Rocky Mountain Bear Country

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It took us quite a long time to drive out of Calgary because it's a very spread out city - there's lots of countryside to spread into. (However, the residential plots are small so as to maximise the profit for the developer. It's just the infrastructure, shopping malls, parking areas etc that take up all the space.) Our last pieces of Calgary infrastructure were the ski jumps for the Olympic games (and maybe toboggan runs as well, but I couldn't make them out).

Shortly after, a jagged hazy shadow appeared on the western horizon. This shadow gradually became more distinct, and seemed to impose a wall blocking our westbound route. Cunningly, though, the road followed the Bow River upstream into the rockies and brought us to Canmore, just outside the Banff National Park.

Canmore is Alberta's own Rocky Mountain resort, so National Park restrictions don't apply there. (By contrast, the Banff National Park is run by the national government and subject to planning restrictions.) At Canmore, some of the party took a helicopter ride over the Rockies. Luckily, the weather was perfect for them so they had a very exciting experience. We explored the town instead, and found a lovely pavement cafe opposite a Settler's Cabin and overlooked by rugged, snowy peaks. Mary, of course, found a market in town, selling fruits, jams and clothing.

Next, Les drove us into Banff, past the entrance to the National Park. Here, the signs are bi-lingual again, in line with National Gov. policy. The town of Banff has a most spectacular setting, with the Cascade mountain in view all the way along the main street. At 4000 feet above sea level, it's fairly cool even in June, so the trees were freshly in leaf and the gardeners were just planting the spring flowers as we arrived.

The Caribou Lodge Hotel was built with cedar wood, but with a nice stone hearth or two inside, all burning logs but enclosed in heat-resistant glass. The dining hall had a huge black and white photo on one wall of a party of fashionable prohibition-era travellers encountering a bear. Everyone in the photo seemed thrilled, except for the poor man the bear was gently clawing!

Good news. The Caribou Lodge was the second choice of the tour company. The first choice hotel had to cancel our reservation at fairly short notice, but by way of apology they gave us free breakfast tickets for two mornings at the Caribou AND two vouchers worth 10 dollars each for the fast food Spaghetti Factory downtown.

All the dustbins in town were locked down, so that the bears wouldn't be able to explore them if they wandered into town. Luckily no bears were around when we went walkabout, and there were none dining at the Spaghetti Factory when we got there. Our meal was served by a girl from Perthshire (Isn't Perthshire cold enough in winter?) after a short wait in the queue for tables. (The queue was probably caused by fellow-travellers from the Caribou Lodge who were out for their 10 dollar discounts just like us.) On the way to the restaurant, incidentally, we did meet a deer peacefully grazing on the edge of the road.

Next morning, we started with a sumptious FREE breakfast before setting off to visit Two Jacks Lake, where I got into trouble with our head tour guide for getting out of my seat faster than expected when invited to leave the coach to explore the lake. (If only Mary hadn't chosen the front seat of the bus that morning. Obviously, we should have let a more elderly and sedate couple use it!)

Still, nothing could detract from the brilliant scenery that day, or the encounters with wild animals. Reindeer, Wild Goats, Mountain Sheep, Lynx(?), Chipmunks, Ground Squirrels, birds galore etc, but not bears. But every time I descended from the coach, we made sure we chattered a lot to ward off any bears that might be loitering just around the corner.

During our explorations, we went up Sulphur Mountain by cablecar (meeting lots of grazing and scavenging animals at the snowy 7000 feet summit), inspected the hoodoos at several places, found a waterfall and nice picnic spot on the Bow River and explored the Banff Springs hotel where guests were bathing in the open air pool. Once let loose in the town again, Mary found the Hudson Bay shop and a new pair of blue jeans. I found the path down by the river and a bunch of canoeists, but no canoes for hire. I suspect the river current was too strong at that time of year (melting snow etc.).

In the evening we were all taken by coach back to Canmore for dinner and cabaret. The show was staged by a local repertory company and entitled 'Oh Canada Eh!'. It humorously depicted all the good and bad aspects of the past and present Canada. The humour was varied. (It had to cater for American tastes as well as British). I was seated in the worst seat in the house (owing to my reluctance to push forward when queueing - after my early morning brush with our tour guide) but I did get special attention from one young blond actress. Luckily, though, I wasn't designated the 'stud muffin' of the night. That honour went to one fairly elderly American. By the way, the 'Eh!' in the show title is a reference to the fact that Canadians can't resist using 'Eh' in conversation, much the same as the Brits with 'Absolutely' I suppose.

On exiting the theatre, we encountered two pretty white rabbits (with a long streak of black over their spines) roaming around outside. Snow camouflage, perhaps?

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