Red Mountain & Poochy's

Yesterday, I hiked up Red with my dad, stopping at the top at Poochy's Inn, the ski cabin. The elevation gain between our starting point and the cabin is just shy of 1500 feet. Full story here.

Cominco is capping off a lot of old mine shafts, so these signs are posted at closed trail heads. Most people ignore the signs.

Mountain Ash in the woods.

Looking up Sally's Alley, across which the Red Summit trail criss-crosses.

Poochy's.

Trail & Columbia River from Red.
Looking north-ish towards Castlegar, which is upstream along the Columbia from Trail.
Looking to the top of Red Mountain from Poochy's.
Rossland from Red.

Full Flickr set here.

Dove Hill Hike

Yesterday I hiked up Dove Hill in Castlegar with my father. Fuller story here.

The trail head.

View from the top, looking north up the Columbia River Valley.

This is the view from the south lookout, where you can see the airport and the golf course.

It's berry time! This is Oregon Grape, which I'm not sure is edible, but we saw lots of huckleberries and even some wild raspberries.

Here you can see the meeting of the Kootenay and Columbia rivers. On the left, near the middle, you can just make out Zuckerberg Island.

Zuckerberg in Winter

I came across these today, having forgotten they were on my computer. They were taken this past winter by my dad, who hikes even in the snow!

The meeting of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, from Zuckerberg Island.

The house/museum is closed during the winter, but the island remains available for walking around.

The (sort of) famous suspension bridge.

The mighty Columbia, from the island.

Three Cemeteries Hike

I intended to go for a one-hour walk and visit one cemetery, but I wound up going on a three-hour hike and visiting three cemeteries. Go figure. Story here.

1. Happy Valley.
2. Bear Aware sign at the trailhead.
3. The Old Mining School.
4. Cominco from the Old Mining School.
5. Old Trail Cemetery.

6. One of many baby and infant graves in the Old Trail Cemetery.
7. Older graves at the back of the Old Trail Cemetery.
8. I don't think anyone is actually buried under these upright stones. I believe these were moved here in the 1920s when Cominco needed the land they were originally on. As you can see, the stones are sinking into the earth.
9. Mountain View Cemetery, our "current" cemetery.
10. New-ish mausoleum at Mountain View, not full yet but whoever is there is of Italian descent.
11. Old Rossland Cemetery. This is just stone's throw from Mountain View, and at the bottom of Happy Valley. There is a Catholic cemetery in lower Rossland that is much older and much creepier than this one.