John & Anne Wiley

2012/09/23

Smokier

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 06:28

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not really but it was dark and there were some storms not far away when we landed at Creston after flying from Valemount through Jasper and Banff and taking our long pause at Invermere. For whatever reasons, I don’t seem to have a single pic from that night. Guess we were all tired, and our focus was more on getting to Creston and then Being there. We walked from the hotel to a pub for a light meal and slept well. Then walked to breakfast in the garden of this little cafe.

0351 Creston Morning

0351 Creston Morning

It wasn’t long before we were flying again, and again we didn’t take many pix. I do still have quite a few, but most didn’t come out well due to all the smoke from assorted regional wildfires. This one Anne snapped as we were somewhere around Sand Point, ID shows the smoke.  The exposure is a little off but it at least gives an impression of how beautiful it was even with the smoke. I love how our eye subtracts things like smoke when we’re actually there, but it would be nice if our eye would also subtract it from pix.

4247 Another Pass

4247 Another Pass

After all the mountain passes we’d been flying since Edmonton, it was still scenic to fly through another. After clearing customs in Spokane (no pix) we flew across the prairie edge past Grand Coolie Dam again and entered the Cascades at a different pass than we’d flown coming the other way.

2988 More Mountains

2988 More Mountains

Now in this area there are some grand volcanic peaks that are still “active” in geological terms. We could see several of them along the way, but most of the pix are too smoky to be of interest. But somewhere along Stevens Pass we got this smokey glimpse of Mt. Rainier.

3001 Mt. Smokier

3001 Mt. Smokier

That’s it at the top-center (not a distant cloud), towering above its neighbors. To me the name “Rainy-er” fits well, since it’s usually wearing a thick cloak of soaking clouds. But on this day it could aptly be nicknamed Smokier. One of my only passable pix, taken in one of my fav spots on this route, is the high pass right before you enter the flatlands of greater Seattle. It’s above the highway and the small town you might be able to make out at the bottom-right (ask and I can look it up). There’s a small lake between two high blades of peak, and I like flying through it as a grand entrance to the city and Sound.

3023 Left Blade

3023 Left Blade

Of course, on this day we could barely see the town a couple of miles away and the Sound was only a memory beyond the curtain of smoke that also obscured any hint of the Seattle suburbs. One of the things I like about this high pass is that it’s only a few minutes’ flight from Renton. We landed there for a brief break and Anne’s sister joined Joy and her for an idyllic wade in Cedar River right next to the airport.

3035 Heaven NW

3035 Heaven NW

So evocative of sweet Summertime in the Northwest. Rafting down the rivers, riding our bikes along riverside trails and taking a cooling splash, and cuddling up at a cozy spot to watch the water go by as we filled all our senses to overflowing and stocked up for the coming winter. Then goodbye to sweet Sis at Renton and back into Tripp for the short flight to Olympia for the night and next morning exploring that charming city.

3091 Airport View

3091 Airport View

On a nice day, the Renton airport (KRNT) has some really spectacular views. On this side is Rainier in the distance, and opposite is Lake Washington and Seattle beyond. Needless to say we enjoyed the takeoff and the short flight, including the shortcut ATC gave us across bustling SeaTac Int’l airport. I borrowed Anne’s camera to snap it, but as you can see it only captured a grainy impression.

4285 SeaTac

4285 SeaTac

Next we review pix from the coastal passage to the hamlet of McBeth.

2012/09/22

Fire & Ice

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 07:28

The relatively short “dogleg” of our AB Joy return flight from Banff to Invermere provided some contrasts. First, in the clearer air where it had recently rained the remains of a glacier beckoned in the distance. I was tempted to divert a little closer when this scene came into view.

2837 Glacier Apparition

2837 Glacier Apparition

When we were closer as we passed, I snapped a two-pic closeup with zoom to study the interplay of ice and stone.

2843 Left Flank

2843 Left Flank

2844 Right Flank

2844 Right Flank

Later as smoke was once again building in the air I caught this mixture of mountains, ribbons of rain, and streams of sunlight that creates a matrix still refreshing for me all these miles and moments later.

2877 Matrix

2877 Matrix

As we rounded a sharp bend in the valley, suddenly it was apparent why the smoke had been increasing. This fresh fire was still burning unperturbed, though I’d heard another pilot radio in a report on it.

2890 Smoke Source

2890 Smoke Source

We landed for a rest at Invermere, and invested considerable time trying to decide whether to look for a room there or fly more miles over this now familiar territory toward the border before dark. As you may recall from my first post about this day, we did decide to continue. Just as I went out to fuel Tripp and get ready, one of the several helicopters parked there took off to head back toward the fire.

2955 Dangerous Mission

2955 Dangerous Mission

Now maybe it’s my age, but even though I greatly respect and appreciate the pilots who do it, the idea of flying low over a fire in a helicopter holds no appeal. An aside: Being a 172Q, Tripp is the perfect plane for our mission: happy to fly relatively low and slow but still able to go over 140mph when you want or need to; ability to carry lots of gear, fuel, and four real adults; relatively inexpensive to own and operate (about 2x our car); great view of the planet; extremely safe, simple, and easy to fly; reliable and easy to repair aided by the fact that every aircraft mechanic has worked on them and parts are plentiful; and a great umbrella on the ground for shade and shelter. All that said, the one aircraft I’d love to own is a helicopter. Not because it’s pretty much the opposite in all those categories, but because it can fly even lower and slower plus hover and (with inflatable pontoons) land most anywhere there’s a small clearing or pond. But unlike Tripp, you can’t ever fully relax and enjoy the view.

So in the next post I’ll share more pix from this magical and relaxing voyage. 🙂

2012/09/20

To Banff

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 20:14

Unlike our flight North up the valley, heading home we flew the extra few miles down to see Banff and then back up the valley to follow the road over to Invermere in the next valley. As we passed the place where we’d joined the valley toward Jasper from Golden, the weather started closing in.

2752 Weather Eye

2752 Weather Eye

My weather eye and backup planning was on high alert as I saw the dark clouds ahead (right side of the pic) and ensured that it stayed bright behind (left side). I watched for lightning and listened for the static it makes on the radios. I kept track of airports we could nip into if we needed to land and wait for the weather to pass. Still, our path to Banff was good so I kept going. Before long the weather that had been just off to the left of our path was behind us, and the beauty of this wavy ridge near Banff rewarded our cautious alertness.

2777 Wavy Ridge

2777 Wavy Ridge

Soon we rounded the bend into Banff and saw the grand old lodge in the storm shadow at the base of the scalloped ridge gleaming among the clouds.

2790 Old Banff

2790 Old Banff

I think of this as “Old Banff” because I imagine the lodge was the original (and still the most powerful) attraction. We passed to to fly over the town, off to the left outside this pic. It’s a more ordinary largish alpine tourist town. There’s a pretty lake and miles of forest dotted with cat’s eye ponds like this.

2800 Cat's Eye

2800 Cat’s Eye

Then we turned back toward the lodge for a closer look, and on the way got a look at the other side of the scalloped ridge. From here it looks more like all the other sheer cliffs in this part of the Rockies.

2805 Scallop Spine

2805 Scallop Spine

As we passed the lodge, a splash of sunlight hit the tip as if to remind us what a great place this would be for a special retreat, vacation, wedding, or just to enjoy spending a lot of money.

2812 Banff Invitation

2812 Banff Lodge Invitation

After we flew the couple of miles back up the valley, at the turn toward Invermere we saw Louise’s sister. When we passed the actual famous Lake Louise on the way to Banff a few minutes before, it was hidden in the mists of a light rain and in deep shadow from a cloud so I didn’t bother trying to snap it. Besides, the glacier that once made it so special has retreated so far up the valley it’s a sad carcass of the postcard image. This one’s a little higher, and the glacier is still nearly down to the lake.

2825 Lake Un-Louise

2825 Lake Un-Louise

I was glad we saw this one, because it gave me a chance to share a snap that somewhat simulates a major attraction in this part of the Rockies. A place where major forces of nature and facets of geography combine to soothe the soul.

So now I will post this and return to celebrating the birthday of my favorite person on this planet, refreshed by this continued review of one of our favorite places on this planet. Happy Birthday, angel. 🙂

2012/09/19

Other Places

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random — John @ 07:49

We flew along the valley to Jasper and then turned toward Banff. All along the way our senses were immersed in beauty. Sometimes it had the look of the southwest after a wet winter.

2563 Wyoming?

2563 Wyoming?

Then moments later it could have been a river scene in the Pacific northwest, still actually far to the south of us.

2564 Washington?

2564 Washington?

Other scenes looked like something from Mordor in Tolkien’s stories, with all the bleak rock a wizard works like this split peak.

2566 Mt Doom?

2566 Mt Doom?

As we passed Jasper (to the left in this pic) it looked at first like any small town. But the color of the lake (just above the center of this pic) looked fake. Even if you click to see the full-size version you probably can’t tell, but it’s a shade of green dye for a St. Patrick’s Day fountain. It was real though, because we saw several more up in the wilderness. Must be something about the minerals in the water.

2586 Boston Pond?

2586 Boston Pond?

Sometimes the peaks seemed to mingle with the clouds, as if something had swapped the world above and the world below.

2657 Upside Down?

2657 Upside Down?

Woven into the cliff faces here and there were wispy ribbons of rain like these, tenderly and patiently caressing immutable stone for ages until it melted away beneath them.

2683-704-11 Magic Ribbons?

2683-704-11 Magic Ribbons?

2012/09/18

Turning Home

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 07:57

Even though our flight from Hinton to Valemount was toward the south, it didn’t feel like we’d really turned toward home until the next day when we flew to Creston. That’s because Edmonton to Valemount was roughly following the main route toward the west coast of Canada. Now, after back-tracking a few miles to Jasper, we were roughly following the main route from there to the U.S. border a couple of miles past Creston in the South. On this day we’d retrace much of the route we took from Spokane to Jasper eight days earlier. A few minutes after takeoff we saw Mt. Robson peek around a corner on our way to Jasper.

2476 Peeking Peak

2476 Peeking Peak

As you can see, his wig-topped head was in the clouds so we were glad to have climbed up for our closer look when it was uncharacteristically clear. Heading back along our route from Edmonton felt like more detour and sightseeing. But in a few minutes we would enter the valley of wonders that enchant the route from Jasper on our first real miles toward home.

2491 Cloud Hat

2491 Cloud Hat

Our old pal Robson looked almost as if he were doffing a hat made of fluffy cloud, to bid us farewell as we passed by yet again. He looked all the more grand from here, seen in a glance at his full height. Still, it was much more fun and awe-inspiring to buzz around his head as we’d done. 🙂

2530 Dead & Dying

2530 Dead & Dying

Somehow we were even more struck on this day than when we flew the valley before, by an ominous feeling of Death. Vast swaths of forest were either dead or dying from beetle infestations brought on by global warming. It no longer gets cold enough here to kill the beetles in winter, so they thrive on the helpless trees that had adapted to live in a colder climate. On the bare peaks above them, the glaciers had already died leaving behind only bare stones rising as markers to the dead trees at their feet. We talked about it some in somber tones, and often we just surveyed this enormous graveyard in silence.

2546 Ribbon of Life

2546 Ribbon of Life

Even amid the destruction there is breathtaking beauty of course, and some sights like this roaring cascade that bring life to the eye and to their surroundings. So many places like this we watched sliding beneath Tripp’s stout wings, far from the highway and clearly unseen by many people other than passing aviators.

2553 Rushing Torrent

2553 Rushing Torrent

This water rushing down the mountain promises life for the valleys below, and refreshed our energy. So many more scenic places would nurture our souls on this passage. I’ll share more in the next post…

 

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.