BC Ski Trip 2015

Still catching up on 2015.

Another year ends … another year for Jeff and I to hit the road to cross-country ski in a different place everyday. We spent 9 days on the road and made it all the way into the Rockies – see map: Blue places we slept, red places we skied. Snow conditions were considerably better than last year. Weather was quite reasonable. Snow for the first 3 days, sunshine and cold for the next. Although have to spend 7 of those 9 days below -10C is almost too COLD for me. Only real bad thing, I had just taken over Jeff’s cold the day before we left on boxing day 2015. So the first few days were a bit tough. You can read all the details below, or just look at the pictures.

 

Day 1: Overlander Dec 26

We didn’t get up till 8:15AM. I still had to finish packing. Nevertheless we were on the road by 9:45AM. The countryside started to turn white just after we left Chilliwack and it was solid white at Hope. The roads were clear mind you and we made good time over the Coquihalla. As we started to drop down into Merritt it started to snow and it did not stop for the rest of the day. The Hwy was covered in compact snow and we saw a couple cars in the ditches past Merritt. Lucky for us we got off Stake Lake to go for our first ski of the trip at Overlander, 3hrs 15min from when we left home. It was about -5C, lightly snowing and a bit windy. I was ready to take my crowns but Jeff said the waxables should work. So he had to wax 2 sets of skis and off we went. Tracks were in good shape and grip was okay but the cold had me feel tired and crappy. Nose was running and lungs were burning in the cold air. Yep it was cold. Nevertheless I managed to do my usual loop, just a bit slower. I went from no grip to totally icing up in the last hour. I did not get to see the moose that is supposed to hang out around those trails. It started to get dark by the time I made it back to the parking lot, about 30-40min later than I had planned. Although I don’t think Jeff got there much before I did. Unfortunately the ski hut was already locked up for the day (closes at 4PM). We had to do the change in the car to get ready for the last leg of the day, the drive to Sicamous.

Not quite the moose I was hoping to see

The going was slow, quite a bit of traffic, some crazy speeding trucker, lots of single lane sections and lots more snow. We made it to Sicamous just in time for dinner. Found a nice pub just off the highway, “Brother’s Pub“. Ribs for me and I can’t remember what Jeff had. Jeff had pre-booked the Monashee Motel and it was located just past the town. Can’t remember much else, only that I was tired and cold and wrapped myself into my fleece blanket while crawling into bed.

Day 2: MacPherson Dec 27

It had snowed all night long and the car was buried under the white stuff. But it was so dry we could just brush it off. Luckily the roads were clear and the drive to Revelstoke didn’t take long. But since we got up a bit late we didn’t start skiing again till mid day. It was still snowing lightly and the flakes had this perfect star shape – very pretty.

Waking up to quite a bit of snow in Sicamous

Perfect snow flakes in Revelstoke

They had groomed the night before. The tracks should have had a thick layer of snow in them but for all those earlier skiers that went through there before us. Sometimes it pays to start late. The temperatures were a bit warmer than the day before and Jeff had to do the skis all over again. He didn’t seem to mind :-). Nevertheless, skiing was tough for me. I felt even more tired and weak than the day before. I dragged myself around the usual trails but it wasn’t fun. So when Jeff found me 2+hrs into the ski I was glad to hear he was ready to head in too. Only did 17km that day.

Looking down into town

That night’s destination was Golden. Most of the drive through beautiful Glacier National park was in the near dark. Jeff had again pre-booked the motel. Our usual hide out for Golden wasn’t available for the 2 nights we were going to spent there. Two nights because another of our usual stops, the Truffle Pig Inn in Field, wasn’t available either. Mary’s Motel though was available and turned out to be much closer to town and all the places to eat. It also had a hot tub and pool. Nice pick, Jeff! We were hungry and skipped the hot tub that night and walked straight to “The Island” restaurant, 5min away. As last year the food was awesome. We had Veggie Pakoras for appetizers. Each of us ordered a pasta dish and we shared a Caesar salad. The Caesar was different – single small whole leaves drizzled with dressing and minced bacon. Hard to describe but it was really fun eating a Caesar salad with your fingers :-). Not sure they intended it that way. We had planned to hit the hot tub when we got back to the motel but it was full. Lots of snowmobilers seem to favour this place. So we ended up just watching TV.

Day 3: Dawn Mountain Dec 28

More snow over night but not as much and it had finally stopped when we got up. We slept in till 9:15AM – Mountain Time. I didn’t sleep well again all night as a bad headache had kicked in on top of the stuffy nose and wet cough. But I was looking forward to breakfast at the “Big Bend Cafe” – a 3 min walk away. It was good – mixed berry and cream cheese stuffed French Toast. It was huge too and we had to go for a bit of a walk before driving up to Dawn Mountain. Jeff needed “Green Wax” for -20C conditions. Don’t ask me why. I am not going to ski at -20C! But apparently it will work as a thin layer to prevent icing when using the -10C wax. Oh well. The drive up to Dawn Mountain just past the Kicking Horse Ski Resort does not take long. Jeff skated that day so he only had to wax my pair of skis. I still felt too weak to try skating. The tracks were beautiful!! Best ones so far this season. Firm but not too scary fast due to some very light fresh snow cover. I started to feel stronger as the ski went on even though I am still huffing and puffing at the hills – and there are some real hills here. But I also recovered quicker. All in all a much more enjoyable ski even though the sun never made an appearance and temperatures were at -10C. I even did the single track portion, called Marten Loop – skinny ski powder skiing through the trees in nearly flat terrain, very cool! The trails at Dawn are all named after animals – beaver, owl, raven, caribou, moose, chickadee… and I almost did them all. Managed a full 3hrs and could have kept going…maybe.

Raven

Marten Trail

Powder skiing

Jeff on Caribou

Moose

It was nice to return to the same place that evening and only have a very short drive. We got back to the hotel with still daylight left. This time we would not skip the hot tub but was that tub ever hot. It even took me several minutes to get in. From the hot tub I could see the mountains. The sky had cleared in the late afternoon and the mountains were glowing gold against the blue sky. Gorgeous! For dinner we walked a bit further into “downtown” Golden passing the movie theater. They were playing the new Star Wars but too bad their show started too early and we needed to eat first. We ate at “The Turning Point“. Again shared an appetizer, calamari which were excellent, and a salad, quinoa strawberry salad with mandarins instead of strawberries and both had a full meal. Burger for Jeff and Lasagne for me. Since we ate more than we should have we extended the walk back to the motel for a bit. But it was pretty darn cold!

Day 4: Lake Louise Dec 29

Another restless night. Since we had a longer drive ahead of us today we skipped going to the Big Bend again and had a quick breakfast in the room instead. The clouds were hanging low in the valley once more but we could see blue sky in the distance. Perfectly shapes snow flakes had again accumulated on the windshield.

As we entered the Rockies and started climbing the sun come out and we had an endless blue sky making the drive through Yoho and Banff National Park quite scenic. With a heavy heart we passed Field. It looked like they had tracked the trail across the valley floor but our destination for the day was Lake Louise. As we gained altitude the temperature also dropped further. By the time we got to the Moraine Lake trail head it was -15C. I had put on an extra layer top and bottom. Most of the 9km up would be in the shade. Since I was still not feeling 100% I took it easy and it took me 80min to get to the end of the tracked trail, again using waxable skis. The grip was decent but the grade was very gentle as well. Jeff made it up and down in the same time :-). And while he climbed the road a second time I continued on, like last year, on the ungroomed but human-tracked trail towards the lake. This is the part with the fantastic views and it is in the sun for the most part. And like last year I did not have enough time to make it all the way. The bottom part was also in the shade again and since the going is even slower I kinda got cold. Jeff was back up at the top about 5min before I made it back, me maybe covering 4km to his 9km – mind you my terrain was much more challenging :-). The way down wasn’t as fast as I had remembered. I think the tracks were significantly slower and I had to work half of the way down. Another 3hr day on skis.

 

From Lake Louise it’s only a short but very scenic drive to Canmore, about an hour. I love driving through the Rockies especially when the sun goes down. Jeff had pre-booked the Rundle Mountain Motel. We might have even gotten the same room as last time. No leaking faucet though which was nice.

Drive through Banff NP

Cozy room at the Rundle

We went for dinner at the usual place, Patrino’s, but sat in the pub portion instead of the restaurant portion. We shared a salad to start to get our daily vegetables. Jeff had Cordon Bleu and I ordered pasta with chicken in a cream sauce. The waitress had forgotten to enter my order so Jeff almost finished by the time my dinner arrived. It was tasty though. We went to bed really early, like 9PMish, only to wake up around 11PM again. I must have read for a couple hours before I went back to sleep but I did sleep well that night.

Day 5: Peter Lougheed Dec 30

Despite the interrupted sleep, 12hrs in bed had me feel much more rested that morning. And after a hearty breakfast at Craig’s Way Station just 3min walk away I was ready to tackle the trails at Peter Lougheed. Actually I had been a bit nervous about them as the tail system is huge and the last time we went I ended up on this really steep trail that was not groomed and it was nearly dark by the time I got back to the hut. So I suggested to Jeff during breakfast if he would want to do a slow day and stick with me. And he agreed pretty easily. It was another beautiful sunny and cold day – maybe -15 in town. The drive to Peter Lougheed is a bit longer, about 1.5hrs. Unfortunately there aren’t any affordable places to stay closer to it. But it is a very scenic drive and we saw a big Rocky Mountain Sheep ram on the road licking the salt of it. Pretty cool.

Sunrise Canmore

Drive to Peter Lougheed

Busy road

I think he wasn’t too pleased to be disturbed

Due to the long drive we did not start the ski until almost noon. So we packed the headlamps. But since we were on Mountain Time the sunset is a bit later than at home, but we were surprised how long it stayed light actually. We never had to use the lights. We skied for almost 5hrs through the most beautiful countryside. It was -19C when we started. We made it all around the outer trails and even climbed the other lookout which was not nearly as steep as the one I found the other year. Almost 40km of skiing. The trails were in excellent shape. This is a provincial park groomed trail system and there is no trail fee. Thanks to the Province of Alberta! Grip was awesome with our thin layer of polar wax. I was a bit nervous when we started the climb to the lookout at the furthest away point from the parking lot at Pocaterra Hut. The sun already started to drop behind the high mountains around us but it was only 2:30PM. We made it back to the hut by 4:45PM with still some light left and lucky for us the temperature stayed steady at -19C.

Pocaterra Hut

Jeff the moose – there should have been a real moose here

Blueberry Hill Lookout

Single track

It started to get dark as we left the parking lot. I was happy the car started up without a problem. We just hit the road when we saw a tall shape standing in the road and an oncoming car stopping – MOOSE! Yep, the animal was right on the road licking the salt like the ram earlier. It was a big cow and her fur looked beautifully thick and warm. We stopped right next to her but stayed in the car. A bit too dark to take good pictures but I tried anyhow. As we left her we saw another moose off the road in the bush. 2 MOOSE – almost a mega score, except none was a bull.

The drive back was in the dark under a starry sky. Back at the Rundle, we went for dinner pretty much right away. This time we walked just across the road to try out Woody’s BBQ. A whole bunch of protein is what we felt like after this long day of skiing. And that’s what we ordered – a sampler platter of smoked pork, chicken breast (they were out of smoked chicken due to an abnormal busy day) and St Louis ribs, decorated with 4 sides – BBQ baked beans, green beans, coleslaw and mac & cheese. It was a HUGE meal and I ate way too much. My tummy felt pretty full. So we walked to the store to stock up on cookies and chips for the next few days in case we’ll be hungry again some day :-). At least that meant we walked for a bit more before just sitting on the bed for the rest of the evening. It was fricking cold though – still -15C.

Day 6: Canmore Dec 31

Finally I slept through all night. But the body was tired from the long day of skiing before and I decided not to skate that day at Canmore. Another sunny cold day, -15C. We had breakfast at Jamie’s again although I traded in the hashbrowns for some fresh fruit since I was still full from the day before. Getting to the Canmore Nordic Centre took patience as you have to go through town and traffic was moving slow – almost felt like being in Vancouver at rush hour. But eventually we made it and even found a good parking spot. It was BUSY and not all the trails were open but what was open was in good shape and the people spread out pretty quickly. Even though I used the same wax combo as the day before my grip felt worse. This snow had been worked over so many times, the ice wasn’t quite as sharp anymore as it was in Peter Lougheed. We only planned to ski for a couple hours. Jeff was skating. I stuck to the medium difficulty trails like Bow and Meadowview. The later one though wasn’t open all the way back to the Nordic Centre so I had to back track after I reached the high point and took Banff trail back. I was definitely feeling tired and was about 10min late getting in. Jeff was already done for 30min even though he skied almost twice as many kms as I did :-). He will have a good loppet season this year I am sure. He sure trained hard for it all summer/fall long.

Highpoint

The drive to Invermere was a bit longer, about 2.5hrs through scenic Kootenay National Park and the upper Columbia Valley. As we dropped out of the Rockies and entered the town of Radium we saw a whole bunch of mountain sheep right in the middle of the busiest intersection in town. They started to cross the hwy and caused the traffic to stop. We added to the confusion because I made Jeff stop to take pictures right there :-).

Driving through Banff NP

+

Driving through Kootenay NP

Rush hour in Radium

We arrived in Invermere at the Canterbury in at about 4PM and only had to wait 30min for “Peppis Italian Fuel” Pizzeria to open. As we took our stuff into the room we saw a buck cross the road in front of the motel, than continue on into downtown Invermere. Cars just drove around him – I think people and the animal here are used to it :-). We weren’t the first ones at Pepe’s but everyone else did only pickup. We ordered the usual Arugula salad to start and then shared a large half BBQ Chicken with pepper and pineapple, half California Chicken with artichokes and sundried tomatoes. All that was washed down with a pitcher of Fernie Red Ale. Half way through the salad Jeff noticed the appetizer special posted on the wall – Dates filled with goat cheese wrapped in bacon. So we had to have one of those as well. I was kinda full after quarter of the pizza. But it was so yummy that I had to finish it all. That was too much! We went for a leisure walk though the dark town to find some deer – the pizza almost made an appearance – and then extended it all the way down to the lake, where we did see the deer at the same hill at last year. One of them was a buck. I am sure it was the same buck that walked through downtown earlier that day. We tried to stay awake till midnight but fell asleep by 11PM :-).

Inveremere deer

New Years Eve in Invermere

Another Invermere deer

Day 7: Kimberley Jan 1

Happy New Year – although it just felt like any other day. It was still cloudy in Invermere. We had a quick brekkie in the room before we hit the road to Kimberley. It took 1.5hrs to get there and it was still cloudy. 50 meters higher up the hill there was sun, for a short while. It was -16C. Tracks were in excellent shape as always. I did 3 laps of skating on the usual green 6.5km loop until my foot got sore on the last lap when I was passed by Jeff on his classic skis for the 2nd time. Not good for my ego!:-). He wanted to do one more lap. So I had to continue on as well even though I was ready to quit and did another 3km lap. At least I managed to finish my 3km before is 6.5km this time :-). Overall skating felt hard and awkward but I did work on my 2 skate or V1 or whatever you call poling on each ski.

Kimberley – nice a flat

I can skate that

Lap 4 for Jeff on classics

Near Creston BC

The drive to Rossland was nice although the Hwy was a sheet of ice through Kootenay Pass. Took over 3hrs but we did not run into any trouble. As always, we stayed at Casa Alpina because it has a hot tub. But we were too lazy to use the hot tub – it’s outdoors and takes more effort to get into. Instead we headed out for dinner to eat at the Rock Cut Pub which is just 5min drive away near Red Mountain Resort. Unfortunately you can’t walk there as it is along a pitch black highway with snowbanks along it and I don’t want to get run over. We had calamari to start followed by meatloaf for me and pulled pork mac and cheese for Jeff. Was really tasty.

Day 8: Paulson Jan 2

We woke up around 8AM to clouds but drove into blue sky as we got higher. And it was still beautifully sunny when we got to Paulson. The temperature was at -13C. Since this is one of those long trails systems Jeff stuck with me again. It’s hard for him to ski at my snail pace. But I did all I could. The ski was beautiful though especially the middle part on Glenmerry Rd to the hut and Norwegian Woods. All single track, in the sun, and few people around. Although it seemed that everybody else was going the opposite direction this time. Which is a bit more scary on a single track. There are a few fast downhill sections along Norwegian and Gloryview where I pray nobody is coming up at the same time. Hence I let Jeff go first :-). I always wonder why they don’t make them one way – as long as it is the way we like to go :-). I was pretty tired near the end but Winterberry is so pretty you can’t not enjoy yourself. And for the first time ever mud lake was in the sun when we finished – it’s either a clowdy day or I finish so late the sun is behind the tree already. Took us about 3hrs20min to complete the loop – similar to last year I think.

Leaving the clouds behind

Magical ice crystals in the air

Off we go

Glennmerry Rd

Norwegian Woods

Winterberry

Mud Lake

Originally we had planned to stay In Grandforks and ski Pheonix the next day – we had never been there. But it would have been a LONG drive back to Vancouver and I had to be back at work the next day. So we decided to push on to Keremeos so we have the options to ski either Nickeplate, China Ridge or Manning. The drive was still long – 3.5hrs. We dropped down towards Ossoyoos Lake when the sun started to set. It was sunny up in the hills but the valley was filled with clouds – and as the sun set and the sky lit up in yellows and oranges it was one of the most beautiful sights. Unfortunately there wasn’t a good place to stop for a picture.

Our favourite motel, the Elk Motel in Keremeos, still had a room for us. I think we were one of two or three parties to stay there that night. It was cold in town (-15) and they did have snow on the ground. We ate at the “world-famous” Thai restaurant in Keremeos, “Benja” – which of course is in walking distance. At least it gets really good reviews on the internet. And their Panang Curry was to die for, the sweet chilli chicken was very good and the coconut rice made is just perfect. We had to re-order rice 🙂 and had room for desert finally. Deep fried bananas with ice cream. Was a great meal for the final night of our trip!

Day 9: Manning Jan 3

Keremeos also has a good variety of breakfast place but we chose the one we always go to, The Ranch Cafe. It was still cold in town with a bit of a stiff breeze from the west. Now we had to decide where to ski. Manning posted temperature of -26 warming up to -12 with a mix of sun and clouds. Nickel Plate posted temperatures of -6 to -4 and sun. You might think that was an easy decision but we decided on the shorter drive rather than the milder temperatures. What is one more day below -10C after 7 of those already. Although I did put a condition onto having to ski one more time, it had to be above -20C :-). When we arrived at Manning it was -18C and sunny. Damn! Jeff was all excited about one more ski, I was kinda excited. After 8 days my body felt tired – but then it has been feeling tired the whole trip. Maybe it was the cold that never really got too bad for sniffles or coughing but just a tired body. Well, it’s only 10km up to Strawberry Flats. Done that often enough, it should be easy. Well it wasn’t easy. But it did warm up a bit. I did enjoy myself on the way up although I felt like having no grip with my wax. I knew that was me though not the wax and I kept pushing. But each hill on the way back, which in theory is all downhill felt really hard. But I made it – 3hrs, pretty darn slow and I was cold. The campfire chilli bowl and a hot tea at the pub helped. It started snowing at the end of our ski and it still snowed quite heavily when we left Manning. It had warmed up to -13C.

We were hoping this snow would not continue all the way and luckily it stopped just before Hope. Could have gotten pretty icy in the valley. I had told Jeff to tell me the minute the temperature goes above 0C. It didn’t happen until almost Abbortsford I think. Just the thought to be above 0C again felt good. Jeff didn’t want me to open all the car windows to check though :-). We made it home by 7PM and 6AM the next morning came way too early, sigh.