A Hike Up Microwave Mountain

November 29^th (Friday) 

It was another beautiful, clear, cold morning of minus 7 degrees. The temperature in the boat was down to 8 degrees, but we were nice and toasty in bed.  On cold mornings like this one, one of us usually gets up first and gets the fire going.  It doesn't take long to warm the boat up to 15 degrees or more, so the other person can get up in more comfort.
This morning we packed a picnic lunch, bundled up in our many layers, threw the kayaks into water, and headed out. We paddled over to Keith Anchorage, to where the start of the trail that goes up to the Telus microwave tower is. This was the same hike that we had done with my parents back in August. The log that lies alongshore at the landing area was white with frost, and the ground was frozen rock-hard. 

We headed up the trail and immediately started noticing differences from when we were last there. There were no spider webs across the trail, and there were no slugs on the path; back in August there had been a lot of both of these. There were also no leaves on all of the shrubbery, and we could see much better further off of the trail. All of the overgrown thorn bushes were now just thorny, brittle sticks, and there were a lot of new, blown-down trees and branches. Without me stopping constantly to take pictures of mushrooms, slugs, and other things (as had happened in August), we made good time up the trail. We did startle one grouse along the way, and it flew up into a tree.
Out on the tundra-like terrain we were amazed by how much ice there was; every little pool, or stream flowing over rocks or through the mossy ground, was frozen. It was quite pretty. As we went along the edge of the tundra terrain and tree line we spooked another grouse that had been enjoying the sunshine. 

We took in the amazing view from all angles before settling ourselves on the south-facing slope, sitting on a shelf with a rock wall behind us. Here we were protected from the slight northerly breeze, that although light made a huge difference to the temperature. We were also getting the full strength of the winter sun, and it was surprisingly warm. 

We were able to sit in comfort, without all of our layers on, and enjoy our awesome picnic lunch and the view. For lunch we had a hot thermos of leftover seafood chowder, some biscuits, fresh garden carrots, hot tea, and a chocolate-huckleberry cupcake for dessert. What an amazing spot to eat such an awesome picnic.

On our way back down the trail we startled another grouse, which again flew into a tree.  Further down, we spotted a weird structure in the forest away from the trail.  We went to investigate, and found an old trail, steps and boardwalks, heading up the mountain. 

We followed it a bit just to see where it might go, but it appeared to simply run parallel to the current trail, which follows an old road, which we assume was built for the building of the Telus tower. 

It is interesting that there was seemingly a boardwalk-style trail there before that.
As we paddled home we watched as the clouds turned colours and then started to fade as the sun set for another day.