The WhalebackSome things just naturally come to mind when you say a word. Like psychiatrist = nuts, grass = green, or brownish yellow if you come from where I live, good music = classic rock, well, hike = the Whaleback. It's kind of a classic. Deep in the Little Yoho Valley lies Twin Falls. The Whaleback crosses the top of it and the subsequent plateau. You can see a picture of it from my Mount Gordon pictures. We did this hike earlier in the season, July 3rd to be exact, and you'll see later that much snow ensued. We lazily traipsed along the trail for a 6 hour hike, from noon to 6:00 over a distance of about 25 kilometers. This hike brought back its fair share of memories. I did it with my Dad, my Brother Bruce, and my Dad's friend Lou.
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Starting off from the mad bustling of Brewster buses and tourists, we hiked past the campgroud on a flat, well built trail for about 1.5 hours until passing the hut at the base of twin falls. My Dad says that once, the two sides of these falls were even, and my guess is that's what you'll find if you look at some good ol' Byron Harmon's. My point is, now it isn't, but it's nice to see some geographical change over the decades that isn't completely due to global warming! We continued up past the seemingly abandoned lodge through the snow above Twin Falls, watching the only set of preceding footsteps disappear.... |
While snow-wacking (I think that I just made up a word!), we came to the bridge. If you want to see a picture of it, you shouldn't be here because we sure didn't see it. Thinking back, I remember the sign below Twin Falls saying that the bridge was closed for the winter, but being men we conveniently ignored it! As we travelled upstream looking for a sign of hope, and hand lowered from the heavens and started an avalanche which made a snow bridge across the river. Well actually, the avalanche already happened, and the bridge was already there, but anything makes for a good story! Knowing that the water was EXTREMELY cold and that Twin Falls was about a hundred meters downstream and being the smart people we are, we sent Dad across! There's always an answer to every problem! |
After this problem was surmounted, we were faced with another one. There was no sign of a path, as it was covered in a good 2-3 feet of snow. We were the first ones. If in case you see this site and were there before us, first of all congratulations on being the first, and a double congratulations on finding this site! The weather started to clear right here as we crested the Whaleback and re-found the trail. We continued down the other side (see picture on hikes page), and my Dad recounted the story of how back in the age of drag queens and marijuana (60's or 70's I think) he and his twin were running along the trail around here even after their knee surgeries, ran passed a group of hikers and heard someone murmur "must be the Lampards!" |
Near the bottom of the hill, we found a convenient photo op to mock this sign. As you can see, my Brother is having quite a bit of fun! My dad was taking pictures of Columbines and Buttercups. It's always fun watching pansies taking pictures of pansies! OK, well I thought it was funny! Nonetheless about a half hour down the trail my Brother tripped and twisted his ankle. I could have sworn a goose laid an egg on his foot, because boy was that thing ever swollen! The 4 of us made it down helping Bruce all we could, but his ankle made a convenient conversation piece at supper! |
