SA 6-12 6:34 PM (1999) my little Indiglo Expedition watch tells me. As we drove into RDU we found all of the lots
full except for the remote #4. Hanging on to the wheelchair ramp in the rear of the
swaying airport bus we arrived at terminal A, where the promising but unfinished new
parking lot is under construction. My North Face pack is jammed with all of the
clothes I will need for a week in the Rockies. In my little short hike pack is
almost an equal weight of camera gadgets.
We wend our way the length of the terminal past a hospitality suite for the PGA tournament. At gate A18, after
checking in we find the disappointed passengers bound for Detroit. Their plane has
left the gate to await the clearing of a storm. Northwest
favors us by "playing through" our plane for Minneapolis. We board and sit
for more than an hour before we hear the clunk of the brakes releasing and plane eases
backwards, revs and leaps into the dark clouds in the west.
SA 6-12 8:42
Lakes everywhere as we approach Minneapolis airport with the sun casting a fiery glow over
patches of water. The landscape might have been created by a team of Paul Bunyans
pulling each point of the compass, stretching the skin of earth until it grows thin,
revealing the water beneath.
SU 6-13 6:04 Just as the concierge hails us a cab in front of the Marriott in downtown Calgary, a
truck lays down a carpet of black oil, just for us. We gamely fling our four bags
into the trunk, getting our boots sticky.
SU 6-13 6:30 (AM) Enter our Greyhound bound for Blairmore. The driver, Merv Fesser, is more than
helpful. Sit in the seat to the right of the driver and he will impart all that he
knows of his route and his life. He has a ranch out on route 22, where he raises
80-100 head of cattle. A few of his cattle have fallen prey to a bear and a pair of
cougars. The male of the latter was 250 lbs. At his next stop, in case we
aren't believers, he produces two Xeroxes of the event with his sons behind the
cougar. Along the way, he points out the local fauna, a red fox, 2 hawks perched on
fence posts, a coyote. For most of the 167 miles, we see snow-capped mountains on
our right in the haze. Just before Blairmore, he stops at a great spot to view the
landslide where the town of Frank bit the dust back in 1903. The lone survivor, a
baby at the time, recently died at age 87, we were told. Merv makes plans to stop
just before getting back on the highway to drop us off close to the Crowsnest Centre.
As we pull in front of the sewing machine/bottled water/Greyhound station a
well-built man jumps out of his white van, "You must be Dave and Linda?"
Doug Wilson went out of his way to pick up the two of us.
SU 6-13 4:30 Doug
gives us an orientation talk and has us introduce ourselves and tell a little bit
about ourselves to the group. There are a total of 30 of us, 5 from Canada and 25
from the states. He introduced Gini, his daughter and our hostess, Kevin and Morgan,
assistant hike leaders, and Nel Van Kamer who would accompany us on many of our
hikes. Each night after dinner, Doug would give us some warm encouragement and
described the hikes for the next day so that we could sign up for the right hike for us.
SU 6-13 8:30 PM We just got
back from a short (550 yards) after-dinner hike to see the waterfalls along York Creek.
MO 6-14 7:30
Breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon, toast, OJ and a good cup of coffee. Departed at
8:45 for the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre.
FSIC is a very professional presentation center maintained
by the province of Alberta.
Lots of geology
is passed on by the competent guide who walks us around the field of man-high rocks which
almost wiped out the mining town of Frank in 1903. The wonder of it is that the
rocks traveled as far as 3 miles from the fall! She discussed at least 3 mechanisms
by which the rocks could have traveled that far. She mentioned a BBC show about
long-runout landslides which presented some of these explanations of Frank. Truth
is, there were 23 survivors, 3 of whom were babies.
MO 6-14 1:00 PM We
leave for our hike to
the ghost town. Somewhat overcast, which made it cooler but I am still suffering
from the altitude. It makes me drowsy. We had to cross 3 rickety bridges
an
d
one stream. Lille is pretty much a field of rubble except for the foundation of the hotel and the ruins of coke ovens built
with sturdy blocks designed by a Belgian company. We joked that after the Moors were
driven out of Spain, they came here, conquered Alberta and you can still see their
influence in the graceful arches of the coke ovens. "That was where they kept
the concubines," quipped our littlest hiker. The thin air does something to
your imagination. We covered 9 miles and climbed only 165 feet, a good warm-up for
the more challenging hikes to come. It took us more than the expected 6 hours.
After dinner,
we are driven in the centre's vans to the Bellevue Mine.
There we don hard hats, miner's lamps and some heavy weight batteries that we strap
around our waists. Mine was for a prodigious miner, maybe size 50 or so. The
air emanating from the mine is a cool and refreshing 40ºF. The guide turns out to
be another one of Doug's daughters, Chrissie. She is very knowledgeable and takes us
on an interesting exploration of the bowels of the earth and the life of coal miners
generations ago.
TU 6-15 8:30 Our day hike today was
Saskatoon Mountain, listed as a moderate to challenging 3 mile hike up 1300 feet to an elevation of
5800 ft. Doug lived but a few houses from the trailhead and asked if he could bring
his dogs, Sable and Sierra. Everyone loved the idea. At first, they didn't seem to want
our attention but later, after they wore themselves out, they were
friendlier. Lots of flowers were in bloom along the way - balsam root
(sunflower-like but only a foot tall), anemones of many colors, crocuses,
lupines and avens.
