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Published: August 29th 2007
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The tent
Practising putting up the tent in Jodie's house in Vancouver! So we spent a total of 8 amazing/tiring/wet/cold days driving from Vancouver to Calgary!
We left last Friday and drove the short distance to Whistler mountain, where we only had a day. We went to the top of the mountain in a gondola and the very top in a very dodgy chair lift. It was well worth it though as the views and the walk we did was incredible (even with the clouds). We left Whistler late afternoon on the same day and didn't give ourselves enough time to get to the next campsite we'd booked, so we stopped halfway and stayed in one of the best sites of the week. We left early the next day and Laura did a marathon 4 hours straight driving to get us to Jasper for just after lunch, so we could get into the site we wanted.
This is where we spent the wettest nights of our lives..... I must mention at this time that looking back we were totally under prepared for this trip and were only buying warm clothes and camping equipment on the morning we left for Whistler. It was also probably because we only spent a total of
$40 dollars on our tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 foamies and 2 pillows that we weren't that well protected from the elements (what a bargain if only it hadn't rained and was soooo cold)!! ....and once the rain started to come into the tent during the night, the car was our only option!
Even so, we were not deterred (well laura was a bit!) and we soildered onto the Columbia ice fields in the morning, visiting some pretty amazing natural sites on the way - Athabasca and Sumwapta Falls and Mount Edith Cavell glacier. That night we spent the coldest nights of lives and Laura swore that if it wasn't so cold outside of her sleeping bag/the tent that it would have been a second night spent in the car!! So the teeth chattering continued into the night!
Still undeterred we then had one of the best days of the trip. We walked up onto Athabasca glacier and went on a trail that took us to the most amazing view - hopefully the photos have captured it!! We moved on again that day to Lake Louise and yet another campsite. This time though, instead of cooking our own
meals on an open fire we treated ourselves to burger and chips and a night of internet at the local hostel (even though we weren't staying there!). This night's sleep was definitely better - still cold but combated with at least 5 layers of clothes (another night without a shower though)!!!
The next morning we moved on early to another campsite in Lake Louise, had a shower and then headed out to explore. We went to Lake Moraine where we hired a canoe and spent a lazy hour paddling around. In the afternoon we went to Lake Louise and went on a trail past Mirror Lake and Agnes Lake to a tea house at the top of a surrounding mountain. The tea was very disappointing so we treked back down again and read our books by the side of the Lake Louise. It was beans and bread again for dinner - cooked on the open fire!
The following day we travelled to Banff, the largest town we would visit on our trip and we went on a 2hr trail to the top of Tunnel mountain - legs still burning from the day before. The view was a little
disppointing and Laura ripped her only pair of trousers when she went for a tumble over a tree trunk! The rest of the day was spent chilling at the campsite, before heading into town for '2 dine for $6.99' pizza - what a treat. On our last day we decided to treat ourselves to a session at the local hot springs, where the water was 41degC - we only stayed a little while as it started to make us both feel a little sick. The afternoon was spent clearing out the car in preparation for dropping it off in Calgary.
Our last night was spent in the car so the tent wouldn't be wet when we got up at 5am to drive to Calgary. I think we were both slightly pleased to give the car back as it was costing us over 3/4 of our daily budget just to have it, but we would have been lost without it and not able to do half the stuff if didn't have it. Looking back we did have a really good week and would recommend anyone that's considering going to definatly do it - but what we would say is that
an RV would be the smart persons choice!
We didn't like Calgary very much so we're not going to write anything about it. All i'll say though is that it allowed us to have a shower, do some washing and get ready for the next leg of our journey - Hawai'i!!!
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Georgina
non-member comment
WOW
Canada looks absolutely amazing you have done a fantastic job of taking some brilliant pictures. Sounds like you are having a fab adventure. Laura...stay strong!!