The Salmon River, Idaho

Thought I might post some photos of a trip I did a while back, cause it was an awesome trip...

During the summer after working in the Yukon I did a training trip with NOLS in Idaho canoeing on the Salmon River. We did two 7 day trips on the middle section, this is a fun and forgiving class 2 - 3+ run with stunning scenery. It was a supper fun group, heaps of food and even more beer and whiskey! heres a few photos...

We camped on sandy beaches every night - no need for a tent, just roll out your sleeping bag and sleep under the stars (it was a change from the Yukon thats for sure!)

I introduced sock restling and it was a big hit!

Our first trip involved bringing a metal detector in search of a $20G wedding ring, we found it too, plus some other treasures!

We finished the trip at these hot springs on the way back - one of the best Ive seen I reckon! the hot water is those waterfalls.

Hope you enjoyed the photos...

The end of summer

First things first, we now have team jackets! Woop diddy woop woop! We found these bad boys at a thrift store and they came embroided with our team name as well as official first aid crosses so now the phrase “Dont worry I'm a doctor” can be said with authority.

The last week or so has been quite slow for us. We've been driving around ski towns throughout the Rockies looking for winter jobs. We've checked out all the big name towns and ski resorts - Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper, Golden, Fernie, Invermere and have decided to stay here in Golden. The resort looks amazing – very little snow at this stage – but the 8 person gondola to the top of the hill will be a treat compared to NZ ski fields.

Heres a few pics from our touring around Banff and LakeLouise...

Lake Louise

Shaun is a good rock hiffer. Moraine Lake - Near Lake Louise

Jacqui is a good thinker, some would say an ideas person. Moraine Lake

Chris is a good pole dancer. Moraine Lake

Proud

The town of Banff

We've been camping just outside of Golden at a sweet spot by a lake. The campsite comes complete with a plentyfull supply of firewood and better still – a sweet rope swing. If the water was warm enough to swim this swing would be awsome. Hers a few photos from around the place

Early morning at the campsite, the air is crisp - so too are the icicles in Chris's poor excuse for a tent...

The swing. Good to go.

These are the two ways we could keep ourselves warm at night, chop the wood for the fire or sit practically on the fire.

We are now back in Hope (where we started from), we have come full circle. Waving goodbye to Chris this morning we have turned a new leaf, we hope we see him return for the winter!

We managed to get a pretty awesome job lined up for the winter in Golden. We will be running a lodge in the ski resort called kicking horse: www.kickinghorseresort.com the lodge itself: www.copperhorselodge.com is located on the other side of the road to the Gondola. We will be living at the the Lodge, which means we eat at their restaurant too! Were excited about the season, we still have a month to kill before its all go though, so we will be hitting the road once again. Were going to start South and head North finishing at the Banff Mountain Film Festival, in Banff itself!

Bring on the winter snow, here we come

Bung

In the infinite wisdom of wikipedia: A bung is an apparatus used to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel. Unlike a lid which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially inserted inside the container to act as a seal.

The most common every-day example of a bung is the stopper of a wine bottle.

In the infinite wisdom of kayakers: A bung is a rather useful little bit of plastic that allows the easy removal of unwanted water from a kayak when taking off the river and cleverly prevents ones kayak from filling with water whilst on the river (should you have remembered to put it back in).

The most common every-day bung is almost always left at home in favour of the much more cleverly engineered and buoyant goon.

Kayaking is also a sport which allows the participation of people with bung ankles (Nicholas will back me on this one). The ankle is fully inserted into the kayak and does little to seal the kayak from water, in fact some cool snow melt in the bottom of the boat is rather soothing on the bung ankle.

And here we come to the point or lack of point of all this rambling, that fact that my ankle is still bung and that I am taking up full time kayaking when I'm not too busy playing with my pet wind farm and that last weeks kayaking with the crazy french duke has yet to wear off and stop me from all this sheiit talkin'

Boat Recovery 101 (French Style)

Nough Said!

Mt Robson

So there we were, standing in the carpark with this in front of us....

That there is Mt Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, standing at 3954m (thats higher than Mt Cook). We are left with one thing on our mind - time to dominate! and dominate we did...

We set off on a journey recommended by all, with promising weather predicted we set off at full speed...

Our map, we covered nearly 60km of ground in 3 days

The track was pretty well maintained (which made a hasty pace) we got to the shelter in 6 hours (20km away). This track kept us overwhelmed with so much to see...

After the big hike and arriving while snowing outside, we were plesantly suprised to find an awesome cabin located right outside the Berg Glacier and lake.

From hearing there we good weather due, we plan to do a day hike to a pass fromt the cabin...

Turns out the weather didnt hold out for spectular galcial viewing, with some gaps in the snow squalls we still enjoyed the adventure

Shaun being the tiger that he is...grrr

This is the toe of the Robson Glacier, Shuan and Chris are scoping it out

Chris once agin keeps up the hygiene...brrr

There she blows the veiw of Mt Robson from the Cabin, the weather finally came round for a magical day hiking back out

Emperor Falls

Shaun collecting some water from the falls

No we didnt try for the summit - dont be silly

This guy wanted be part of the blog - we saw him on the drive out

There she has it folks - be sure to check out Shauns efforts below also from some previous adventures had by us. Until next time - chao