Monday, August 10, 2015

Catching Up #3 - Elk in the Bushes / Lake Louise

Time to get back to posting from the here and now. We are enjoying breakfast at the the HI/ACC Lake Louise Hostel. In truth it is more like a hotel, but with hostel amenities. It has a restaurant, lounge area, showers and a sauna! The rooms are very nice and it has been easy to charge up the electronics. Wifi is well, funky is the most generous term.

We are in the common kitchen having breakfast. Katie and Nate arrived Saturday late afternoon. We did the quick tour of downtown Banff and had dinner in Tommy's Pub. Then it was off to Johnston Canyon Campground.

Marsha and I spent the day in and out of Banff waiting for the kiddos. We (Marsha)  managed to get laundry done, we did get in a bike ride, a canoe ride, and pick up a ticket for overtime parking. The tourist map they handed down at the infor center said that the lot we chose was had 12 hour parking. The sign on the pole said 3 hour limit like all the rest of the lots ($50 fine).

We did the bike ride out Vermillion Lakes Drive on a bike path. A you head out past the lakes and the wetlands created by them the vistas opened up back towards town. Very nice. I learned that I was as dumb as a bear as at one point we had to go through an animal control gate that kept animals off the highway. I could not figure it out until some other riders came from the other direction and quickly lifted the latch.

On the way out we passed the Banff Canoe Club where they rent kayaks and canoes. On the way back we got a text that Katie & Nate were being delayed at the rental car counter. So, we did an hour rental on a double kayak. We cruised First Vermillion Lake which was the the typical blue/green of a glacial fed lake. On the way back there was a small creek that entered the lake near the boat dock. We went up the creek  a few hundred meters. As we rounded a corner there was an elk browsing in the low brush. Big rack as all elk do but was cool to see how it lowered its head and stripped the leaves off the branches by ripping up. We were able to paddle by quietly up stream, and then float by quietly in the slow current. It was very cool.

I am being told that breakfast is now over, and we have to get our rears in gear. Much more to wtrte about from yesterday's hike to Lake Sherbrook, and the visit to Lake Louise. Moving pictures off of various devices and getting them up to a cloud space where I can get them into the blog still is a pain because of the wifi issues.

Looks like a canoe ride on Moraine Lake this morning and packing for Stanley Mitchell Hut (or a round in the sauna if I get my way) today.

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