CANADA - July 2022

Vancouver 5 July 2022

At the beginning of the holiday weekend, there were news reports of cancelled flights and people being stranded at the airports. I dismissed that as news hysteria. We’ve had great recent travel experiences, but have noticed that flights are overbooked lately. Just the same, I felt good that I’d arranged to have us arrive a day early just in case we had travel delays.

On Saturday (July 2nd), we were hiking the Ice Ace Trail and got a call from Matt, our Dawson City adventure guide. We’d signed up for an 8-day adventure with a group from Sockeye Cycle, 4 days canoeing and camping on the Yukon River to Eagle, Alaska and then 4 days cycling (and camping) back to Dawson City. Matt said the river was really high and they were just checking in with the participants to gauge our comfort level with faster water. Jeff and I both said we have a good healthy respect for fast, cold water - but we do feel comfortable. We continued our 17-mile hike and spent a lot of the evening organizing stuff for our epic trip!

Unfortunately, just after noon on Sunday (July 3rd), Matt called again to let us know they decided to cancel the trip. We were devastatingly disappointed, however, before I hung up the phone, I was already searching what else we could do. We’d already planned to spend two nights in Vancouver before heading up to the Yukon, so I searched hiking / biking / paddling adventures in Canada and Alaska. Found lots of cool trips for 2023, but no guided trips available on this short notice. I thought I found a Backwoods Adventure Banff tour that started next Friday and I was one click away from booking when I noticed it was a 2023 trip!!! We’ve always wanted to go to the Banff area, and I was able to book a room there for a week, so we extended our Vancouver trip by one more night, and then we’ll fly from there to Calgary via Air Canada on Friday – felt a little better to have a Plan B.

We spent the rainy afternoon of Monday (the 4th of July) packing away our camping and cycling gear, and then we packed our hiking gear and some fancier clothes than what we were planning to take to Dawson City. The Waunakee festival (Waunaboom) was canceled due to the weather so after we finished packing, we had an early dinner of leftovers from the fridge, watched a few episodes of 1883 and headed to bed early to rest for Tuesday’s early morning travel.

I’d pre-booked an Uber pickup for 4:45am Tuesday morning for our 5:50am flight to Minneapolis. We had a delightful driver and he was actually early. We cleared security by 5am - easy peasy!

We had a several hour layover in Minneapolis. We had breakfast, read the Madison paper online, and walked our normal loop through the MSP airport. I realized that even though I’m happy to be traveling, I’m still carrying a disappointment over the Yukon portion of this trip being cancelled. I know we’ll have a fabulous time, but I’m missing that feeling of adventure and the unknown, of being outside our comfort zones.

Our flight to Vancouver departed at 10am. What I first noticed on that flight was a lot of older passengers, and we figured they’re headed to Vancouver to start their cruises - many of them were large, including the woman next to Jeff (like brought her own seatbelt extender large). Just over a 3-hour flight to Vancouver - only time for one movie and several Sudoku!

It occurred to us that we’ve both been to Canada multiple times – arriving via canoe, bicycle, hiking, and ferry, but neither of us had ever arrived in Canada via air! We cleared customs with no issues other than a long line (learned our Global Entry works there, but didn’t bring the cards that Jeff usually brings to Europe where they’re no good), claimed our checked bags and found our way to the train downtown. It’s so easy when you speak the language! It was a less than 30-minute ride, and we exited the station about a block and a half from our hotel. We settled in and rested before heading out to explore the town.

From our hotel, it was just three blocks to the waterfront. It initially felt cool, in the 60s - sunny but a cool breeze off the water. We walked all along the water, past a cruise dock, conference center, several hotels, yacht harbors, and finally to Stanley Park, which is an amazing peninsula that juts out into the bay. There was so much to take in - ships, boats, seaplanes, bikes, skateboards, and people from all walks of life. At Stanley Park, we picked up two bikes from the bike share program which allowed us to travel a bit faster. We were glad they offered helmets, because we had a lot of close calls dodging tourists on bikes!

It was a fantastic way to explore the tip of Vancouver on a gorgeous day: the scenery of the bay and the sea, the smell of the sea and the cedar trees. As we were completing our loop, there was a trailer doing a promotion handing out canned vodka seltzer drinks. We stopped and each got a can, and opened them and started drinking it. The young woman rushed over and said “it’s illegal to consume alcohol in public in Canada!” Whoops. We didn’t want to cause trouble for them, so we walked over to a bench and illegally consumed our beverages there. As I was walking the empties to a trash can, I walked by a pair of cyclists smoking weed (which is legal in Canada). Hmmm.

We continued to ride, past a large tennis complex, and then I saw a large display about herons, and realized we were right next to a large heron rookery – with dozens of little herons standing on their nests, and mom herons bringing food – it’s a characteristic cacophony that we’d heard several times as we paddled the Mississippi several years ago – amazing to have it in the middle of this park!! We finished the park loop, turned in our bikes, and headed back along the waterfront. We’d seen several good-looking places on our earlier walk, and settled upon Cordero’s. There we had yummy bourbon drinks and cedar plank salmon with fresh veggies - out of this world! After dinner we strolled back through town, past high-rise condos with lots of activity on the beautiful night.

Vancouver 6-7 July 2022

The forecast called for rain, so we went into today without any real plans. I got out of bed about 7am and did a yoga session on my iPad while Jeff read his book and eventually got up to shower. We hit the streets about 9:30am, good and hungry and in search of breakfast (it was about lunch time in CST after all)!

I’d asked Google about nearby breakfast spots and found Cafe Medina a few blocks away with great reviews. We walked there and it was packed, but the hostess found us a spot by the coffee bar which was perfect; close up view of the multitasking barista and all of the waitstaff as they’d come to pick up their coffee drink orders (and the waffles were dispatched from the coffee bar as well). The food was fantastic and we ate enough to tide us over until our 4pm food tour started.

After breakfast, we ventured out to the Canadian REI equivalent called MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op). We struggled a bit with the directions from Apple Maps, especially getting up on the bridge, but it’s all an adventure. We had some sprinkles, but we had our umbrellas. We are so amazed at all of the bike trails in the city.

We’d been in an MEC in Victoria a few years ago, but the reason we were on this mission today was they’re an authorized vendor for Canadian National Park passes, and it’ll make our entry into Banff easier if we have the passes. Besides that, we were in search of maps / guide books for hiking trails in the Banff area. We had success with everything we were looking for, and then some!

We walked back a different route, through the former “Olympic Village” and “Chinatown,” arriving back at the hotel in time for a 1pm call we wanted to listen to - probably the only piece of business we’ll need to do on this trip.

Before 4pm we were back on the streets to rendezvous with Megan, our guide from Vancouver Food Tours. I’d booked this tour a few weeks ago, and from previous experiences with food tours while we’re traveling, it’s a great way to be introduced to the food scene from a local perspective. If you’ve been following my blog though, you’ll recall we were “stood up” by our guide on Kauai last November. Early this morning I had a text from Carlos saying the food tour was cancelled because we we’re the only ones booked. I remembered their website saying you could pay more and make it a private tour, so asked him about that … and soon he confirmed that Megan would meet us at the waterfront at 4pm for our private tour. Awesome.

We had a little trouble with our meeting place, and had to call Megan, but we met up with her just after 4p. She was an awesome guide - former cook and pastry chef, and knew a lot about the restaurant scene and was very passionate about Vancouver. She was also a good tour guide, and our first stop was the Gastown steam powered clock - apparently the most photographed thing in Vancouver!?

We turned up the block for our first stop at Nuba, Vancouver’s first Lebanese restaurant. There we were served a cocktail, samples of two beers, hummus, falafel, roasted cauliflower and tabouli - would have been enough for a meal itself! The uncomfortable part of these is the guide usually doesn’t eat or drink - so that’s a little odd having her watch us eat, but it is what it is.

We walked a few more blocks through the Gastown district, with Megan talking about the history of the area (shipping warehouses), and the history of fires. For that reason, the city requires all new construction to be steel and brick and we saw several really cool examples of newer construction. As we turned the corner to go to our next place, there was a hole in the ground with fencing around and Megan said that it had been a really cool bar - a casualty of a recent fire. Our next place was

“The Hart,” a bar known for local music. There a friendly large bartender in a too tiny leather skirt served us three local wines, vegetarian rice bowl, chicken nuggets with sesame seeds, and a scotch egg. All of it was wonderful (except shockingly, I didn’t like the red wine - too sweet), and after that, we were stuffed.

Next, we turned into an alley, “Blood Alley,” so named because there used to be a butcher there! Many of the places are in final stages of renovation and you could see that there will be a lot of outside dining in the alley - a really cool little nook that you’d have to know about to find. We walked past the original jail (gaol). Megan said the courthouse was 11 km away, and the jailers didn’t really want to walk the criminals out that far to be arraigned, so they’d leave the door unlocked and the smarter criminals would sober up and let themselves out, thereby saving the hassle!

We continued to walk and talk, past the main square of Gastown, and the area seemed to be getting seedier. She stopped in front of a place that looked to me like a strip joint to tell us about our next stop, a really cool newer Indian restaurant run by a father and son. They started doing takeout food during the pandemic, and now have opened this place. She turned and opened the door to “Silk,” which wasn’t a strip joint after all, but an elaborately decorated bar and small restaurant. I regret not taking photos of the inside and don’t have the words to describe it. You could check it out at silk-lounge.ca - there we were served yummy white wine sangria cocktails, steak and shrimp bites, and Megan joined us in this course. We enjoyed visiting with her, and she indulged us listening to our stories. She told us about another great bar for cocktails that was on the walk back to our hotel, so we said goodbye and headed out.

Back to the main square, there was a boot shop there and we stopped in to “smell the leather,” but ended up buying a pair of boots for me and we each got a cowboy hat, as we’ve also bought tickets to the Calgary Stampede next Friday. Besides the gear, it was a fun visit with the shop proprietor.

Wearing my new boots and our hats, we set out to find Botanical, inside the Fairmont waterfront. We’d stopped in the lobby to ask the concierge, who looked at us and said “if you’re not guests here, I’m not supposed to help you.” Was it our hats?! She gave us directions anyway – it was in a different building up the stairs. There we sat at the bar and had yummy drinks, Jeff had a twist on an old fashioned and you know it’s a fancy place when they serve you a large cube of ice embossed with their logo, I had a gin wildflower cocktail and an impromptu gin tasting after a discussion with the bartender. It was a really fun night.

Thursday morning, we were up without the alarm. It was raining lightly, so we opted for a museum visit, kind of rare for us. We headed out in search of breakfast, passed on a few coffee shops and several hotel restaurants and ended up at Tim Horton’s (fast food named after a Canadian hockey legend).

Light rain continued as we walked towards the museum, over a different bridge and through a seedier area with lots of homeless hunkered down in the rain.

The museum was older and hardly anyone was there, so it allowed us time to really absorb the exhibits. The first half was dedicated to the various tribes of the “First People,” acknowledging the sad facts about the relocation of the people including confiscating most of their artifacts as the city was developed.

There was also an awesome display about adding the greenery back to the city - an initiative that was obvious from the time we stepped out of the airport and they had this live wall of plantings along the parking structure. Throughout town, lots of green rooftop (including large trees that made me wonder how stable they are). They also explained a system built into their boulevards that captures water to support the trees and also filters pollutants and contaminates out of rain water.

Another sad exhibit was about the internment of Asian residents during WWII - I guess I was surprised that Canada was as ignorant as the US. People of Asian descent that had lived in Vancouver for many generations and helped develop the city were stripped of their assets and interred. Tragic.

A cool exhibit was about the “hippies,” with recorded interviews with people from the “establishment” and their reaction to the hippies. Apparently, the hippies kicked off the revitalization of the Gastown district, which explains the funky vibe you can still feel there today.

We were disappointed there was nothing on the gold rush(es) at the museum, as I know it was a part of history here. Even the Klondike gold rush excitement was largely fueled by news out of Vancouver, but seems to have been insignificant to the museum curators (but it’s been on my mind as we were supposed to arrive in Dawson City today).

Outside the museum, it had turned into a beautiful day. We caught a little ferry across False Harbor, picked up some bikes and rode north along the sea wall to Stanley Park, this time enjoying the quieter interior roads with big hills which were tough on those heavy bikes with limited gears. We docked the bikes at Totem Poles, and checked them out. There were fantastic plaques explaining symbolism and the original location / function of each pole (these were all replicas as they don’t weather well)!

We dropped off the bikes by Whole Foods and grabbed a late lunch from their salad bar. We sat at their outdoor deck and watched people as we ate lunch. It was less than a mile back through a bustling shopping area, which was very busy with young adults. I bought some socks to wear with my new cowboy boots, because I didn’t think my wool hiking socks were going to work.

Back at the hotel to chill a bit, then we walked back to Gastown for a nice dinner on the patio at Roosh, with amazing people watching again. We strolled after dinner and did some souvenir shopping, and caught the steam clock at its 8pm demonstration, which was pretty cool actually.

Early night with less alcohol than last night! Back to the room to pack for our early flight to Calgary tomorrow.

Banff July 2022

Friday, 8 July 2022

Up early, another rainy start to the day, but as we’ve seen, the weather changes rapidly in Vancouver. We put on our rain jackets for the 2-block walk to the train station (I had to wear my new cowboy boots as well because there was no extra room for shopping in myself suitcase!).

Quick and easy ride to the train, check in for Air Canada was easy - long security line with some different rules - fanatical about having liquids bagged (they don’t seem to care about that anymore in the US or Europe). My carry-on backpack was sent into the flagged line, where I had to wait a bit, only to have the guy feel around inside and ask me where I was going and how long was I staying in Canada. Sometimes our travel cribbage board gets flagged, but it didn’t seem to be anything specific. We had an hour before our flight was to board, so we had a so-so airport breakfast. About a 90-minute flight to Calgary, where we claimed our checked bags and picked up a rental car without incident!

Immediately, we felt like we were in Colorado - big highways, endless suburban track homes and mountains in the distance. We stopped at a Safeway (as we do out west!) for groceries, beer and wine, sandwiches for lunch and Starbucks Frappuccino’s. Then we headed towards the mountains. Usually, the sight of mountains fills me with joy, but I must confess, I was still feeling down that we weren’t canoeing on the Yukon River today. I’ll get over that soon, I guess.

We were traveling on highway #1 - the TransCanadian Highway, and we recalled how miserable we’d been cycling along it in Ontario back in 2013 on the completion of our cross-country trip. Much better to be traveling in a SUV with snacks, tunes and navigational assistance! The terrain became increasingly more beautiful with snowcapped peaks everywhere. Just before we got to Banff, we entered the Canadian National Park, and EVERYONE entering needed a park pass - interesting! Since we’d obtained ours a few days ago, we took the bypass lane and didn’t need to wait in line.

After about 90 minutes, we took the first Banff exit and found our accommodations, The Buffalo Mountain Lodge. It was about 1pm and the room wasn’t going to be ready until 3p, so we headed down the mountain to check out the village of Banff.

Banff was pretty much as I’d expected - lots of tourists and shopping. There are several ski areas, but they seem to be a bit out of town - I’d expected the village to be at the foot of the main ski area (like Vail). We parked in a parking garage and walked the street, stopping in an information building to pick up ideas for activities to keep us busy during our week here. We crossed the Bow River and checked out the “Cascade of Time Garden,” surrounding a really cool park administration building. We walked back, through 3 solid blocks of shopping, tourists and restaurants. I hate to admit it, but I stopped in the Lululemon store and bought this cute little Canadian cross-body bag that I saw in the window (and also had noticed at a Lululemon store in the Vancouver airport earlier today). Then we found our car and went back up Tunnel Mountain to our resort. We got settled in our room, happy that we’ll be here 7 nights which is rare for us - we’re usually on the move after three nights or so!

We headed to the resort restaurant, The Prow (name of a rock ledge), where we had a fabulous bottle of Canadian red wine, a great dinner with dessert, and lovely conversations with our waitress. From her, we learned that summer is late in coming to the Canadian Rockies this year, and she said many of the higher trails will be closed due to avalanche danger! We weren’t really sure what we’d be hiking in the coming days, but we took her advisement seriously.

We took the remainder of our wine back to our room, and broke out our cribbage board for the first time this trip. Our room has a wood-burning fireplace, but it didn’t seem cold enough for a fire tonight. Jeff dominated the cribbage, so the tide has turned. Stay tuned.

Saturday, 9 July 2022

We woke up Saturday morning with the sun coming in upper window of our room. We’re pretty far north and the days are seemed to be long! We got up and had breakfast in our room: OJ, tea, yogurt, granola, and bananas.

We decided to head out and do one of the easiest trails that starts in downtown Banff, but we saw that we could walk the Tunnel Mountain Drive and intersect the trail. Last night, there was a wedding going on in the meadow just outside of our room. When we got outside today, we walked into the meadow to have a look. We were surprised to see two female elk and two elk calves on the edge of the meadow, a wonderful site! We continued walking up the road and after about a mile we joined the trail. What had been a peaceful morning, turned out a bit chaotic as there were about 20 cars parked at the trail head, and vans dropping off loads of people. There was a large group of Europeans that started just behind us and chatted excitedly as they walked. That drives me a bit bonkers, and we finally just stopped and let them pass.

We encountered a woman with two dogs, and she told us she had just encountered an aggressive fox! She told us she was going to go report it, we kept our eye out, but didn’t see a fox on our way up. The trail was almost all up, and we had gorgeous views at first down into Banff, and later down into “our” meadow and the edge of our resort. We could also see the river and the golf course. We really enjoyed the hike. It was about 2 miles up, we didn’t linger at the top because the Europeans were there chatting excitedly again, so we snapped a photo and headed down.

On the way down, a couple ahead of us noticed a fox running through the woods. It was blonder than our foxes, but sure didn’t seem to be aggressive. A few minutes later, we encountered a ranger on her way up in search of the fox. I asked the ranger if the fox maybe could have been reacting to the woman’s dogs, and the ranger said yes, if she was protecting her den. I’m not a fan of people walking dogs in the forest like this!

The trail head at the bottom of the trail had been rerouted due to road construction, but we poked our way through there anyway. We headed to downtown Banff and decided we were hungry enough to have another breakfast. We looked at a few places that seemed really crowded already, and headed to a back street, where we found a vegan place and had the most amazing chickpea omelets. With about 4 miles in already, we thought we’d find another small hike for the afternoon.

We headed back to the information place, because we realized we needed to figure out the public transportation since parking seems to be a big deal everywhere. There we found a gentleman that was really helpful, and pulled up the schedule for the Mt. Norquay shuttle. That would take us close to the trail head for the Upper Stoney Trail, which would be another 4-mile hike.

We headed to where all the shuttle buses meet, but were still a little confused about the Mt Norquay shuttle. It finally dawned on us that this was a special shuttle run by the Mt Norquay ski area, and after about five minutes the shuttle appeared! We rode along for several stops around Banff and then headed up to the Mt Norquay ski area. We learned that the shuttle runs every hour, with the last one at 7:30 PM. We figured that was plenty of time for us to hike 4 miles!

The driver was nice enough to point out the trailhead to us, so we got off the bus and headed back down the road to the trailhead. The other bus riders were headed up the chairlift for a different kind of more laid-back adventure.

We started climbing right away as soon as we got on the Upper Stoney trail. While it was nice to be essentially alone, it was also a little frightening thinking about bears! We did encounter several couples heading our way, and as we got to the summit, we overtook two girls that were spending a lot of time taking selfies and probably posting them to Instagram, and two guys came along as well. I have to admit, I felt better about safety in numbers.

After 2 miles of climbing, we were afforded a gorgeous view, and then had two miles of descent. I tightened the laces on my boots and then felt great going down. We got back to the trailhead, and then hiked up to the ski area, and had about a 10-minute wait for the shuttle - perfect!

Back in Banff, we got off the shuttle, and then hiked about a mile back up to our resort. We showered and had a beer from our fridge and some snacks. Another wedding was occurring on our meadow, so we had entertainment during our cocktail hour. We were thoroughly tired, but felt great about our adventure today. We headed back to the Prow for dinner. Being Saturday night, the restaurant was busy, so we ate at the bar and were entertained watching a super-efficient bartender making cocktails. She was fun to talk to, and was headed to the Calgary Stampede in the early part of this week, so we can’t wait to go back and compare notes with her.

Back to our room with a nightcap of Southern Comfort over ice, and two more cribbage games. Tonight, we split, and I felt better to get my first win in sometime. It was a beautiful night and we played cribbage out on our balcony. Another wedding (the second of the night) was taking place on the meadow. This one was an Indian couple, so it was really fun to watch the guests appear in their beautiful sari’s. Unfortunately, a rain storm blew in really quick and the attendees had to scatter.

Total hike was 9.85 miles today with 2060 ft of elevation

Sunday, 10 July 2022

We learned the only real way to visit Lake Moraine and Lake Louise was by shuttle bus, as parking was limited to about 50 spots and people lined up for those spots before sunrise! The shuttle system is new this year, and we were skeptical about getting tickets for that as they said reservations had opened in April and filled up right away! When I checked last night, there were two openings for today’s 8:10-9am shuttle window. We were up early, and drove the 50 minutes to the Lake Louise ski area “Park and Ride,” just in time for our shuttle to Lake Moraine.

It was chilly when we got out of the car. It had been sunny in Banff, but clouded over on our way north. We already have seen that the weather changes rapidly here, but we felt prepared for anything! I put my down vest over two long-sleeved shirts, and added a hat and Smartwool gloves (always in my pack for days like today!). I also found some handwarmers in my pack – didn’t use them, but good to know they were there if we needed them!!

We had the worse driver ever driving the bus to Lake Moraine – it was as scary of a drive as when we drove along the road in Peru that was part of a landslide and in danger of sliding very far down to the river. This guy was not confident, stayed too far to the right, and surged with the gas pedal. We were glad when the ride was done and doubly glad that we had better drivers the rest of our trip (almost all the bus and Uber drivers we interacted with on this trip were Asian – Canada must have a been immigration system than we currently do)!

At Lake Moraine, we joined the tourists heading down the short path and the first thing we saw was a poster warning of bear presence. At the lake overlook, all we saw besides dozens of tourists, were chipmunks – and several canoes out on what looked like a chilly lake. The sun poked out, illuminating the beautiful blue-green color of all the lakes and rivers here. The glacial-fed alpine lakes in the Rocky Mountains are among the clearest (and the coldest) in the world. Fine rock dust, produced by massive glaciers rubbing against bedrock, stays suspended in the water, reflecting light and creating the turquoise colors.

Once we’d done the overlook, our options were (1) gift and coffee shop and the lodge, (2) Consolation Lake – about 4 miles out and back, or (3) serious hikes into Paradise Valley – about 20 miles of connected trails could get us over to Lake Louise, more than we knew we could do today.

As we started on the trail to Consolation Lake, there was a more serious bear warning – saying “Group Access is Recommended,” … it didn’t say “Mandatory,” but suggested that hikers travel in tight, loud groups of at least 4 people. I thought there would be enough people on the trail to constitute a “group,” but Jeff was hesitant. As I sat on a rock and tightened my boots, a pair of women walked by and entered the trail. Not only were they armed with bear spray, I whispered to Jeff that we could outrun them if we needed to, so I persuaded him to follow the ladies. We didn’t get far and there was a rock scramble across an old avalanche wash / stream. The ladies turned back, but others were coming down the trail from both directions so we felt ok on our own (just a little weary, walking the trail talking louder than we normally would). We got to a swampy section of the trail and I noticed the blueberry bushes weren’t in bloom yet, so I felt better knowing there would be no reason for bears to be there today!

As we neared the lake, something moving in the woods caught my eye and a marmot hopped along the rocks and crossed the trail fairly close to me. Moved like a cat!

At the lake, there were large rocks that had to be scaled – lots of climbing and jumping. JT held back and I went forward another 100 yards or so, but it was tiring work! There were about a half dozen people hanging out there, and we encountered about another 10 or so on our 2-mile hike back, so we weren’t entirely alone.

Perfect timing, we caught the shuttle between the lakes – a smaller bus with a competent driver. We had a snack on the bus, and it started to rain so we covered our packs and traded rain jackets for our top layers. I have a really nice Gore-Tex Arcteryx rain jacket that I bought for Kilimanjaro, but until today – hadn’t worn it in the rain!! Its quite warm, so usually I just hike with a poncho and umbrella in the rain. Today I got a chance to test it out and it was wonderful – water just ran off like on a duck’s back!!

We got off the bus in Lake Louise, and entered pandemonium. Hundreds of people just milling about on the shore of the beautiful lake, with the iconic Fairmont chateau gracing its shoreline. We started walking toward the Lake Agnes trailhead, and there was a trail behind the hotel with a serious bear warning – not just yellow (caution), but red! We joined the throng of people heading up the trail to the Lake Agnes tea house – the trail was as wide as a road, and fairly smooth – which was good with the number of people going up and down. My mind went away from bears as I was so preoccupied with people watching!! It was quite a multicultural scene – many languages heard, and many people not really dressed for a wilderness hike!

At one point, we were standing still for some reason, and we heard an avalanche occurring somewhere - we couldn’t see anything though and it wasn’t close by. We’d heard them before in the fog in New Zealand, which was really unsettling, even though the guide said “that’s across the valley – won’t happen here!”

It was a pretty hike, with views of the lake getting more awesome as we climbed. There was a cascade running from Lake Agnes into Mirror Lake – stunning scenery. Although the sun had poked out, the clouds were swirling as we reached Lake Agnes. We stood in the “take out” line at the Tea House and ordered tuna sandwiches, soup, tea for me and hot chocolate for Jeff. I waited for the food while Jeff went off to make new friends at a table near the lake we shared with a couple from Boston. We ate our lunch and chatted with them. They’ve been here more than a dozen times, and were knowledgeable about the trails – I’d wanted to take an alternative, longer way back … but Jeff was skeptical.

Just as we finished eating, a storm blew in – the temperature dropped and we had real rain, not just the drizzle we’d experienced earlier today. People scrambled – some back down the trail, some packed into the Tea House, and others huddled together under the roof awning.

We packed up and walked across the bridge to snap a few photos. My hands, even in gloves, were absolutely freezing – shocking, to go from lunch in a t-shirt to freezing in 10 minutes!

We started out down the alternative route, down about a hundred steps and then down a steep slope, now muddy and slippery. Jeff had the good sense to say we needed to turn back and take the main trail down, thankful for that!! We were at about 7000 ft, and heading back up those stairs was tough! But we went up and back down the trail and by Mirror Lake, the rain had nearly stopped.

We had a great walk down with fewer people, and were surprised to see dozens of people heading back up the trail! We sat by the lake for a few minutes, then headed out to find our shuttle. The shuttle worked well, with just about a 10-minute wait for our ride back to the Park and Ride.

We headed back to Banff, with a stop at the IGA grocery store (pandemonium!), to buy stuff for sandwiches and more yogurt and bananas for our breakfasts. We cleaned up, and had a glass of wine on our balcony, watching the wedding that we’d seen the rehearsal for yesterday (its not like we were being voyeurs, they rehearsed right below our balcony!).

We went to Prow for burgers and beer, then back for cribbage – another split tonight, but I’m getting discouraged!!

Total hike was 9.23 miles today with 1847 ft of elevation

Monday, 11 July 2022

We slept in this morning. I got up, did yoga, ate breakfast and took a nap. I guess we’re getting pretty good a relaxing!! There is a group from Backroads staying here as their van is parked near our room. Every morning, they’re gone early – off on some adventure. While we’re still disappointed that we’re not in the Yukon, we’re sure making the most of this!

We ate lunch on our balcony, then walked into town to see about renting a canoe. We’d stopped in on Saturday, and learned all the details then. We couldn’t paddle the Bow River, as it was at its banks and moving fast. Instead, they directed us to go up the creek to Vermilion Lake. We came to a fork and I directed Jeff to stay with the larger creek. Of course, it was a wrong turn. The guy at the rental place told us we’d have to portage over two beaver dams in order to get to the lake. We came to a downed pine tree, and figured we’d gone the right way, but true to form for us – we decided to see where it’d go! We both had to get out on the tree to drag the canoe over, fun challenge for us!! Then we came to two downed trees, one from each bank. It was a tricky maneuver, but Jeff steered us between the two trees – using our paddles to push off the tree, and branches to pull us along. We were high enough in the stable canoe that I wasn’t afraid of being sucked under the tree and into a strainer … but a kayak might have felt different!

We saw another series of downed trees and decided to give up. There had been a path along the side of the river, so we thought we’d portage the canoe back around to before the first tree. Jeff went to scout the portage while I stayed with the canoe. He was gone a long time and I became worried – he was talking to another couple that had also come down the wrong creek! We portaged the canoe – it was heavy and Jeff still has a bum shoulder from a fall in Greece.

I took over the stern after our portage – it had been a long time since we’d paddled a canoe and it was so much fun! The strokes I learned as a kid at Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya are burned into my memory!! Up the right creek, we easy hauled the canoe over the two beaver dams – nothing like we’d seen on the Mississippi!!

When we reached the lake, it was reminiscent of our Mississippi River trip with the multi channels and grass / wild rice. We carefully studied the landmarks so we’d find the right channel when we were ready to go back! The trip back was with the current, so much faster! We had wanted to take single kayaks instead of the canoe, but felt great to be working together and we enjoyed our time. I’d be lying if I didn’t also feel sad that we weren’t paddling on the Yukon River though!!

We walked back to the cascade gardens and explored the back gardens – interesting patterns of annuals, probably not enough of a growing season for many perennials! The lilacs are just staring to bloom, and peonies will bloom soon (they bloom in May for us).

We walked down the main street, and found a sports bar. There we ordered pizza, salad and beer and watched some of the Calgary Stampede rodeo on the large screen TV – amazing!!

We walked back up to our resort, cleaned up and relaxed. Jeff suggested we head to Prow for dessert, and we sat at the bar and tried to order a Brandy Alexander. The bartender wasn’t very experience (he was consulting the book for simple drinks), and we looked it up for him. He said they have a drink just like that (with coffee infused vodka, bailey’s, Kahlua, and some other stuff plus ice cream). We called in a “fail,” but it was interesting. We also had a slice of cheesecake, which wasn’t as good as their lava cake! Another cribbage split again!

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Jeff had Googled “best hikes in Banff” and came up with a list of the top ten. From those, we selected the ones that would top out around 7000 feet, as above that is the avalanche threat zone with the level of snow still in the mountains.

On our drive to Lake Louise on Sunday, I spotted the Bourgeau Lake trailhead just about 10 km north of Banff, and that hike met our criteria: on the top ten list and 7000 ft at the top. The description in the Canadian Rockies Trial Guide we bought in Vancouver confirmed it was a good choice for us too.

The parking lot was nearly full when we arrived, confirming we wouldn’t be alone on the trail. We set out about 10am. The trail was wonderfully soft pine needle bed, with occasional rocks and roots – but mainly delightful to walk on. We didn’t have to get very far before the din of the highway was drowned out by the sound of moving water and the wind in the trees.

We arrived at a clearing with lots of broken trees, and I realized that a fairly recent avalanche or landslide had taken down the trees! I was long enough ago that the sunlight brought different flowers, but the way the rocks were arranged, you could still see how tough it was to reclaim the trail through there!

We were treated to numerous waterfalls and river crossings. There were several people going down, and others starting up with us, but just the right amount of people after the loads of them at Lake Louise a few days ago!

We climbed to about 7000 feet, and the trail opened into an alpine meadow that was just starting to bloom with glacier lilies and marsh marigolds - soon to be lots of berries. There were patches of snow here and there, and the trail was muddy in spots. We got to the lake, rock hopped across the river again and sat on a large rock to enjoy the view while eating our sandwiches. There was a little chipmuck that sniffed us out and same over. For some reason, he was chewing on the bottom of my mud-caked pole!!

It was three hours up for us, and just two hours down – we both felt good and were able to walk down at a faster pace than we generally do, and only took one break! We felt terrific, but were exhausted when we arrived back at the car.

It was a warmer day today. We expected coolness up at the lake, but didn’t need to put on layers today.

We drove back to resort, arriving by 4pm. We grabbed some beers from our fridge and hit the hot tub. There was a couple from Scotland in the hot tub, they’d just arrived but had spent the last two days at the Stampede so it was good to get their take on that. They own a horse farm, so had a particular interest in the Stampede! He was really hard for us to understand – she did a lot of translating for us! I didn’t have my glasses on and Jeff didn’t have his hearing aids in – funny how one sense being dulled affects the others! Soon two other (unrelated) ladies from Scotland joined us and filled us with tales of what they’d done (Rocky Mountaineer to Jasper). After an hour, we were all pruned up so we said goodbye and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We drove to town as we weren’t sure we’d be able to climb back up afterwards!

Since we had the car, we took the long way back which went by A&W since Jeff had been dreaming of a root beer float all day! Disappointing result, but a beautiful drive where we came upon a small heard of elk grazing along the road.

Beautiful evening, played cribbage on our balcony until it got too dark to see the pegs (split again).

Total hike was 10 miles today with 2326 ft of elevation

Wednesday, 12 July 2022

Another lazy morning, finished up breakfast about 10am, and walked down the hill to town to rent bikes. We’d stopped in last night to check it out, and today a helpful clerk gave us great suggestions on possible rides.

We headed out of town towards Lake Minnewanka (a huge reservoir with two dams). Along the way, we stopped at Two Jack Lake, where many people were out on the water in kayaks and SUPs. We rode a nice bike trail out of town, and highway around the lakes – traffic was light and respectful, and the road surface was good but hilly! There were a number of bus tours, and the tourists would jump out for a few photos at a viewpoint, and back in to speed off to the next stop. Much better to be enjoying it from the seat of a bicycle!!

We’d stopped once for me to adjust the height of my bike seat and Jeff noted a large herd of elk across the meadow. Might have missed them if we hadn’t stopped. As we approached the Lake Minnewanka dam, cars were pulling over suddenly in the way that generally signals an animal sighting. I was praying it wasn’t a bear! Turned out to be a mountain goat, running along the shoulder towards us. I grabbed my phone and started recording a movie. I figured if he/she attacked me, at least I’d get a recording of it. He ran right past me, and past Jeff too – its still a great recording and I’m glad there was no attack!!

I was surprised to see a boat concession and snack shop as we neared Lake Minnewanka. There were a lot of people there, and we sat on a bench and ate our sandwiches and watched tourists trying to kayak against the wind, and others doing donuts in rented little boats?!

We rode back to Banff, mostly downhill and fun – with the exception of melting snow creating a river across the road – so cold when that water hit my back!! We locked up the bikes and walked to an ice cream shop, then back for another 10 miles on the golf course loop. That route brought us through a really cool path along the lake with local art in nature exhibits, and to the Bow River rapids and waterfall – whoa! Made me glad we didn’t paddle our canoe down this way the other day!!

We turned the bikes in and walked back to our resort for showers and a rest, the we drove back to town for dinner at a chaotic Greek restaurant, but good food. We ended our dinner with baklava and Metaxa.

Back to our room for cribbage - my slump continues, JT won both games with a skunk the second game, puts him up 9 to 4 for the series!

Total mileage today = 27.5 miles, 919 feet of elevation gain (4956 max)

Thursday, 13 July 2022

Another lazy morning, yoga and breakfast in the room. We researched how to run the Roam shuttle bus to Banff Upper Hot Springs, and downloaded the app with tickets to Jeff’s phone. We were headed to another hike that met our criteria: on the list, and tops out at the snow line!

We got on the bus early, and before we left downtown Banff, it was packed with standing room early. About half of the bus got off at the Hot Springs stop – a few of us to hike, the rest headed to the Hot Springs. The rest were likely riding to the next stop to take the gondola to the top ($70 round trip!).

We headed out on the Sulphur Mountain trail, zigzagging under the gondola. Two German couples started out just after us, and passed us moving pretty fast. A few switchbacks later, we found the two ladies sitting down and gasping, and the two guys trying to decide what to do. The ladies and one guy turned back, the other guy set off again at a quick pace, but after about 15 minutes we saw him heading down too.

It was a fairly steep incline, and a hot day - more work than I had anticipated it would be!

When we got to the top, it was a bit of a surreal environment with hundreds of families that had ridden to the top! At the top was a multistory facility with a restaurant, cafe, gift shop, and interactive displays including a small theatre.

We sat on the deck and ate our sandwiches and fruit, enjoying the scenery and people watching. After our lunch, we hiked the 0.6 km boardwalk hike to Sanson Peak (7500 ft), along with the gondola throngs! Our book calls this the “most lavish alpine trail in Canada,” an apt description!!People of all nationalities and body types! We’d hoped to take an alternative path (old road that serviced a former astronomical lab, now called the “Westside Trail”), but were disappointed to see it blocked off with a threat of $25,000 fine for entering the area. The road would have been longer, and less steep than what we’d hiked up, ending at Cave in Basin where we’d have caught another Roam shuttle. Jeff didn’t want to risk his knees going down the steep incline, so we popped the $78 for two one-way tickets down – 8 minutes!!

At the bottom, they have you exit past the photo shop (they take a photo of you as you’re loading at the top), through the gift shop, past the Starbucks… felt like a Disney ride! We went out to the bus stop and waited 20-minutes for a super packed bus. We jammed into the bus anyway. COVID be dammed!!

We got off the bus below our hill, and walked up to our resort. We hit the hot tub again, all to ourselves this time. When we got back to our room, another small wedding was happening! We cleaned up and went to our last dinner at the Prow. They know us there now!!

Evening cribbage on the balcony- split again. After cribbage, we walked down to the meadow to see if the elk were out. They weren’t but we found a sign with the roster of wedding rentals! Back to our room, we packed up to get ready for early departure tomorrow morning.

Total hike was 7.88 miles today with 2437 ft of elevation

Friday, 14 July 2022

We left Banff about 8am, with a final drive through the town we’ve come to know so well. It was really an amazing week to immerse ourselves into Banff without a tight itinerary.

Leaving the mountains and seeing them in the rear-view mirror always makes me sad, but we’ll be back in the Colorado Rockies next month!

We drove to the airport and dropped the car, then walked across the street to the airport Marriott where I’d reserved an expensive room, but we know we’ll be out late and have a 6:30am departure tomorrow morning!! We were happy they let us check is, as it was about 10am. We got stuff laid out for tonight and tomorrow, then headed out to find the bus to downtown. I was in my new cowboy boots and we both had our new hats on – but we would have looked odd in Calgary if we hadn’t been dressed like that!

We misjudged the stop for bus 300 to downtown, so after it went past, we ran after it, caught it, and the driver was patient enough for us to figure out the ticket machine and we were able to board the waiting bus. We didn’t exactly know where we were going, so after about 30 minutes we were downtown and I was following the map on my phone and it seemed like we were heading in the opposite direction we wanted to go, so we got off and started walking. That was awesome, as we came upon a street that was blocked off for 4 blocks with a Stampede party going on! Reminded us of the Kentucky Derby as people greeted you in Louisville with “Happy Derby Day,” today they were saying “Happy Stampede!” Some ladies at an information booth gave us a map and schedule of today’s events at the Stampede, and a brochure on transportation so maybe we could find bus 300 after its over tonight?!

We walked down there street, stopped for a parade of people on horses, past the Olympic Plaza where a concert was going on, and followed the crowd into the Stampede Grounds. It was a hot day – not quite noon. The process at the gate was casual, and they didn’t much care that Jeff had a backpack with water bottles.

It took us awhile to get the layout of the grounds. We went into one of the pavilions and watched the “Canadian National Miniature Horse Show,” which was a little on the creepy side to me. Full sized adults being pulled in carts by miniature horses. But it felt good to sit out of the heat for a bit!

Next, we walked to the “Elbow River Camp,” where we sat in the sun and watched a spectacular “Powwow Demo.” Great drumming / chanting / dancing. Most enjoyable was a young man doing a “hoop dance,” technique that had been passed on from his grandfather.

From there, we headed back inside to the largest building, the “BMO Market, Western Oasis and Wine Garden.” We’d hoped to catch the Canine Stars “Dog Bowl,” but that showing was up to capacity. We bought fresh squeezed lemonade and sat and watched some of the presentations going on in the Market. Then we wandered to the back of the building where we found a fantastic nature photography display, a small stage with a talented singer, and the wine garden. We sat and had a glass of wine, then went to line up for the next Canine Star show (which did not disappoint) – rescued dogs taught to jump, catch frisbees, etc.

Back outside, we grabbed some dinner from food carts and found a small spot to sit on the grass in the shade while we ate. Then we headed to “Nashville North,” which was a large tent with musical acts, expensive drinks, and people watching that was out of this world! Pretty, young, scantily clad ladies mixing with rodeo guys. We stayed there until it was time to go to the evening show at the grandstand. The show started with Chuckwagon Races, which were really fun to watch, Indian bareback relay races (my favorite), several musical acts, the Young Canadian dancers, and a firework finale, the likes of which we’d never seen – it left us breathless.

We didn’t intend to stay for the whole show, but we were glued to our seats and didn’t want to leave. Of course, we felt differently about that when we joined the thousands of attendees streaming out! We got on a bus headed toward downtown, but it was so mired in traffic we went nowhere for thirty minutes or so. Downtown, we decided to get off and maybe walk to find the bus back to the airport. but it was already after midnight! A check of Uber showed about a 10-minute wait, so we called the Uber and a nice driver deposited us at the Airport Marriott about 1am. We took quick showers to wash the grime of the day off, and fell into bed.

4am alarm was painful, and by 4:30a we were waiting to check into our Delta flight. There was only one gate agent and we were 45 minutes there! The security line was long, but we got through without issue and had time to grab breakfast before our 6am flight to Minneapolis. We hadn’t had much to drink at the Stampede, but we felt hungover just the same!!

Throughout this trip, I really couldn’t shake the disappointment of not doing our Yukon adventure. We did a lot of great stuff and saw some spectacular sites. The Stampede adventure was one of the highlights for me – especially since I’d never heard of it!! The First Nation performances were moving, yet sad when you think of what the white man did to dissemble their culture. Its great that they’re able to share it with us in this way.