What's buzzin Hive!
Oh my, look at the price of HIVE these days! Are we mooning yet?🚀 How about now?🚀 It feels nice to see a price bump. For a few years I watched my stake grow and the $ value decrease, it was a bit depressing but I didn't pay much attention to price because this is a long term game but it's a nice reminder why we all do this scary hodling. Alright this is the day I have been dreading and avoiding posting about because my camera died in one of the most beautiful places in the world in the worst possible time...I still hold a lot of sadness, I felt like I lost a piece of myself, it was more than a material thing to me. It was the end of an era.
First I want to go over a quick area we visited but the day wasn't picturesque, to be honest I'm not sure the area was all that photogenic, at least in the winter months but worth mentioning because it's a beautiful hike nonetheless and close to the town of Jasper in the Parkway area. This was the day after the toe incident but 
The area is called Valley of the Five Lakes and we opted for a 2 km loop hike, seems easy right! We ended up missing that turn and ending up on the longer 4.5 km loop but well worth the extra couple of steps. Once again, felt like we were the only ones on the trail, it was a gray day but mild out...Perfect for hiking. The trail took us around a series of lakes, some so deep emerald green it was mesmerizing as the sun reflected and exposed all the stillness at the bottom of the lake with the clearest water we always expect in the Rockies. There was a lot of up and down, some places were a bit of a challenge and the trail is narrow/rough in some areas so I would say suitable for medium level of fitness and mobility for this hike.
As we were admiring the first lake we encountered we picked up a straggler. This young lady was out venturing on her own being new to town and not wanting to get lost. She was going to turn around but then asked if she could tag along. We informed her that we were already on the wrong trail so if the intention was not getting lost, we were not a very solid plan. She found the thought entertaining and joined us. Funny enough, little did she know she would get schooled on Jasper's hotspots by a coupe of tourists! 😂😁😂 Honestly, this trail isn't very well marked so know where you are going beforehand ( like a trail app) or you could be walking for a couple of days ,this is a long trail if you miss the turn. Not the most photogenic as you can see but the walk amazing and I highly recommend this trail, especially for the summer and I can't wait to return to explore further. On the 4.5 km loop, we covered 4 lakes (the 5th one was the 1 km loop we originally missed).
Alright now the main event! This was day 7 and the day were due to leave, always a bittersweet moment for us. Neither one of us say it but we are both a bit sad on this day. Luckily, Jasper was going to give us one of the best parting gift one could ever ask for. On the forecast, it looked cloudy but it was still early. We had other plans in mind for the day, I can't even recall anymore as this day suddenly became so eventful, on our way to our alternate plans, we saw CLEAR BLUE SKY over one little spot...but not just any spot. The Maligne region! Could this be? After a decade of coming here, it's always cloudy, foggy or smoky and the view is not quite the conditions I want. Today was going to be my day! So I thought...
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Just before turning into Maligne Lake road, we found some wildlife. Our favorite Mountain Sheep come down from the mountain in the morning to lick the road as the morning sun melts the overnight snow in the valley. It could possibly be the same gang that we encountered on the near-by hill a couple days before with the juvenile with a few added males. Out of nowhere, the herd started to run into the road and along the truck. The new truck is a Ram and the first trip to the Rockies with it, a proper initiation!
Heading up the road we didn't see much for wildlife until passed Medicine Lake. I wanted to see Medicine Lake as much as Maligne but this time of year it's a little tricky. Medicine Lake is called "the bathtub of Jasper" because it's not a real lake. The Maligne underground rivers can't carry all the summer melts so it backs up and pools into something that resembles a lake. In the fall and winter as the glaciers stop melting, all the water has a chance to drain into the canyon and completely empties out like a freaking bathtub. How amazing is nature! Much of the water gets carried underground from this point and to this day, only a fraction of it's course has been identified as the water gets carried down the mountain, much of it still remains a mystery since nobody can accurately trace it all even with dye tests. It's quite the watershed network.
From Medicine to Maligne is where the chances of having Moose encounters are getting greater. They prefer to spend the winter high up on the mountains as their main predator, wolves get lower into the valley where more of the herbivores spend winter. High up on the mountain doesn't contain much vegetation for such large animals to eat but they are equipped with whatever necessary to digest and thrive on rough winter foliage like pine trees and shrubs but will still lose significant amounts of body weight waiting for nutritious vegetation to return in the spring.
Grizzly bears are also a threat to the moose population but they hibernate so not a concern in winter. Bears are not big hunters and prefer eating berries but they are opportunistic and will not shy away from an easy pray when they come out of hibernation or preparing for such. This story is actually part of the boat tours if you ever take the ferry to Spirit Island, the largest bear to ever roam Jasper was in the Maligne region. He was once an average bear but the rangers noticed he hadn't moved location in about a month and had concerns he may be injured or sick (they have tracking devices due to being close to endangered). When the crews checked on him, he had found himself a moose carcass he had been chowing down all this time. After hibernation, they went back to check on him and he had become the dominant Boss Bear of the park as the largest ever recorded for the park's history and still holds that record. I'm not sure if he's still alive but haven't heard otherwise, the park are required to announce such things to the public for transparency of operations.
Wolves on the other hand, do not hibernate and as food get scarce, they get more desperate and bold. Often they will prey on the juveniles since they can't run as fast or fight back as fiercely as their parents. Some calfs are born early in the spring and will have a likelier chance of survival compared to their later born counterpart that become more vulnerable to predators with their smaller size and will make so much more difficult with the limited food and the exhaustion from trekking in deep snow. Calves will stay with their mother for their first winter for that reason. Although they risk getting injured themselves, the mother will do whatever she can to save and protect her young from the opportunistic predators often resulting in the heartbreak of watchin her young get killed. Nature can be so darn cruel.
Wolves don't generally like to hunt high in the mountains during winter because it's so much work to travel thru that snow but human activity and our roads has made it easy access for them adding stress to already at risk populations of Caribou, Maligne region being on their main migratory route with an active herd roaming the hills. I have never seen a Woodland Cariboo (reindeer) outside of a zoo and the are very elusive. Jasper has 2 herds, both in trouble and not expected to survive without human intervention via a captivity breading program they are now exploring. Trails that are in their migratory patterns are generally closed around their travels to give them as safe access as possible why it's important to check on the government website for trail closures before commuting to a set itinerary.
On a less grim note , being the icon for the Maligne region, there is quite a few on the road if going at the right time of day(right before sunset), they have some curious behaviors. A few months back, the world was taken by storm by a funny sign that said "DON'T LET THE MOOSE LICK YOUR CAR" and news stories came out in various countries. Well my friends, this is they...lol. We drove by that sign just before and I wished I could have taken a picture myself because it actually is pretty hilarious but it's not a joke. Moose require salt in their diet and the road is the perfect place. Often times they are attracted by the cars and those who get too close, the moose will lick the entire car and you will likely be trapped there for quite some time because they do not move or scare easy in this area. Bunch of salt junkies! That being said, as funny and entertaining as it may sound, they are already a danger being on the road. Having them consistently associating vehicles with food is both extremely dangerous for the animals and drivers alike.
Read the old article about the moose's favorite new snack, it dates when we were there, hehe, I saw it about a few days before the rest of the internet did. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/americas/canada-warns-moose-lick-cars-trnd/index.html
Here is a video that I woke up to on a couch nap soon after the trip. Not really my thing normally tho but it felt special to me because I could tell right away where they were filming this. I had to go find a link on youtube to share here for those of you who might be interested on a show following and tracking different moose families high on the hill. The show is called Nature of things with David Suzuki, I'm not sure who the narrator is but it's not David for this one in case he's not your cup of tea and this is beautifully done (may contains disturbing content for some like children), this is nature in it's raw state. It's a full documentary, so sit back, relax.
After our moose distraction, we continued our journey up to Maligne Lake for a day of hiking. We had no set plans with
Everything started off well, we got on our way to the lake and of course had to stop to take pictures of the famous currently deserted boathouse. We normally don't see much tourist activity up here in winter since everything is closed for winter because of unreliable accessibility issues and avalanche risks on the road here but adventures can still access at their own risk and the road is maintained daily but the only thing available is self guided tours in the trail network in the region. Obviously, being an important region of the park, there is no shortage of trails, long or short, flat or at elevation. In the summer, there are boat tours, photography workshops, a restaurant, trinket shop, canoe rentals along with various other interactive and learning opportunities with animal skulls, horns, furs, etc...
If hiking in the main area, you don't need much for extra gear, it's pretty public but to venture in the trails, having a bear bell, bear spray and a first aid kit is a wise plan. We weren't sure how far or where we were headed to, this entire day adventure was unplanned and more so a "it looks really nice up there, lets drive an hour to find out" kind of endeavor, we actually had other plans originally. Most of the ice was frozen and accessible so we did walk on the lake for a bit because we could! I really just wanted pictures of the boathouse from the perfect angle to get the mountains behind it. The temperature was pretty mild and we were dressed for the apocalypse so we were prepared for spending the whole afternoon here.
Once getting passed the main building, there is a small hill that goes up to the restaurant, I advise any history enthusiast to make the short climb here, not only for the impressive vantage view of the lake and the perfect selfie, also there is a short interactive self tour with the local history on Fred Brewster and his team along with other important figures in the area that created what we can experience here today. Fred Brewster used to run private fishing trips and used to get here on horseback and over time helped turn it into an international gem. What really put this location on the map was a Kodak campaign for their new technology that featured the most remote wilderness exhibiting Spirit Island in a large print displayed in Grand Central Station for many years. Now the company "Brewster" is one of the most important and recognized name in the Rockies' touring industry full of off the beaten path experiences.
After the learning platform, it was time to decide which direction we would go hiking. We agreed on moose loop because it's a short trail and only a few kilometers to do. We made our way to the road and stopped on the bridge for some glamorous snaps, it looked all so perfect with the river still unfrozen, I was able to get some reflections that soon just turned to ripples in the wind, got here at the nick of time! Getting back on the trail, it was time to make it to the canoe/boat launch for another set of pictures. There it was, the unfortunate moment that nearly brought me to tears. My camera died here, in the most beautiful place in the world on the most beautiful day. AAARRRGGG... I'm still bothered by this but all is well, I have a new camera now, this isn't the end of ladybug but definitely the last pictures my D7000 ever took.
We decided on an alternate trail that we haven't taken here before (we have been on 4 different hikes over the years here so far), this one is called Upper Moose Lake Loop and is much longer than the other and not an actual loop, well at least not the whole way but seemed to be mostly going flat around the lake, perfect for injured toes and my broken soul. The view was out of this world as we got closer towards Spirit Island (there is no way to reach it by foot) and the background mountains didn't look so fuzzy.
The hike was pretty easy and we spotted many animal tracks from foxes, moose, rabbits, but no sightings, not that I would have been able to take pictures for you. I highly recommend this hike above many others if you are ok with a longer hike, I have to return on this hike especially in the summer. I wish I could show you and it would have made for an epic post to have that material but the pictures with the iphone were just not the same quality or even close so I will not include them. We didn't do the full trail, we walked for a few hours and then turned around to have enough daylight to make our way back to the common area. During our walk, we encountered crews doing the same fire management activities as explained in a previous post, cutting and burning hazardous trees for a safe evacuation in the event of an emergency given this is actually a really remote part of the park.
These are the pictures from the bridge, one of these perhaps the bottom one, has been turned into a painting by a local artists. Yeah that's a thing now, the ladybug brand has taken a life of it's own. Will I be part of the local history in the future?
I wish I could tell you it's the most beautiful hike there, but it really isn't! The trail head is also the at the beginning is also where one can join in to do a portion of the internationally coveted Skyline Trail that would normally take over 4 days to do in full, this is a junction to have a taste of it in a more manageable day hike up to a vantage point. Obviously, be aware of where you are going or once again, you could be walking a lot longer than you wish to if you miss a turn. I haven't been on this trail yet but it's certainly is on the summer bucket list, at least the shortened portion. That was our experience for the day, we were heading back home to Edmonton after this hike. What a trip! Then we got locked down. Now things are starting to slowly open up, perhaps another trip in the near future? My new camera needs testing, I can't think of a better place!
Cheers my friends! X🐞X