Started the day by opening the curtains to sunshine and Mount Robson.
No need to trek to the top of a pile of glacial moraine rocks this morning.
Swift Current Creek, which runs in front of the lodge lives up it it's name, so hardly a babbling brook, but a relaxing sound nonetheless. The rock flour in the creek empties into the Fraser River and is carried all the way to the Pacific Ocean, over a 1000km away. The geology around here is slightly different, with lots of quartzite in the Mount Robson rocks, this is very hard so doesn't wear away, instead it breaks off in big blocks after freezing and thawing. Consequently creating...waterfalls.
Outside on the balcony we watched some Chickadees in the conifer trees. Lack of photos due to their flitting activity, the little so-and-sos didn't stay still long enough. A partial view was obtained.
A different bird? Or still a Chickadee?
We have been eating breakfast but hadn't done an update in a while and thought you might be missing them. This morning the meal was a communal affair, but not too chatty as two couples were German who didn't speak much English, and one Canadian. They had all been there the previous day so managed to communicate a good place for a short 'hike', 9km return, with a 150ft gain in height. The Canadian couple had hiked the same trail but carried on further up the side of Mount Robson doing 18km one way, with an elevation gain of about 400ft - decided to give that a miss. We were assured that we wouldn't need our newly honed bear aware skills.
The meal consisted of fresh fruit and yogurt, followed by both a vegetarian and non vegetarian version of eggs benedict. First day, didn't want to risk the tea, in a flask on the table, so had coffee. Breakfast was delicious and filling but unlike others, not enough to fuel us all day - not a complaint merely a comment!
The start of the trail was about 5km from the B&B, and we didn't walk this as well - not that much of a glutton for punishment. The whole walk to Berg Lake was called the seven waterfalls walk, we were only going as far as Kinney Lake. It followed the course of the river, but undulated so you weren't always alongside the river. Although a well worn track, there were only a few people around. Lots of birds were heard but all very difficult to see. However, we did have quite a variety of flora, cedar trees, maple trees, wild raspberries, squirrels and an abundance of different fungi causing many stoppages for photos. Some of the flora were very familiar and others not so much so.
Once again the local Dippers proved to be so secretive we didn't see them. Some of the trees have started turning yellow, orange and gold so the walk along the river was colourful in many places. The pictures just don't do them justice.
Mount Robson from the track - showing a band of sandstone laid down when this mountain was part of the seabed x million years ago.
River gave us the opportunity for playing giant Pooh sticks.
Spot the branch.
Eric had to be encouraged to cross the first bridge as he'd heard these stories about trolls (now I wonder where that was from?). Suggested he shouted YO TROLLS, well it works for bears so why not trolls.
Reached the lake and the picnic tables. The lake was formed by glacial deposits forming an alluvial fan across the river, thereby damming it.
Eric regains his confidence.
Lake Kinney.
As our current B&B is in the middle of nowhere and we weren't organised enough to stock up on picnic provisions the night before, we broke out the emergency trail mix bars and water. The trail wasn't quite as flat as we'd been led to believe so we needed to re-fuel after our exertions. The return was along the same path, but still managed to spot some things we missed on the way up, including some horsetails, orchids and an ink cap fungus. A very diverse route.
A vegetarian bears ideal picnic site? We checked around shouting YO BEAR before taking the photo just to make sure.
Ink cap fungus
An interesting insect.
More and more fungi...you're allowed to skip ahead.
Drive to Jasper to pick up our picnic for the journey to Banff tomorrow. On the way back we saw both moose and black bear from the car - nowhere safe to stop and camera in boot!
Clouds had rolled in by the evening - but made the mountains look very atmospheric. Swift Current Creek in the foreground.