Here's my last batch of photos from in and around Invermere. With Shelley's sprained ankle we couldn't walk too far, but we enjoyed a couple of meanders around Dorothy Lake near Kinsmen Beach. (We also enjoyed lunch at nearby Cafe Allium sitting on their patio with a view of the lake.)
A Great Blue Heron was busy catching its own lunch.
These two Painted Turtles seemed to be in a standoff.
This muskrat cooperated by pausing to be photographed.
It's nice to see lots of osprey nesting.
Of course, being around water, I couldn't resist a few reflection shots.
One of the reasons we came to Invermere was that it's one of the top places in the world for sailplanes (gliders) and we wanted to add to our flying experiences. We had great hour long flights with Trevor at Soar the Rockies. I even got to try taking over the controls and flying it for a bit. It was quite different flying 120 km/hr in a high performance sailplane with a glide ratio of 40:1, compared to a paraglider at 35 km/hr with a glide ration of 8:1. Then again, my paraglider fits in a backpack and I can hike up a mountain, launch, and land almost anywhere. Sailplanes are normally towed up by another (powered) airplane and land at an airstrip. It was cool getting up high enough to see Mt. Assiniboine in the distance. (See also Shelley's post about our flights.)
We enjoyed paddling from Invermere to Radium with kayak rentals and shuttle by Columbia River Paddle.
Although it was mostly cloudy, there were enough patches of sun to lure a few painted turtles into view.
I'm not sure if this merganser was on a nest or just relaxing.
Kayaking isn't the best for photographing insects, but this damselfly landed on my kayak so I grabbed a few shots. (this is actually two shots focus stacked)
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing bald eagles, since we don't see them much in Saskatoon. Taking photos of birds in flight is always a challenge, and being in a moving kayak doesn't help, but if you take enough shots, sometimes you get lucky. The first is a juvenile, who doesn't have the white head yet.
It's a little easier when they're sitting still, except the kayak is still moving!
Towards the end of the paddle, Shelley noticed a bald eagle on the shore and as we got closer we saw it was quite wet and had a fish. Later some other kayakers told us they had seen it struggle to catch the fish.
A couple of magpies were hanging around hoping for scraps.
I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see a woodpecker on a tree next to our campsite. Of course, by the time I got my camera it was gone. The tree was riddled with holes though, so I thought it might be back. Sure enough a bit later it returned, helpfully announcing its arrival with a loud cry. But again, as soon as I moved it would circle to the opposite side of the tree, and when I followed it would fly away.
I gave up and was sitting in the van reading when I heard its cry again. This time I didn't get out of the van and just poked my camera out the door. I managed to get a few shots. It returned a few more times and I snuck a few more shots. But the evening light was fading and the first shots were the best.
I think it's a Red-naped Sapsucker based on the red throat. They are closely related to red-breasted and yellow-bellied sapsuckers.
On our way out of Kimberley (after a leisurely coffee at the Bean Tree Cafe) we stopped at the Cominco Gardens for a quick look. Of course, I couldn't resist a few flower photos.
We also really enjoyed dinner the evening before at The Nest in Marysville, just south of Kimberley.
After the decadence we stopped for a walk at the Creston Wildlife area, just west of town. Just after getting out of the car I spotted something beside the path and it turned out to be a garter snake.
It was darker and duller colored than the green and yellow ones I'm used to in Saskatchewan. I suspect that's partly because it was getting ready to shed its skin, judging by the milky eyes. I was surprised to see it since it was quite a cool day. The patches of sun must have lured it out.
I have a soft spot for irises, even invasive yellow flag iris.
Another common invasive species - a European black slug.
I think this is a tree swallow. It barely stopped long enough to have its picture taken. It looks a bit wind blown.
I liked the patterns of the duck weed on the water.
This mallard was one of the few ducks we saw.
A sparrow singing its heart out.
A flock of chickadees was feeding in some trees. Some of them thought they were hummingbirds - hovering in the air to feed. I thought they were feeding on seeds or flowers, but zooming in on this photo, you can see it found a worm or caterpillar.
This one was taking a break from feeding to serenade its companions.
I hiked the five minutes from the road to launch. The sun was shining. The wind was light. Thermal (rising warm air) cycles were starting. Another great day to go paragliding.
For various reasons, Five Springs, Wyoming is my current favourite paragliding spot. It's small enough to hike up, has a good landing area, no bureaucracy, and I've never seen another person paragliding. (That might be a negative to some people, but it's a plus to me.) At a more popular area, I'm always the newbie. Here, by myself, whatever I do is an adventure. I don't have to feel bad or jealous that I'm not doing as well as everyone else.
I dropped my bag on the slope and looked around. Glancing down, I realized there was a snake about 6 feet away! All I could see was part of the body stretching between two clumps of grass. The big question was whether it was a rattlesnake. I circled it cautiously trying to find the head or tail. I found the tail - no rattle, and the head wasn't the shape of a rattler. I think it's a bull snake, which is cool because I've never found one in the wild before.
I started to wonder if it was dead since it hadn't budged since I arrived, even as I circled it (more closely after determining it wasn't poisonous). But I couldn't see any damage, and the eyes looked alive. I found a stick and when I went to touch it, it slid into motion. It was probably just sluggish after a cold night. And I was rudely interrupting it warming up in the sun.
Of course, it headed for the nearest shelter, which was my gear. I headed it off. At which point I realized I'd better get some photos/video. It was quite long maybe 4 or 5 feet?
With the snake safely out of the way, I got back to getting ready to fly. The thermal cycles were picking up and I figured I could launch fairly soon and have a good chance of staying up. Mid-day here in the semi-desert can be pretty rough so my rule of thumb is to try to be down by noon. Which meant the earlier I could launch, the more time I'd have.
I picked what felt like a good cycle, brought the wing up, turned, and ran off the hill. I started going up right off launch, nice!
But it wasn't a big thermal and a few minutes later the cycle ended and I started to lose altitude. Darn! Did I launch too early? It would be a bummer if I just ended up with a 10 minute flight. I scratched back and forth across the slope, picking up bits and pieces of rising air to slow my descent. I looked back to where Shelley had been watching and she was gone. She figured I was sinking out and headed down to the the landing area to pick me up. Hah! Ye of little faith. I managed to hang on long enough to catch the next cycle and was soon back up over launch. Not long after I found a decent thermal and took it up about 400m over launch. I would have liked a little more height but that seemed to be the top of the lift that I could find.
Now my "gas tank" was full (with altitude), the question was where to go? I decided to have a try at going south to the next two mountain peaks. There were places to land along the highway going over the mountains. I didn't really have enough height but I hoped for more thermals along the way.
First I had to pass the Five Springs canyon - heavily treed, deep, narrow canyons are not where you want to fly! I made it past, but I was getting low, and not having any luck finding lift. Instead I hit some strong sink. That probably meant there was a good thermal somewhere nearby, but I didn't find it. I started to look for a landing spot. I passed low over a car pulled over watching me. There was a flat area for road construction that looked good for landing. I caught a few more little bits of lift to stretch out my glide, but not enough to climb in. Some of that was probably coming from the black asphalt of the highway heating up. Just as I was lining up to land, I found a bit better lift that I managed to turn in. It turned into a slow steady climb. I circled round and round, slowly climbing (less than 1 m/s)
The last few longer flights I've started to get queasy from the turns. Today I was a little more careful where I looked as I turned, and I was fine. Shelley was calling on the radio - she'd lost sight of me and was wondering what was happening. But I didn't want to let go of the controls to answer. The climb was getting stronger and a little rougher. Although the rough air was probably because I wasn't staying in the centre of the thermal and was hitting the turbulence at the edges.
I started to hope that I could get high enough to go "over the back" and land up on the plateau, somewhere near the highway where Shelley could pick me up. When the thermal petered out I was above the ridge, but not by enough to feel comfortable heading back. I decided to follow the ridge back towards launch and hope for another thermal. It was slow heading back against the wind (about 20 km/hr). There was enough lift along the way to maintain my height, but no big thermals. I arrived back still above launch altitude. I could have found another thermal and kept going, but I decided I'd had a good flight and cruised down to land after an hour in the air.
It was a tiny flight by paragliding standards (records are hundreds of kilometres) but I was pretty happy about it. I'd actually gone somewhere, not just hung around the launch area. And I'd had a couple of low saves, which always feels good. I had to make decisions and judgement calls, decide where to go and figure risks. Maybe next time I'll get higher and the wind will be lighter and I'll make it farther.
We took a break from camping and enjoyed a night at Talus Rock Retreat in Sandpoint, Idaho. In between the rain we walked around the nature trail and I took a few photos.
