In this episode, we’ll look at romance in the fall elk rut, hikes to get you into larch country, Jasper’s Dark Sky Festival and finally the hunt for Canada’s National Bird
Story 1 – Life in a Rut
Now that September has arrived, thoughts will be turning to romance in the local elk population. The antlers that have been covered in velvet since late-April are now beginning to peel as the blood supply is cut off to the velvet. Big bulls, properly called stags will begin to rub the antlers against trees to get rid of the itchy skin as the velvet dies. At the same time, they’ll get more standoffish with other males and begin to collect the cows, or hinds, into a harem. The strategy of the elk is not one guy, one girl, its one guy and all the girls. ..and they don’t see so good.
This means that anything that gets in front of a bull elk at this time of year…to him…is one of two things. It’s either a fine-looking female elk or a challenge for his harem…and you don’t want to be either of those things. It’s one more reason to give these powerful animals a wide berth at this time of year.
Animals like elk come into the townsite because it offers a nice refuge from predators, but it does not make them tame. A big elk – male or female, can cause serious injury so please keep your distance and use the zoom on your camera. Remember that you can always crop the picture later if you can’t zoom in as much as you might like. Never approach an animal with the intention of taking a selfie with it. Not only are you creating stress for the animal, but you’re also putting yourself in real danger. We have an expression in the mountains that wild means WILD. Stay safe and enjoy the wildlife from a safe distance. Even though you will see people walking right up to animals, please don’t follow their lead. Foolish acts often result in foolish results.
Before the mating starts the males need to set the stage. Just like a normal date, they need to get nice and sexy for the females. A great set of antlers is a good start, but they need to put everything they have into this mating ritual. Rubbing the velvet off the antlers is just the start, then they need the right cologne…and for elk it is literally eau de toilette. They will create a wallow where they will pee all over themselves – and I mean all over themselves! I have pictures of a bull elk standing and sending a horizontal stream of urine straight to his face…. all with no hands.
That’s just the start though. To really get the full effect, they need to roll around in it to get the scent all over. To a female elk, there is nothing sexier.
Now, with the perfect cologne and the most impressive antlers, they are ready to serenade their potential mates.
The bugling call of the elk is one of the truly unique sounds that make the mountains magical in September. If you’ve never heard it before, you would never associate this high-pitched call with a large animal like an elk. Here is an example of a great bugle.
The sound travels for miles, and not only woos the females but also serves as a challenge for the other males that may also be in earshot. They’ll hone in on the sound and take their harem towards the sound of competing elk. Once they get close then the games really begin. Depending on the relative sizes of the two bulls, several potential outcomes may occur. I remember watching a male with a smaller rack strut around with around 15 cows when a big bull swam across the Spray River in Banff and literally walked away with every single one of his cows. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. He was just too small to attempt to take on a much larger bull and he stood there and watched as they all just snubbed him and left.
It reminded me of when I was a kid and the comic books all had advertisements for Charles Atlas and had a comic strip of a big guy kicking sand in a smaller man’s face and taking his girl. Full disclosure, I wrote away for Charles Atlas. As a competitive swimmer, I was just a meagre 84 pounds in grade 10 so I could really empathize with this small bull.
When two more equally matched bull’s faceoff there are a number of very ritualistic things that take place. Much of the rut is a combination of display, fake and thrust. Every time two bull elk make physical contact it is a very risky thing to do and the elk will do everything they can to avoid this eventuality. There’s a lot of strutting and posturing to try to intimidate rival bulls.
When neither bull relents, then the standoff moves to the final stage. Over the summer they have put on weight and muscle. They’ve packed on all the weight they could and are in prime physical condition. Everything they have done during the summer has prepared them for just this moment.
Generally, they will both drop their heads and their antlers will come together slowly. Then the real battle begins. It is a combination of a shoving match and a twisting of the head, all focused on trying to exhaust and if possible, wound the competing male.
It is also not unheard of for two big bulls antlers to become locked together. When you put two large sets of intricately branched antlers together, there is always a risk that they can get stuck together. This usually results in the gradual death of both males through exhaustion and starvation. YouTube is full of videos of people finding deer and elk and sawing off antlers to help release exhausted animals.
The antlers can also get caught in outdoor lights. Remove lights or ornaments from trees in the townsite as elk have often become entangled as they come into feed on townsite shrubs.
The battles will continue through September and possibly into early October. Grizzlies, wolves and cougars may also patrol the periphery of the town to look for bulls that have been injured or weakened by the rut. A bull elks misfortune can be a bonus for hungry predators.
As the rut winds down, many of these handsome bulls will have squandered most of the excess fat they’ve built up in preparation for the mating season. This often means that they enter the winter a little wilted and weary. Often, being the dominant bull means that you may not survive the winter. At this point the ladies say serves ‘em right and the men usually respond with “yah, but what a way to go”.
Story 2 – Famous Fall Hikes
This year the fall colours are upon us quite early and it’s time to think about heading out to take advantage of the colours – and in particular the larch trees in Banff and Kananaskis. When it comes to fall hikes, here in the central Rockies we are treated to a three-layer sandwich of colour every autumn. Down in the valley bottoms, the trembling aspen and balsam poplar give us a golden foundation to our mountain panoramas. Mixed amongst the golden colours are the reds of the wild rose, the fireweed and the low-bush cranberry.
Rising above the aspen and poplar is a layer of ever-green, white spruce and lodgepole pine trees which gradually give way to Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir at higher elevations.
Finally, right at treeline, the alpine larch adds another golden layer to the skyline. Growing right at treeline, the alpine larch is one of the few deciduous conifers. These are needle bearing trees that lose their needles every autumn.
At this time of year, any Trail that takes you into larch country will be extremely busy, particularly if it has “larch” in the name like Banff’s Larch Valley. Also, if larch is your goal don’t head up the Icefields Parkway as Lake Louise marks the northern limit of this tree. Almost immediately upon heading north on the Parkway, you’ll notice that upper layer of golden larch disappears.
In future episodes, we’ll talk about the ecology and biology of the alpine larch, and as a teaser, they are some of the oldest trees in the Canadian Rockies.
Most hikers in the central Rockies want quick access to the larch. Some will go for fame (thankfully most of them), and the rest of us can go for quality.
Larch Valley
Larch Valley Trail is by far the busiest trail in the Canadian Rockies when it comes to fall hiking. Beginning on the shoreline of Moraine Lake, the trail climbs 535m (1,755 ft.), along with a series of switchbacks until it ascends into the hanging valley known as larch valley. Once you’re in larch valley the groves of larch quickly begin to dominate the landscape and the colours can be spectacular. Please keep in mind that this is extremely busy so the road is likely to be closed by 9 or 10 am on weekends simply due to the huge numbers of other vehicles filled with hikers that are streaming to the area. Also keep in mind that due to seasonal bear restrictions there is a minimum group size of 4 hikers so if you don’t have a party of at least 4 you’ll need to join up with another group before beginning your ascent – and you’ll need to stay with that party for the entire time you’re on the trail.
When you first reach the top of the switchbacks at kilometre 2.4 (1.4 miles), stay to the right to go to Larch Valley, but you also have the option of going straight towards Eiffel Lake and Wenkchemna Pass. Personally, I prefer this route both for the incredible views of Moraine Lake as well as the simple fact that it is less crowded than larch valley. Eifel Lake is a barren glacial pond in a rugged rocky setting but somehow it is also beautiful. The walk offers amazing views and an incredibly wild character – oh and lots of larch.
That being said, to continue towards Larch Valley, from the junction, you continue to ascend through the larches until the views ahead open up towards Sentinel Pass. For some groups, this is the real goal of the walk. Once you pass the tiny ponds known as Minestimma Lakes at kilometre 4.5 (2.7 miles) the extremely steep switchbacks begin in earnest. You’ll gain another 200 metres or 650 feet to the summit of the pass over the final 1.3 km or .8 mile. If you have a fear of heights, you may want to take a pass on this final ascent as the exposure is sometimes more than some hikers have bargained on.
If you’re planning on doing this walk, I suggest being at the trailhead no later than 7 am. This will put you at the head of the crowd and allow you to have a much better wilderness experience than you’ll have as you pass the crowds on your way back down the trail. It also ensures that you should have plenty of parking in the main parking lot. By 9 am most days, and assuredly on weekends, the parking lot will be full and park staff will close access to the road.
One option to assure that you are able to access the lake on Saturday and Sundays is to park at the Lake Louise Overflow Campground, 5.5 km east of the Lake Louise Interchange. From this lot, free shuttle buses will go to the lake every 15 minutes between 10 am and 11:45 when the last lake-bound shuttle will depart. Return Shuttles begin at noon and the last shuttle departs Moraine Lake at 6 pm – don’t miss it! Shuttles will run September 10-11, 17-18 and 24-25.
Lake Agnes
This walk is easily the second busiest walk during the fall larch season. However, the larch really starts beyond the traditional terminus of the standard Lake Agnes walk.
Sunshine Meadows
Sunshine Meadows is a great cheat. You get to take a shuttle bus, or, on Saturdays and Sundays, the gondola and ascend from the parking lot to the ski hill at an elevation of 2,200 metres or 7,150 feet. That puts you right within striking distance of groves of larch trees. From the upper terminal, there are two options, both form a 6.5 km or 3.9-mile loop with the option of a 3.8 km or 2.3 km loop down to Grizzly and Larix Lakes. Another 1km or .6-mile side trip takes you up to Standish viewpoint for a fabulous panorama west towards Mount Assiniboine, the Matterhorn of the Canadian Rockies. So which way do you go? Well if you were like my group yesterday, you don’t! We had a heavy snowfall and it looked more like a ski hill than a hiking area. The sun came out today and the forecast is good for the rest of the week so hopefully a nice high-pressure system will melt that early snow, I’m on day 3 of a 15-day hiking program so I need to squeeze a bit more of that mountain majesty out of the season – and so many other visitors are hoping to do the same – fingers crossed.
On weekends, no reservation is needed as the gondola is running for the first summer ever. This is somewhat controversial and lovers of wilderness like me do not support Parks Canada’s sudden support for high-intensity tourism in sensitive alpine habitats, but that is a story for another episode. On weekdays, which is far and away the most desirable time to explore Sunshine Meadows, you’ll need to book a shuttle through my good friends at White Mountain Adventures. You can do this online by visiting www.sunshinemeadowsbanff.com. The cost is $29/person and availability is limited. The shuttles run every 15 minutes from the base to the ski hill. If you want to be picked up in the town of Banff, the cost is $55.00. One-way shuttles from Banff are $30.
Healy Pass
Another great alpine wildflower walk or autumn larch trail option is Healy Pass. This trail has two potential routes. You can walk from the Sunshine parking lot to the pass-through forest and eventually through the amazing alpine landscapes that characterize this trail. If you choose this option, the distance from the parking lot to Healy Pass is approximately 9.2 km or 5.7 miles each way. From Sunshine Village, after taking the shuttle, it’s actually a few kilometres longer, but the entire walk is in and around the alpine. You wander through alpine meadows, larch forests and past incredible landscapes. Views include The Monarch, Mount Assiniboine, and Pharaoh, Egypt and Scarab Lakes. One option is to ascend via the shuttle bus or gondola and then descend on the standard trail. This way you don’t have to worry about missing the last shuttle of the day at 4:30 pm.
Burstall Pass
Personally, this is more than just my favourite larch Trail, it’s one of my favourite trails period! It is an out-and-back Trail that takes you high up to a pass that marks the border of Kananaskis Country and Banff National Park. The trailhead can be found on the Smith-Dorrien Spray Trail at the northern end of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park. The parking lot is well marked and immediately across the street from our next trail, Chester Lake. The trail starts at Mud Lake, a tiny mountain lake showcased in the Anthony Hopkins movie, The Edge. In the movie, their plane crashes and the camera switches to the underwater view showing them surfacing in this picturesque lake. After that, things turn bad and Bart the bear has his way with much of the group, but again, that is a story for another podcast. Suffice it to say, terrible movie but great scenery, and a darn handsome bear.
Burstall Pass climbs from a base elevation of 1910 or 6,300 feet to 2365 metres or 7760 feet at the summit. It is a 15 km or 9-mile out-and-back trail that begins with 3 km or 1.8 miles of former fire road. I prefer to hop on my mountain bike and ride the trail as it gradually ascends to its terminus where a bike rack waits for you to lock it up. It seems more hikers walk the road than ride, but it is sure nice to have a bike waiting for a 3 km descent at the end of the day – just sayin’.
Beyond road’s end, the trail winds through the trees briefly before crossing a braided river flat. To the south, the Robertson Glacier holds the skyline and sends its meltwater down towards the valley. Before clearing the flats, there are runoff channels that you can usually cross without incident but be forewarned that on hot summer days, the channels can rise dramatically. It is not unheard of to have an easy crossing in the morning and a raging torrent in the afternoon. Be prepared to get wet.
After the crossing, like so many trails in the Rockies you climb steadily to a hanging valley. The wildflowers in late June and early July are fabulous here and after the meadow, you begin a final ascent through the alpine larch and into the alpine. You reach the pass at the 7.5 km mark and then it’s time to retrace your steps. Do NOT do this trail without spending time simply enjoying the splendour of the peaks of Mount Birdwood and Commonwealth Peak. This is, without a doubt, one of my favourite views in the entire Canadian Rockies. To me, it’s an old friend that I visit time and again.
Chester Lake
Across the road from Burstall Pass is the Chester Lake Trailhead. This is a less ambitious trail that also takes you into fabulous larch territory and is ideal for those of you that prefer to start walking a little later in the day. As a photographer, I often define places by the best time to photograph them. Chester Lake trail is a great afternoon location so no need for an alarm clock on this one.
Like Burstall Pass, Chester Lake starts at a similar elevation and climbs 310 metres or 1000 feet over 3.9 kilometres or 2.3 miles to an amazing alpine lake that rests under the shadow of the very impressive peak of Mount Chester. Since the floods of 2013, they’ve redesigned the trail access but it is clearly marked from the trailhead. It’s a great fall larch walk.
As beautiful as these trails are, they are better done on weekdays as opposed to weekends. The Rockies are busy busy busy and even Kananaskis Country has seen crowds and parking lots overflowing along roadways. The best investment for hikers this year is in a good alarm clock. Get out early on most of the trails and you can avoid the crowds and have the kind of experience that you can see in photographs. why not check some of my images at www.facebook.com/wardcameronphotography. It’s now becoming a game of race the crowds to the fabulous spots. Who cares if there are crowds on the descent, get up early and own the pass or summit. You’ll thank me for it. I may see you there. As a photographer though, my early is often 4 or 5 am so I can be at the spots I want to photograph when the first rays of light hit them.
Story 3 – Jasper’s Dark Sky Festival
Have you ever sat under a starlit sky and just wondered at the bazillions of stars that you can see overhead? When I was a kid, we had a cottage (to us it was called a camp), at a place called Birch Beach on the shores of Lake Superior. There were no street lights and when it got dark, it got really dark. As a kid, I could see all kinds of scary things in the shadows of the forest if I found myself having to walk alone after dark. I learned that if I looked up at the stars, all the monsters disappeared…and I’ve been a lover of the night sky ever since. Unfortunately, for many of you listening, you may not have had a similar experience. In fact, a new atlas of light pollution reveals that 80% of the world’s population, and even worse, 99% of Americans and Europeans can’t see the magic of the Milky Way anymore because of urban light pollution.
This makes places with pristine, dark skies a mecca for star lovers and Jasper National Park has been designated as one of the largest dark sky preserves on the planet. This year, on October 14-23 they will be hosting one of the greatest geekfests of all time with the Jasper Dark Sky Festival. It gives visitors an opportunity to really experience the night sky and Milky Way in all of its glory. And are you ready for the best part, and I’m soooooo excited about this, On Oct 15, Bill Nye, the Science Guy will present at 10 am and 3:30 pm and on Oct 21, George Takei, better known as Sulu on the greatest sci-fi show of all time, Star Trek, and a well-known LGBTQ activist will host another evening event. OK. What more could any geek want?
Well, how bout this? On Oct 15 Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hanson will speak and the same night the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will perform Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons under the stars. These are just a few of the events that will bring star lovers to Jasper this October. For more information visit www.Jasperdarksky.travel .
Story 4 – Canada’s National Bird
Like many countries, Canada as a nation has numerous federally adopted symbols. The national animal is, naturally, the beaver. So much of our history and our founding as a nation are related to this industrious rodent and it seems like nothing else could stand next to it in terms of national significance.
Our national tree is the maple. It is the symbol of our flag and our nation, and even though it doesn’t grow in all regions of Canada, it is a symbol that most Canadians feel proud to represent our nation.
Our national sport is lacrosse, a sport invented in the Iroquois first nations in southern Ontario, Quebec and several northeastern U.S. states. It may have been played as far back as 1100 AD and so has a history dating back almost a thousand years. Of course, in winter, hockey is the national sport simply for its pervasiveness in the day to day life of most Canadians. Hockey is simply a way of life. Hockey and Canada goes hand in hand.
What about a national bird? Well we don’t have one. In Alberta, we recognize the great horned owl. In British Columbia, it’s the Steller’s jay. Nationally though we have yet to recognize a single bird.
The Royal Canadian Geographic Society would like to remedy that. After all the U.S. has the bald eagle so it’s about time – right! In January of 2015, the society opened a contest for Canadians to vote on their choice for the most Canadian of birds.
The top choice so far, with almost 14,000 votes was the Common Loon. Who hasn’t marveled at its haunting call. Heck, it even represents the theme song of this podcast so clearly, it’s important.
Next up was the great horned owl with 8490 votes and the gray jay with 7918. Rounding up the bottom five were the Canada goose followed by the black-capped chickadee. All fine choices although I think I agree with the loon taking the top spot. What about you?
Sometime this month, a panel of experts will debate the list and decide which bird they will support. A final choice will be announced on Nov. 16 after which their recommendation will be sent to Ottawa for their 2 cents worth.
We’ll keep you posted as this story unfolds.
With that, it’s time to wrap up this week’s episode. Don’t forget to head to iTunes and subscribe to the show and leave a review if you enjoy the show. The best way for us to grow is to build a community of listeners and we appreciate every review and comment we get. Also, if you are looking for a speaker or expert naturalist for your next visit to the Rockies, drop by WardCameron.com to book your Rocky Mountain Experience. Thanks again for listening to us. You can follow me on Twitter @wardcameron and visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wardcameronenterprises… And with that the suns out and it’s time to go hiking! See you next week.