Well, that summer flew by awfully fast, wouldn’t you say? Maybe it’s an age thing, because it really does seem to go by quicker every year. And, unlike last summer when we came back late to enjoy some time in Italy and the Azores, this year we were back in Saskatchewan right on time (beginning of May). I mean, right on time if you really like wind and dirty streets and brown barren trees. Which are obviously all quite charming.
We couldn’t even spend our traditional May long weekend at Waskesiu Lake this time around thanks to the late spring and problematic lack of unthawed plumbing up there in mid-May. Nonetheless, as you know, things eventually changed in a big way and we actually had quite a hot, balmy summer. Big storms, big sun and, somehow, very little smoke in the air. Everyone else in North America seemed to suffer but most of it just swirled around us. So polite of it.
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Also, even though our little Bali adventure was well over by the time summer rolled around, it did take several months before I actually finished up writing about it. Not in an informative or useful fashion, per se, but, well, you’ll see:
And, of course, summer wasn’t ALL about mediocre soccer, sporadic golf, our annual river float and obsessively repetitive deck drinking – most, but not all – as we always make sure to include at least one exciting mountain adventure each summer, this time tackling the trek up to Berg Lake in BC’s Robson Provincial Park.
Berg Lake
This beauty has been on our list for years but is in high demand so we were happy to finally snag some decent campsite reservations, even if they involved heading up a little earlier in the season than is strictly ideal when it comes to snow/cold/camping/mud/ice and how those things all intermingle rather poorly in early June. But, all things considered, it worked out for us.
We got a fantastic first day, spending a calm, beautiful night camping beside Kinney Lake, then completed the strenuous hike up to Berg Lake in hit and miss weather (hit = sun, miss = light rain), making it to the well-equipped shelter just in time before things took a turn for the worse. And even then, it stopped spitting long enough for us to make our way farther up into the mountains past some cool waterfalls to a fabulous viewpoint.
Then it absolutely poured all night and, while we were exceptionally appreciative of the lovely Berg Lake shelter for cooking and drying and hiding, we did bail out of our third planned night, instead hiking all the way back down to the highway in a single day, rain dogging us on and off all day. But, hey, in the scheme of Rockies camping, good weather 50% of the time and a shelter available during the worst of it? Pretty successful, I’d say, and there is a very good chance Berg Lake will make it into our next edition of The Most Beautiful Lakes in the World.
Meanwhile, for all the gory details, check out:
Berg Lake: A Spectacular Rockies Adventure
And if the idea of this trek floats your metaphorical boat, you should also check out our other Rockies favourites, Lake O’Hara and Floe Lake.
Finally, while it was not our most active summer on social media, we did offer up a few photo dumps and hiking reels, so feel free to check out our stuff on either Instagram or Facebook.
Looking Ahead to Fall
The Stans
Or, as they prefer to be called, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Turkmenistan, also, except that we don’t plan to visit them on this trip, so no bold for them. And I suppose that, technically, Pakistan and Afghanistan have some obvious claims to inclusion in “The Stans” but, unfortunately, this is my list and it really just isn’t about them right now.
So, just the four then. And, really, we’re only planning to day trip into Tajikistan. We actually had much bigger plans for it at one point, including the famous Pamir Highway, then the capital, then a lake named after Alexander the Great (one of just 2 or 3 hundred, I’d guess) and some hiking/camping in the Fann Mountains. But at every step of the research it seemed as though things were either a) completely unorganized b) somewhat underwhelming or c) shockingly expensive until, finally, we reached a point where we just said, hey, maybe Tajikistan is not for us. Not yet, anyway. For example, $US150 for shared taxi to a popular lake. Seems a bit extortionate, right? How about organizing a 2-night camping journey staying in permanent yurt camps. $US1,500? I believe I’ll pass, good sir.
Anyway, that just leaves us more time for hiking in the Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan, relaxing in a lakeside yurt camp and means we are able to add a few days in the universally liked Kazakh city of Almaty, plus a couple of day trips. We’re very curious to see if we notice any similarities from our time in western Mongolia, an area that is predominantly Kazakh.
Of course, September is the tail end of the hiking season so, as usual, we’ll be at the mercy of some fickle mountain weather but, theoretically, we’re expecting to have a great time. And we definitely should enjoy city-hopping through the classic Silk Road stops in Uzbekistan, filled with amazing citadels, photogenic minarets and chaotic Central Asian markets. Plus, we get to take a bunch of trains! Our favourite way to get from place to place, at least as we await the necessary advancements in the personal jetpack industry we were promised by every cartoon back in the 80’s.
Then, with 5 weeks of presumably exhausting “Stanning” in the books, we will head straight to our happy place – Thailand – for a full month of recuperation, physically, mentally and professionally. By which I mean we’re going to have plenty of work to get caught up on in between meandering walks and delicious noodle bowls in wonderful Chiang Mai.
After which – rested and refreshed – we will jaunt off to China for a second bite at the Oriental cherry, so to speak. With plenty planned – from mountains to markets to fields of karsts and the valleys of rock pillars that inspired Avatar – I expect we’ll be fully wiped out after that hectic month, and that’s not even taking into account the extreme culture shock you can always count on in China.
Then passing through Hong Kong onto what should be a fairly relaxing week and a half in Okinawa, Japan and, before you know it, we’ll all be saying “can’t believe how fast fall flew by”, just like did about summer. Time, huh? It’s quite a mystery.
Notes from a Transpacific Journey
These days we tend to write about specific destinations and/or topics rather than just providing a running commentary of our thoughts, actions and inane observations. But that doesn’t mean we don’t still HAVE inane observations, you’re just not privy to them as often. But it feels like time to remedy that, so here are a few things we found interesting during the various stages of our journey from Saskatoon to Bishkek via Vancouver, Tokyo and Seoul.
Going through security in Saskatoon I had my bag pulled aside because there was still a trickle of water in my bottle – a first but (foreshadowing) not the last
Couldn’t really remember the last time I ran into a sick person this summer, yet somehow at least half the people in the airport seemed to be struggling with something, a percentage that got even higher if you narrowed it down to the ones converging ever closer around us
An old guy took his seat next to me on the plane and immediately started clipping his fingernails onto the floor
In the bathroom in Vancouver airport there was a large group of Russian (?) men topping up 500ml Cokes with Canadian Club whiskey, for the road, apparently
On our All Nippon Airways flight to Tokyo the movie options were fairly limited, yet they did have an entire section dedicated to “Anne Hathaway Picks”
I enjoyed a 10-hour flight with no one next to me for the first time in ages (except for Laynni on the other side, of course)
In the Tokyo airport I ate at Starbucks for the first time ever – the chicken arrabiata sandwich was delightful
Going through security in Seoul, Laynni had her bag pulled aside because there was still a trickle of water in her bottle – making that twice in two days AND twice ever, weird
For our 4-hour layover in Seoul we got stuck in the very worst section of one of very best airports in the world – must have been the original wing, threadbare carpet, no bottle filling stations, metal push buttons to flush the toilet, a far cry from the interactive multimedia installations and movie theatres of the main terminal
They still had the same wifi, though, offering two different choices – FAST or SLOW, gotta wonder what drives an otherwise logical person to choose the latter
Flew on T’Way to Bishkek – a low-cost Korean airline offering nothing for free but items for purchase in 5 different currencies
Top sellers included a “premium fish ball set” and a $3 tampon
Just For Fun
Not every Routinely Nomadic blog post has to be informative and useful (are there any, you ask?). Sometimes we just like to tell a funny story. Sometimes we just want to share an amusing anecdote. Sometimes we are just in a weird mood. And sometimes we try to be both funny, clever and evocative using a somewhat complex dual timeline literary device. Did we pull it off? You be the judge. Is it unfair to keep using “we”, implying Laynni was part of this doomed attempt? Probably, but that’s the dog eat dog world of non-fiction for you.
Summary
Summer was fun and fast and social and all that and even though it always seems like we’re leaving again too soon, it usually only takes a couple days to get back into the swing of things. And by “things”, I mostly mean flights, buses, hotels and eating in places where we can’t read the menu. And jet lag. Don’t forget the jet lag. Feels like home.
Cheers!
Dean & Laynni