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Published: July 17th 2011
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Hey hey hey,
So it is currently 9:00 in the morning on Sunday and as I have the day off I thought I would try and get this blog up to date. So just in case you are wondering vol 3 will cover the mid point of the week and vol 4 will be the end part including the weekend.
So Wednesday started off with pulling weeds at the local town square. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Banff the town square is the circular area with different local plants in, (you may want to take a minute to fully appreciate the ironic nature of a circled shaped square.)
A group of 5 of us set about removing weeds from a particular section of the fire garden, (named because the plants that grow their are supposed to be plants that grow soon after a forest fire) Future volunteers will almost certainly get a chance to experience this as it happens every Wednesday (weeding Wednesdays as its know on the timetable) Personally I did not find this activity the most enjoyable activity that I have been able to take part on. I don't really have much enthusiasm for gardening as my
mother will be able to testify to. However, at the end of the few hours we could defiantly see the fruits of our labour and the garden did look much better than it did when we began. I'm sure that this experience would be great for those with a keen interest in either gardening or plants, but not so much for those like me who like to be actively out in foresets or mountains.
The afternoon was taken up by the last few bits of paperwork and guidelines that needed to be gone through. I'm sure future groups will probably get through all their paper work in one swift go but for us it was more staggered. Like on the Monday it was perfectly fine and entertaining going through the work, and we all know that it has to be done. However, like i said in the last blog I would much rather be outside than inside. Wednesday also involved time spent one on one talking with Tina to go through our own timetables and try to facilitate activities to suit what each of us wanted to do. This was really useful and gave a chance for us individually to
explore our own pathways and decide on our own experiences and what we want to get of the programme. For myself this involved doing more trail reports, helping out with some forms of social media (e.g this blog) to get the word out about the programme, and helping out on future Fridays at an event that takes place at the spring hotel greeting new guest and giving them information about the park.
Our new individual programmes were put into effect the next day when I went off first thing to do a trail report with another volunteer called Martina, whilst Mari did some thistle pulling. My hike was very enjoyable and Martina was very knowledgeable. The first hike we did was the spray river loop which is nice and easy going. The loop itself is 11.4km with only 65m elevation gain. The loop has a very nice spot to stop at the bridge when you cross over the river and is easy for all hikers. The only downside I had with this hike was that I lost the GPS system that I rented out from the info center, although we did realise where it dropped out and who would must
have picked it up we were not to bothered, as they returned the device to the info centre later that day. I should mention how it is possible to loan out a number of different items if you are doing the programme from Tina. I myself have loaned out bear spray (just in case) for the entire 4 weeks, and i also take out a first aid kit, GPS system, mobile phone and the occasional counter for keeping track of how many people were on the trail and that I interacted with.
The second hike I did that day was the Johnston Canyon falls trail. This is outside of Banff and you may need to have access to a car in order to do this trail. The trail itself starts of relatively easy but also very very busy. For the Johnston Canyon trail is special in the fact that it is in essence 3 trails in one, The trail takes you to the bottom of the Johnston Canyon falls, where you are easily walking alongside 100 + people. We had an entire tour bus of 50 + students behind us for this section of the walk. Then the trail continues
to the upper falls section. By this time the crowds have easily halved if not quartered. Therefore there are probably more people on them then your average trail but it still is easily manageable to get past. After these 2 sections ( which make up the first 2.7km of the trial you can then continue for another 3 km to reach the ink pots at the top. This section is much more difficult than the rest but is well worth it. The views you get from the top are stunning and it is so peaceful. Once you reach this final stage then lthe crowds really do thin out. Compared to the 100's of people on the lower part, we only bumped into 9 people during the entirety of the final part.
This Thursday was thoroughly enjoyable but very tiring. I would recommend both the trails I did to anyone however if you are going to attempt them on the same day be prepared covering close to 24km in one day with an overall elevation of 400ish metres.
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