The Chocolate Milk Event: a Glacial Outflow Mystery

A few days ago, we had an afternoon off, and planned to hike to "Iceberg Lake," up above Bow Glacier Falls. This hidden lake sits just below the Bow Glacier, and has an old, unofficial trail to its shore. The only tricky bit is that you have to ford a glacial creek to get there.

The Bow River under normal conditions

On the way up towards the falls, everything was looking pretty normal. The upper Bow River, coming down from the falls, was its normal steely, glacial blue. We turned to look at the mountains, and when we turned back a moment later, the colour of the river had changed to that of chocolate milk. We looked down river, and there was a tsunami of brown heading towards the lake!

Needless to say, when we got to the ford, it was impassable, so we followed the trail parallel to our chocolate milk stream, until we could go no further. Our path was blocked by a side stream that was at full boil. There were three other hikers there, who had crossed the side stream an hour earlier, when, they said, "it was a trickle." They'd barely made it back across.

Nadine watching the mystery side stream turning everything chocolate brown

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to bushwhack any further, but we're guessing that a glacial ice dam or moraine dam had given way, and the glacial runoff was... well, off and running.

Back at the delta, there were plumes of brown coming into the lake. As we headed home, we wondered if anyone else had watched this little mystery unfold, and we marvelled at the weird, little curveballs that nature can throw out there when you have an afternoon off in the Rockies!

Runoff coming into Bow Lake

The Italian Job – Lake O'Hara Style

I was up hiking at Lake O'Hara yesterday, for the first time this season, and it brought me back to a very interesting pilgrimage we undertook in Italy this spring.
 
We visited Falmenta, the ancestral home of Lawrence Grassi, perhaps Lake O'Hara's most famous trail builder.  If you are a Lake O'Hara fan, you've probably admired his trails.  His handiwork is the original “Italian Job,” long before Michael Caine and the boys pulled off their movie heist.

Lawrence Grassi climbing on Castle Mountain

Lawrence came to Canada in 1912 as a young man, and quietly climbed his way into our Rocky Mountain history books in the 20s, 30s and 40s.  He was a skilled mountaineer and guide, but in his spare time he built trails, including good chunks of O'Hara's trail system in the late 1950s.  His stone staircases and stepping stones are still in good shape, 60 years later, and our trip to Falmenta slowly revealed why.

Lawrence working on the trails of Lake O'Hara in the 50s.

Amanda, Lawrence's great niece, with a
photo of her grandmother, Lawrence's sister

Falmenta is perched on a steep hillside about an hour's drive from Lake Maggiore, and when we arrived unannounced, we really didn't have much of a plan.  In the town's small piazza, we asked around a bit, and were soon introduced to Amanda Grassi, Lawrence's great niece!  She took us on a tour to see the house that Lawrence grew up in, and pretty soon we picked up a small entourage of locals.  In the local cafe, we learned more about the town, and about their lives, and once we said our goodbyes, we headed into the hills to see what we could see.

Nadine, Amanda and Emilio, in front of Lawrence's home

One of thousands of stone walls around Falmenta

It wasn't long before we started to understand where Lawrence got his inspiration.  The hillsides around Falmenta are all terraced with dry stone walls, and the old and abandoned farmhouses are dry stone as well.  The forest is reclaiming what were once terraced farm plots and pastures, but the ghosts of a centuries-old stoneworking culture is everywhere on display.  Lawrence must have been steeped in this tradition from the cradle, and we're lucky he wanted to showcase his heritage in the Rockies.

An abandoned two story house, made with
 dry stone construction

And we'll be the benefactors again next summer.  There will be a new generation of stone-building here, when Amanda's brother-in-law Emilio (married to Lawrence's other great niece) comes out to Canmore in June, 2017. He plans to teach locals dry stone techniques, and together they will restore the trail to Grassi Lakes.

It will be “The Italian Job,” take two.