Monochrome Guild - Spring Photo Weekend

On the weekend of May 3rd and 4th the Monochrome Guild went on our annual Spring Photo Weekend.  This time around there were only a few of us that were able to go.  Steve and Tanja met at my place and travelled with me.  Margarit came along this year as well.  Mark also joined us, but he had to leave a little later, and was staying a day longer, so drove separately.  The rest of the gang were not able to join us this time.  This year we were travelling to Fairmont Hot Springs in British Columbia. Guild member Andy's family has a house there, and generously allowed us to use it, even though he wasn't able to make it.

We left on Friday afternoon, right after work.  It was about 9:30PM when we stopped in Canmore for something to eat.  By the time we finished up a late supper and a beer, it was around 11:00PM.  We continued on towards Fairmont but when we got up onto Vermilion Pass it was foggy and snowy with limited visibility.  Conditions improved a little when we got down into the Kootenay Valley, but then deteriorated again when we climbed up over Sinclair Pass.  Once we got down in the Columbia Valley it was a lot better.  I think it was around 1:00AM when we finally rolled up to the house at Fairmont.

We got our stuff inside and got organized and the girls were feeling tired and headed off to bed.  Steve and I stayed up for a while and had a couple of nightcaps before turning in around 3:00AM.

At about 7:30 in the morning my phone rang...  It was Mark... he had stopped for the night in Banff and hit the road early in the morning.  He needed directions to the house in Fairmont.  It had rained lightly through the night, and was still raining by this time in the morning.  I decided to stay up, put the coffee on, and set about having some breakfast.  A short time later Mark arrived and a little while after that the others got up.

By mid-morning we headed out for the day, hoping to make the best of the less than ideal weather conditions.  We drove up the valley, through Radium and on to the Bugaboos road near Brisco.  A short distance up this road was a spot that we had photographed at before, though never at this time of day. Right beside the road Dunbar Creek and Templeton River met, and a short distance up the river was Templeton Falls.  This was a neat spot with a small waterfall and a lush canyon.  Margarit had never been here before and quite enjoyed it.  The river bed was pretty torn up with some deadfall and washouts and it was evident that there had been some pretty high water levels here since our last visit. Probably a result of the heavy rains and flooding that hit the front ranges last summer.  

When we finished up shooting at Templeton Falls we made our way back towards Fairmont.  We stopped at an old abandoned amusement park near Invermere, called Playland.  It was probably a happening place back 20 years ago or so with a giant slide, bumper boats, mini golf, a burger stand and a few other attractions.  Now it was all in ruin, vandalized and left to the elements.  We explored and photographed here for a while, but by this point the rain had picked up a little.

Late in the day, as we made our way back to the house, we made a brief stop along Dutch Creek, at the base of Hoodoo mountain.  We explored here a little before heading back to the house for an evening barbecue.  After dinner we were all tired and worn out from a busy day, and the late night driving out.  One by one we went down for the count.  It was about 1:00AM, and Steve and I had put a sizable dent into the bottle of LaPhroig scotch that he had brought along.  Finally we called it a night as well.

The next morning we slept in a little, but the day dawned a lot clearer and brighter.  It took me a while to shake off the cobwebs as we packed up and tidied up for our departure.  Eventually we locked up the house and hit the road.  We headed over to the trailhead for Hoodoo Mountain.  This trailhead was around on the backside of the mountain, and lead up to the plateau on top.  We hiked around up here for a couple of hours and made more photographs.  It is quite an exceptional place and there were numerous other hikers out on this Mothers Day.  By mid afternoon we made our way back down to the truck and reluctantly packed up for home.  A brief stop at the dump to drop off our garbage, and then some lunch at a pub in Radium.  After that we pretty much pounded the pavement all the way home, eventually getting back into the city around 9:30PM.

Mark followed us part way back but he turned off at Castle Junction and headed south to Banff.  He had an extra day off from work and was going to spend Monday photographing in and around the Banff area.  The rest of us were all jealous...

I forgot to bring my digital camera with me on this trip.  I managed to shoot about 25 sheets of film with my view camera, but had no opportunity for any snapshots.  I did take a couple with my phone, and have included them here.  I will post some of the large format images from this trip as I process the film over the coming weeks and months.

This is Hoodoo Mountain from along Dutch Creek.

This was taken with the panoramic feature on my iPhone.

One of the attractions at Playland...

A view of Columbia Lake from the plateau on top of Hoodoo Mountain.

Margarit on a rather precarious perch, photographing at Hoodoo Mountain plateau.

Summer Hockey - Game Four

The Renegades played the fourth game of our summer season on Thursday May 15th.  This one was down at Kinsmen Arena on the south side, against the Chiefs.  For a change, a game close to home for me.  The Chiefs have been in the league for a long time, but the guys they have on their roster this summer are mostly not their usual crew.  They have a weaker team this year and really don't fit in Division V.  I think we scored on every shift in the first period and soon were up by a score of 9-0. The Chiefs were good sports about it and just kept on playing.  It sure was a pleasure to play against these guys, and with better officiating I might add, as compared to the game we played earlier in the week against the Raccoons.

We backed off a little to start the second period and tried to let the Chiefs back into the game.  They scored three goals, and then settled in and started playing with a little more determination and energy. The game got a lot more fun at that point.  We scored a couple late goals and ended up winning the game by a final score of 11-3.  I hope these guys get moved down a division so that they can be more competitive, though I will miss playing against a bunch of guys that have such a great attitude.

Day Seven in Utah, and the trip home...

Saturday April 26th was our last full day in Utah.  We had hoped to get out and do some hiking one more time.  But, it was not to be....  It rained overnight, heavily at times, and was overcast and drizzling when we got up in the morning.  It was very cool, and at one point the rain turned to flakes of snow.  This much needed moisture would make it too wet for any hiking.  So we resigned ourselved to getting everything packed up for the return trip home.  We tidied up the house and then for a while went into town for lunch and to check out a few shops.  It was a bit of a depressing day not only because of the weather, but because our adventure was coming to an end.

Over the previous several days we had regularly seen some rather large spiders around the house. Most of them were outside on the patio and in the yard, and one was in the garage.  I took photos of them on a number of occasions and here are two of the best ones.  Although they were fairly large, the photos make them look bigger than they really were as there is nothing for scale.  These guys would have been between 1-1/2" and 2" in diameter, including the legs.

The next morning we got up and hit the road for home.  The weather front that had rolled through brought rain and snow to most of the western United States.  The mountain peaks were all white with fresh snow and in some areas there was snow lower down.  We drove all day long, up through Utah, passed through Salt Lake City and into Idaho.  In northern Idaho the weather deteriorated and we drove through some rain, snow and white out conditions.  We eventually made it as far as Helena, where we rented a room and stopped for the night.  Helena our daughter was thrilled that they had named a small city, the state capital of Montana, after her.

The next morning we continued on back to Canada.  It was still windy and cool, but the rain and snow had stopped and the skies were beginning to clear.  We rolled through Great Falls and on up to the Canada/US Border.  The Canadian border staff are so much friendlier than their American counterparts. After the usual brief question and answer session we were sent on our way.  We branched off at Warner and took Highway 36 north towards home.  This would allow us to bypass Lethbridge and Calgary.  We headed through Taber and on up towards Hanna.  Before we got that far we turned west and headed through Dorothy, towards Drumheller.  We made a brief stop in Easst Coulee, so the girls could see the commerical building that I am interested in purchasing.  After that it was just a very routine drive back home.  We arrived at the house in the evening, exhausted, but happy about the great few days that we had spent together.

Day Six in Utah

Friday April 25th was our sixth day in Utah.  We had arranged for Brent of Paria Outpost to take us back out into the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, just over the Utah border into Arizona.  We wanted to spend some more time exploring the archaeological sites in this area of the Paria Plateau.  We met Brent at the Outpost at 8:30AM and packed all our gear into the truck.  Soon we were on the road. We headed back down the House Rock Valley Road, and soon were over the state line in Arizona. Brent turned off onto one of the many sand trails that criss-crossed the area, and headed off across country. Our first stop was at the Pinnacle Valley Well.  This site was in steady use back in the day when the local ranchers used to keep cattle pastured here.  I set up my big camera to take a photograph and while I was doing that the girls were kept busy trying to capture the lizards that were living around and under the old bunkhouse.

Later on we continued further out and headed towards an area called the White Knolls.  Our first stop was at a fantastic pictograph site.  Pictographs are rock art that is painted onto the surface of the rock. Petroglyphs are rock art that is carved or pecked into the surface of the rock.  Everything that we had seem up to this point in our trip was a petroglyph.  This was our first pictograph site.  This place was really cool, and like a number of other locations that we had stopped at, there were pottery fragments and stone flakes from tool making, all over the place.  I find this really fascinating, that the Anasazi disappeared almost 1000 years ago and that these remnants of their presence call still be experienced.

We had our lunch here at this spot before hiking up to see the pictographs up close.  Later we continued on for a short distance to another butte.  Brent was fairly certain that there was a pueblo ruin on top of this butte.  We scrambled up to the top and wandered around for a while.  Brent eventually realized that the ruin was on the next butte over, so we just headed over that way.  The area was beautiful, with stone slabs, sandstone formations, pinyon and cedar trees and just all sorts of things that were so new to us.  On one layered sandstone slope I found these cool little clumps of vegetation that I did not recognize.

Eventually we found our way up onto the neighboring butte and found the pueblo ruin.  It was simply amazing, to think that people had lived here so long ago.  Brent theorizes that this was built towards the end of their time as it is up in such a high, difficult to access location and that it may have been built here for defensive purposes.  Other than the stone walls there is little left here in the way of artifacts or evidence that anyone lived here for any length of time.

By this time it was getting to be fairly late in the afternoon.  We tried to find our way to another ruin that Brent was aware of, but the Bureau of Land Management has closed the road in.  We drove a little further south to the rim of the Vermilion Cliffs.  But, the road ended about half a mile from the rim, and the girls were getting too tired to do any more walking.  So, we reluctantly turned back and made our way back to the Outpost.  It took nearly two hours to drive out of the back country, return to the House Rock Valley Road, and eventually make our way back down Highway 89.  When we finally arrived it was getting quite late.  We said our goodbyes to Brent, and vowed that we would be back again next year.

Day Five in Utah

Day Five in Utah was kind of an off day for us.  We had no specific plans, and everyone seemed to want to sleep in a little.  This was Thursday April 24th.  We checked out the rock shop in Kanab, before heading north up to Bryce Canyon National Park.  The park is a remarkable place and the natural scenery is spectacular, but it is a little too developed and too busy for my liking... and this was the off season.  We stopped at Sunset Point and eventually found a parking spot.  Then we wandered along the rim of the plateau for a while.  By this time everyone was getting hungry so we headed over to the nearby Bryce Canyon Lodge for lunch.  They had a nice restaurant there with some good food, at reasonable prices.  After lunch we headed over to the nearby Queen's Garden Trailhead.  It was a busy trail, with lots of tourists, and not what I would call a "natural" experience.  We wandered part way down the trail, took a few snapshots, and then headed back up.  I guess this sort of paints us with that "typical tourist" brush too...

Later in the afternoon we headed back towards Kanab.  We made a brief stop along the highway and I photographed an abandoned homestead north of Glendale.  My only image made all day with the big camera.  We stopped at a rock shop in Orderville on the way home, and then made it back to our house by evening.

  

Summer Hockey - Game Three

The Renegades played our third game of the summer hockey season last night, May 13th.  This was up at Castledowns Arena in north Edmonton, against the Raccoons.  This team has been a challenge for us in the past.  They only play summer hockey, and are not part of the league in the longer winter season, For some reason the league officials seeem to be convinced to spot this team into one of the lower divisions every season, despite the fact that they play above the level of most of the other teams.  After winning their first few games they inevitably get moved up to a higher division.  To make matters worse they are a really dirty team, that demonstrate poor sportsmanship.  They take a lot of cheap shots behind the play, and when they get ahead, they tend to showboat and flaunt themselves.  Needless to say, we are not thrilled to play against them.

Last night was no exception.  We played pretty solid hockey for the first two periods and were actually clinging to a 3-2 lead late in the second.  But, true to form, these guys took enough cheap shots that we eventually got agitated and upset and began to take some penalties.  The referees that were assigned to this game were among the worst in the league, and their inability to manage the game only made matters worse.  The game got out of hand and the Raccoons went on to score five unanwered goals. There was a bemch clearing "near-brawl" at the end of the game.

I filed a protest with the league over the poor officiating and the poor sportsmanship of our opponents. I have no issue with losing a game fair and square.  After all, my team is playing for fun and for exercise.  But there is no reason to have to put up with the kind of crap that we were faced with last night.  The other teams in our division are pretty decent to play against, and I really have no issue with them.  If we never play another game against the Raccoons, it will be too soon for me...

Day Four in Utah

On our Fourth day in Utah we had an outfitter hired to take us out onto the Paria Plateau.  I had arranged for Paria Outpost to take us out onto the plateau; the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, to explore some of the archaeological sites, as well as the White Pocket.  The Outpost assigned their resident archaeological expert Brent, to take us out for the day.

We headed out in the morning, down the House Rock Valley Road, over the state line into Arizona, and east into the Coyote Buttes area.  We made a brief stop to admire some cactus blossoms along side the sand road into the area.

Our first stop of the day was at a petroglyph site called the Traversing Man Panel.  We had to hike a short distance from the trail, up a slope, to the base of a sandstone face.  This was a spectacular panel with some large petroglyphs, dating back to the 1200's.  We spend some time here absorbing the history of the place and making some photographs...

We continued on a short distance to the west.  After a brief stop for lunch, we walked over to a second site called the Corn Cob Cave.  This was immediately adjacent to the White Pocket.  This sheltered area showed evidence of years of fires in the charred stains on the ceiling of the cave.  There were also stone flakes from the manufacture of tools, and corn cobs nearly a thousand years old, buried in the sand.  There was a small petroglpyh panel on a vertical sandstone face immediately beside the cave.

From here we walked a short distance over to the White Pocket.  There were numerous other groups of hikers out for the day as well, most with hired guides.  We wandered around for a while and enjoyed the remarkable scenery.  Brent was an exceptional guide.  He knew the area very well, and had a personal interest in archaeology.  Being a grandfather himself, he had a great understanding of the needs and interests of our girls.  As they began to get a little bored with what we adults were interested in, Brent took the girls over to a place he called the "Lizard Diner".  This was a spot where lizards tended to congregate on a sloped rock face, catching insects that were flying by.  The girls soon were engrossed in attempting to capture the lizards that frequented this spot.  To their credit they eventually captured a few to hold on to and admire, before they were convinced to release them...

As the afternoon wore on, we eventually left the White Pocket and continued on.  Brent took us to a third petroglyph site, this one known as the Maze Panel.  It was another short walk from where we parked the vehicle to this spectacular site.  This one was particularly remarkable because it was so extensive, and so free of graffiti.  We spent quite a bit of time here, again enjoying the history of the place, and making yet more photographs.

By this time it was getting to be late in the day.  We had already kept Brent out a couple of hours longer than he was accustomed too.  We appreciated his consideration and dedication, and he seemed to appreciate our interest in the archaeology.  This day convinced us that we needed to get back out and see more of this spectacular area.  Before the day came to a close we booked a second day, later in the week, when Brent could take us out again.

Summer Hockey - Game Two

The Renegades played our second game of the summer season on Thursday May 8th.  We were back out to Callingwood Arena, to face off against a new team, the Nighthawks.  We didn't do as well this time and ended up losing the game by a score of 7-5.  Once again I played up on the wing.  I think I have to move back to my usual spot on left defense.  I just feel so much more comfortable back on the blue line, not to mention the fact that I am getting too old for all the skating that forwards need to do.

Summer Hockey - Game One

I will continue posting the photographs from our recent trip to Utah over the coming days.  At the present time we are back home and have reluctantly returned to school and to work.  The summer hockey season started up for my team, The Renegades, this week.  Mostly our roster remains the same as it was last winter as we are a fairly established team.  We played our first game of the 15 game regular season on Tuesday night, at 10:15PM, at Callingwood Arena.  

Since we returned home from Utah the weather has been rather cold, wet, snowy and windy and this night was no exception.  The temperature hovered just above the freezing mark and there was a brisk wind.  The couple of days prior had brought us a skiff of snow.  Quite a change from the mild conditions we had just enjoyed down south.  Perhaps it is the stupidity of playing hockey at this time in the season that has cursed us with this winter-like weather.  

In any event the Renegades played a game against a new team called the Coyotes.  We were short one player and had a rather odd mix of players in somewhat mixed up line combinations, and a backup goaltender to boot.  I actually ended up playing the game as a forward on one of the wings.  I have played defence for so many years that I found myself really lost and confused trying to play up front. But we played a solid game and continued to score through all three periods, eventually winning the game 5-0.  We play a second game later this week so hopefully we can continue this winning streak.

Day Three in Utah

Tuesday April 22nd was our third day in Utah.  We got up at a reasonable hour, had breakfast, and hit the road.  We had decided that on this day we would explore Wire Pass, so the girls could experience a slot canyon.  We headed east on Highway 89 for about 40 Miles to the House Rock Valley Road.  Here we headed south for about six miles to the trailhead.  The Wire Pass Trail and the trail to The Wave share the same starting point.  Access to The Wave is limited to 20 hikers per day, and is subject to a lottery process for the available permits.  I hiked the trail to The Wave when I was here last fall and felt that it was a little too long and strenuous for the girls.  We decided to do the Wire Pass hike instead. This trail requires registration and a permit at the trailhead, and the payment of a fee of $6 per hiker, but there is no lottery process and the number of hiking permits is not limited.  

The trail sets out from the parking area and follows a wash.  After about a half mile the trial to the Wave branches off to the left, crosses the border into Arizona, and continues to the south.  This entire area is within the Coyote Buttes, and is all part of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.  We stayed in the wash and continued on towards Wire Pass.

It is easy to see why there are many warnings about not hiking in the area if rain is threatening.  A large area of uplands near Bryce Canyon, and a significant portion of the Paria Plateau drains down a series of similar washes and eventually into the slot canyons of Wire Pass, Buckskin Gulch and the Paria River.  If there is a significant amount of rainfall, a large volume of water drains off of this rocky landscape and is funnelled into these narrow canyons.  While hiking we saw evidence of logs and debris jammed into the canyons high above us, left behind by previous flash floods.

Here we are setting out down the wash, not far from the parking area.  And, a short time later, the girls stopped in this sheltered spot for their first break.

We continued on down the wash for another half mile or so, and eventually got to the point where the wash entered the slot canyon of Wire Pass.

Wire Pass is a relatively short slot canyon.  It starts out rather small but gets significantly deeper as you get further along.  Within the slot canyon there are a couple of places where logs and rocks from prior flash floods have become lodged in the canyon.  This has resulted in a built up of sediment behind the dam, and a rather significant drop to continue along the canyon.  Both of these places had a vertical drop of about six feet and it was a bit of a scramble to get down over them, and would prove even more difficult on our return back up the canyon.  In some places the canyon was so narrow that my camera back pack was dragging on the walls on both sides and I had to sort of turn myself a little sideways to slip through.  Eventually we exited the first canyon to a bit of an open area, and then a short distance later entered a second slot canyon.  This one was much shorter but much deeper.  This one opened up to a sheltered alcove with a large sandstone arch and here met Buckskin Gulch, another slot canyon that ran in a direction perpendicular to Wire Pass.

There were a number of other hikers moving down the slot canyons at the same time as us, but it was not overly busy or crowded.  I made a couple of stops to take some photographs with my view camera.  It was a bit cooler on this day, and the wind was brisk at times.  It really picked up the sand and grit and drove it through the narrow canyons.  It was challenge to keep the camera gear clean and functioning properly.  I did a thorough cleaning later in the day when we got back to the house but for days later some of the camera movements and lenses were grinding with this sand.  At one point when I was shooting in the upper Wire Pass I laid my darkcloth down on the ground.  In the 10 minutes or so that it took me to meter the scene and make my photographs, there was a significant accumulation or red sand on my dark cloth.  Challenging and frustrating to say the least.

Buckskin Gulch comes down from the northwest, meets Wire Pass at this spot that I call the Confluence Arch, and then continues on to the southeast.  Eventually it meets the canyon of the Paria River, which continues on for about 30 more miles to the Colorado River.  Some people hike this entire distance but it is a long difficult hike of several days.  On this day we just hung around the confluence area for a while and explored a short distance up Buckskin Gulch before eventually heading back to the trailhead.

Near the Confluence Arch there is a small petroglyph panel that is really fascinating.  We stopped to admire it and took several photographs.  This panel is the work of the Anasazi and dates back to around the 1200's.

At one point I set up my view camera to take some macro photographs of the petroglyphs.  While I was doing this, Margarit and the girls wandered off to explore Buckskin Gulch.  Picture this... I have a large wooden tripod set up.  My view camera with a large lens is set up on the tripod, and my backpack with the rest of my gear is spread out on the ground beside me.  The camera is pointed at the sandstone wall on which the petroglyphs are carved, at a distance of about 6 feet from the wall.  Some bone-headed tourist walks by me, looks at me, grunts a hello and continues on.  Then he stops, turns back, comes up to me and says... "isn't there supposed to be some sort of archaeological site around here somewhere?"  I just looked at him, pointed to the sandstone wall and the petroglyphs and said, "exactly what did you think I was photographing?  The petroglyphs are right here!"  Sheesh...!

By this time it was getting to be late afternoon.  The sky was getting cloudier, though it did not appear that rain was imminent.  The wind was remaining brisk and it was cooling off a little.  I packed up my camera gear and we made our way back up the slot canyons to the trailhead where we had parked.  From there it took us about an hour to drive back up to the highway and back to the house in Kanab. That was the end of our adventure in the slot canyons for this day.  The girls did really well with the hiking and we were looking forward to more exploring in the coming days.