All Hallows' Eve!

Happy Halloween!

Well, another October is over, and we sent it out with some serious Viking style on the weekend at the annual Halloween Pub Crawl....

The costumes were fantastic!

A crew of about 35 of us dressed up and toured around Red Deer on Saturday night, wreaking havoc at several different establishments. I'm currently on day nine of my 1-in-10 year cold, so sadly we hopped off the party bus fairly early. But as per the Monday morning reports from others in the group, everyone had a pumpkin-smashing good time!

I haven't been this under the weather in ages, hence it has been a super low-key week for me. Hopefully I snap out of it soon, as we have tickets for some festivities in Canmore this upcoming weekend - Banff Film Fest and UFC 217. Plus I'd love to get outside for a hike, if it's not too snowy. At any rate, it will be fabulous to be in the mountains - I can't wait!

Cheers!

My (not 100% effective) arsenal.
Darn cold and flu season!

Rock on, October!

Several more weeks of 2017 have blasted by, and as I sit and reflect, I am astonished as always at how fast time flies. October has been a great month though, comprised of travel and hard work, from interior British Columbia all the way to South Carolina.

A few weeks ago, we took a road trip to the Shuswap, where we met up with more of the Cooke clan for some fall cabin maintenance. As per usual, amidst the many hours of sweat and toil, there was an equal amount of laughs and 'non-toil'....

Groovy sunset clouds!

Still many fires burning, with lots
of smoke around Rogers Pass.

Finally - no fire ban!

I realize it appears to have been all beach fires and beer-drinking, but here comes the sweat and toil part.... Yes, it is exactly what it looks like - a new hole had to be dug for the old-fashioned outdoor privy.

So another lake season has come and gone, and this particular concern should now be addressed for the next decade at the very least. **PHEW**

Immediately after spending several days in beautiful BC, I hopped on a plane and joined some co-workers on a business trip to South Carolina. I've never been to the East Coast of the States before, and unfortunately I was so busy that the only pics I had time to snap were from the plane.

The weather was gorgeous and the area was really pretty. I look forward to returning in the new year and plan to make time to do some actual sight-seeing.

This past Saturday, we put on our lumberjack attire and helped out with some wood gathering and chopping. It was a beauty fall day at Chris's parents' place, and while I don't have the pictures to prove it, I did do my share of chain-sawing. Woot! Totally fun.

Safety first!

The upcoming weekend brings the coveted Social Club Halloween Pub Crawl, which was an absolute riot last year. Stay tuned for my next blog post, which will reveal this year's excellent costumes and spook-tacular shenanigans!

Cheers!

Just a walk.... a loonnngg walk....

I should have known, that once the option was out there, my tenacious, energetic friend Gillian would choose it....

Her plant is in a shutdown and she's been working long days, with only one day a week off. But that was not a deterrent yesterday, and what started out as plans to hike to Bourgeau Lake turned into "Wanna check out Harvey Pass? It's only 11:30.." and then "Should we just go for the summit? It's only a quarter to one..."  And that is how we ended up striding nearly 25km and ascending around 1500m, on a beauty Sunday in the Rockies.

The hike started out with us rocketing up to Bourgeau Lake, and since we whipped that off in about an hour and forty-five minutes, it seemed like a no-brainer to at least continue on to Harvey Pass.

Approaching Bourgeau Lake.

A beautiful alpine setting!

View of Bourgeau Lake on the way up to Harvey Lake.

Cute little Harvey Lake.

An unnamed tarn below Harvey Pass that makes it on the map.

Still a bit smoky - looking west from Harvey Pass.

The pass only took us another 45 minutes or so, and one thing led to another, and pretty soon we were churning our way up the scree slope to the top of Mount Bourgeau.

Another view of Bourgeau Lake!

The summit! What a view.

Popular place.

Summit selfie.

A bit hazy, but still a see-forever vista.
The Banff townsite is visible just above my shoe.

What a great day to be up high!

The sun was out but the breeze had that fall bite to it, so we only hung around at the summit long enough to snap a couple of photos and say hello to the others who were up there as well - an Aussie, a New Yorker, and two Swiss visitors. I was wearing everything I brought with me except my down jacket as we reversed our tracks and began the 12-plus kilometre jaunt back to the car.

Now, the toe-jamming descent!

Another tarn at Harvey Pass that makes it on the map.

A nice treat along the tightly-treed lower part of the trail.

We left the parking lot at 9:40am and returned at 5:05pm, so all in all we were pretty darn quick - we cranked this one out in just under 7-1/2 hours, car-to-car. The last time I did this trail (in 2009!) I logged it at 8-1/2 hours... so for me to shave off a whole sixty minutes, when I'm nearly a decade older (but obviously not wiser!) is substantial, in my books anyhow. Of course a huge thanks goes out to Gillian, who is a machine and doesn't cut me any slack.... LOL!

The Wenkchemna Pass larch-fest is still on this fall's hit list, as long as the weather holds out over the next few weeks. Until then....

Cheers!