dimanche, octobre 09, 2005
if you never try you'll never know
We had a serious adventure day today, me and deVaughan. We started our roadtrip yesterday with a relaxed drive to Banff in my rented Pontiac Sunfire (it has a muffler and a CD player, two things noticeably absent in Fred these days). We did some exploring around town, ate and drank at the Rose and Crown, searched out an affordable hotel, and then crashed early. Today was a different story, though. We woke up early, enjoyed a nice breakfast at Melissa's, then headed out to the Sulphur Mountain gondola for a breathtaking ride to the top of the mountain. We had spectacular weather today for visiting a mountaintop, too. You could see for miles. Here we are, looking like dorks.
After our descent we stopped to take in Bow Falls, then found a reasonable picnic spot to make some sandwiches by the Bow River in Banff. After our lunch it was time to hit the highway for Lake Louise.
In Lake Louise I gave deVaughan a quick tour of the Chateau and we headed off to do a short hike. Even though I lived and worked in Lake Louise for an entire summer a few years back, I strangely did not try some of the best hiking around. The hike we did today was the "Fairview Lookout" hike that was about 1.2 km with a steep climb of over a hundred meters. It was a bit snowy and slippery on the trail in parts but you get to the lookout point above Lake Louise and it's totally worth the trip. The lake is a fabulous sparkling turquoise colour from up there. Gorgeous.
Next it was some canoeing on Lake Louise. It was damn chilly out there, but we were wearing our warm jackets and gloves, with life jackets over top, and got a solid upper-body workout paddling to the back of the lake. The water was as still as I've seen it and was smooth as glass today. The best part of this trip, though, was the moment when we were almost back to the dock and heard some rumbling in the distance. It sounded a lot like thunder so I sorta thought there was a storm a little ways off, but deVaughan and and I both turned around to look in the direction of the thundering and were just in time to see a massive avalanche of snow tumbling down the Victoria glacier at the back of the lake. It was absolutely amazing to witness.
You think this day is over...? Nope, we had more adventures in store.
After a quick stop in the village of Lake Louise, we got back on the highway (the 1A, a more scenic route than the Trans-Canada) heading back towards Banff. My plan was to get to Johnston Canyon, make more sandwiches, then evaluate whether we had time to do the hike there too. We decided we could make it at least to the "lower falls" and back before it started getting dark. After the relatively easy hike and the spectacular sites, though, we opted to continue to the "upper falls" as well. Wow, what a cool, cool canyon walk with some amazingly powerful waterfalls to take in. We took lots of pictures, so I'll share 'em once they're developed and posted on flickr.
It really was a great two-day getaway. I got to introduce deVaughan to the Rocky Mountains and even do some stuff that I'd never done before. Yesterday's relaxed pace was a nice way to begin - I kept saying, "I really feel like I'm on vacation". And today, with all the outdoor-goodness activity, was busy and fun. We hiked twice! We canoed! We saw a deer and a coyote! We had two picnics! We witnessed an avalanche! I'm SO ready for bed... | ¶ 12:04 a.m.
After our descent we stopped to take in Bow Falls, then found a reasonable picnic spot to make some sandwiches by the Bow River in Banff. After our lunch it was time to hit the highway for Lake Louise.
In Lake Louise I gave deVaughan a quick tour of the Chateau and we headed off to do a short hike. Even though I lived and worked in Lake Louise for an entire summer a few years back, I strangely did not try some of the best hiking around. The hike we did today was the "Fairview Lookout" hike that was about 1.2 km with a steep climb of over a hundred meters. It was a bit snowy and slippery on the trail in parts but you get to the lookout point above Lake Louise and it's totally worth the trip. The lake is a fabulous sparkling turquoise colour from up there. Gorgeous.
Next it was some canoeing on Lake Louise. It was damn chilly out there, but we were wearing our warm jackets and gloves, with life jackets over top, and got a solid upper-body workout paddling to the back of the lake. The water was as still as I've seen it and was smooth as glass today. The best part of this trip, though, was the moment when we were almost back to the dock and heard some rumbling in the distance. It sounded a lot like thunder so I sorta thought there was a storm a little ways off, but deVaughan and and I both turned around to look in the direction of the thundering and were just in time to see a massive avalanche of snow tumbling down the Victoria glacier at the back of the lake. It was absolutely amazing to witness.
You think this day is over...? Nope, we had more adventures in store.
After a quick stop in the village of Lake Louise, we got back on the highway (the 1A, a more scenic route than the Trans-Canada) heading back towards Banff. My plan was to get to Johnston Canyon, make more sandwiches, then evaluate whether we had time to do the hike there too. We decided we could make it at least to the "lower falls" and back before it started getting dark. After the relatively easy hike and the spectacular sites, though, we opted to continue to the "upper falls" as well. Wow, what a cool, cool canyon walk with some amazingly powerful waterfalls to take in. We took lots of pictures, so I'll share 'em once they're developed and posted on flickr.
It really was a great two-day getaway. I got to introduce deVaughan to the Rocky Mountains and even do some stuff that I'd never done before. Yesterday's relaxed pace was a nice way to begin - I kept saying, "I really feel like I'm on vacation". And today, with all the outdoor-goodness activity, was busy and fun. We hiked twice! We canoed! We saw a deer and a coyote! We had two picnics! We witnessed an avalanche! I'm SO ready for bed... | ¶ 12:04 a.m.
