Day 10 - August 27: Virginia Falls

Clearing off turned out to be an illusion, so we started our hike up Sunblood Mountain with overcast and gloomy looming in the air.

As we climbed the mountain, it started raining.  It also wasn't particularly warm, and it was generally unpleasant. But the view was really nice!

The higher up we got, the worse the weather got.  When we stopped for lunch, there was a pretty consistent drizzle.

And then we saw a ptarmigan!  At around that point, it started sleeting.

At the top of the mountain, it was snowing.  If you squint really hard, you can see the snowflakes.  It would have been extremely awesome to have been at the top of that mountain in the sunshine, but instead it was snowing.  Unfortunately, the snow wasn't staying on the ground, so we couldn't even throw snowballs. (You can see the snow if you squint really hard)

For some mysterious reason, there are benches made of rocks at the top of Sunblood Mountain.  Once again, you can see the snow if you squint.

Also, when the park wardens had climbed the mountain the day before, they said they saw sheep.  But we did not, so our sheep count remained at zero (Gord REALLY wanted to see a sheep, and every time we stopped on the river he'd pull out his binoculars and look at another white rock in the hopes that one would move).

In the afternoon, we took a load of food and boats over the portage to make our life easier the next day, and we got our first view of Virginia Falls from the bottom.  Everyone was too tired to really appreciate it much, since a six hour hike followed by a 1.5 km portage is not really great.  Also, Heather didn't take any pictures, so you'll all have to wait until day 11 rolls around to get nice waterfall pictures.  But about 75% of the portage trail is boardwalk, so it wasn't terribly challenging until the last 25% or so, when it got very steep and slippery and wet.

In the evening, we had a campfire with the park wardens, and Mike (one of the wardens who's Dene and lived off the land with his parents for 25 years) told lots of cool stories.  Also, he told us how he built a raft using only sticks (and no rope), and Heather really wants to try it now.