At last the smoke has abated, after 9 days of constant smoke filled skies a combination of showers and wind finally cleared the air today and I was able to get out to the Elbow Valley for a nice 15km ridge walk. There are signs of autumn beginning to show in the yellowing of leaves in the valley and high on the ridge where it's cooler some are already bright red making a wonderful splash of colour on a cloudy day. Click gallery for larger captioned versions.
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The shot below is the first time we have seen the sun this week, not because of bad weather, in fact frustratingly the weather has been perfect for hiking all week. We haven't seen the sun due to smoke from huge forest fires in Washington state to our south west. The image below isn't sunset, the smoke is so thick that only the very long wavelengths of light can get through (and that is still a rare occurrence) it's not dark either, that is the smoke itself killing the shorter wavelengths of light. I hiked to the top of forget-me-not ridge Monday and felt like I'd smoked 40 cigarettes.
The news folks told us that on a scale of 1 to 10 for air pollution Calgary was at 11 on Monday 13 Tuesday and 19 today, not sure how those numbers are supposed to work but clearly it's not very good right now....If this keeps up I'm going to drive to Vancouver!! Last night saw another nice aurora over Cochrane, I took the usual shots but as I recently posted a photo set of the town with the aurora above it I thought I'd just pick out the stars for this one. It lasted a couple of hours as usual and I still find myself standing out there watching until it dies away, there's something truly magical about the Aurora Borealis that keeps me watching long after I've got my shots. Click image for larger version.
After a week of scorching temperatures kept me out of the hills I was grateful for cooler weather moving in and a return to the low 20's for this week. With Sarah back at work I had no excuse and made my way to the mountains for what turned out to be, a really great hike to a stunning mountain pass. You can view the small gallery below or get the whole story and photos here.
At 10pm on Saturday night I got an 'Aurora Alert' email from the US Geophysical Institute in Alaska, as I looked out of the window there didn't appear to be much chance of seeing anything as the clouds were filling the sky but I hung around just in case. By 11:30pm a hole had appeared in the cloud and both Sarah and I were able to watch the show, by 12:30am the cloud had closed in again but we did at least get 1 hour of a pretty good summer aurora.
Temperatures this week have been well over 30 degrees every day and the haze from all of the forest fires still burning in British Columbia have killed any chance of mountain shots. So, I've been walking locally in West Bragg Creek where a nice little 11km circuit makes a good reason to get out of the house, as it is all forest with few views beyond the canopy I spent my time today shooting things up close including this cow who was seeking shade and probably respite from those damn flies. The gallery below represents just some of the sights of the forest, as always click small images for captioned gallery.
I made my first attempt at shooting the Perseids meteor shower last night and really enjoyed it (even though the larger 'shooting stars' occurred out of the field of view on my lens). I did capture quite a few that were bright enough to enjoy with the naked eye and saw a few more that I didn't catch on camera. Ultimately I saw almost 30 in just over 1 hour. The sky clouded over at 1am so that brought things to an unsatisfying close. Rather than a bunch of shots with single (and occasionally double) streaks I merged them all onto one image because, in all honesty they aren't particularly interesting unless you are standing there looking at them in real life. The shots were taken from the back garden as usual, but next time I think I will go to the mountains and try again. You can click the image for a slightly bigger version.
With Sarah on the mend and no further requirement for foot 'ice baths' I managed to sneak out today and make a summit. Mt Tyrwhitt is a tough little lump but worth the effort for the spectacular views from it's 9500 foot summit. As always there are a few shots in the gallery below or you can click here for the full hike and pics.
All the photos and all the text covering our fantastic road trip to San Francisco have now been sorted, grouped and posted on one continuous chain for any interested parties. It was a spectacular trip by any measure. The post has an interactive map, several galleries and detail of the route and sights along the way. Grab yourself a cup of tea and click here for the full story.
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AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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The Shaman, West Texas
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