I went to one of our favorite spots around Vagabond Lodge.  Gorman Lake is a pristine mountain lake not far in distance from us.  But to get there, you have to travel down a logging road for about an hour.  The road is in bad shape in a few spots and you really have to be careful not to take your oil pan off.  I don't think you can make it, in a low clearance car anymore.  From the parking lot it is a nice 45 minute hike to Gorman Lake over a moraine.   There was nobody there and it was truly spectacular.  I went with a few friends and ended up with a picnic next to the lake.  There are a few picnic tables.  There used to be an outhouse but it looks as if a snow slide demolished it as there are pieces of the building scattered around.  The local snowmobile club uses this area in the winter.  If you are a fisherman, this is a good spot as they were jumping all over and as we left there were a number of people making their way up to the lake with fishing rods. On the way down we discovered a huge quantity of huckleberries.  There will be some pies being made in the next few days.  You can see a video of a hike I did into here a couple years ago at www.hikescanada.com. 

We spent  two days in Lake Ohara in Yoho National Park, staying in the Elizabeth Parker Alpine Club of Canada Hut.  The weather couldn't have been much worse for this time of the year.  The first day it basically poured rain for much of the day.  It cleared up in the evening with some spectacular views of the snow covered mountains.  That was the sign of things to come as we decided to do one of the most demanding hikes in the area up to the top of Wiwaxy Gap.  No sooner we headed up, it began to snow and never let up.  At the top it was boot-top powder.  We elected to turn around at that point rather than take a chance on the Yukness Ledge, which is exactly what it is.  A ledge that runs acoss the side of the mountain with snow covered trails.  The hike to the top was only 1.9 km, but it was an elevation gain of over 500 metre(1500 feet). Some people ahead of us elected to do the ledges and lived to talk about it as we saw them later in the day and told us how scary it was.  It was quite an experience. Hope you like the video. 

Despite the Gondola closed here at Kicking Horse, there are still many things to do.  We have been able to arrange viewing of the Grizzly Bear Refuge here at Kicking Horse.  Four of our guests yesterday were driven up to the refuge by Kicking Horse and "boo" the Grizzly bear put on a good show for them.  Thanks to the Resort for doing this.  They just charged a $10 donation for this. And later in the day, these same guests went on a float trip on the Columbia River with Columbia Wetlands Adventures and came across a bear swimming in the Columbia River. And this was the footage one of our guests shot.  Pretty cool.  Thanks to Peter Najar from Michigan for this.  Not something you see every day.