2005.7.28-30 Manning Park

Manning Park
July 28-30, 2005.

Day 1 (Thursday)
On the way to Manning Park, we stopped at the
Othello Tunnels in the Coquihalla Gorge. A pleasant 3Km (RT) walk along the Coquihalla River. The tunnels were built around 1914 for the Canadian Pacific Railway. However, no rails to be found now.

Direction: Exit 173 of Hwy 3. Turn left towards the town of Hope (the movie First Blood was shot here). Turn right on 7th Ave before entering Hope, right again on Kawkawa Lake Rd. Cross a bridge, continue for a couple of Kms, right again on Othello Rd for another couple of Kms until a sign. Turn sharp right to the park.

This is a trail for family (even wheel chair accessible). Kids enjoy the dripping from the tunnel ceiling and pebbles at the river bank. The view of the gorge from the first bridge in between the tunnels is awesome.

From Hope it's 45 minutes to the only hotel in Manning Park. We spent a lazy afternoon at the Lightening Lake, where we encountered this curious duck, who pecked my foot.

Day 2 (Friday)
Heather Trail.
Our first stop is at the end of the 8Km paved road: Cascade Lookout.

Continue on the gravel road (in good shape) for 7Km is the trail head (Blackwall Parking lot, elevation ~2000m). The trail is flat, slightly descending. First a couple of Kms are along the lupine filled path along the western slope of a ridge, with a view across the valley towards our destination. Then it goes into the forest, and the kids started to get bored. At 5Km, we lunched near the Buckhorn Wilderness Camp. Gray Jays also stopped on our picnic table stealing food. Now trail started upslope. It's not until another 1.5 Km or so, we emerged to the the first stretch of meadows. Flowers filled every inch, Cascade Mountains looming far to the south. The view is expansive and grand.




Among the flowers we saw are:

Western Anemone(Anemone Occidental )

Showy Aster ( Aster conspicuus)

Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis )

Broadleaf Daisy (Arnica Latifolia )

Elephant Head (Pedicularis Groenlandica

Mountain Heather

Fireweed

Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium)

Lupine

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis

Penstemon

Wooly Pussytoe (Antennaria Lanata)

Speedwell(Veronica Cusickii)

Common Stonecrop (Sedum Lanceolatum)

The kids turned back at the junction to the Bonnevire trail (6.5Km). My father and I continued for another 45 minutes towards the First Brother Mt. By the time we got back to the car, everyone was exhausted. They all went to the hot tub to soak the tired legs after dinner.

Day 3 (Saturday)

We spent the morning hiking the Three Falls trail. It was not a good choice, as it's too long (9Km RT) after the big hike the previous day. The first 2Km is flat in an area called Strawberry Flat. We reached the first Shadow Falls at 3.1Km, didn't see the 2nd Nepopekum Falls at 3.2Km. The last falls is bigger at 4.5Km. Some blueberries are out already. No bugs.

After a quick bathroom stop at the Resort, we headed home. It was getting very warm and sleepy.

Some of us finished the day by going to the annual fireworks show at the English Bay. As always, it's full of excitement, color, people and sand. This night was by Sweden. Music by ABBA.

les Invasions Barbares (2003) by Denys Arcand.
2005.7.24.

Worth watching. A movie about the last couple of weeks of a man's life. Rather comic and sarcastic. Funny dialogs. Need to pay attention to the subtitles! (I cannot get used to the Quebec accent!).
The same group of people also made Jésus de Montréal (1989), which is not bad either.

Here's the lyrics of the song at the end of the movie:

Beaucoup de mes amis sont venus des nuages,
  avec soleil et pluie comme simples bagages.
Ils ont fait la saison des amitiés sincères,
  la plus belle saison des quatre de la terre.
Ils ont cette douceur de plus beaux paysages,
  et la fidelité des oiseaux de passage.
Dans leurs coeurs est gravée une infinie tendresse,
  mais parfois dans leurs yeux se glisse la tristesse.
Alors, ils viennent se chauffer chez moi,
  et toi aussi, tu viendras.

Tu pourras repartir au fin fond des nuages,
  et de nouveau sourir à bien d'autres visages.
Donner autour de toi un peu de ta tendresse,
  l'orsqu'un autre voudra te cacher sa tristesse.
Comme l'on ne le sait pas ce que la vie nous donne,
  il se peut qu'à mon tour je ne sois plus personne.
S'il me reste un ami qui vraiment me comprenne,
  j'oublierais à la fois mes larmes et mes peines.
Alors, peut-être je viendrai chez toi,
  chauffer mon coeur à ton bois.

2005.7.23. Pilchuck

Mt Pilchuck
Mostly cloudy -> mostly sunny. High in 20s.

Direction: Mt Loop Hwy, east of Verlot, turn right after the bridge,
gravel road (not too bad) for 7 miles.
Levels: 10Km rt, 700m gain.

View from the top is expansive. Mt Rainier looms above the clouds.
Puget Sound shimmering under the sun. Olympics still mostly hidden.
Glacier Peak is clear and close. A little bit of Mt Baker and Shuksan.
Clouds move in and out, changing the view.

My batteries were gone, so no pictures.

2005.7.10. Bandera Mt.

Bandera Mountain
2005.7.10. Mostly cloudy, drizzle at times, cool.

Direction: I90 exit 45, turn north (left) on FS road 9030, stay left to road 9031. 3 miles, mostly gravel.
Level: 10Km rt, 1Km elevation gain.

The trail starts very leveled, a nice warm up. The first 2 miles are forested, lined with lots of twin flowers, some leftover bunchberry, thimbleberry, and occasionally tiny roses.


Soon after emerging from the trees, the trail splits to the left (Mason Lake) and straight up (Bandera Mt). Steep! Boulders, and millions of beargrasses! Paintbrushes, lupines and some thistles, tiger lilies, made the slope more colorful.


From the slope, you can see (and hear) I-90. The view is quite pleasant: McClellen Butt en face, Mt Defiance close by to the west, clouds draping the slopes, downtown Seattle appearing out of the mists from time to time.

At the ridge, more heathers and penstemons. A better view of Mason Lake, and several peaks to the north. On a clear day, it's possible to see Mt Rainier.

2005.7.4. Spray Park at Mt Rainier

Spray Park in Mt Rainier National Park
2005.7.4.

Direction: Take Carbon River rd, keep right for the Mowich Lake camp site. It's about 18 miles gravel road!

Level: 9-10Km, 400-500m gain


The first half of a mile is slightly down hill, then it levels off.
At mile 2, a short not-to-be-missed side trip gets you to the Spray Falls.
A nice lunch spot, plenty of rocks to sit on. Cross the creek for a better view.

From here, the trails gets steeper. Zigzag uphill for a mile, you emerge from the forest and on to the Spray Park meadow.

Time for the avalanche lilies and sulphurflowers (and a LOT of mosquitoes). The view is expansive. Flowers abundant: lupines, paintbrushes, heathers, bluebells. After awhile, lilies give away to heathers. An hour or so later, the meadow disappears altogether. Snow and rocks. Glacier Peak and other Cascade peaks came into view. Mt Rainier looks like within reach.

2005.7.3. Blanca Lake

Blanca Lake

Direction: 2 hrs from Seattle on Hwy 2. Turn left to Index, but do not go to the town. After 15 miles on Forest Rd 63, turn left to a gravel road for the last 2 miles.

Level: 10Km, 900m gain in, and 200m out.


The first 3 miles are forested. Steady grade up 2700 ft. On the ridge, it's possible to see Glacier Peak to the north east, and Mt Index and other peaks to the south.


Then the trail drops down to a Virgin Lake (it's just a pond, and don't stay here too long: mosquitoes!). Another ~500 ft steep downhill leads to the glacier fed Blanca Lake with a distinct green color. Stunningly beautiful. The Columbia Glacier is quite receded. One can see several little waterfalls on the glacier surface. You'll hear them a lot better!

My two recent painting studies

No longer in the mood to continue. So I just call them finished.

This painting on the right only took about 3 afternoons.
Copied from a watercolor by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (Dutch born English 1836 - 1912) made in 1877, hence the lack of light effect. The title was "Spring in the gardens of the Villa Borghese". I simplified the background, as fountains in the original painting doesn't exit in the Villa Borghese. Okay, the real reason is that I'm lazy.

This one on the left took forever. I started it about six months ago.
Still not satisfied. Cannot quite get the effect of an oak tree.
The original painting is much larger (173 x 140cm), by Alexander Calame (Swiss 1810 - 1864), painted in 1859, titled "landscape with oak trees". I copied from a print in a book.