Wednesday, September 22, 2010

In The Kootenays

'The Kootenays' are not a mountain range - or at least not one named The Kootenays.  It's more or less the drainage area of the Kootenay River, which includes the central Rockies, the Purcell and the Selkirk ranges.  The Kootenay Pass (el. 1775 m) is the highest year-round pass in Canada. 


This was the Trib's first visit to the mountains.  He loved it.  (zoom-zoom)


Now we are at the top of a long, grinding incline.  There's a pretty little lake


and a cute little log cabin


and big parking lots on both sides of the highway with signs that read (click on pic to enlarge)


because coming up is a 9% grade descent and these guys are gonna be hauling-ass big time.


This is the sort of place where one sees multiple runaway lanes.  One grimaces and wonders what it would be like to have to use one - but all are a little grassy and overgrown...until one whips around a downhill curve and there, there is a runaway lane that has freshly plowed tracks that go straight up for a long way.  Wow.  One is glad one wasn't around for that event.  (One is also glad this paragraph is over).

No comments:

Post a Comment