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iron
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Location: southeast kootenays
iron
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PostSun Aug 22, 2021 1:52 pm 
i thought i would start a thread to document some kootenay adventures for those of you nwhikers that want to venture north of the border. i'm sure the adventures will be small to start, but as our kids age, the trips should improve! PM me if you need additional details. 1. wycliffe buttes - 2021-08-22 2. cooper lake - 2021-09-05 3. moyie falls - 2021-09-06 4. mouse creek tarns - 2021-09-26 5. mt evans - 2021-10-03 6. silver springs lakes - 2021-10-09 7. eager hills lookout - 2021-10-12 8. dipper lake - 2021-10-17 9. perry creek falls - 2021-11-06 10. legend of the snolanator - 2021-12-11 11. eager hills - 2022-01-08 12. bull river - 2022-02-21 13. bummers flats - 2022-04-15 14. radium hot springs / wilmer wetlands - 2022-04-23 15. eager hills - 2022-05-14 16. mothers day hill - 2022-05-17 17. moyie falls - 2022-05-29 18. swainsons hill - 2022-05-31 19. sheep mtn - 2022-06-19 20. whiteswan lake - 2022-06-24 21. yankee lake - 2022-07-13 22. bear lake - 2022-08-20 23. mt fisher - 2023-07-03 24. white boar lake - 2023-07-09 25. mt brewer - 2023-10-01

geyer
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iron
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Location: southeast kootenays
iron
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PostSun Aug 22, 2021 1:53 pm 
after an aborted camping trip the night before due to heavy rain, we ventured out this morning to beat the rains today. about 4km east of marysville, bc, you turn north off hwy 95A and take a few side roads. a cul de sac with no houses is your parking lot and you head out straight on what looks like someone's driveway. after a few hundred feet, you cross a fence line and then can go straight or right. both work and both make for a loop. we did neither on the way in, because we were lost, but eventually connected back up to the route. lots of elk droppings everywhere.
in the spring and early summer, this area is littered with balsamroot (which they like to call sunflowers around here) and lupine. we were past that point in the season, but it still has a nice pastoral feel which i always like. the kids enjoyed a little rock scrambling at the top. they've certainly gotten into rock stuff since joining the local climbing gym a week ago (where we've gone about 5 times now) additional info here: https://cranbrooktourism.com/things-to-do/trails/wycliffe-buttes

GaliWalker, kite, Lindsay, Brushbuffalo, olderthanIusedtobe, RichP
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun Aug 22, 2021 4:55 pm 
iron wrote:
Already a scrambler. Rope him up and put him on something vertical!

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Stefan
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PostMon Aug 23, 2021 9:26 am 
saweeet!

Art is an adventure.
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Brushbuffalo
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Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
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PostMon Aug 23, 2021 9:37 am 
Thanks for sharing.
iron wrote:
Not only a rock climber ( Logan), but a trail runner (Luahna)!

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still

Lindsay
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ChrisSJI
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Location: San Juan Island
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PostSat Aug 28, 2021 12:28 pm 
Congrats on your move to Kimberly. We had a wonderful time there two winters ago (with exception noted below). Kids had a blast at the climbing gym! Can’t wait to return again in the summer. PS: If you need a great pediatrician referral, Christopher Pinnard was wonderful during an unexpected overnighter at the Cranbrook hospital.

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silence
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PostSat Aug 28, 2021 1:16 pm 
OMG ... your kids are adorable!!! I see a li'l Iron and a li'l Hotpantz. Nicely done you guys!

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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iron
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Location: southeast kootenays
iron
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PostMon Sep 06, 2021 9:23 pm 
on this long laboUr day weekend, we headed to moyie lake provincial park for some car camping. all BC parks within a wide radius were booked, but we chanced it in scoring one of the first come first served spots. after seeing the number of vacancies, methinks there's a good amount of availability, even on crowded holiday weekend. moyie lake is about 45 minutes south along hwy 95 from kimberley. the highway is on the east side of the lake and the park is on the west side and far enough away that at night you don't hear road noise. trains do pass and toot their whistles, but it's far enough away that it won't wake you up. we have yet to see a RR crossing gate in BC where an arm comes down to stop you. in some places, there are not even flashing lights.
after a leisurely first day, we spent the next day hiking to cooper lake. this lake is out of lumberton - about midway between moyie and cranbrook, off to the west. we'd recently upgraded our subaru to have A/T tires and skid plates. lift kit will be in a few weeks after we import the car and can modify. for sure, the good roads here are much worse than the bad roads in WA. https://cranbrooktourism.com/things-to-do/trails/cooper-lake-hike after a somewhat confusing set of directions and roads that somewhat lack information, we found the TH. we were the only ones there (for the whole day?). it's a little eerie feeling as we're in grizzly country and the bears are out and about this time of year. the city of kimberley has occasional updates of bear sightings. the few times i've biked the rails to trails route from kimberley to cranbrook (or back), i've seen many piles of bear scat. anyway, the hike appeared to start out through some seriously overgrown brush with bits of trail here and there. i was skeptical we'd make it anywhere. after about 10 minutes of traveling through terrain where a bear could easily surprise you, we intersected a road. the road turned into the trail and we were good to go.
about 1km in, the huckleberries started. so-so at first, but then reasonably good quality. soon you have the creek from cooper lake next to you and the forests feel a little more like something you'd have in the lowlands of the entiat or chelan.
light smoke polluted the views upon reaching the lake, so it felt a little lackluster to me. but, it was pleasant temps and even with a strong westerly wind, we were comfortable. food, pics, and recon for future overnighters were had and then we retraced our steps. on the way back, instead of finding "the trail", we just stayed on the road and it took us to the car about 30m from where the TH sign was. not sure what's going on with that.

GaliWalker
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iron
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Location: southeast kootenays
iron
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PostMon Sep 06, 2021 9:35 pm 
the next day on our laboUr day weekend, after packing up the campsite, was to moyie/lumberton falls. we headed back up the same FSR as the day prior except this time only 7.2km of FSR driving. at this TH, there were 7 cars, and it appeared people flow in and out regularly. information/maps is scarce (on everything...) and we set off hoping it was the right way down a gated road. https://www.bigdoer.com/11030/exploring-history/mining-under-moyie-falls/ soon we were above the moyie river and then were were down at its shore. it's a very short hike. we forded the river, kids on shoulders, through less than knee deep water and semi-pleasant temps for a river. the moyie river is the river we followed into BC after crossing the border at kingsgate, BC. the highway crosses it at least a dozen times.
after the ford and some pretty fishing, we moseyed over to the falls. it's an active mining area, supposedly, and they have up a host of weird signs as you approach the falls. nevertheless, they were nice falls to explore. some fish were jumping in the river, but they weren't very big (maybe 5"). snacks to refuel some tired kids and then we headed back up and drove home.

GaliWalker
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Stefan
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PostTue Sep 07, 2021 8:59 am 
lotsa tongues! smile.gif

Art is an adventure.

GaliWalker
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raising3hikers
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PostTue Sep 07, 2021 7:07 pm 
Huckleberries, river fords on shoulders, fish jumping. All sound like good family memories

Eric Eames
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iron
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iron
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PostSun Sep 26, 2021 8:27 pm 
today, on a glorious pre-fall weekend, we set off toward mause creek tarns with some friends. as we have been dipping our wheel tires into the mountains more and more, we had some reservations with this trip b/c the approach on the FSR is notoriously bad. sharp rocks. steep. no room for two cars passing. 4x4 or truck only. so, we cautiously moseyed up in the subaru, now with A/T tires, and successfully made the ascent without issues or bottoming out. non-A/T tires would have likely popped. coming back down, we scraped 2x, but i think it was the hitch. i didn't note how long the ascent took, but the descent took 40 minutes for 13km (8 miles) https://cranbrooktourism.com/things-to-do/trails/mause-creek-tarns the trailhead had room for 10-15 vehicles and was 80% full. the approach hike more or less follows the creek coming out of the tarns, with a few switchbacks thrown in for good measure. this is the same drainage that the FSR follows. with a starting elevation of 1760m, you're in subalpine terrain to start. with a starting temp around 55F, it was t-shirt weather for some as the sun here just seems to feel warmer than in WA.
all the kids did great (ages 7, 5, almost-5, and 2.5). all but the youngest hiked the full trip! the forested approach to the tarns was okay, nothing great. the grasses seem to have a little more of an orange hue than i am used to seeing. upon reaching the tarns, it's larch-land. four various sized tarns provided great exploration for the kids. the highlight was certainly finding frogs and catching them. we even found one hopping around, but with its tail attached.
the parents were itching for some more views, so we headed up a scree and talus trail towards tanglefoot pass, NW of the tarns. the pass is at EL2250m and was a bit windy. again, kids did great. view were expansive and offered us our first glance towards different ranges that we have yet to see. the views centered on the direction of elkford, and we were able to see the Top of the World Provincial Park peaks as well.
after depleting the sweet stuff, we headed back down. kids were still good. 5 more minutes of frog time at the tarns and then we boogied out. the descent seemed harder than the approach, but that's what you get when you're out of hiking shape and when you are carrying your kid (instead of your wife on the uphill smile.gif ). distance was about 5mi, 1500ft.

Now I Fly, Cyclopath, BarbE, Brushbuffalo, Nancyann, RichP  GaliWalker
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raising3hikers
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PostSun Sep 26, 2021 8:48 pm 
Just showed Sahale that other kids are out hiking, she (and I) thought it is pretty cool Looks like some cool areas up there

Eric Eames
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Stefan
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PostMon Sep 27, 2021 8:29 am 
Cool! That is awesome. I don't notice a single peak!

Art is an adventure.
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iron
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PostSun Oct 03, 2021 8:27 pm 
headed out on a "dads hike" today. met two new-to-me dads and we headed out to mt evans. this peak is reached from the st mary river road and then the meachen FSR. further in, we branched onto fiddler creek road and parked around the 40km marker. there is room for 3 vehicles on the side of the road. the start of the trail is back down the road some 20m and isn't obvious. the morning was surprisingly temperate for the time of day and year; maybe 7C. the trail was in excellent shape with only 20 easily passed over blowdowns. the start of the trail is mt si-like, and we were in shorts and tee shirts soon enough. after maybe an hour, we reached a nice subalpine basin chock full of larches and subalpine fir. a trickle of water flowed here and there. a side trail led to the old mining cabin which has been crushed by a tree.
around EL1920m, the trail veers climbers right and heads up to the NW ridge of evans. plenty of flagging keeps you on track where the tread is faint or blowdowns juggle things up. at EL2060, the trail gains the ridge and larches begin to dominate for the next 300m vertical.
once above treeline, it's fields of talus and pretty sound rock. even the talus didn't shift around too much. a false summit waits for you around EL2610, but we skirted that to the right (left has cliffs) and then regained the ridge. one part of the ridge had decent exposure and a class 3 step that was a few moves high. from here, there are many paths to the summit via series of ramps, faces, and class 2 scrambling.
the east side of the summit offered great views of hellroaring lake and larched-filled valleys and peaks in all directions, while also being sunny and protected from the biting wind. canadian beers were consumed (mine had a maple leaf with a beaver on it). i was finally able to orient my brain a bit better after hanging on the summit for awhile. for some reason, i had the ridge running N/S in my head instead of NW/SE, so i was turned about 45 degrees in identifying areas. seeing fisher peak to the east, st marys valley, and the flat grasslands east of kimberley certainly helped. it will take a while to learn the area, especially with infrequent peakbagging, since a lot of the summits look the same and are just long ridges with lots of undulations. views also afforded just a glimpse how how big the 2018 fire was in this area.
the descent was uneventful and it was good to warm up a bit. back at the truck, i heard some faint hollowing or hooting. it was too far away to clearly ID, but likely a wolf based on feedback from the guys. it was nice to see the valley in the daylight and it's really quite beautiful. we took a short 3 minute walk down to meachen creek waterfall (unmarked trail, but just after the 34km marker). the video does not do a good job conveying the scale and depth of the area.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qZKSpn9QEwATUqup8 9.2mi, 4600ft

Brushbuffalo, BarbE, Nancyann, geyer, neek, kite
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