To see more of the photos from the hike head to my Facebook page here.

While stopping for snacks in Lake Louise on the way home, I mentioned that I had actually been to Lake Louise or Moraine lake near by, so JJ and Sarah declared we were detouring to Lake Moraine and were going to take me there while we were so close. Moraine Lake is also just beautiful and an easy place to visit if you are in Banff. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but as were there in the evening most of the crowds had dispersed. The most striking thing about Moraine Lake is the colour. The photos don't do it justice. It looks as if it has been dyed.
The journey home of course contained the obligitory Anne and JJ roadshow. We sing out hearts out to some sort of cheesy song, accompanied by some awesome dance moves, amusing the hell out of whoever else is in the car. Sarah's tweet sums it up pretty well I feel

rerevisitedHighlight of the amazing hike to Lake O'Hara: couple of Brits singing their little Shania Twain hearts out. Thx @ateabutnoe & @annejsimmons!

The most amazing day had. Next weekend it's off to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia...

Hiking, Stampede, Harry Potter and the Calgary Folk Fest

Stanley Glacier Hike - 11th July 2009

The ThoughtWorks Hike Club headed out on another expedition. This time thankfully in much hotter and sunnier weather than the previous hike to Nihahi Ridge. A pretty decent sized group of us (8 in total) headed out to the Stanley Glacier, which is just in British Columbia, past Banff and towards the Radium Hot Springs.
For a reasonably moderate effort we were awarded with spectacular scenery. We parked the car down on the road and walked up the valley towards the toe(???) of the actual ice flow. The first part of the hike was through a forest that had suffered from a big forest fire a while back, you could still see signs of it today. We crossed the creek and carried on marching up the valley into the more rocky residue of the glacier itself.We didn't make it right up into the ice flow, but we got pretty far up. There were some big waterfalls, many cheeky chipmunks and even a Pika, which is the kind of animal that Pikachu is. Weird looking thing, looks like a cross between a chinchilla and a guinea pig. If thats possible!

It was a really nice day out. Always good to get out into the fresh air and enjoy the beautiful mountains that we are so lucky to have just on our doorstep.

The Calgary Stampede - 12th July 2009

Stampede is a crazy time in Calgary. It seems that for the majority of people living in and around Calgary this is what they look forward for the whole year. Stampede is mostly about the Rodeo competition, but there's also Agricultural displays, dog shows, Chuck wagon racing and a big funfair, all in the heart of downtown Calgary.
Not only do people go to this week long event but all over the city people go Stampede mad. Most workplaces have a mandate of Cowboy attire for the week. Jeans, checked shirts and large belt buckles are mandatory if you don't want to look a muppet. Loads of buildings cover the front of their carefully architectured buildings in hay bales and wooden fences in the Rodeo spirit. There are free breakfasts every day around the city and tonnes of other goings on. To be honest I found the whole thing rather surreal.The food is also pretty bizarre at the Stampede grounds. Deep fried is the order of the day, and deep fried Oreos are considered a Stampede delicacy.

I was pretty excited though at attending my first rodeo competition. The Rodeo heats go on all week and I had managed to get tickets for the final day. They run a very slick operation, having constant entertainment and riders for nearly 3 or 4 hours. There was the steer wrestling, where the rider jumps of his horse and brings the steer to the ground. There was the event where the rider has to lasso the steer, jump of his horse and then tie up the steers feet. Bareback horse Rodeo, Saddle horse Rodeo, bull Rodeo where the riders had to stay on for at least 8 seconds, and were given points based on their style and the craziness of the animal they were riding, and then the Barrel Racing, which I really liked. This was the only women's events and boy could these ladies ride. They had to get round the three barrels and back over the finish line in the shortest amount of time. These cowboys and cowgirls are seriously hardcore. The injuries that they must of obtained over the years must be pretty awful. There's not much that would over get me on one of those bulls let me tell you.Really good day out though and definitely something worth seeing one day of you ever get the chance.


Harry Potter and the Calgary Folk Fest - 26th July 2009
Tim came up to Calgary to visit for the weekend. Wicked as always... We had a lovely weekend of weather so got up to lots of nice things. He arrived nice and early on the Friday, which gave us time to finally go and see the new Harry Potter movie. I quite liked it actually, kind of different to the previous movies, and a little bit too much teenage lovin for my liking but other than that definite thumbs up. We then went to the River Cafe which is a lovely restaurant on Princes Island, where the food is all organic and locally grown and raised and you can eat alfresco in the park. I love the place! The added bonus was that the Calgary Folk fest was going on, in the park so we also had the main stage music to entertain us while we dined.
The Folk Fest - Yes there was very hippy moments but in general the music covered loads of Genres from Jazz to Hip Hop, from Big Band to Gospel and everything in between. It was fun atmosphere and it was a seriously hot and sunny day. There were a bunch of little stages with various people playing and then in the evening there was the Main Stage as well. The main stage has a brilliant concept called the 'Tarp'. First thing in the morning the more dedicated of the festival goers charge to the Main Stage and lay down tarps. Everyone 'respects the tarps' doesn't steal your spot, you can leave your things there all day and they'll still be there when you come back in the evening. Brilliantly one of my work colleagues was great enough to do this and let us all come and share her tarp in the evening. There was a great chilled out atmosphere, and it was just a nice way to spend the evening with a bunch of good friends.
I'm actually currently on a plane on the way to Chicago. Via Minneapolis as the flights were so expensive to go direct. There's some nasty turbulence so as I'm typing this my laptop is moving from side to side!

Good times!!

Nihahi Ridge Hike - June 6th 2009

3 fellow ThoughtWorkers and I headed off for our first hike of the 'summer'. I say 'summer' because it's June and this weekend the temperatures dropped right off and the snow returned. Unbelievably!

I was super excited about the whole thing. Had raided the North Face store in Chicago and MEC in Calgary, for the right gear so I didn't look too much like an amateur. Although the whole time I was buying things to ensure I didn't get too hot ironically.

We drove to Kannanaskis Country which is about an hour from Calgary in the first range of the Rockie Mountains. The closer we drove the more and more snow seemed to appear. By the time we got to Elbow Falls we felt like we had been transported back into mid winter. Or perhaps Narnia.

So this morning I loaded up with sandwhiches, filled up my new Camelback and dug out the thermals. Elbow falls was our first stop. I had also been there in November. But today, in June, there was much much more snow!

We then drove up the river a bit further to the Little Elbow campsite. We headed up the river and then up a steep (to me on my first ever hike) trail towards Nihahi Ridge. We went up 600ft i think in rainy snow and then pulled over for lunch. JJ even had brought Tea, my good English friend.

While we were having lunch the clouds lifted and the sun even came out! We could finally see where we had climbed up to. And there were some amazing views. We really are very lucky to have that sort of landscape on our doorstop.

Another thing that struck me about this trip was how well set up these places are. There are toilets and everything!

The hike down was much easier, although super slippy with the mud and snow. The hike back looked like an entirely different place in the sun.

Then it snowed again! In the space of 10 mins we truely had all seasons. Rain, snow, hail and sun!

It was a really run day out. Great company and great scenery. Lovely to get out of the city for a day, and soak up the fresh air!