Good Day Bravehearts
The splendid great wild, with its remote and awesome places. Here, in a world class national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, we live and play and hike to our hearts content. The world of opportunity knocks and we respond with enthusiasm, for the endless adventure in hiking the great wild.
This week, we travel into a remote and little known mountain pass, high up in the alpine. where the curiosity of remote, wild adventure takes us. Ever cautious, we prepare for all weather, rain suites, first aid kits, water ,sunscreen, food, insect repellent, hat, gloves, binoculars and cameras, maps and gps. It can be cold in the alpine, with changeable weather and here it can be blistering hot, or freezing rain, sometimes turning to hail or snow. We all pack bear spray.
It’s been a good year for bears. Many sightings of females with two and three cubs and the powerful grizzly bear has made her presence well known, with frequent sightings and photo chances of her and her healthy offspring. The alpine is a favorite place of the grizzly and we don’t want to startle one, so our group is large and loud. It’s better to be safe, with large numbers, so the resident predator hears us coming.
The climb is steep and the footing is uneven. We spent three hours hiking to this remote place, high up into the alpine for a view of the glaciers on another mountain range. The intermittent showers cooled us and the climb was not as difficult as it sometimes is.
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/jasper/index.aspx Jasper National Park
Our fathers fought for this great land. A magnificent mountain range in a far off place. They fought for freedom, for prosperity, for a better world and here, in a remote and little known mountain pass, we enjoy and praise the brilliance of that choice. To protect the land, to save it for future generations, relatively untouched, preserved and intact. A home for the wild and an escape for us.
We are early in this years adventure. The spring was late and the wild flowers are not yet as showy as they will be. But also, we have left the great bear behind us, to forage in the valleys until the alpine will give them a meal. They will be here soon.
Today, the pass is for us, with only the calls of the birds and the rushing water, the insects and the wind.
The far off glacier is the head waters of our rivers and the source of our daily water supply. Protected high up in a mountain top, the glacier lies in its own protected domain. Remote enough, that it is rarely visited and high enough that is remains intact. The grand great wild, providing fresh drinking water for us and the planet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF05-slHnNk Fukushima
These rare, protected places, great mountain ranges like the Rocky Mountain National Parks are home to the awesome wild, the glaciers and the beautiful flowers. The power of the earth lies in these special protected places, where only the fortunate few can roam. Our drinking water, our air supply, our dark sky, our much needed connection to the natural world.
Here is where we live and play and praise the foresight of brilliant people who saved this land for us to enjoy.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes