KSPhotographic

Well it's been a month now since I returned from my road trip.. As usual I'm slow at updating these things. Hell I still haven't done a journal for my return from my road trip last September lol. Plus this is my fifth attempt at finishing this journal - I keep loosing them before they're posted.

5 days, 1686 KM travelled. Spent my time in Jasper, Banff and Yoho National Parks. Technically speaking I guess it was only 4 days since the first one was all but written off waiting to get new tires on my car. Met up with an old friend, Visited a DA friend, and met a new DA friend. Hung out with the animals, played in the snow and gazed at many a mountain.

So to the subject of this journal - Adventerous or just plain stupid. Day 3 of my trip, I headed into Yoho National Park Went to check out a place called Emerald Lake.
(Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park)
I decided to stay here for the night in the hopes of a Sunrise the next morning. Sadly however, no Sunrise - just a lot of rain and socked in conditions.

So I wandered a little ways down the road to Natural Bridge.
(Natural Bridge, Yoho National Park)
Looking down stream I saw some small waterfalls (rapids really) and what could of been an interesting rock formation a fair ways down. So I headed down to the river bank off the paved and marked tourist paths and started to explore. Reaching the rock formation I discovered it was the top of a waterfall dropping the river down into a canyon.
(Karl's Canyon)
I can't find a name anywhere for this short canyon, so I've taken the liberty of naming it after myself Looking down the canyon I could see there were more spots where the water dropped. Since waterfalls have become my obsession lately I decided to press on and see where I could get to and what I could see. As I mentioned before I'm a long ways beyond the paved/railed/safe trails put in place for tourists. Travelling further along the canyon involved cutting my own trail through the woods along the ridge of the canyon. As I suspected  there were several waterfalls along the rivers route. Most I could get okay angles on. There was one however that I just couldn't get any angle on at all. I could get the top of it, or the bottom of it but not the whole thing. There was a ledge a little ways down that would of provided a nice perspective on the scene. But sadly, no way that I could see to get to it. A rope and hiking partner.. and maybe. So back to moving down stream... when suddenly I came across what could be a way down to that ledge. it was a bit of steap drop down, but it seemed managable. So I braced my feet sideways, grabbed a hold of the trunks of tree's growing out of the rock and took it slowly, 1 sideways step at a time. All was going good and I guess I got over confident. Only a few feet from the cliff edge I reached forward to grab a hold of the next tree, it was bit further of a reach then any other had been, so I had to support my whole weight with it. What had failed to notice before I grabbed it, was that it was dead. So with my full weight supported by it, it snapped off at the base. I fell forward and slid further down on the moss and lichien that was the ground cover. Thankfully I managed to grab a fist full of moss and the rock it was growing on which was firmly attached to the mountain. With the left side of my body partially hanging off the edge of the cliff I was able to watch the broken tree finish it's tumble down into the turbulent waters below.

First Thought: "OMG is my camera bag still on my back?"
Second Thought: "Did my tripod go over the edge??"
Third Thought: "Am I alive?"

Needless to say, yes I made it to the ledge. I took a good long break there, ate my cheese sticks, ate my
orange, drank a full bottle of water and waited for my heart to start again. Just to be extra sure, I crawled all the way back up on my hands and knees.

Haven't decided yet if the picture turned out good enough to be worth it.

Now I'm not in the best of shape, almost 40 and smoke to much for my own good. Besides the incident described above this was a dificult hike lots of steep ups and downs and as mentioned earlier, no trail, so I was cutting my way through underbrush the whole way. I Did make it to the top of the waterfall at the mouth of the canyon, but the shot I wanted was from the front. I couldn't make that, it involved a a lot more climbing to the end of the ridge and then a very steep walk back down to the river bank. By this point I could feel my knee starting to give out  had gashed my leg and had a tear in one of my hiking boots. Frankly, I'm surprised I made it as far as I did. I could of probably willed myself to get back down to the river bank, but I'm not sure I would of made it out again. What I expected to be a short trip to photograph the Natural Bridge, turned into a 9 hour
hiking adventure.

I found out later there is apparently a trail of sorts along the ridge on the other side lol - but it is higher up and there's no decent angles from there on the waterfalls that run through this canyon.


Who are these DA friends I mention at the start? First off: I finally got meet She was through these parts last year on vacation from Ontario, but we just couldn't match up our schedules to meet up then. Now she's moved here and is living and working in my favourite Mountain parks! She won't be able to hide from me now!

Secondly: On a rainy socked in day, where photography wasn't really happening I realized I was pretty close to Golden B.C. and decided to go drop in on my friend I first met Carl last year on another road trip and it was great to get the chance to see him again. I'm going to be very sad to see him moving away from the mountains.

And now; a sample of the trip!

The Mountains:



The Animals:



The Waterfalls:



Once again, sorry for taking so long to get this posted. Next road trip is in 1 Week! So I figured I'd better get this going before I'm 3 trips behind lol.

Does anyone still read these?

Real quick update. Car is packed, road maps are in place, just need to run off and get new tires on the car in a few min here. Heading westward! Mountains and still frozen lakes, meeting up with old friends and a new one. Maybe I'll take some pictures....

Ta Ta! See-ya's next week!

Time to dump the dragon and move onto a new journal. I know usually I fill my journal up with pictures, but for today I just wanted to change the skin and text before heading off for bed. Things have been getting better, I've been getting out and shooting more. Been trying to chase Northern lights with pullingcandy a lot lately. It's been pretty active these last couple of weeks. I've managed somehow to miss the best shows though. All the songbirds are coming back and at the lake where I park during the day a pair of Merlin's have moved in. First time I've ever seen them around there. Of course like all falcons they love to screech.... A LOT. So this old man isn't getting his mid afternoon nap these days! I haven't located their nest yet... not even sure if they've built one yet - but they seem to be sticking around and seem to be getting used to me. Today they let me approach closer then they have in the past 2 weeks. (though they still stay near the top of the tree's)

I got a rare opportunity today, got to be close up and personal with a grass fire on an old farm. In the farm yard with the fire and fire fighters while it destroyed the old barn, workshop and a few other out buildings. This is not normally allowed - and when the power transformer blew up and a piece of it landed only a couple of feet from me... well I can understand why. I'm pretty sure had the grass fire not been so easily controlled I would of been told to leave. So I thank the Saddle Lake fire department for giving me that rare opportunity. I've posted a series of the Barn going up in flames in my gallery. More photo's will follow after I've slept some.