Canada: green water

All over this area the lakes and rivers are this amazing turquoise-to-jade-to-emerald green.

Like nearly everything about this area, the green color in the water is due to the glaciers. The glaciers grind the rock into tiny tiny particles - someone told me they are the size of the particles in wood smoke - called "rock flour." The glacial runoff carries these tiny particles, rock flour, into the rivers and lakes. The rock flour absorbs most of the colors of spectrum, leaving only these amazing greens to be reflected.

Elaine says this is where she first fell in love with the colors of water, a love that moved easily to the colors of the ocean in our island home.

September 4, Canada, Day 3

Wow!

Oh my god!

WOW! (again)

OH. MY. GOD!

This was the day we first traveled the Icefields Parkway. National Geographic called the 232 km (144 mile) drive one of the top 10 scenic drives in the world. Another writer said, "You can drive it in three hours - but it would be a crime to do so!" You simply cannot not stop by the side of the highway to take pictures or just to stare.

We decided we need a new language or at least a new vocabulary. Both of us are pretty good with words but there simply are none, at least not in any language we know, to describe this.

The immensity, the space, the grandeur. It is stunningly staggeringly jaw-droppinly beautiful.  After so many miles of "Wow oh my god wow holy crap wow" words fail and you just stare in wonder.

The Icefields Parkway is also where I met glaciers for the first time. Glaciers are such a mind explosion, they get their own post, coming soon. You'll also see more of the Icefields Parkway later.

September 3, Canada, Day 2

Just a few kilometers from Lake Louise is Moraine Lake. Sunrise at Moraine Lake was another of those memories from Elaine's first trip to the Rockies that we needed to revisit. We headed out in the crisp - okay, cold - predawn light to reach the lake before sunrise. By the time we got there, five other photographers were already there, set up, waiting for the sun. The weather stayed mostly broken clouds and the other photographers were disappointed. For me it was a magical time. I got some of the best photos of the trip. It was hard to decide which photo to post here. I uploaded a number of them to Flickr already so you can see more of this magical morning there.

Like I said, cold.

Eventually the sun did come out and the tour buses started arriving at Moraine Lake so we snuck back up the road for an early morning glimpse of Lake Louise.

From Lake Louise we headed back down the Bow River Parkway toward Banff to Johnston Canyon.

Johnston Canyon is one of the most popular day-hikes in Banff National Park. Johnston Creek starts in a glacial valley at 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). From there it cuts through the limestone rock before it empties into the Bow River 1,060 meters (3,480 feet) lower. Geologists estimate the water and rocks and ice have been grinding away at the canyon for 8,000 years. That makes it the same age as our reef at Shacks Beach.
  

There are two aptly-named water falls in the canyon: Lower Falls

and Upper Falls

In between there is a small waterfall that could have named Small Fall or, in keeping with the existing naming system , Middle Falls. Alas, this smaller drop remains nameless.

Johnston Canyon was one of the first places (after the improvements to the roads) where Elaine noticed - and to some degree bemoaned - the "civilization" of the area.

There are now handrails and gravel trails where years ago the trails were rugged and barely marked. As we talked through the changes, they became more acceptable. First, people are going to walk to beautiful places like this. Providing paths actually helps protect the sensitive environments.Second. the paths and handrails make it possible for more people of more fitness and mobility levels to enjoy this beauty.I'm sure that at some times of year these trails are nearly overrun with visitors but for us it was amazingly peaceful.

This is also where I learned (or relearned, actually) to always look around the next curve: something amazing is going to be there!

Septwmber 2, Canada, Day 1

Aguadilla to Newark, Newark to Calgary, Alberta

Greeted by this massive wild horse sculpture in the Calgary airport. Not a bad start.

On Hwy 1, the Trans-Canada Highway, we saw some great hay in the fields. We later learned that Alberta, in fact all of western Canada has been under a drought. Hay is very hard to get and very expensive.

My first views of the Canadian Rockies on the road to Banff.

There will be many more mountain pictures, I promise.

And on to Lake Louise

Getting b=Elaine back to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake (among other places) was one of the reasons for this trip. She backpacked through here when she was in college and has wanted to come back ever since. I am beginning to understand why!

Our first night in Deer Lodge

Deer Lodge is owned by Canadian Rockie Mountain Resorts (CRMR). They own properties all through Western Canada. They tend to be pricey but they are all very nice.

Two days on a train

The biggest single thing in our trip to the Canadian Rockies was two days on the Rocky Mountaineer's "Journey Through the Clouds."

  

We boarded the train in Jasper, Alberta, elevation 3,480 ft. Two days later we were here

in Vancouver, BC, elevation 0 feet.

On the way we went from this

  

to this

from this

to this

to this

from this

to this

In addition to never-ending, ever-changing spectacular scenery and wonderful on-board service, we got a rare and special treat:

We got to see all the way to the peak of Mt. Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The peak is visible fewer than 30 days a year.

There are so many more photos from this journey.  And there is more railroad lore ahead on our adventure in the Rockies. I'll post the best of them on Flickr when I have time.

Glaciers and hiking Parker Ridge

I'm going to write a lot more about glaciers when I have more time because the glaciers have totally blown my mind. For now, I'll just say we walked out on the Athabasca Glacier and saw six more glaciers that flow from the Columbia Ice Sheet.

After walking on the glacier, we headed a few minutes south to Parker Ridge. It's not a long hike - about 2.4 km each way - but it gains 250 meters (825 feet). Again, it's not a steep trail but that's a pretty goo climb for someone who lives at sea level. It snowed as we hiked up, totally obscuring the surrounding mountains. By the time we got to the top it cleared some so we could see the eight big horn sheep on the ridge above us. We could also see the Saskatchewan Glacier which is the source of the Saskatchewan River.

Today we're off for day 2 of our rail journey from Jasper, Albert, to Vancouver.

More to come.

Sorry!

Sorry I've been gone so long. This time it's not all my fault. I've been going round and round with Google over signing into this blog account. I had posts written about sargassm on the beaches and the on-going drought in Puerto Rico. (I cant post those now because they are on a computer I currently don't have access to. They wouldn't believe I'm me! We finally got it straightened out tonight - and we're in Jasper, Alberta, Canada!

Yep- this island boy is hanging out in the Canadian Rockies for the next couple of weeks. I will post dispatches from here as time and Internet access permit.

For now let me say that as much as I love my island, this is the most jaw-droppingly beautiful place I've ever been. Every vista around every bend in the road is more incredible than the last. I've stopped saying "oh my god!" and the like. The scale and the immensity and the beauty defy description. There literally are no words.

So I'll post pictures when I can and descriptions as best I can and when I can.

The photo above was taken near sunrise at Moraine Lake in the Valley of the Ten Peaks about an hour north of Banff.

Doldrums

August is a doldrums month her in PR, hence the dearth of posts this month.

After diving 12 days in July, I've only been out twice in August. Weather is partly to blame: we're finally getting rain in the mountains, filling the reservoirs and staving off water rationing, at least on our side of the island. (More about the drought in a future post.)

So how is rain in the mountains connected to diving in the ocean? The rains, especially heavy rains, wash "stuff" down from the mountains and into the sea. One of the longest river systems on the island dumps into Aguadilla Bay. All the silt and "stuff" carried down by the river spreads out in the ocean. Prevailing currents carry it along to some of our favorite dive sites. All that "stuff" in the water reduces visibility, making for less interesting, more difficult diving.

On the bright side, I've done more riding and training with Chocolate this month.

Elaine started a new job - a real, live 9-5, Monday through Friday office job at the end of July. Yes, it is a steady if unspectacular paycheck. Yes, we now have medical insurance (which we are taking full advantage of). But we also do not have a full day off together. So for now, no Tuesday Adventures.

August is also the beginning of two months of business doldrums. School starts here either the first of second week of August, depending on the school. Classes are about to start in the States. So travel, both local and from the Mainland, has ground pretty much to a halt. It will be like this until the surf and surfers come back in mid-to-late October. So after Labor Day, we are closing Ola Lola's until the first (actually the second) of October. Pretty much all the "mom-and-pop" places close down for some part of September. We joke that we should all close and book an Alaskan cruise.

Life goes on through the "dog days," just at an even slower-than-usual pace.

Lots of fish in the sea

In spite of my recent obsession with tubeworms, it's still a big ocean. There are lots of fish in the sea and so many wonders to see. I've been taking pictures of them also.

We just uploaded more that 100 new non-tubeworm photos to our Flickr site. The photos are from all around here, from many of our favorite dive sites - Crashboat, Natural, Shacks, the Rincon Wall. If you have a few minutes, check 'em out here.

Happy 4th

The now-traditional KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) photo of Playa Jobos on the Fourth of July. The most notable thing in this year's photo is how narrow the beach has become. Still lots of people and lots of umbrellas, but not as much beach.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Fourth!

Last day of my birthday month

It's been a great month of celebration - surprise party, diving, riding, Tuesday Adventures. Appropriately, the month ended with a dive at Natural.

Over the course of this month I have become mesmerized by the beauty of tubeworms. Okay, the name doesn't sound enticing but they are so beautiful!

The Feather Duster worm - so-called because of the obvious resemblance or the crown to a feather duster - uses the its "feathers" to capture and direct food toward its mouth at the center of the crown. The crowns can be 4'' to 7" across. The body tube, in which the creature lives, is created by the worm from sand and bits of coral rubble and mucous the worm excertes. When it is disturbed, it can quickly pull in its radiole into the tube.

Then there are Christmas tree worms. Their name obviously comes from their shape. While the crowns of Feather Duster worms tend to be the same color, Christmas tree worms come so many colors. They are only about an inch tall and are very shy and easy to disturb.

Sometimes the worms are single, sometimes they cluster in colonies like these and the ones in the top photo. When they cluster, they look like bouquets of flowers. 

I'm having so much fun with these guys, I've devoted a whole Flickr album to them. Check 'em out here.

So now it's on to July. Since this is Puerto Rico, there is no shortage of things to celebrate. My sister's birthday, Ali's and Sheila's birthdays, the 4th, Constitution Day (one of three holidays the last week of the month) and so many more. And lots more dives, rides, and tubeworms!