The White Room

In Search of Waterfalls

• Location: Kananaskis Country, Alberta, Canada
• Time: 7 hours (for us, including side trips and lunch)
• Highlights: Waterfalls, solitude, strawberries in late season
• Difficulties: Hard-to-follow trail after upper falls, bushwhacking, stream crossings (on rocks in late season)
• Park At: Cataract Creek Recreation Area off Hwy 940 (gravel road S of Highwood Pass and Highwood Junction)
• Distance: 8+ km roundtrip to Upper Falls from the south, another 4 km roundtrip to Weeping Wall
• Elevation Gain/Loss: ~100-200 m, if that
• More Information: Kananaskis Country Trail Guide Volume 1, Gillean Daffern

Cindy and I set out from South to North on Cataract Creek Trail on Sunday with poor weather in the forecast but determined to at least get out in valley bottom. Departing from campsite 27 in the Cataract Creek Recreation Area, we headed north on an old two-track road through wildflowers and meadow, paralleling Cataract Creek.

A creeking destination for some extreme kayakers, Cataract has more flow than a real trickle-type creek, and less flow than a river. It sports 3 waterfall areas (upper, middle, and lower) and a few ‘canyon’ type areas with pools and ledges that push the trail to the rim. We wanted to scope out the canyon and waterfalls, so we switched between canyon and trail.

After about 3km, the road ends, and one must cross a little side creek to continue. The road has washed away in some places, and many trails separate and intertwine again along the creek banks. After a little while, one can hear the roar of Upper Falls (a two part waterfall) and the trail begins to climb. Alternatively, one can walk out to the upper falls onto the slabs almost over the first waterfall. Then, one must backtrack to re-join the trail.

After the first waterfall, keeping with the trail becomes more difficult. Look for flagging tape (orange) on trees and blazes (piles of rocks) on the ground. Often, the trail is simply open areas easy to walk through rather than an obvious open packed ground trail. This complication also comes from the various trails interweaving up and down the area after the second of the Upper Falls.

The trail crosses a small rock gully that would probably be a side stream in early season, and continues over and around cliffs that border the east side of the creek before the weeping wall. Following the creek (rather than the trail) in this area on a hot day will lead you to a good short jump from the bank into a deep pool.

The trail never rises more than about 70m above the banks, and don’t be certain that you’ll notice it as a trail if you’re trying to ascend and intersect it. We ended up bushwhacking a lot of the way, and walking along the bank when the going was easy.

Finally, we reached the Weeping Wall, a wall covered in small waterfalls. Beautiful! Then, our intentions set on the Middle Falls, we turned around in the hail instead within hearing distance of the falls. The Weeping Wall, however, is a great destination on its own, especially as the trail becomes even more indistinct (if that is possible) beyond it.

This left us the very gradual hike back up and out (the trail goes up and down along the bank more than it goes up or down overall because of the creek gradient). Back to the open meadow, and back to the campsite. And to calzones in Black Diamond for dinner! All photos may be found here.

What better way to spend an hour at 3 am than to make your Tungsten E2 Internet Capable?

I have mixed feelings about Palm. The Palm OS runs Pretty Map, which is a pretty rad GIS for a PDA. The calendar, contacts, etc all work cleanly and simply. It does what I need, and I like it. Palm as a company, however, has gone steadily down in my opinion recently, first by stopping support for the IBM Java virtual machine, and then next almost outright lying about their intention to update CDMA drivers for cell phones. Really, Palm, are you that incapable of realizing that the competition is just lying in wait?

This post isn’t about using your Palm as a phone bluetooth device, though. (If you want to transfer your contacts, set up the ‘phone’ object on your Palm as a Motorola 600, make your Palm discoverable by Bluetooth, and then from the phone select the Tungsten bluetooth connection, which will bring you to your contacts and you can send them as *.vcf files. Blah blah blah.)

Anyway, why would you want to? The Palm dialer sucks (it doesn’t even link with your contacts, as far as I can tell), and if you really actually like holding a big PDA up to your ear instead of a sleek black flip phone then, well, you shouldn’t be reading this post.

Rather, it’s about giving the Tungsten E2 what everyone seems to wish Palm had the sense to include in the first place: WiFi. And this is almost better than WiFi (albeit probably more expensive): broadband connectivity wherever you get cell service. My service is Telus Mobility in Canada. YMMV.

At first, I was dubious. Sure, they paired under Bluetooth. But…. Connecting to the phone to dial: Nada. Fail. Using the ‘Test’ option under Preferences > Phone > Test… Also Nada. Looking grim, especially with all of these angry Palm owners and their LG and CDMA phones.

So, I did the obvious thing: find a random post that included sketchy sounding instructions on how to make the thing work, tried them, and it worked. Go figure.

Step 1: Pair the devices

• Set the Tungsten E2 Bluetooth to be discoverable
• Set the phone bluetooth to be discoverable (for 60 seconds only, you can’t pick otherwise)
• Scurry and on the Palm go to Bluetooth > Setup Devices > Trusted Devices > Add Device > Select your phone.
• Pick a password (eg 0000) that you can remember for 5 seconds, and type the same one into your phone when it asks
• On the phone, when it asks whether to prompt on connect or always connect, select always connect.
• Repeat if you can’t do all of that in the 60 available seconds

Step 2: Set up the network

• Exit out of the Bluetooth business. Instead, go to Network in the main Preferences.
• Make a new service (I called mine Test) with the following options: Username = blank, Password = blank (It will say ‘Prompt’), Connection = Phone (Whatever your phone got called in Step 1, mine is LG CX8600), Phone = #777 (In that menu, Phone # = 777, Prefix = #, Disable CW = blank, Use CC = blank)
• In details, connection should be PPP, Idle = 2 minutes, Query DNS = Checked, IP Address = Automatic. If you click the script button, it should show an empty screen (’End:’)
• Click Connect!

Here are the setup screens for the Palm:

Once you have everything set up, you should see appropriate connecting screens between your phone’s EVDO network and the Palm Pilot (click for images that are actually readable):

There you go! I hope someone finds the information helpful — I hate having my sleep schedule messed up. Oh, and using the Palm as a phone? Still fail. Why? Because Palm apparently makes business decisions to not support new phones for people who may be using their handhelds (gasp) three years after release. Don’t ask me about Palm’s business decisions, Ask Palm.

Wild, Wacky, Wonderful

We should have noticed before we left that no one can describe the experience of India with only one adjective.

Stunningly beautiful at all levels, mired in an evolved shadow of British bureaucracy and Western modernism, confusing and at times even incomprehensible, and with an incredible people who are at once the monetarily poorest and emotionally wealthiest on the planet, India is like traveling through an endless stew of colorful culture constantly stirred with an enormous spoon.

In a word, it was wonderful.

We planned and traveled expecting nothing, but still came away with many feelings we didn’t expect. This blog isn’t about my experiences — there are too many, and anyway you won’t have the same ones — rather, it is about my advice. Our trip was Delhi to Chandigarh to Manali and Kullu, there are probably many other people doing the same. These are things I wish I heard before I went, that sort of thing. I hope it helps.

Money Changing and Hiding

You can’t take a lot of rupees (INR, Rs/-, etc — all the same thing) into the country without an Indian passport. (Don’t ask why, it won’t be the first thing you don’t understand about the workings of India and it won’t be the last).

You can change money at the airport during reasonable hours only (daytime) and changing travelers checks sometimes takes a little hard asking, but should be fine. We carried half cash and half checks (about $500 per person for two weeks) and ended up changing it all, I’d lean toward more cash, fewer checks, and a bit more money next time.

Keep a money stash separate from your passport. Your passport comes in and out of your pocket a lot — every hotel wants a copy of it, every money changer wants a copy of it, every tour organizer wants a copy of it, you get the idea.

I used a neck wallet and a leg wallet. Passport stayed easily accessible under the shirt, US cash stayed against my leg. But India seemed pretty darn safe for how wacky it is; I was never seriously worried about theft.

Take only US dollars to change. Know the rate of exchange ahead of time, often exchange amounts are verbal and agreed upon in advance.

ATM cards, oddly, worked just fine.

When you return to the airport, however, you should have ZERO rupees. You won’t get to change any, and you’ll be stuck with some unexpected souvenirs.

Bargaining

Read up a bit on how to bargain in general (many theories, find your own), but don’t stress too much. A good rule of thumb is just think of what you want to (or are willing to) pay before even starting to talk, and verbally agree on a price before starting to do anything.

But then again, sometimes you pay seven times the going rate for a taxi because your skin is white and you’re lost and frustrated and tired, and that’s just life.

International Money Wires

When paying for things in advance, places in India often ask for a wire. Wires from Canada (and in general) are slow, costly, and unreliable. Try Western Union, or better yet find a bank that has an International Remittance program with a guaranteed turnaround — make sure it transfers directly from bank account to bank account. I opened a new bank account at such a bank just for that type of service, and it worked quite well.

Overland Travel

We took the train from Delhi to Chandigarh both ways, and it worked great. Busy at New Delhi, and a tough introduction to India right off the plane with lots of swindlers waiting right outside to send tourists somewhere else, the train is nevertheless an efficient and cheap way to travel. Any upscale seating class should be just fine — we sat in the best of the best with tea and a three course breakfast (first class AC) for about $20 per person for a 300+ km train ride.

We traveled on the way out from Chandigarh to Manali by bus, and on the way back by private taxi with driver. Don’t do the bus unless you’re (a) broke, (b) looking to burn lots of hours on the road, (c) okay with some minor wheel and brake screetching, and/or (d) all of the above. We signed up for a combination of (a) and (b), and mostly (b). It wasn’t bad, but there were certainly reasons why we opted for the $130 taxi rather than the $20 bus for our return trip.

Train ticket online booking (make an account, they take American Express only): http://www.irctc.co.in/

Bus ticket (Northern States Only) companies include HRTC and HPDTC.

For a long-distance taxi driver, talk to a hotel manager or other organizing-type person whom you trust to pick a safe driver for you. If they drive well, tip them well!

Language

We had the impression that most Indian people would speak English. Maybe somewhere in India we didn’t go that may be true, and usually out of desperation and/or a lot of handwaving you can usually get your meaning across, but a little Hindi should go a long way. Most taxi drivers and shopkeepers know English numbers, the names of big landmarks in English (eg New Delhi Train Station), and so on, but if you stop random person X on the street and ask for directions, forget it.

Weather

Hot, cold, hot, cold, rain, hot, cold. The north is cold, the south is hot. The south has bugs, the north does not. That’s about it. Oh, and as much as you want to wear shorts and t-shirts, don’t. Use light colored long pants and shirts: you’ll be less sunburned, cooler, and less stared at. Well, sort of less stared at.

Five Things I Couldn’t Do Without

(1) A tiny power adapter (two big round pins, like in the UK and Europe) with built in surge protector

(2) A light colored, high collar shirt that I could wash easily, stow my wallet under, and use to keep the sun off

(3) A travel towel and a bar of soap — if you can’t understand how to operate the wide variety of shower setups, at least you always have the sink.

(4) Sunscreen Chapstick (Kin-e-sys), carried in my pocket, applied everywhere at will.

(5) Laundry detergent – Woolite, in a small 4 oz nalgene. Nothing like having clean clothes whenever you want.

You’ll note I didn’t include a laptop on the list (most cities and larger towns have internet cafes for the cost of 50 Rs or about $1 USD per hour). In buggy areas (we did not have any problems) there’s the question of insect repellent, and I definitely liked having a lot of socks and underwear. Also, we both had sleeping bags for our trekking portion and used them every night but one, so without those a travel sheet would have been nice. But overall I brought too much, isn’t that always the case?

Overall

In general, no overview can give the complete picture, but here are a few more things. Give money only to things you feel have value to you. When you have to wait or be delayed for some unknown reason (usually accompanied by an incomprehensible excuse) don’t get mad, just shrug and see if there is some chai readily available to drink nearby while you wait. Oh, and tea is infinite in India but getting a proper coffee fix is impossible. There will be poverty, everywhere, asking you for money, brace yourself. There will be overwhelming hospitality, everywhere, almost to the point of us feeling embarrassed, brace yourself. Oh, and occasionally random people want to stop and talk to you on the street. I’ve still no idea why. It’s just that kind of place, I guess.

And in closing, I offer the following advice that I distilled for my own use in the future….

Next time: Less Stuff, More Hindi, Same Fun.

Complete photo collection can be found here.

Namaste.

Life is truly wonderful when you can see this view outside of your ‘office’ on a Friday:

Lovely, lovely winter.  This view is from Fidelity Research Station looking East out toward Mount Sir Donald.  The fog layer tops out at 1580m.

What a Great Place, Eh?

Well, after thousands of miles of driving, one student permit, and a few weeks of living here, I can honestly say: As an American living in Canada, I think this place is great.

There are a few obvious differences up here compared to the States – they only sell butter in huge 1lb blocks, all of a sudden I have a need for my coin pockets with the loonies and twonies, speed limits are much lower, and everyone seems to want to be outside (at least now, while it’s warm). But on the whole, it feels very similar.

One thing I particularly like is the transportation system. I can hop on a train and be downtown in about 20 minutes after leaving my doorstep. Along those lines, I just returned from Whistler, taking the bus from Kamloops to downtown Calgary and then the train the rest of the way. I also particularly like how most people up here seem happy, attentive, and resourceful. I’ve never lived in a place with quite that kind of societal vibe.

However, despite this being an English-speaking country with laws very much like home, I still needed to jump through the official hoops to become a student here. I thought I’d write the steps down so others could benefit.

To become a full-fledged member of society here, I needed:

1. A Study Permit, which I applied for in person at the Los Angeles Canadian Embassy at the beginning of the summer. Their website instructions made it easy. I received the actual permit when crossing the border in August.
2. A SIN Number, which took the longest of anything to apply for. Like a SSN in the States, I walked in to an SIN office and showed them my passport, study permit, and my offer of employment from the University. Once my employment contract was in the exact same format that they wanted it in, I got my SIN number right away.
3. A Bank Account, for which I actually didn’t need a SIN number, just my student ID card and some money to deposit.
4. Health Insurance, for which I simply found a local application office and brought my study permit, my passport, and proof that I lived in Calgary (the proof I use was my new SIN paper with my address). The coverage retroactively started on the day I entered Canada.
5. I also found Travel Insurance companies who provide health insurance for when I travel outside of Canada. I couldn’t find any online information while in the States, but up here there are lots with brochures and prices readily available.
6. Car Insurance, which students need to drive here even though they don’t need an Alberta driver’s license or an Alberta-licensed car. We have State Farm insurance in the States, and it exists here up in Canada too, so I just transferred the policies.

I also got a cell phone and some other things that aren’t necessarily ‘official’ to live here, but are nice. I found most of the information I needed (like addresses of government buildings) to accomplish all the errands above at the International Student Center at the University. Most schools have such a center, they’re very helpful.

So, as I sit here munching on Okanagan blue grapes and writing this, life is pretty good. Oh, and school is great too. I can’t wait until Roy moves up here next year!

Ten Things I Will Miss About Southern California
(And Ten Things I Won’t)

Well, the time has come. I’m leaving Los Angeles. I’ve lived here for the overwhelming majority of my life, and now it’s time to leave not only this city, but this country.

Who knows where life will lead from here, but I thought I’d put together some thoughts of what I will miss. Of course I’ll miss my friends, my family, the fun jobs I’ve had here, and the familiarity of living in one place for a long, long time.

But I also wanted to put together a list of things I will miss about Southern California itself, as a place – that is, things unique to here and nowhere else.

And, after much thought, here are the lists….

Ten things I certainly will NOT miss about Los Angeles:

(10) Summers so hot that you can’t go outside on some days
(9) Getting 150 miles per gas tank because of stop-and-go traffic
(8) Paying way too much for rent
(7) The way no strangers want to look you in the eyes
(6) The public transportation system (or lack thereof)
(5) Paying way too much for groceries, because stores pay way too much rent
(4) The belief that honking a car horn (or speeding) actually solves problems
(3) Smog, and general pollution
(2) The Los Angeles Culture of Stress
(1) Traffic

And Then… Ten things I will miss, and miss dearly:

(10) Mount Baldy – My roots in canyoneering, climbing, hiking, and skiing
(9) The Getty Museum
(8) The Griddle Cafe
(7) Picking (and eating) Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit in the fall (yum)
(6) Getting tough feet from walking in hot sand all summer
(5) Joshua Tree National Park
(4) Great Persian Food
(3) The Sierras, especially the Ansel Adams wilderness
(2) Oak Trees, especially Live Oak trees
(1) The Ocean, which I can swim in all year round

So there you go. Wish me lots of fun in Canada!