Newsletters

Great Divide’s Spring Newsletter, 2025

Happy Spring, everyone. It’s hard to believe we’re 25 years into the new millennium. Or that Great Divide Nature Interpretation is coming up on its 29^th year of operation!

My snowshoeing season wrapped up a couple of weeks ago, and this past weekend, I saw my first prairie crocuses, a sure sign of spring. My summer guiding season begins in late May, and I can’t wait to see many more wildflowers and other scenic wonders out on the trail.

 

Bow Valley Parkway Cycling is Back!

This week, Parks Canada announced that the pilot project to allow spring and fall cycling on the Bow Valley Parkway has been extended. And not just for this year, but for the next five!

From May 1 to June 25, 2025, and again from August 28 to October 2, 2025, the eastern 17 km section of the Bow Valley Parkway will be closed to cars.

If you’re self-propelled on two wheels, you can enjoy a gorgeous and scenic riding experience without vehicle traffic. It’s a terrific opportunity for families, for nature lovers, and for scenery junkies.

The park is making a few requests of people: there’s no parking on the TransCanada Highway, so please ride your bike from Banff’s Train Station parking lot; carry bear spray, as well as lots of water & food; and remember that in the spring, the road is only open for biking from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. because of the Park’s Canada’s seasonal restriction to support wildlife.

Enjoy the ride.

 

Logging in Lake Louise

From December until the end of March, Parks Canada logged a portion of the forest just west of town.

What?

If you’re thinking, “wait a minute, I thought national parks don’t allow logging!” you’re mostly right, but this logging is different. It has created the first half of the brand new Lake Louise Community Fireguard. A fireguard is a large area that’s been cleared of trees. It’s meant to act as a barrier to wildfires by eliminating fuel.

This winter’s work cleared out over 70 hectares (170 acres) of forest, running from the Chateau Lake Louise to the highway. Next winter, 95 hectares (235 acres) will be logged from the highway to the base of the Lake Louise Ski Resort.

All this should reduce the risk of future wildfires to the community of Lake Louise, which is good news given the destructive power of fires these days. The catastrophic fires in Jasper in July, 2024, and in Los Angeles in January, 2025, have made everyone here more concerned.

On a happier note, the newly deforested landscapes will also improve wildlife corridors and create some good foraging habitat away from the busier parts of town.

Next winter, the entire area will be re-opened, and we’ll be able to snowshoe into the fireguard. Should be exciting to see it firsthand.

 

Karsten Heuer, 1968 – 2024

When I first started working in Banff National Park, in the 1990s, there was a young biologist hanging around, getting his feet wet. His name was Karsten. I didn’t know then what an amazing life he would lead (I don’t think Karsten knew, either), but when he decided to travel – self-propelled – from Yellowstone National Park to the Yukon in 1998, everybody took notice.

The “Yellowstone to Yukon” conservation project had just been launched, with the goal of protecting the core of the Rockies with an expanded network of parks, easements, conservancies, and land management rules. Karsten thought it would be good to put a human face atop this idea, so in 1998 he set off on foot to travel. I remember him camping out at our apartment as he hiked through Lake Louise. It took him a year and a half, mostly in that summer and the next, but he did it, travelling the entire 3,400 km distance under his own steam. Afterwards, he often talked of how there were only a couple of dozen days where he didn’t see a grizzly bear or some sign of grizzly bears. His incredible trip put a human face on the project, but also convinced many how great an idea “Y2Y” was.

That was just the beginning for Karsten. In 2003, he and his wife Leanne Allison travelled with the Porcupine caribou herd to highlight their migratory route. A few years later, with their young son Zev along, Karsten and Leanne paddled across Canada by canoe. And for his final professional achievement, Karsten was the manager of the bison reintroduction project in Banff National Park starting in 2017. From a founding population of 16, bison in the park now number over 130.

Karsten was diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease two years ago, and died in November, 2024.

So long to a father, husband, biologist, conservationist and adventurer.

 

Amazing Photo Exhibit at the Columbia Icefield Centre.

This winter, the Whyte Museum mounted an exhibit of photographs by mountaineer Jim Elzinga and filmmaker Roger Vernon. The images were huge and striking, which was only fitting, as they were all taken at the Columbia Icefield. Jim has been going there on mountaineering trips for 50 years, and loves the place so much he started Guardians of the Ice to help protect it.

2025 is the United Nations’ “International Year of Glacier’s Preservation.” It’s meant to highlight the importance of glaciers, and the risks we all face if glacial ice disappears. And the research is clear: glacial ice is disappearing. In an article published in the top journal Nature in February this year, glaciologists calculated the total ice loss between 2000 and 2023. It was 5% worldwide, and in western Canada, it was over 20%.

Around the world, 2 billion people rely on glaciers for their downstream needs: for drinking water, irrigation, and hydro power. Here in Alberta, our rivers rise along the Continental Divide, and snake their way through cities and farmland, helping to feed us and quench our thirst.

Jim Elzinga’s photos will have a new home next month, at the Columbia Icefield Centre’s main exhibit hall. They are so dramatic that Jim and Roger hope they will inspire people to want to safeguard our ice. If you’re on your way from Banff to Jasper, stop in and check them out. And once you do, lets get to work on the climate change file!

Join Joel for a Nature Show this Summer at Moraine Lake or Bow Lake.

If you’re lucky enough to stay at the Moraine Lake Lodge this summer, I’ll be back for another season of entertaining and intriguing presentations about the nature and the history of the Canadian Rockies. I’m there three nights a week.

And new this year, on Thursday afternoons, I’ll be presenting at the freshly restored Lodge at Bow Lake.

I look forward to seeing you at a show or on the trail.

Happy hiking!

-Joel

Great Divide’s Fall Newsletter, 2023

Say hello to icicles, snow, and frost crystals: ’tis the season where the mercury dips, and winter’s magic spreads over the land. Three weeks ago, I hiked up to the Plain of Six Glaciers with my girlfriend Lisa, and was astounded by the presence of what I’ve nicknamed the “Icicle Farm.” In all the years I’ve lived in Lake Louise, I didn’t know about this feature. It’s only visible in the narrow window from when it’s cold enough for the water dripping over the cliffs to freeze, but before the heavy winter snow buries all the icicles.

Summer 2023 was full of outdoor adventures, and almost 100 days of guided hiking. Thank you everyone, from far and wide, for trusting me to take you out on the trail. Aside from some smoky weeks, the hiking and scenery were excellent this year. Here’s one of my favourite shots from the summer. It was a still day in early July at Bow Lake, and the mirror surface made for flawless reflections.

An Exploding Wildflower in Slo-Mo

One of the delights of early season hiking is finding dwarf dogwoods in bloom. These ground-dwelling shrubs, which are related to full-sized dogwood trees, add good cheer to any hike. Plus, they do something truly extraordinary: they explode.

As a way to guarantee the delivery of their pollen to adjacent dogwoods, the flowers pop open in a violent explosion. The explosion can come at the touch of a small insect (who then becomes like a Fed Ex pollen delivery driver), or can happen spontaneously when the flower ripens. Even though the flower is only about the size of a pin head, the pollen can travel as much as 2 or 3 cm through the air. According to botanist Joan Edwards, a professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, the force of the explosion can reach over 2,000 Gs. You can see time lapse images of exploding flowers on her “Tale of the Dogwood” web page.

I had some fun with guests Darren & Tracey and their kids Joshua & Isabel this summer trying to capture the explosion in slow motion on our iphones. They managed to get the best video of the experiment, so thank you, gang!

 

Climate Change in Lake Louise

This summer was a shocker for temperatures in Alberta and Canada. You probably heard about Canada’s record-breaking fire season (over 18 million hectares burned). We weren’t alone in our misery: the World Meteorological Union declared that 2023’s June, July, August and September were each the hottest summer months ever recorded worldwide.

All this was distressing, but for those of us who live here in the Canadian Rockies, it was May that was the most surprising. Banff smashed its all time record for May, with temperatures over 4 degrees C above normal. Banff has kept weather records since 1891, and this year was unprecedented. Dr John Pomeroy, the lead hydrology and glaciology researcher in the Canadian Rockies, had never seen anything like it. He recorded the most rapid snowmelt in his research career, and even observed winter melting at the Athabasca Glacier for the first time ever.

This is extremely sobering and alarming news, and since a picture tells a thousand words, here are two photos to showcase what happened this year. The first is at the Plain of Six Glaciers, on June 4, 2022, with the meadows and mountains still buried in snow. The second is exactly the same place, one year later on June 2, 2023, after a May that felt like July.

To read more about this summer of dramatic climate change, there is an excellent CBC article from September. Dr. Pomeroy was interviewed and he described the changes that took place this year on the Peyto Glacier, which has been studied since the 1890s. By early September, the glacier’s losses from the summer of 2023 were 6.5 metres of ice from its surface, and 80 metres from its terminus.

Fire Destroys the Largest Residence in Lake Louise

Amidst all the worry about forest fires this past summer, a building fire on July 3, 2023 took down the Charleston Residence, which was the largest staff accommodation in Lake Louise. “Chucktown,” as everyone calls it around here, was home to the staff of the Lake Louise Ski Resort. There were about 165 people displaced, but in the winter, the building normally houses between 300 and 400 staff.

Luckily, there were no injuries, but the fire has been determined to have been deliberately lit, and a staff member is awaiting trial on arson charges.

Until a replacement is built, the resort has built temporary staff temporary staff quarters at the base of the hill.

Fossil fun in Kananaskis Country

Sometimes it’s good to get out of your neighbourhood and see something new. My girlfriend Lisa, who is a geologist & geophysicist, took me to an amazing spot in Kananaskis Country this summer. Our destination on a beautiful mid-September day was Arethusa Cirque, near Highwood Pass.

It’s a dramatic landscape of folded limestone, so your eye is drawn by the big scenery. But there was little stuff to marvel at as well: it turned out that the limestone was full of fossilized corals. Most were horn corals that had thrived in the seas of the Carboniferous Era, 350 million years ago. It was like a scavenger hunt through time!

Next Up? Snowshoeing!

My snowshoeing season begins on December 1. You can find out all about it on my snowshoeing page. Until we meet again, Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US, and happy holidays to everyone during the coming Christmas season.

-Joel

Great Divide’s Fall Newsletter, 2022

Welcome to the short days of winter. And what an amazing start to winter here in the Canadian Rockies! There was a pulse of snow in early November, and then clear skies and cold temperatures in the last two weeks. During that time I’ve managed to skate on five different lakes and one frozen river. The real treat was getting out on Hector Lake, the second largest waterbody in the park. The ice and frost crystals were magnificent.
deneme bonusu veren bahis siteleri

2022 was a real “bounce back” season for me, after two rough years of Covid-19. Thank you to everyone who joined me on the trail this year. It was a beautiful summer, and nature, as usual, provided some intriguing stories.

A Cone Crop for the Ages

Most of my guests noticed that the evergreens in the park were just plastered with a heavy crop of cones this summer. The numbers were staggering, and the big cone crop was consistent across different species of trees.

It was only the third time in my 30+ years in the Rockies that I’d seen this, and when it happened the last time, I wrote a blog post highlighting what biologists think is going on.

 

One thing about this awe-inspiring display of fecundity was how beautiful it was. We usually think pine cones come in a boring selection of beige or brown, but during the growth of this summer’s cones there was pink and purple and green and gold. It was absolutely striking.

Great Divide’s Favourite Nature Book of 2022: Seeds, by Thor Hansen

It is a tradition of this fall newsletter to recommend a book for the nature lover on your Christmas list. Since the big cone crop is still on my mind, I’ve chosen a book about the natural history of seeds. It was a gift from one of my guests this summer (thanks, Elyse!), and proved to be a really engaging look at something we don’t think about much (gardeners excepted).

Nature writer Thor Hansen takes the long view on seeds, starting with their evolution (a big advance over spores, which ruled before seeds took centre stage). From there, it’s a very entertaining ride, with stops en route that take the reader to the deconstruction of an Almond Joy bar, to how the beaks of Darwin’s finches evolved because of seeds, to a breakdown of why the seeds of peppers range from very mild to very hot. Most mindblowing of all: the story of how a 2000 year-old date palm seed found in the ruins of Masada was successfully sprouted in 2005!

Garter Snakes in the Salish Sea

I’m always on the lookout for nature stories that spark wonder. This summer, wildlife and nature photographer Ryan Wilkes went to British Columbia’s Gulf Islands to photograph some unusual garter snakes he’d heard about. On Saturna Island he found what he was looking for: garter snakes that take to salt water to hunt fish in the intertidal zone!

 

As Ryan wrote, “I spent days watching garter snakes meander down the beach, swim through kelp beds, hold their breath for minutes at a time, and even witnessed the occasional successful hunt. These snakes take on a surprisingly confident and poised persona while in the water which allowed me to get closer than I had previously thought possible from many fleeting encounters on land.”

Ryan’s photos ended up winning him an award in Canadian Geographic’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. You can find Ryan’s work on his website or on Instagram.

Rock Star Snowshoeing Videos

Last winter, I hired the team at Calgary-based Roam Creative (great company to work with!) to produce some video footage of my snowshoeing trips. We got lucky with a couple of bluebird days in February, and I’m really happy with the footage.

Some of the clips will be getting featured on my website soon. But for a sneak preview, check out my “hero video” (Roam’s name, not mine) and a really fun stop motion video inviting you to come snowshoeing. Who could resist?

And as the Borg say, “resistance is futile,” so why not join me for a winter outing? My snowshoeing season starts next week, on December 1. To make a reservation, just visit the calendar on my website and pick your day.
deneme bonusu
Fundraiser for Ukraine

We’ve just passed the 9 month mark of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It has been an awful and brutal conflict. Last March, I ran a fundraising weekend for the Canada Ukraine Foundation, teaming up with Wilson Mountain Sports, our local sports shop. I donated the proceeds from two days of snowshoeing, and Wilson’s matched it. Together, we raised over $2600 for aid to Ukraine.

This coming winter, in February, will be the one year anniversary of the invasion. To help the Ukrainian people, I will be doing another fundraiser, so if you want a fun day out, all while supporting a good and just cause, mark off February 25 or 26 on your calendar!

Enjoy the holiday season and winter, everyone, and I hope you can make it out to the parks for a snowshoe tour.

All my best wishes.

-Joel

Great Divide’s Spring Newsletter, 2022

Happy May from Canadian Rockies. As this photo from late March would suggest, it’s been a glorious winter, but it’s taking a long time for spring to arrive. The leaves should finally pop open next week in Lake Louise, which also marks the beginning of my guided hiking season, on May 30. Speaking of 30, this year marks a couple of three decade milestones, one from the world of nature, and one that’s more personal…

30 Years of Golden Eagles

Let’s go back to March 20, 1992. For bird geeks, this is an important date. This is the day that Peter Sherrington and Des Allen discovered, by accident, a hundred golden eagles flying over the Kananaskis Valley. Over the next few weeks, they put in the hours, and realized that thousands of golden eagles were flying over the mountains. I remember getting the call for volunteers that spring, and Nadine & I went down to watch for eagles flying over Lake Minnewanka.

How had we missed such a mass migration? After all, this is a bird with a 2 metre wingspan! The answer is they were simply flying so high that you couldn’t see them with your naked eye. You needed binoculars or a spotting scope.

This spring, the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation marks thirty years of monitoring the migration of golden eagles and other birds of prey over the Rockies every spring and fall. Sadly, the number of migrating eagles has been in steady decline, but that highlights the value of multi-year studies like this one. They can sound the alarm when wildlife populations change.

Congratulations to Peter and Des, and kudos to all the volunteers over the years.

Three Decades in Lake Louise
I’m celebrating a more personal 30 year anniversary this year. In early May of 1992, I arrived in Lake Louise to begin work as a park naturalist with Parks Canada. I wrote a post on Facebook on the actual anniversary, May 4, and this is what I had to say:

“It’s been a privilege to live in this landscape of mountains and nature. I get to take people into the park, and share with them stories of this amazing place.

“Based on a back-of-the-envelope estimate, in the last 30 years, I’ve led almost 2000 guided hikes, walks and snowshoeing trips, and done over 1400 presentations.

“Thanks to the friends and co-workers and guests I’ve met along the way. Thanks to Nadine, who shared in this journey for so many years. And thanks to nature, a true temple that we ought to treat better. It’s a sacred gift, to humanity and to itself.”

Great Divide’s Donation to the Canada Ukraine Foundation

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February was a brutal act, and the war continues, at the expense of tens of thousands of lives and untold misery. Like many, I wanted to do something about it, so I donated the proceeds of two of my guided snowshoeing trips in late March to the Canada Ukraine Foundation. When my neighbour Bill Keeling found out, he had our local (and awesome) sports store, Wilson Mountain Sports, match the donation. Together we raised $2700 to support humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.

Ice Melt Date at Lake Louise
It’s been a late spring in the Rockies, which means many of the high elevation lakes are still frozen. Every year, it’s fun to watch the ice on Lake Louise and mark the day when it finally disappears.

The good news: you don’t actually have to be here to see it happen. From the comfort of your armchair, you can pull up the webcam on the roof of the Chateau Lake Louise, and monitor what’s going on! My vote is for June 4. I’ll post the date once the ice comes off.

Art from at Lake O’Hara, and Lake O’Hara Hikes this Fall

This spring, while visiting Toronto, I got to make a long-awaited pilgrimage to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg. They have a big collection of works by the Group of Seven, including pieces painted in the Canadian Rockies, and it was such a thrill to see works made in places I know and love. One of my favourites was a canvas by JEH MacDonald, done up at Lake O’Hara. It was luminous and totally captivating.

And Lake O’Hara itself is luminous and captivating. Most of my summer is already booked up, but I’ve currently got lots of availability in the second half of September, during larch season, and I invite you to consider a trip to Lake O’Hara to enjoy the show. If you’re unfamiliar with larch trees, they’re an “evergreen” that isn’t evergreen! They shed their needles in the fall, but before they do, they turn a beautiful gold. O’Hara, a limited access area, has phenomenal larch displays, and I can reserve day trips into the area through the guiding quota with Parks Canada. If you’d like to see this feast for the eyes firsthand, let me know.

Covid-19 Update
After being fully vaccinated in 2021, I received my first Covid booster shot at the beginning of January, 2022. I’ll be eligible for my second booster in July, and am planning to get my inoculation then. Covid has not gone away in Canada, but most of the restrictions have. I still take it seriously, however, and all of my Covid-19 safety measures are laid out on the Great Divide website.

Have a wonderful summer, everyone, and I hope to see you on the trail.

Great Divide’s Fall Newsletter, 2021

Happy November from Lake Louise, and Happy Thanksgiving to those south of the 49th parallel. Speaking of thanks, to all those who joined me on the trails this summer, please know that I am very grateful that you chose to hike with Great Divide.

It’s fully winter now in Lake Louise, and to announce the season with a flourish, I saw a lynx (a very winter-loving animal) cross one of the runs at the ski hill yesterday. Also, in the last week I’ve been snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, lake skating, and backcountry skiing. How’s that for winter?

My 2021 / 2022 snowshoeing season starts in less than a week (Dec 1), and conditions are great. I’m taking reservations for the whole season, and if you’re looking for an experiential Christmas present for someone special, you can purchase a Great Divide snowshoeing gift certificate.

 

 

Cutthroat Trout Homecoming at Hidden Lake

“311 fry were released last week!”

This was the good news that arrived at the end of August in an email from Shelley Humphries, the aquatics biologist for Parks Canada in Lake Louise. For over five years, Shelley has been working to return native cutthroat trout to Hidden Lake, a small gem behind the Lake Louise Ski Area. This summer marked the final step of the project.

I already knew the good news was coming because, a couple of weeks earlier, I volunteered to help carry film equipment for a video shoot featuring the reintroduction. We trekked along the creek that drains Hidden Lake, where Shelley and her team were rearing cutthroat trout eggs. There, we filmed an ingenious collection of buckets, tubing, and special mesh that were holding the eggs. New life was waiting to pop out!

The fish fry that hatched are endangered westslope cutthroat trout, which were once found in almost every stream and river in the mountain parks. During Banff’s early days, people fished with wild disregard for conservation, and other fish species were introduced into the park’s waterways. Cutthroat trout took a big hit from those actions.

Today’s national parks are in the business of protecting their native species, so putting these fish back into some of Banff’s lakes and streams is an important and inspiring story. In an underwater way, it is the equivalent of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone, or of bison into Banff’s backcountry.

The “Mighty 311,” as I’m calling them, are like orphans coming home for the first time. Go, little fishes, go!

 

 

Great Divide’s Online Advent Calendar

Advent starts on November 28, and for the second year running, I’ll be posting my Advent nature calendar on Facebook and on Instagram.

There’ll be engaging photos and stories about wildlife, mountain scenery, wildflowers, and birds. Look for it on Great Divide’s Facebook page , with the hashtag #adventnaturecalendar, or on my instagram account. Let me know if you want this to become an annual tradition!

 

New World Record for a Migrating Bird

Two months ago, a bar-tailed godwit – which is like a jumbo-sized sandpiper – broke its own world record for non-stop flight, set only just last year. On September 28, it landed in Australia, 10 days after leaving Alaska!

In an almost unimaginable trip, the godwit travelled a distance of just over 13,000 km in 239 hours. Top speed? Over 88 km/h (55 mph).

What can one say except “wow.”

In the last 15 years, thanks to miniaturized satellite trackers attached to the birds, biologists have been able to closely follow this amazing migration.

You can follow it too: the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre in New Zealand has a Facebook page that posts live updates each spring and fall.

 

 

Great Divide’s Favourite Nature Book of 2021: World on the Wing, by Scott Weidensaul

It is a tradition of this fall newsletter to recommend a book for the nature lover on your Christmas list. Continuing with the bird migration theme, this year I’ve chosen an absolutely absorbing book about feathered travel.

Whether he’s talking about hummingbirds or Amur falcons, travelling to Alaska or to Africa, putting GPS units on snowy owls or counting a river of warblers on the north shore of the St Lawrence River, journalist and bird biologist Scott Weidensaul paints a vivid picture of one of the Earth’s greatest natural spectacles: the annual movement of billions of birds.

He documents how birds travel across deserts, mountains and oceans, defying the limits of endurance, but he also covers the human element: how people have developed ingenious leg bands, tiny geolocators, and the citizen science of e-bird, all to help us figure out where the birds are going.

I loved it!

 

Covid-19 Update

I received my second Covid shot in June, and I’m not alone: a huge majority of people who live and work in the mountain parks of Banff, Yoho and Japser are fully vaccinated. On top of that, Canada is in the top 20 nations worldwide for per capita vaccination rates. Since late summer, our nation has also re-opened its borders, welcoming guests from the United States and abroad. So if you’ve been waiting to come to the Rockies, now’s the time to start planning. All of my Covid-19 safety measures are laid out on the Great Divide website.

Have a safe and happy holiday season with your loved ones, and I hope you’ll join me this winter for a snowshoe tour. My best wishes to everyone.

-Joel

Great Divide’s Spring Newsletter, 2021

Happy May from Lake Louise, where the snow is melting and the birds are singing. For those who were out with me on snowshoes this winter, a huge thank you. I am really happy that you came to the mountains for an escape from Covid.

We are now only four weeks from the start of the 2021 summer hiking season – May 31 – and I’ve traded in the skis and snowshoes for hiking boots and bikes. Also, I’ve been lucky enough to see my first grizzly bears of the year (see the video below).  I’m up to five different bears in the last week, and that’s my benchmark that spring has finally arrived!

COVID-19 Update

Alberta is currently really struggling to contain the third wave of Covid-19, but the vaccine rollout is accelerating, and by the summer, we should have a significant percentage of the population vaccinated. Banff is being targeted for a big immunization blitz in the next two weeks. I received my first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on April 30, and am expecting my second shot in July or August.

I can’t predict the future, but based on successfully running my guiding program last winter and in the summer of 2020, I’m taking reservations for this summer’s hiking season, which starts on May 31. All of my Covid-19 safety measures are laid out on my website. There will be no penalties for reservations cancelled due to COVID-19, so feel free to plan your trip. I will post updates on Great Divide’s website as rules and restrictions change.

 

Lake O’Hara Guided Hikes

Lake O’Hara is a celebrated hiking district west of Lake Louise, and last summer, for the first time since WW II, access to the area was closed. This year, O’Hara has re-opened, and hiking guides have access to a special daily quota. With three month’s notice, I can reserve spaces on the 8:30 bus for up to five guests. If you’d like to experience this sublime hiking destination, contact me and I’ll do my best to reserve your trip. If you want to pick a date with a guaranteed departure, there’s even a few O’Hara outings currently listed on my availability calendar. Hurry – they won’t last long!

Great Divide is now on Instagram

I launched my new Instagram account in March, and invite you to follow me. Every week I post a wildlife pic and a scenery shot. And in season, I’ll have snowshoeing and hiking photos to share as well. And although it’s said that a pictures tells a thousand words, I’ll make sure to add compelling stories to go with the images. These stories should give you flavour of what it’s like to be out on a hike with Great Divide.

Here’s a sneak preview of this week’s wildlife feature. If you’re wondering what a walking bearskin rug is doing in the frame, check in on Wednesday for the details.

 

Back by Popular Demand – Free Hikes for Frontline & Healthcare Workers

Last summer, as a way to say “thank you” to all the workers who have laid it on the line over the past year, I offered free hikes for essential frontline workers. I took out doctors, nurses, surgeons, firefighters, and hospital volunteers.

I’ve decided to do it again this summer, and am hoping that people outside of healthcare also feel welcome to come on a hike. That means bus drivers, grocery store workers, restaurant servers – anybody whose job it is to work directly with the public. If you are a healthcare or frontline worker, Great Divide is offering one free hike per week to you and your family or friends, on a first come, first serve basis. To see if hikes are still available, go to my availability calendar.

#142 and her Three-year-old Cub

I consider myself a Lake Louise local, but even with almost 30 years of calling this place home, I don’t have anywhere near the recognition of our local female grizzly bear: #142. She arrived on the scene as a young-of-year cub in 2010, and I’ve seen her numerous times since then. You might have met her virtually, as she’s been featured in this blog a couple of times, too, like way back in 2011, when she was just a one year old cub. #142 became a mom for the first time in 2018, and although one of her cubs was killed by another grizzly bear last year, she and her remaining youngster are doing well.

Last week, I got lucky enough to see both of them while I was out on a bike ride. Thankfully, they were on the other side of the wildlife fencing that runs along the highway. Phew!

It was really interesting to watch their behaviour. Pickings are slim in the spring, but mom was working hard to find food, digging for edible Hedysarum roots (Junior didn’t seem quite so enthusiastic). It was a great opportunity to watch bears foraging, and to see how food focussed they are. Amazingly, no matter how much they eat in May and June, they won’t gain much weight until berry season, which starts in late July. It’s only then that they start packing on the pounds for hibernation.

I hope you didn’t pack on too many pounds over the winter, and can get into the mountains this summer. Wherever you are, I wish for you to be safe and healthy. See you on the trail!

-Joel

Great Divide’s Fall Newsletter, 2020

Greetings from wintry Lake Louise. Our snow came early this year, leading to the earliest opening day in the history of the Lake Louise Ski Resort: October 29! And I’m excited to report that I got in ten days of cross-country skiing in October. I never would have thought that possible. A couple of days ago, I skied to the Great Divide, between Banff and Yoho, and my friend Josee snapped a shot for this newsletter.

The Freeze on Lake Louise

Yesterday, November 9, 2020, Lake Louise finished freezing over, and was even thick enough for skating on the front half of the lake. I’ve been tracking the “freeze-up” and “ice off” dates for Lake Louise for almost thirty years, and recording them on the citizen science website icewatch.ca.

But that’s nothing! Shinto priests in Japan have been recording the freeze-up dates on Lake Suwa, in the Japanese Alps, since the 1400s! The date of ice formation has been shifting ever later, and in recent decades, there have been many years in which the lake doesn’t freeze at all. It’s a fascinating record, and shows yet another effect of climate change.

Our Local Grizzly Moms

I’ve watched generations of grizzly bears make their living around Lake Louise, and the last two years have brought both hope and heartache to bear fans in the park. Two sisters, named #142 and #143, were both first time moms in 2018, and that summer a lot of us locals got to see the family in unexpected places, including on a grassy lawn beside the shore of Lake Louise! I’d never seen anything like it, and thousands of visitors enjoyed a scene usually found only in nature documentaries.

But after that joyful start, this year there was tragedy. In the spring, one of #142’s two-year olds was killed by a male grizzly bear, and in early September, #143 was struck and killed by a train.

Locals were saddened by both events, but #142 and her remaining cub had a good summer. My friend Amar Athwal, who is a superb photographer, saw the cub enough times this year to see him go from a skinny two year-old in June to a chunky two and a half year-old in October. He put together this photo collage a couple of weeks ago, and it really tells the story.

If you’d like to see more of Amar’s wildlife and landscape photos, he posts one or two shots to his blog each week.

Free Hikes for our Healthcare Workers

Covid-19 has has put some groups of people, like healthcare providers, at greater risk, and as a thank you, I wanted to do something special for these brave folks. So all summer long, I offered free hikes once a week for essential frontline workers as a way to say “thank you.” I ended up taking out doctors, nurses, surgeons, firefighters, and hospital volunteers. It was a great experience. The last of these hikes, in late September, was probably my favourite. I led a group of wildland firefighters who had been stationed in northern Alberta all summer. They were enthusiastic about nature, fire history, and our hiking destination, and it was a wonderful and goofy way to escape from Covid talk.

COVID-19 Update

Speaking of COVID talk, here’s how coronavirus is playing out in the park, and what I’m planning for the winter.

The national parks closed during the peak of the first wave, and re-opened starting June 1st. The pandemic shut down my snowshoeing business, and delayed the start of my summer hiking season. From March 15 until the end of the summer, I dealt with the cancellation of almost 80 guided hikes. I ended up leading only 19 trips this summer. Needless to say, it has been a very challenging year.

But outdoor activities have proven to be good therapy for many, and COVID-19 transmission is very uncommon in outdoor nature settings. I have taken many steps to keep my guests safe, like signing waivers remotely, loaning out hand sanitizer for the day, and maintaining safe distances while we hike. My COVID policy is posted on my website.

We’re just a few weeks away from snowshoeing season, which is a perfect outdoor activity in these coronavirus times. I hope you’ll feel welcome here in Lake Louise and Banff National Park, and I warmly invite you to join me for a snowshoe tour.

Be well and stay safe.

-Joel

Great Divide’s Spring newsletter, 2020

Greetings from self-isolation in Lake Louise. Our little town is very quiet, and the locals are waiting patiently for spring to come. Now that it is May, the snow should disappear from town in the next few weeks, and we can all look forward to life returning to our frozen Lake Louise world.

COVID-19 Update

In mid-March, with the declaration of the Coronavirus pandemic, things ground to a halt here pretty quickly. The Lake Louise Ski Area closed, as did almost all local hotels and businesses. Even the Chateau Lake Louise is shut down, which hasn’t happened since WW II. We currently have only essential services open, and Parks Canada is urging visitors to stay home until the park can safely re-open.

For the summer season, I am accepting bookings for guided hikes starting June 1. If necessary, I will delay the start of my hiking season. There will be no penalties for reservations cancelled due to COVID-19. I will post updates on Great Divide’s website as the park and the province of Alberta begin to re-open.

I am in awe of the healthcare workers who have taken on this crisis with such dedication, especially in the hard hit areas. And the essential workers have also earned my admiration. Kudos to all of them.

Snowshoes for Horses!

Have you ever heard of glacial archaeology? Researchers in this field search near melting glaciers for artifacts revealed by disappearing ice. Last month, archaeologists working in Norway published their latest findings from Lendbreen Pass, northwest of Lillehammer. During the 2019 summer field season, along with clothing and arrows, they found a horse snowshoe.

Yep, a horse snowshoe.

It hasn’t been dated yet, but other finds, including horse shoes and the preserved remains of packhorses and horse dung (!), proves that horses were used to cross the pass for centuries, maybe even millennia. As a snowshoe guide, I was delighted to learn that there were horse snowshoes. I also feel a strong sense of connection to this story, as my dad’s family is Norwegian, and one of the archaeologists involved in this project, Jamie Barrett, has been a friend of Nadine and her brother Mark since they were kids.

For more, visit the Secrets of the Ice website.

A Favourite Nature Book for 2020: Wildlife and Habitats by Susan Morse

Two of my snowshoeing guests this winter sent me this book (thanks Cynthia & Milo), and it has been great fun to read.

The writer, Sue Morse, is one of North America’s most celebrated animal trackers, and founder of Keeping Track. She’s got an eagle eye for finding evidence that animals have left in the landscape, and this is a collection of her tracking essays, published over the last 20 years. It’s full of captivating stories and beautiful photos (all taken by her), and has answers to questions I’ve been asking for ages.

For example, here in the Rockies, I’ve seen lots of trees with their bark peeled off by bears, and I’ve often wondered which teeth the bears use to scrape up the yummy cambium layer. So what does Sue Morse do? She takes a bear skull replica around to the peeled trees, and matches up the teeth with the scrape marks to show that bears use their lower incisors to get at the sweet cambium!

This in an engaging read and an invaluable reference if you like to look for signs of wildlife. Pricey but worth it. Available only at Keeping Track’s online store.

How Much Snow is in Them Thar Hills?

It’s been a winter to remember, and many locals have declared it “one of the best snow years I’ve ever seen!” But memories are fickle, and it’s tough to remember what the snow was like two years ago, let along 12 years ago. So if you really want to know how much snow is out there, you need to find a weather station that records how much water is trapped in the snowpack.

There’s just such a weather plot near Skoki Lodge, tucked behind the Lake Louise Ski Resort. The plot reports the “snow water equivalent” (SWE), and it’s currently at almost 140% of the longterm average. When this snow melts this spring, it will flow into the Pipestone River, which runs right past the village of Lake Louise.

I can attest to how much snow is out there, because yesterday I was cross country skiing on almost 2 metres of snow!

There will be big water in the rivers here this spring! If you want to see the snowpack for yourself, you can see it online, updated in real time.

May your spring find you healthy and safe.

-Joel

Great Divide’s Fall Newsletter, 2019

We’ve had real winter this past week, with bracing temperatures and clear blue skies. As I write this, the sun is shining, and there is a plume of spindrift blowing off the summit of Mount Temple.

Thank you everyone, who joined us on a guided hike this summer, and now that our winter snowshoeing season has begun, I look forward to seeing you on the trail this winter.

My Favourite Nature Book of 2019: Forest Bathing by Dr Qing Li

By now, many have heard of “shinrin yoku,” the Japanese art of forest therapy. This is more than an art, it’s also a science, and Dr. Qing Li is Japan’s most well known forest therapy researcher.

He has distilled his findings into this lovely book, and cleverly, he has done it in a format that mirrors the experience of being out in the forest. There are soothing pictures of Japanese woodlands, and just enough text on each page for Dr. Li to share his story.

It’s a relaxing and profound read at the same time, if such a thing is possible. Perfect for the nature lover on your Christmas list.

 

 

The Mystery Lake of Molar Pass

In July, I hiked with friends Anna & Marcus up to a high ridge overlooking the Molar Pass meadows. It is dotted with lakes, and most of them looked like this:

But one of them was a brilliant glacial green. The problem, and you can see it in the following photograph, is that there is no glacier above this lake, and you need glaciers to create this colour. The moving ice grinds the bedrock and produces ‘rock flour,” a fine silt that stays suspended in glacial lakes, rendering them green or turquoise.

I could not figure it out, but Nadine knew immediately. “It’s a rock glacier,” she said. Yes, dear reader, there is such a thing. Wikipedia says rock glaciers consist “either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former ‘true’ glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in-between.”

The key thing is that a rock glacier moves (even though it might only be a few metres a year), and this is enough to produce rock flour, and turn your everyday garden variety lake into an eye-popping emerald masterpiece. Mystery solved.

Best Nature Podcast of the Year: The Bison and the “B”

Canada often plays second fiddle to the U.S. when it comes to profound ideas about nature and conservation. When I was a biology student, I read Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, and Edward Abbey, all celebrated American writers.

So I was delighted to learn that in the early 20^th century, there was a secret society of Canadian (and some American) biologists and ecologists who paved the way for modern thinking on conservation. They called themselves the “B”, and they came together to stop the transfer of plains bison to Wood Buffalo National Park in 1925. As the host of the podcast, Briony Penn says, “the members of the ‘B’ went on to influence an underground environmental education movement that resulted in much of North America’s early protected areas, conservation legislation and environmental ethos.”

You can listen to or download the podcast here.

Happy holidays, everyone.