Skyline Trail - Jasper, Alberta, Canada



Jasper National Park: Our destination for Week 1 for some backpacking, kayaking, and day hiking!



On our way into Jasper, we found this lone black bear munching along the road.

Kayaks in tow for a backcounty kayak trip in Maligne Lake.

Glorious. Free.

In Jasper, we wanted to hike the Skyline Trail. Since the middle was still snowed in, we opted to hike as far as we could for two nights and some day hiking. At the start of the trail was a beautiful old burned area.

Thank goodness for bridges. This was during their big snow melting time.

Airing out our feet at base camp.
This was at Little Shovel Pass Camp.

This is bear country; both black and grizzly. You have to hang your food when not in immediate use!

Tent Sweet Tent: Our home for the next 21 days or so!

Did we mention: Glorious and Free!

This woman is 5.5 months pregnant!
Crossing snowfields, climbing, and always trying to make me keep up...My hero!

Still too early for wildflowers, but we found one or two.
Anyone know what this is?

Little Shovel Pass.

Not a bad place to have lunch!

We stopped in the meadow/valley between Little Shovel Pass and Big Shovel Pass.
They was an ice cornice blocking Big Shovel Pass, so this was the end of the line for us.

River crossings too!

Seriously...you can't stop her!

Building a cairn on Little Shovel Pass on the return trip.

Self Portrait...as always!

Happy....Tired Campers!

Retrieving the food bag for breakfast!

Our next phase in backcountry kayaking in Maligne Lake...

Ozette Triangle - Backpacking WA Coast, pt ii

making our  way down 3 miles of the beach to sand point.

at times, hiking was slow because of trees that had washed up.

nothing beats walking along tidal pools on a brisk
washington-coastal morning!

andrea looking for starfish and other aquatic creatures in a tide pool.

at times we had to crawl over, or under, huge trees!

we were surprised by how much plastic had washed up on the beaches.
some folks created art-like scuptures next to their camps, we just
realized, and felt guilty, of how much plastic we "consume" at home.

at wedding rocks there are legended to be over 50 petraglyphs.
we only found a few, but what we saw was impressive.

this was our favorite 500 year old petraglyph!

on the coast, you always have to be aware of the tides.
at some points, the tide is so high that there are no beaches.
the above marker is a 'hedland marker.' it marks an area that
a hiker must leave the beach.

deer shouldn't be on the beach; there's nothing for them!
but we saw two! they hiked with us for a mile or so.

a typical coastal rock/island/outcropping.

at sand point and ready to leave the beach for a 3 mile hike through the
woods to our car.

andrea thought she'd be sly and sneak a kiss; i noticed it. :)
notice the hedland marker in the back ground.

we highly recommend this short hike for everyone. next time we make
 the trip we'll let folks know!

Ozette Triangle - Backpacking WA Coast

out to the olympic penisula to backpack the ozette triangle.

there was a great boardwalk that lead us over the boggy marsh.

keeping a close eye on the decaying boards.

across the meadows where lars alhstrom was, at one point, the furthest west settler.

gazing out, trying to to imagine the homestead that once stood here.

through more rain forest and marshes.

arriving at the coast, we had to cross a small stream and find a campsite.

we 'dropped-pack' at our campsite and saw what the coast is about.

not a bad location for a night's sleep.

taking it all in.

after camp was setup, we went exploring.

rocks in near-perfect spherical goodness.

not even out here can we get away from home repairs!

happy!

a little tidal pool with a little crab.

brooke found a large tree to climb.

it's amazing what washes up, and how it washes up.

andrea, pondering the existence of the tree roots. :)

back to dinner. we're sure glad we decided to pack in some pinot gris!

 enjoying the post-italian dinner beach fire. rough life.

waiting for the sun to go down, enjoying the sounds of barking sea lions on a distant island.

.perfect end to a perfect day. we dosed off in our tent listening to the waves crash against the shore.