Yay! I’m not sore today! I think my legs are getting used to all of this hiking. :)
Well, not too much to tell today for a day in Lake Louise. I tried to do laundry but couldn’t find a Laundromat. We picked up some supplies at the local grocery store and picked up some postcards to mail to the family. And…we found internet access at the post office. $5 for the day. Not bad since we both could use it. I think we were online for almost 6 hours today. :) Ya, we were deprived. We started out next to the door of the post office. The connection speed was great but no outlet. My computer battery quickly died. So, then we found an outlet to power our laptops, but the signal was pretty bad. We broke for lunch and then returned to continue our internet usage. After close observation of the exterior of the buildings, I managed to find another outlet that was in direct line of sight of the post office. The connection was better and we had a bench to sit on rather than the ground. Next, big gray clouds began to move in. But, all the forecasts said it was sunny. Go figure. What do they know anyways. :P And, then it began to thunder and rain. Here we are, sitting on a bench outside under the eve of a building with our laptops in a thunderstorm. Funny picture, right? The storm didn’t stay around for long and then we were able to depart back to the RV. What a day! :)
We drove back to our campsite in Lake Louise, had dinner and watched Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Too funny! That was a good movie.
Anyway, that was my day. We are leaving Lake Louise tomorrow and heading onto greener pastures. Probably Banff townsite. Who knows how the day will unfold. Night.
August 18, 2008
We left Lake Louise today for Banff. It was a quick drive and we arrived in the Tunnel Mountain Campground before 11 am. After a quick registration, we found our spot and setup camp. Banff townsite has a bus service that has with a stop right outside our campground. Badly needing to do laundry, we gathered up our clothes and made use of the bus, riding it into town.
click picture for gallery
The town of Banff is very posh. It has a couple malls, popular restaurants like Tony Roma’s and Chili’s, many touristy shops and the modern conveniences of a larger city like Starbucks. Yes, Banff has a Starbucks. Who knew! We quickly found the laundromat: it was inside a mall! Yes, inside the main mall. Weird huh. Laundry took only a little over an hour to do. We decided on sushi for lunch. I spotted 4 sushi places in Banff. Lunch hit the spot. We’ve both been craving sushi. After lunch, we went in search of the town hall. I had read online that you could pick up coins to use on the bus and, by prepaying, it was cheaper. After picking up the coins, we headed back with our clean clothes to the RV.
Slipping into a food coma, we relaxed and read on the bed. David wanted me to look up the meaning of a word in Microsoft Word, so while I was searching, I realized I had internet! There is a nearby hotel that has an open wireless connection. That quickly took us out of our slumber state, but it didn’t work for long. Slowly a thunderstorm started to roll in and with it, the internet started to whimper out. Oh well! I got one good email out of it. :)
We wanted to go back into town to take pics and browse the shops without our laundry, so we waited for the rain to stop and hopped back on the bus into town. The bus ride is only 10 minutes. We are pretty close but it is much easier to take the bus than walk. We checked out most of the town pretty quickly and dropped into a bookstore and teahouse. We decided on Chili’s for dinner just to say that we’ve eaten at one in 3 countries (England, US and now Canada). We were surprised to find it located in a fancy hotel called the Fox Inn. The service was alright (they were pretty busy). I enjoyed my dinner of tacos. After dinner, we headed to Safeway to pick up some more sandwich meat and headed back to the RV.
The internet is still out :( but that’s okay. I have a good book to read for the night.
We were planning on staying Banff townsite for several days but an opportunity has arisen that we cannot pass up. In Yoho National Park (just west of Lake Louise in British Columbia), there is a town called Field and near there is where the Burgess Shale is. David’s been trying to find information on guided hikes for about a week now and he finally was able to get a call back. It turns out that the Burgess Shale hike/tour is booked. But, a German professor is taking a group of his students up to another area near the Burgess Shale in search of trilobites. And, there was room for us! So, we are gonna go fossil hunting (but can’t collect any) on Wednesday in Field, Canada. I’m excited! The only downside is the weather. There’s rain in the forecast and hiking on wet shale is not going to be fun. Hopefully it won’t rain while we are hiking but rain in the afternoon once we are finished. So, it’s off to Yoho tomorrow and then back to Banff on Thursday. K, now, I’m tired. Night! :)
August 19, 2008
Not too much happened today. It rained. A lot! We left Banff to head to Field, British Columbia in Yoho NP. We made a pit stop in Lake Louise for gas and then headed into a storm in Yoho NP.
click image for gallery
We headed to the visitor center in Field since we missed the turn off for the campground. As soon as we stepped inside the center, it began pouring. Fun. :P And we’re supposed to hike tomorrow. The visitor center gave us a map of surrounding trails. Once there was a break in the rain, we walked up to the community school (keep in mind that Field has a population of 250 people) to sign waivers for the hike tomorrow. We are hiking Mt Stephen to see the trilobites.
Once we knew what road the campground was on, we found it pretty easily. It is small, but we found an easy site to back into. We walked up to the front to get a registration form and it started pouring so we had to run back to the RV. It’s been raining all day. It let up about 6 pm and has not rained since but remained cloudy. The clouds give a neat effect on the surrounding mountains. The effect is a little bit eerie. And we have another train close by, but far enough away to not be annoying. We are actually pretty close to the main highway so we can hear a lot of cars and trucks.
That’s it for today. We have a difficult hike ahead of us tomorrow so I need my sleep! Night!
August 20, 2008
Happy Birthday Dad! I wish I had cell signal or internet. I’d send him a message. Oh well. :P
The rain woke me up last night and there was a train passing at the same time. So, I’m not sure which exactly woke me up. And, when it was time to get up, it was raining. Ugh, hiking in the rain is not fun. It’s a bit slippery.
I was able to get up pretty easily. David was sweet and made us pancakes and hot tea for breakfast. Good hearty breakfast to get our blood pumping. We got ready quickly and drove over to the visitor center in Field. We found the group with ease; we are hiking with a group of German students. They all looked pretty fit. I had my doubts if I was gonna be able to keep up with them. I haven’t completely worked all of my asthma out of me yet, so here goes!
Luckily, the rain was barely coming down when we started our hike. We left the front of town and walked up to the trailhead. I was having difficultly keeping up already! Once the guide arrived at the trailhead, he explained that there was an area we were prohibited to hike in and the area that we would be hiking in is restricted (you have to have the right permit to hike in it).
click picture for gallery
So, he took off up the trail. David and I were the last one in the group of 9. I had already taken a puff of my inhaler when the guide stopped to talk about the sign, but it wasn’t helping. The guide was going much too fast for me to keep up. David was doing fine. Quickly I ran out of breath and started to feel the tell tale signs of an asthma attack coming. I told David I wasn’t gonna be able to do this hike cuz I couldn’t keep up with everyone. He gave me the keys and ran to catch up with the group. I stood there for a few minutes to get my breathing under control before I was able to head back to the RV. Ya, I’m bummed that I wasn’t able to do the hike. It looked like a really neat trail. The rain had stopped and left the surrounding forest damp and fresh. And, I was pretty excited to see some fossils! :( Oh well. I hope we can get our money back for my half.
I came back to the RV and made some hot tea and changed into some dry clothes. To distract me a bit, I even vacuumed the RV. I decided to start on The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. That should keep my brain busy until David returned from the hike.
David returned around 4 pm. The rain had just stopped, giving him a break from the wet and cold weather. He was drenched.
At least he had his waterproof hiking boots on. I had the water heater and the heater on anticipating his arrival. I made some hot tea while he took a hot shower. He said that the hike was grueling. He’s a tough hiker and he said he could barely keep up. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it. The guide led them up at a very fast pace, gave them a 20 minute lunch break and then continued at the same pace up to the trilobite bed. The last part of the hike, he had to scramble up on his hands. The Mt Stephen trilobite bed was at the top. He said it was covered in dense fog and rain. Everything was very slippery. And he said there were hundreds and hundreds of fossils on it.
Pretty neat, huh? I wish I could have seen it. The German students that were in the group were searching everywhere for the biggest fossil to take a picture with.
It started to rain pretty hard so they headed back. It was really slippery on the trail which was mainly roots and rocks covered by wet forest litter. I’m glad I didn’t have to hike down that! Poor David fell too and hit his shoulder on a rock. Ouch! I want to head over to the community school tomorrow and see if I can get our money back on my non-hike. And my pen. The guide took my Montverde pen. I really like that pen even tho it has blue ink. :P
After David rested for a bit, we drove back to camp, dumped and had dinner. We relaxed the evening away reading and playing cards. It’s supposed to rain again tomorrow so not sure what we’ll do next. K, back to my book! Night!
August 21, 2008
The rain woke me up again last night. I think I’m fearful that the RV is gonna leak so if I hear heavy rain, it wakes me up. I’m normally a very heavy sleeper. And, I went to bed with a stomach ache (I think I had too much dairy yesterday) so that woke me up too. I was hoping it would go away while I slept, but I woke up with a stomach ache too. Ugh.
It was still raining this morning when David made breakfast. We headed back to the community school in Field to try to get my half of the money back. The guy wouldn’t go for it. Oh well. Don’t go to Yoho NP! I’ll give them a bad rap and then maybe they’ll lose business. :P The guide was a real dick. There was no way I was gonna be able to keep up with him and he was the guide! I paid him to guide me up there, not put on a chase for me to keep up. What if I had gotten lost? Oh well. We left Field and Yoho NP after we picked up some ice from the local gas station. We headed back to Banff in the gray rainy weather.
We arrived back at Tunnel Mountain Campground shortly before 11 am and had no problem getting a spot. We needed to do a small load of laundry to wash muddy clothes so we walked to the bus stop in the rain and took the bus into town. Feels like London all over again!
Today is the Banff open air concert. The main road in the center of town was closed to vehicles but the bus still dropped us off at spot near the laundromat. The washing went quick since most people drop off there dirty clothes rather than washing it their selves. We enjoyed a nice Chinese lunch, ran a few errands around town and hopped back on the bus back to the RV. It is soooo wet and rainy today. We made some hot chocolate and turned the heater on when we got back.
Nothing much else happened today. Just another rainy day. We watched a couple of movies and David made homemade pizza for dinner. MMM. We’re gonna climb Sulphur Mountain tomorrow if the weather clears up and take the gondola down the mountain. Well, I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted for one reason or another. Night!
August 22, 2008
We awoke to mostly clear skies. Hopefully it won’t rain today. It’s been raining a lot! We need a bit of a break so we can hike. :) We wanted to hike to the top of Sulphur Mountain today, but I really don’t want to hike in the rain. So, we decided to wait a bit to see what the weather was gonna do. We took the bus into town to pick up some supplies (David needed a new water bladder for is backpack) and picked up a map of Mt Rundle (David wants to hike this crazy mountain). The weather looked like it was gonna hold, so we went back to the RV, changed into hiking gear and rode the bus up to Mt Sulphur.
Mt Sulphur has a gondola at its base and an old cosmic rays weather station on top. Instead of paying the $50 to ride the gondola round trip, we hiked. It took us about an hour and 45 to get up and about an hour to hike back down. We took a snack break at the top and checked out the weather station. Not much too it really.
We decided on Indian food for dinner since we haven’t had it since May. It was really good! The chicken tikka masala was different from what I was used to but it was still really good. And so was the garlic naan. I had some tasty chai tea while David had a Kingfisher beer. Dinner really hit the spot! We were lucky enough to have the bus waiting for us when we arrived back at the bus stop (we’ve been missing it all day). Now, we’re back at the RV taking showers and getting ready for bed. We’re gonna do a small hike tomorrow to let our muscles relax before we do the really hard hike on Sunday: Mt Rundle. K, I’m gonna hop in the shower and hit the hay. Good night! :)
August 23, 2008
Ouch! I can’t move today. I am so sore! I think it’s because I practically ran down the mountain on the way back yesterday. What? I wanted Indian food badly! :)
We planned on doing a little hike today but David was nice to me and let me have a break since I was so sore. Instead, we did a little bit of tourist shopping in town. We picked up some postcards and t-shirts and had lunch at this little Greek place in town. Very good! And they even had free refills on their soda. What a concept! :P I also tracked down the internet connection I was finding near the RV park. Ya, I know, it supposed to be for a paying customer at the hotel at the back of the RV park, but hey, they don’t have a password protecting it! David and I found an empty campsite right across the street from the hotel, plugged our computers in and enjoyed some free Wi-Fi. :D It was nice to have the internet and catch up on worldly events.
We’re hiking up Mt Rundle tomorrow. We’re getting up at 6 am and heading over to the trailhead with the RV. It’s supposed to be an 8 to 10 hour hike round trip and it’s about a 5000ft elevation gain from the bottom to the top. Scary huh! The worrying thing is that there might be a storm heading in tomorrow afternoon, so if it looks like it’s gonna rain, we’re heading back to the RV and quitting the hike early. Don’t want to be struck by lightning! So, fun stuff. I’m gonna be so sore on Monday! K, need my rest. Night!
August 24, 2008
We hiked Mt Rundle today.
click picture for gallery
I am sooo done with Mt Rundle. It was so hard! I’ve never climbed a mountain with that intensity. It was very pretty up there. We even saw some deer.
The view from just the side of the mountain was amazing. You could see all of the town below and the river and the falls. But, it wasn’t an easy hike.
We got up at 6 am, got ready and drove over to the parking lot at the trailhead. We started on the trail about 7:30 am. The first part of the trail which led up to the mountain base was not too bad. There were 12 switchbacks and 3 gullies to cross, but the real challenge was once we got to the mountain base trail.
From here to the top, the trail was very sketchy and not well marked. So, you might start heading up one route and then realize halfway up it that you aren’t on the trail anymore. Not fun! So, at the beginning of the trail you first had to cross a gully that had steep sides and no footing to scale the sides of the bank. The next part was all roots and trees.
Imagine walking up huge steps that had rocks and sand all over them but they aren’t steps at all; you’re just scaling the mountain. That went on for quite awhile until we immerged from the tree line. The wind was blowing pretty hard to the point where it was threatening to blow me off the mountain.
This is where it got really scary. You are out on the bare rock of the mountain with a not so clearly defined trail. And, it’s not dirt that you are hiking on. It’s gravel, but on a steep incline so you are slipping and sliding everywhere. You take a step forward and you slide back to where you started from. The trail gets to a point where it was just the bare rock and you were expected to climb up that.
And with the wind, that was a scary combo. So, we said we had gone far enough and started to head back. If we had continued forward, the trail becomes a raised ledge or “backbone” along the mountain so you are completely out in the open with barely any place to walk and the wind is trying to blow you off the mountain. Then, the last bit is a scramble where I’m sure you have to be down on all fours trying to summit the mountain without dying. It was dangerous up there. I’m glad we decided to turn back when we did. There was a point when I was hiking through the steep gravel where I took a step and lost my foot and at that exact moment the wind came up and blew me backwards. I thought I was gonna die. It was scary. It was shortly after that in which we decided to turn back.
Heading back down the trail was even worse than climbing it. When you are climbing up a mountain, you are naturally leaning into the mountain so you really don’t realize how steep it is. But once you are climbing back down the mountain, it can get hairy cuz you can lose your footing so much easier. I feel several times on the way down. Luckily, I didn’t hurt anything.
Once we were back to the normal trail (the easy, normal trail), we had lunch and rested for awhile. David said he’d buy me sushi to make it up to me for trying to kill me on that crazy mountain. :) It was a tough mountain. I even fell again on the easy part of the trail cuz I was going too fast. I scrapped up my arm pretty good too. So, ya, I hate Mt. Rundle and I’m sure it hates me too. I don’t think I’ll ever take on a challenge like that again. Everyone has their limits and I found mine. :) But, the sushi was good! Night!
August 25, 2008
Yay, I’m not sore today!! It’s weird. My body is getting used too all of this trauma I’m putting it through, but my arm does hurt. I scrapped it up pretty good when I fell and I have a nasty bruise on it. But, that’s all that hurts. :D
After 3 weeks in Canada, we figured we had seen all there was to see of the 3 major national parks, so back to the states! And, we loved Glacier NP so much that we’re gonna go back and see more it. We got up fairly early since we went to bed really early and got a head start on the road south. We drove into Canada through Alberta, so to see something different on the way back, we drove south through British Columbia to the Montana border. We drove through Kootenay National Park which was pretty but kind of drab because it was raining yet again.
We saw Radium Hot Springs as well but there really wasn’t much to that resort spot. We made it to the border about 2pm.
The customs officer asked us the usual border questions and then went to talk to another officer. David could hear their conversation. It went something like this:
“Should we check this vehicle?”
“Did they have any fruits or meat?”
“No.”
“Nah, let them go through. We’ll check the next one.” :D
Great. I’m glad the customs officers are “random.” It was nice not to have them search our vehicle tho. When David and I drove back from Mexico a couple summers ago, the guy inspected David’s little Geo. David hadn’t washed it in months so I’m sure the customs’ guy thought we were bringing people over. Anyway…
So, we entered Montana without a hitch. We waited until we crossed the border to get gas since it was so expensive in Canada. We were happy to find a gas station with gas for $3.85. I’m so happy the price has gone down. I still wish it was under a $1, but that’s another story. :D We also got a huckleberry slushy which was yummy! Back on the road, I spotted a juvenile bear on the side of the road, but since I had the slushy in my hands instead of the camera I couldn’t get a picture of him. But, I did see a moose on the side of the road earlier in the day and got a picture of him. We stopped for lunch in Whitefish. The map said there was a rest stop there, but it wasn’t a rest stop. It was the parking lot of a tennis court, but it said rest stop on the sign. Weird. We found a Safeway in Whitefish but, strangely enough, most of its shelves were empty. After inquiring, we discovered that the Safeway was being remodeled and they were in the process of tearing it and rebuilding it. Lucky for us, huh, since we needed supplies. We made due with what was available.
We arrived at San-Suz-Ed campground in the late afternoon and were welcomed by the Linux lady that ran the front desk. She remembered us from last time. Shortly after we set up camp and got on the internet (they have really fast Wi-Fi here!), it started raining and it hasn’t stopped all night. We’re up pretty late too (until 3:45!) and it’s still raining. It actually raining so hard that it’s gonna be hard to fall asleep! I uploaded pics to Facebook and MySpace for your viewing pleasure. David’s uploading more pics to his website as well. He has a bunch still to go through. Look for more pics over the next day or so. Well, I better try to sleep or the sun will be up before my head has hit the pillow! Night :)
August 26, 2008
I managed to sleep in until 10:30 this morning and I could still hear rain falling on the roof. At least we have internet to keep us busy today! :) We decided to stay at San-Suz-Ed for another day to wait out the rain. I did laundry (and boy, I needed to!) and relaxed with my laptop. David’s been reading articles online and working on pics. Yes, still working on pics. The rain stopped after I was finished with laundry (good thing I have my water proof bags!). So, not much for today. We did join the community camp fire and talked with one of the owners’ sons (I think). He comes up here in the spring to help with the upkeep of the campground and provides the park with a campfire every night between 7pm and 10pm. He has a place in Arizona that he stays at in the winter. I could see David wanting to have a summer and winter home one day. Luckily it didn’t rain on us but it was cold! Upon returning to the RV, we cranked the heater and enjoyed some hot chocolate. I’m pretty tired after my poor amount of sleep last night. I’m gonna turn in. We’ll probably check out the eastern side of Glacier NP tomorrow and then head east. We’ll see how the day goes. Night!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment