WTD#28 - Late Summer Rambles

We've been trying to find time to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having lately, before the fall rains set in.  I finally took a half day to stroll around the Champion Lakes trails, something I'd been thinking about for a few years now, but never seemed to get around to.

 This complex of lakes, streams and marshes forms a vibrant ecosystem, rich with aquatic and riparian life.  The third lake has been developed with a public beach and campground, but the second and first lakes are in their natural states.  Above is the second lake, where the road ends.

There are plenty of Columbia spotted frogs in the lakes and wetlands, usually diving to hide in the mud when humans (or dawgs) approach.

 There is a loop trail to the first lake and a trail that goes all around the second lake, through a dense and shady mature forest.

 Dragonflies are everywhere, including this cherry-faced meadowhawk.

 This one is a blue-eyed darner, one of our largest and most common dragonflies.

 Apparently the name darner comes from an old myth that they would sew one's lips up with their stinger (they don't have a stinger).

 This little northern saw-whet owl fluttered up into a tree as we walked by on the trail to the first lake, and swiveled it's head around to keep an eye on us.

 Play of light on a small pond in the forest.

 A couple of muskrats swam by while we were standing on the trail above, but dove as soon as the camera shutter  clicked, not to be seen again.

 This is water smartweed, growing in the shallows of the first lake.

 A family of three common loons was enjoying the day on the far side of the first lake, preening and splashing about for a good twenty minutes while we watched.

 Just in case you didn't notice.

 Back in the Kootenay valley near the canal, the summer fruit is ripening.

 Leaves that are green will soon be changing colour.

I don't think this is an aquatic plant, rather the beavers made the water rise around it - my guess, anyway.

 An alder leaf in the late afternoon sun.

 A yellow salsify seedhead, with it's golden parachutes.

 More parachutes.

 After a hard day on the trail, the dawg has worked up a thirst.

WTD#27 - Some Summer Hikes

It's been a busy summer but we've managed to get into the hills a few times, and hope to get out there a few more before the snow flies.

The Mel Deanna trail near Castlegar is a leisurely hour-and-a-half walk through the forest - nice and cool on a hot summer day.  This is the fruit of the Hooker's fairy bells, growing along the trail.

Foliage reflected in the water of one of the lovely ponds at the end of the trail.

Red twinberry - the fruit for which this plant is named.

Grasshoppers in love.

This snowboard goddess is perched on the ridge that leads from the Baldface ski lodge to Mount Grohman.

There are gorgeous grassy meadows along the ridge, and this one little pond.

Butterflies were active this day, including this anise (aka Zelicaon) swallowtail, one of six species of swallowtails found in the Kootenays.

This Columbian ground squirrel is keeping a watchful eye on the dawg, who has never allowed her inability to catch anything discourage her from trying, ever again.

Looks like a pictograph, but is just an interesting pattern in the rock.

One of a few variable checkerspot butterflies flitting about on the ridge.

There are some nice vistas from the top of Mount Grohman, including this view down a tributary of Lemon Creek.

On the way back down the ridge we came across this mule deer buck, who lay motionless in the meadow and allowed us to get quite near.  Because the deer was so still, the dawg did not notice it.  We walked around a small cluster of trees and when we emerged on the other side the deer was gone.

In early September the dawg and I hiked in to this lovely lake situated on the ridge between Koch Creek and Hoder Creek, at the southern edge of the Valhalla Range.  We usually come up here once every couple of years or so.  I don't think it has a name.

Most of the summer flowers were gone, but there were still a few late bloomers, like this aster (I think, or perhaps a subalpine daisy)

We ran into occasional bushes of ripe huckleberries, which were also being harvested by this chipmunk.

This little mountain chickadee was foraging in the lichen growing on a subalpine fir tree.  Mountain chickadees are one of four chickadee species to be found in the Kootenays.

The transition to autumn was well underway up here, with the leaves beginning to turn even on the second of September.

From the ridge above the lake we got a peek at Gimli Peak.

Beautiful blue-green water in the lake

This is fringed cup of Parnassus - a complicated flower with a complicated name - growing along the little stream that flows out of the lake.

A red-tailed hawk with a not-so-red tail checked us out before continuing its hunt for rodents in the mountain meadows and screes.

Well, I got a sunburn and my knees are aching. but altogether a pretty great day in the high country.  How about you, pup?

"I'm on top of the world!"

WTD#26 - Catching Up to Summer

Well, so much for July.  It's been a hot one and I can hardly remember June, let alone May or April.  I know it was wet for a while and the rivers came up, and then it was dry and they went back down.  Anyhow, whatever the weather was like, we did manage to get out and about, and later even did a bit of hiking in the high country.

The trilliums were in bloom this spring, as they are every spring.  This shot was taken in the Forty-nine Creek area.

This is a northern crescent butterfly, perched on a daisy along the Slocan rail trail.

In the lower elevations the saskatoons started ripening in late June,

followed by thimbleberries in July.

We caught this little house wren flitting about on some fallen trees in the Coolie Lake area.  It finally stayed put long enough for me to focus after I'd shot what would have been a roll of film in the pre-digital days.

We stopped to take in the view of the Slocan and Kootenay valleys from the hang-glider launch site on the Coolie Lake road, with a lovely meadow of yarrow and harebell in the foreground.

I believe this is a (pretty fresh) wolf track in the soft mud on a trail in the Hall Creek area.  The dawg became very interested in the smells along the trail, and I was looking over my shoulder a lot more than usual after seeing this.

Lady fern, also in the Hall Creek area.

Devil's club berries - same area.  Not edible, according to the book, but the plant in general was and still is used medicinally by interior first nations people.  It is a member of the ginseng family.

An unusually dense cluster of beargrass flower heads along the trail to Grassy Mountain.

A Columbia spotted frog tried to blend in with the mud at the bottom of this little pond, also on the Grassy Mountain trail.

Yellow columbine was growing in several sites along the Grassy trail.  This is red columbine which we found only in one small area.

This is one of the "blues" - several species of small butterflies that are almost identical looking.

An accumulation of red twinberry (aka Utah honeysuckle) blossoms in a little streamlet on the way to Grassy Mountain.

Bug on a mountain ash flower cluster.

Black gooseberry was also in flower on Grassy Mt.

As was the western anenome or pasqueflower,

and the western spring beauty.

This is the southwest side of Grassy Mountain.  The summit is the peak in the distance.  It's a nice early summer hike - took us about 5 hours round-trip from the trailhead.

(Including breaks)