Wintry Round-up
Well! Let's get this out of the way right off the start. 124 Beaver Street, Unit 5 had its first guest since being turned in to a veritable Bed and Breafast. Thanks for stopping by, Betsy and Justin. We hope you had a great time here and make sure to tell everybody how awesome it was. Unforunately, I don't have a single picture of the event, so that's pretty lame! I do, however, have lots of other pictures.
Before I get into them though, I'd like to use this blog to once more rant about something. 2 things, in fact.
I've been on several hikes lately and some things that people do are really starting to get on my nerves. First, trail-cutting. It would be an understatement to say that many trails in the area have a habit of going up and down. Naturally, the trail designers did not think people would appreciate going straight up and down the mountainside, and so they built in switch-backs to easy the process. It drives me crazy when people cut the switchbacks for the purpose of getting up or down more quickly. Why? Because it destorys the land around the trail - especially when people go down. Each footstep going down a steep mountainside takes with it a significant amount of dirt, not to mention any small plants that are unlucky enough to be growing there. In fact, I'm sure many people would be surprised at the amount of damage even 1 person trail-cutting can do. To make matters worse, as soon as 1 person does it, a faint trail forms and it gives others the idea to do the same, widening the trail and eventually causing the damage to be permanent (or long enough that it won't fix itself in any 1 person's lifetime). On Tunnel Mountain, the most frequented path in the park, the mountainside is quite literally a spiderweb of non-trails, dirt, and bare rock, where there should be a relatively lush forest. It aggravates me not only because of the damage that it causes, but because of the trivial gains that this trail-cutting gets hikers. Check out this picture.
It may not look like much right now, but all that tramped down snow in the foreground is caused by trail-cutting. The ground underneath is most likely stripped of vegetation and dirt. If you look in the background, you see the actual trail switch-backing around. As you can see, these people cutting here are skipping about 10 feet of trail. And the kicker is that this shortcut, like most, was probably actually harder to use given the jump at the bottom (often they are much much steeper) and that it is likely that they didn't save any time at all since they would have been moving more slowly.
Ok topic #2: Graffiti and other "I WUZ HERE" crap on the trails. Here's another picture.
I admit, I don't know the people responsible for this, but odds are they were in Banff and on this trail to enjoy the natural beauty. No matter how much they may or may not love God, putting up this kind of crap on the rocks is not only destructive, but also rather ironic given that they're ruining, purposely, the very landscape they came here to see. It's really sad how much of this stuff is out there and how many trails are marred by people leaving permanent marks like this. Unfortunately, what is in the picture is the aftermath of what was originally put there. The spray paint used to write it stained the rock, and although the paint was cleared off, very little is shown for the effort on the part of the cleaners.
Stop coming into one of the world's most beautiful places and screwing it up, people.
ok then. /rant over.
I've run out of time, so I'll have to simply post my remaining pictures.
This one is looking West from Banff from a nice viewpoint on the Sundance Canyon trail, right near Banff. It was about a 6 mile loop that featured quite a few different landscapes, was right near town, and was definitely worth it. I'm shocked it took me over 2 years to get out here.
Next is another picture from the same hike. This iceflow completely engulfed the trail at some points as it meandered down through the canyon.
Next are 2 shots from Bonnie and I enjoying a magnificent morning at Mt Norquay. They offer an hourly rate so Bonnie and I went from 9am until abotu 11:30am, since she didn't have to work until late that day. It was the kind of morning that you live for out here on the ski hills.
And finally, on another morning, the view off our balcony of a Mountain I don't think I've posted picutres of before - Mt. Brewster. Enjoy all. I hope everyone is well. Remember the door is always open here at 124 Beaver Street!
Before I get into them though, I'd like to use this blog to once more rant about something. 2 things, in fact.
I've been on several hikes lately and some things that people do are really starting to get on my nerves. First, trail-cutting. It would be an understatement to say that many trails in the area have a habit of going up and down. Naturally, the trail designers did not think people would appreciate going straight up and down the mountainside, and so they built in switch-backs to easy the process. It drives me crazy when people cut the switchbacks for the purpose of getting up or down more quickly. Why? Because it destorys the land around the trail - especially when people go down. Each footstep going down a steep mountainside takes with it a significant amount of dirt, not to mention any small plants that are unlucky enough to be growing there. In fact, I'm sure many people would be surprised at the amount of damage even 1 person trail-cutting can do. To make matters worse, as soon as 1 person does it, a faint trail forms and it gives others the idea to do the same, widening the trail and eventually causing the damage to be permanent (or long enough that it won't fix itself in any 1 person's lifetime). On Tunnel Mountain, the most frequented path in the park, the mountainside is quite literally a spiderweb of non-trails, dirt, and bare rock, where there should be a relatively lush forest. It aggravates me not only because of the damage that it causes, but because of the trivial gains that this trail-cutting gets hikers. Check out this picture.
It may not look like much right now, but all that tramped down snow in the foreground is caused by trail-cutting. The ground underneath is most likely stripped of vegetation and dirt. If you look in the background, you see the actual trail switch-backing around. As you can see, these people cutting here are skipping about 10 feet of trail. And the kicker is that this shortcut, like most, was probably actually harder to use given the jump at the bottom (often they are much much steeper) and that it is likely that they didn't save any time at all since they would have been moving more slowly.
Ok topic #2: Graffiti and other "I WUZ HERE" crap on the trails. Here's another picture.
I admit, I don't know the people responsible for this, but odds are they were in Banff and on this trail to enjoy the natural beauty. No matter how much they may or may not love God, putting up this kind of crap on the rocks is not only destructive, but also rather ironic given that they're ruining, purposely, the very landscape they came here to see. It's really sad how much of this stuff is out there and how many trails are marred by people leaving permanent marks like this. Unfortunately, what is in the picture is the aftermath of what was originally put there. The spray paint used to write it stained the rock, and although the paint was cleared off, very little is shown for the effort on the part of the cleaners.
Stop coming into one of the world's most beautiful places and screwing it up, people.
ok then. /rant over.
I've run out of time, so I'll have to simply post my remaining pictures.
This one is looking West from Banff from a nice viewpoint on the Sundance Canyon trail, right near Banff. It was about a 6 mile loop that featured quite a few different landscapes, was right near town, and was definitely worth it. I'm shocked it took me over 2 years to get out here.
Next is another picture from the same hike. This iceflow completely engulfed the trail at some points as it meandered down through the canyon.
Next are 2 shots from Bonnie and I enjoying a magnificent morning at Mt Norquay. They offer an hourly rate so Bonnie and I went from 9am until abotu 11:30am, since she didn't have to work until late that day. It was the kind of morning that you live for out here on the ski hills.
And finally, on another morning, the view off our balcony of a Mountain I don't think I've posted picutres of before - Mt. Brewster. Enjoy all. I hope everyone is well. Remember the door is always open here at 124 Beaver Street!
posted by Anonymous at 3:39 PM
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