Mid- to late-morning on the 7th, I bid adieu to the Hope Slide and headed eastward to Manning Park. Manning is a pretty big place, with several different areas that one can stop at. I went past one or two of them, and then pulled over at a little place known as Cayuga Flats.

I'm not really sure why it's called a flats, as the best trail I found there was a road that lead up a mountainside. I hiked up the road for about a kilometer, enjoying the cool forest/mountain air, but not really seeing much of anything. About where I stopped going up, I did find one bird, though...a Varied Thrush. With the trees keeping everything in deep shade, I had to use a slow shutter speed and so my photos of turned out a little blurry.

When I got back to my car, I continued eastward, on a mission to find some lunch. I was going to go to Princeton for lunch, but then decided to stop at a little cafe that was right outside the east end of the park. Upon seeing the menu there, I thought better of that plan, and turned around to go to the lodge at Manning Park instead.

I guess I was being picky, because I decided that the sit-down restaurant at the lodge wasn't what I wanted, either. I got a muffin and a pop at the store there, just to tide me over for a while, and became intrigued by a park map showing a road going up a mountain just across the highway from the lodge. I ate my muffin and headed out along that road.

On the way up the mountain, I saw some Dark-eyed Juncos along the side of the road, but nothing else. I stopped about two-thirds of the way up at a place called the Cascades Lookout. There I caught one of the local crows, an American Crow, on a barrier block beside the pullout.

I recently finished reading a book on crows, and they're very social, smart, and interesting birds. This one was hanging out with one other, who had flown down behind the barrier onto the cliff and was not in good camera range.

I put my wideangle lens on the camera and took a few landscapes from this nice vantage point. Here's a view to what I think is the south-southwest, showing the main park facilities, including the lodge, in the valley below.

In that shot, I was fighting the sun, and I ended up with lots of little bright circles on the photo; probably from a dirty lens. I had cleaned my lens before going on this trip, though. Anyhow, it took some work in Photoshop to bring up the brightness on the land in that photo. In fact, I had to do some tinkering with all of the landscapes in this entry...the sky and sun were pretty bright.

Here's the view to the east from the lookout, showing the valley widening a little, and some forest fires off in the distance. I didn't realize that there were fires up in this area until this point.

Next I drove the rest of the way up to the road, to a place called Blackwall Peak. I parked at the lower parking lot and met a ranger there. I asked her about the local fauna and she told me that there were chipmunks and whiskeyjacks (Gray Jays) around now, but that was about it. She also said that the Hoary Marmots were already hibernating, and that they hibernate eight months of the year.

I was a bit stunned at this news. I thought that the Yellow-pine Chipmunks were respectable, having their breakfast in the afternoon, and that the American Pikas were pretty sensible, not getting up until the sun warmed their rocks around 9 o'clock. But those habits just pale in comparison to the habit of sleeping eight months of the year. The Hoary Marmot is truly an admirable fellow; I wondered just how he pulls this feat off. I instantly decided that I'm going to have to come back to this place when these guys wake up next summer, just so I can see them for myself. Wow!

Recovering my senses, I asked the ranger about the two types of ground squirrels they have there, and it turns out that they're already hibernating, as well. Maybe it's something to do with the mountain air.

The ranger went on her way and I hiked a little trail up to the top, where there are some picnic tables and a big communications tower. There I took a few more landscapes, mostly facing east. All of the decent ones ended up having the communications tower in them.

I put some seed on top of my hat, and got to walk around for a while with a bird perched there.

Also in the area, looking for handouts, were a few Yellow-pine Chipmunks. I already had a lot of chipmunk photos this day, but couldn't resist taking a few more.

It was now a quarter to four, and I headed for the car again. On the drive in, I had passed some places with very nice fall colors and wanted to try to get some photos of them on the way back, and that meant reaching them before the sun disappeared over the mountains to the west.

I walked along the road back to my car, and stopped to take a few landscape shots of the Cascades to the southwest. I liked how I could see several ridges receding into the distance, each one a lighter shade of blue.

But soon he hopped along, and within a couple of minutes I was back in my car.

As I drove down the mountain, I pulled over only once, when I saw a grouse beside the road. Before I was even able to get out of the car, he flew off. From his tail pattern, I think it was a male Ruffed Grouse, but I'm not really good at game bird identification.

On the drive back to Hope, I did stop and take some photos of trees showing their fall colors. I tried to get photos showing both the colors and the rock that was everywhere. I feel mystified whenever I try to take landscape shots of trees and forest and such, and fall trees are no exception. I think that there's still something I just don't understand about proper composition in these shots or how to handle the colors or something. It's something I think I need to work at.

Anyhow, below are four of my best efforts.

I got those photos just as the sky was getting dark, both from the sun going down and clouds moving in, so they were my last photos of the day.

I proceded back to Hope, and made a thorough search for a Tim Horton's (the morning search had been superficial). I still didn't find one. I wondered if I had crossed the border somehow and not noticed...a town without a Tim Horton's seems very un-Canadian.

So I drove on to Chilliwack, a proper Canadian town, and got a Tim's coffee and bagel, which sustained me for the rest of my drive home.

Poking around the peak,
Tom