Run in the Sun is Fun: the Emerald Lake Triangle

 Oh, Emerald Lake.  I love your sparkling waters, your surreal color and especially, your immediate access to stunningly beautiful places.  Heck, you even have a restaurant to reward myself with at the end of a hard, sweet day on the trails. On a summer's day, you are the bomb.  I always enjoy soaking my tired legs in your pristine water to recover from your glorious trails.  The Emerald Triangle is a classic:  from the shoreline of Emerald Lake you climb to Yoho Pass, across the Wapta Highline to Burgess Pass.  A long descent through a cedar forest takes you back to the lake to complete the loop.

 Classic Emerald Lake Shoreline

 Every year, the water changes it's course across the alluvial fan.

 I'm going there!  Mount Wapta Highline

 Heading up Yoho Pass

 

 Last chance to splash.  The highline is dry in August.

 Looking across at the President's Range and Emerald Basin

 High on Emerald Lake

 Pine Cones are Cool

 Nearing Mount Burgess

 Alpine Fireweed

 Burgess and the Kicking Horse Valley

 Emerald Glacier and the Vice President

 Looking back on the Highline

Happy Leslie

Favorite Places in Yoho Part 2 - Emerald Lake

On Friday, I decided to "get out of town" and drive one hour down the road to Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. I just felt like a little drive and change of scenery. I also knew that Emerald Lake is a little lower elevation and it is South facing, so there might actually be some flowers up, some dry trail and as always, some awesome scenery. There are so many trails to explore in the area, but the higher trails are still snowbound. This time of year it is all about experimenting and seeing how far you can go before hitting snowline. I hadn't been there since October, when we had an amazing run/walk in deep, fresh snow.

Check out these photos from Octobers snowy run, it truly is jaw dropping beyond words.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mrironleg/BurgessPass

http://picasaweb.google.com/freemanmike/EmeraldLakeOctober82007

So, I had a lazy start to my day and on the drive to Emerald Lake I pulled over at a fantastic viewpoint of Castle Mountain, just to take a photo. Keeping in mind, this is a place I drive by frequently and never stop at, but I thought, hey it's a beautiful day, I'm not in a hurry and I want a photo of Castle Mountain for my blog. It's one of my favorite mountains! Well. I get out of the car, my new-ish Ford Focus wagon and in my haste, leave the keys in the ignition. Afterall, my last car the VW Golf had a very Leslie-friendly feature. You leave the keys in the ignition and it will never lock. Ever. Well, with the Focus does not have that feature. I get out, take the photo and simultaneously hear the sound of "autolock", yes, the sound of all 4 doors locking. Aaaargh!! The sound of me being stuck in the middle of nowhere on the side of the highway with no cellphone. My buddy Dave was my saviour, I flagged down the first tourist I saw and borrowed the cell phone and Super Dave saved the day!! He swung buy my house, picked up the keys and made the 20 minute drive out to the highway to save my butt. Thanks Dave! While I was stuck there, I took some great photos!

Dumb-Dumb

The Castle - Castle Mountain

The Sawback Range and the Bow River Valley

Even after being rescued, I had only lost an hour of my day with the Leslie-blunder, so I continued on for a leisurely drive to Emerald Lake. I made a quick stop at the Natural Bridge, took my car keys with me and took a quick photo. The water was raging!

Emerald Lake is a very special place and is sort of the Gateway to Yoho National Park and all of its treasures. I just go because it is one of my favorite places! The last time I was here, we saw a full size moose in the lake and then had it crash through the bushes right in front of us. That is pretty special!

Almost immediately, Emerald Lake impresses. It is the most incredible color and is surrounded by glaciers, peaks, rocks and a gorgeous hotel/lodge. On this day, the Glacier Lilies were in full bloom and littered spots of mossy grass and in between patches of receeding snow. It was a grey day, but the temperatures were warm, the lake was calm and I was feeling very fortunate to be running happy and healthy! I climbed upwards towards Yoho Pass, before hitting the snowline where I decided to call it a day, descend and continue my run around the lake.

Climbing higher and higher!! Glaciers, waterfalls and rocks....and even flowers!

I have never seen a little spruce tree have a bud with a color like this! Anyone know anything about it? It was really bright pink! Emerald Lake is in the background as I climb, climb, climb.

I spent some time lolly-gagging by the lake, I didn't feel the need to rush home on this particular day. I took it easy on the run because tomorrow, I am very excited to be running a race with my husband and my friend Holly for the first time ever!! I reckon I shouldn't trash my legs before race day, but it was so beautiful I wanted to just run and run and run and run.....

No worries because tomorrow I am running in another completely different but very gorgeous place!!

Favorite Places in Summer

As much as I enjoy winter and skiing in the Rockies, I have to say: summer is the season for me. Part of the reason is that for so many months a year, the backcountry is snowbound. There are all of these incredible places BURIED under many feet of snow. So summertime, is like treasure hunting. There are 4 National Parks here, all with treasures to be found! But you only have 12 weeks to find the treasure - that is part of the appeal of summer. You have 12 weeks to get out there and find new trails (and there are lots of them) and re-aquaint yourself with the old classics, as well. It's almost overwhelming!!

Running towards Yoho Glacier

One of the many places I love is Yoho National Park. I am getting very familiar with the trails of Yoho....The Iceline Trail, Whaleback, Twin Falls, Yoho Lake, Yoho Glacier, Burgess Pass, The Emerald Triangle, Emerald Lake......I can hardly wait!!! I look forward to the thaw every year, so I can go run the trails and enjoy one of my favorite campsights.

Campground with a View

The Takakkaw Falls campground is quite unique, it's not quite a backcountry campground and not quite a frontcountry campground. You park the car and you have to walk only 1 km to reach the sights. So you can pack like you are car camping, but are surrounded by backcountry wilderness!! You can bring the comfy camping chairs and the extra thick sleeping pad (and the beer and the chocolate!)

Sun on Takakkaw Falls

The most amazing thing about this campground are the falls themselves. "Takakkaw" is derived from the Cree word for "it is wonderful!!" and every campsight enjoys a view of the falls! The falls are massive as well: the highest point is 384 m (1260 feet).

The Takakkaw Falls are huge and loud and it is way better than T.V. They thunder and growl and you can hear them rage all night, yet somehow, it's soothing. I've seen mountain goats climbing the cliffs surrounding the falls while I sip my coffee in the AM.....aaaaah! It's wonderful!! Only 2 more months....

I can be there in one hour from Banff, hop on my cruiser and schlepp all of my gear in to enjoy some mountain "luxury" camping. How sweet is that?? I can't wait for summer....

http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/explore/rockies/trails/yoho.htm