Sunday, June 23, 2013
As we were preparing to
leave this morning for our 800 mile detour, the campground owner came out with
good news! He knew our plans so he wanted us to know we didn’t have to go that
way, the road (Canadian Hwy 1) over the mountain from Golden to Lake Louise in
Banff was open. We were so thrilled to not have to make that detour drive!!
Leaving Golden, driving
east, you go through Yoho National Park, on the way to Banff. Yoho, named for a
Cree word expressing awe, is a park of rock walls, waterfalls and glacial
lakes.
On our way into the park,
we passed what we thought was a statue of a Big Horn Sheep, right on the side
of the road. But, as we passed, it moved its head! It was real and we missed an
opportunity for a picture!
About half way up the
mountain pass, was a view point for the railroad tunnels built into the
mountain. When the rail first came to this area, the tracks went straight down
the mountain and there was a high rate of accidents because of the sharp descent
of the mountain grade. Long story short, they hired an engineer to look at the
problem and his solution was a crazy eight tunnel,
Yoho is in British
Columbia and borders Banff National Park on the east, which is in Alberta. In
Banff we could get as far as Lake Louise and no farther as the roads are still
closed due to flooding and mudslides. We ate lunch in the shopping center of
Lake Louise Village, then drove the rigs up to the lake.
A short hike from the
parking lot and WOW!!
There is a small boat
house over to the left and they rent canoes, I don’t even want to go near this
place, but Phil, John and Fran head that direction. Like digging in my heels, I
parked it on a bench to wait. Remember, I swore I wouldn’t get into another
canoe after the disaster in Nebraska. So the gang comes back with “a boat tour
of the lake” that is ready to leave right now, do I want to go??? I’m not
having a good feeling about this, I don’t see this “boat” but I give in and say
OK. Be leery of impulse decisions! Turns out, our “boat” is a large canoe that
will seat 7-8 people. Phil is asking questions about how easy is it to roll
this thing and the guide, Bruce, is telling him that we won’t be swimming. So,
next thing I know is that I’m putting on a life vest and we are getting lessons
on how to paddle a canoe effectively, and how to get into this “boat” so it
doesn’t tip over.
We managed to get into the
thing without tipping it over, Phil is in the front, making him the captain,
and he sets the rowing rhythm. I’m really laughing at this, because he is the
king of no rhythm!! John and Fran are directly behind Phil, then another couple
from Quebec who barely speak English, then me, with Bruce behind me. And then
we are off for our tour of the lake and our history lesson of the Hudson Bay
Company and the canoes that delivered supplies to the fur trading outposts and
then brought the furs back to the east coast for shipment to England.
The lake was fairly calm,
so it didn’t really take long to reach the turning around point and head back
towards the hotel on the other side of the lake. This side has a walking trail
and we become the “tourist attraction” as we paddled our little boat and sang
rowing songs led by Bruce. This water is mostly snow melt and is freezing cold,
but there are 4 or 5 guys practicing for a polar bear plunge (in their underware!),
and I’m wondering just how much these dudes have had to drink!!
We managed to get back to
the dock, and per instructions from Bruce, managed to stop the canoe and back
it into the dock, just like we were pros!! Safely back on land, we headed for
the rigs to continue our journey up to the Ice Fields where we had planned to
spend the night.
Along the way, we stopped
in a few view points, the most spectacular to me was Bridal Veil Falls, not
only because of the view of the falls, but the valley we had just driven
through, really impressive!!
We finally pulled into the
Columbia Ice Fields parking lot where we paid $16.00 for the privilege of
‘camping’ in their lot for the night. We are dry camping, which means we have
no electricity, water or sewer. John and Fran are used to this, they do it all
the time, but we are not really set up for it. Phil tried to wire in 12 volt
plugs for our C-Pap machines, but that didn’t work, so we will use a small
battery pack charger for them. We experimented with this while still at home
and it ran both machines for the night, so we are hoping it will do so again.
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