Red Rock Canyon

Thur 15 Sept. Had to go to Visitors Centre today to get some volunteer forms as we are helping to plant White Bark Pine up around Summit Lake tomorrow, therefore we couldn't do the third of our triple challenge hikes because we need to go on the boat ferry at 9am and doesn't get back until after 5pm and so that's outside the visitor centre's hours. So after getting the forms we headed up to Red Rock Canyon. The majority of this small loop track is closed for construction but you do get to see the start of the red rock Canyon, which is pretty impressive, shame we couldn't see it all, but they are still working on tracks destroyed in the fire. From there we decided to go to Goat Lake. The first 4.7 kms is on a very good track/ 4wd road, and I wished I had paid better attention to the map because you were able to bike it and that would had been a nice ride. However at the turn off for Goat Lake it wasn't so nice - about 400 m elevation gain over 2 kms, it was a steep steady climb. The lake wasn't anything wonderful, after a little walk around the side we headed back down. Hike stats: 15.06 km, 3 hrs 08, elevation gain 602 m, highest altitude 2006 m. After lunch and a bit of book reading, did the short 1 km walk to the Blakiston Falls, a nice wee fall but what was impressive was the very flash looking and probably expensive viewing platforms they had put in. After that we drove to Cameron Lake to stay for the night, saves us getting up to early in the morning to be here by 8 am for our volunteering work. Steps D 27109 / V 28028.
Fri 16th. Up bright and early for our days work. There was 8 volunteers and about 10 Parks Canada staff members planting today. After our briefing we got a spade and pouch and headed up the hill towards Summit Lake and our planting area 3.5 kms, and about 300 elevation gain. Apparently they are not planting because of the fire, but these pines are becoming quite endangered due to a rust virus attacking them, so these seedlings have been grown from more resistant parent stock. The planting was fairly easy, the hardest thing was trying to find an area that hadn't already been planted. Finished about 1 pm - that was 2500 seedling planted in the two days. Had lunch with everyone then headed back down the hill. The pines are incredibly slow growing so our grandchildren or great grandchildren will have to check them out for us in 50+ years. Back to the town campsite for another easy afternoon. Steps D 16160 / V 22764.Read more