Canada Summer 2009

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We arrived in Banff in May 2009 and boy what an awesome summer it was...

After our Moose Tour from Vancouver to Banff and countless nights of drinking and seeing new sights we had arrived in our new home town of Banff, were we would be for the next year. Working and living at the Rimrock has had its ups and downs, but has funded our working holiday so far.

Ohnmar: I was never really too interested in summer in Canada, how good can it be? I was never really into hiking but after the first few weeks in Banff I had found a new passion for cycling, hiking and exploring the outdoors.

Between May and October we spend many days exploring the local area. We went cycling around the Vermillion Lakes and Lake Minnewanka. Stopping at beautiful places like Cascade Ponds and Johnson Lake, these are very popular swimming holes in the summer time. I also rode a moped with some girlfriends around The Lake Minnewanka loop which was great fun.

Johnson Canyon was a short drive from Banff, it was pretty easy hike because of the man made board walks but gorgeous none the less, plus the hot chocolate my friend Dom bought me whilst waiting for the rain the clear was well worth the short drive from town. I also went back to Johnson Canyon a second time with Damien when it was a bit colder and some parts of the waterfall were frozen. It was interesting to see the canyon in summer and the start of winter.

We also hiked up Tunnel Mountain on a hot sunny day and sun-baked up the top. We decided to then go down the back-side of Tunnel which doesn't actually have a trail, halfway down we got a bit stuck and thought to ourselves that this was not such a good idea, but we made it down in one piece.

We have also hiked Sulphur Mountain, which took about 1.5 hours, the good thing about hiking up Sulphur is that if you can't be bothered walking back down you can hop on the gondola!

Some of the other walks we done include the Hoo Doos trail, Sundance Canyon, Spray river trail and Bow River trail.

We also tried our hand at white water rafting both on the Bow River and the Kicking Horse River. As my sister and her boyfriend were visiting from Australia, we thought it would be ideal to take them rafting on Kicking Horse - it was so exciting and such a great experience, scary at times but a great rush! Canadian Rockies Rafting was the tour company, they did a great job and the day was topped off with an awesome pub meal in Lake Louise.

Attached is a short video of our Canadian summer '09. Let's hope winter 09/10 is just as awesome!

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Photos

Banff
View from the Banff Gondola

Lake Minnewanka
So pristine...

Two Jack Lake
One of the stops along the Lake Minnewanka Loop

Cascade Ponds
Riding a moped around the loop

Vermillion Lakes
Canoeing on Vermillion with a six pack and a perfect view of Mt Rundle.

Johnson Canyon
In the summer

Johnson Canyon
In the winter

Comments

[Snyo]

miss u v much. YAP