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Published: August 18th 2007
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Moraine Lake
And The Valley of the 10 Peaks behind So after taming the Kicking Horse River, Shazza and I continued our tour around Banff National Park, where it snowed overnight on the mountains. I did a great hike up above Lake Moraine and the Valley of the 10 Peaks (10 mountains all over 3,000 metres in one valley), where we had to hike in groups of 4+ due to the grizzlies in the area. Afterwards was the first time that others have ridden in Shazza with me. We both knew it was going to happen at some point, but we wouldn't have picked it to be a nice, old Japanese couple who were also heading back to Lake Louise. What was even stranger was the fact they insisted on giving us $20 for the ride. We felt kind of dirty, that is until it went to a steak dinner for me and some premium fuel for Shazza!
Overall Shazza is proving to be a worthy replacement. There's just a few things that have started to get on my nerves, like her seat-belt alarm. If you don't have your seat-belt on when you first start her up, she lets out a nagging noise, telling you to "buckle up". I know
Scenic Macca's
Canmore McDonald's she's just reminding me, but I'll put it on when we start moving! I'm sure I've got my faults too. For example, I don't think she likes it when I ignore our maps and go on my gut instinct. And I'm sure she's sick of the same 5 cd's repeated all day, especially what has become somewhat of a theme song for the trip- Chris Valen's "Long Way From Home", in particular its lyrics "where are you going to sleep tonight?". So far, its been a combination of hostels, campgrounds and lately in carparks.
The weekend crowds became too much for us around Banff (there were no available beds or car-spaces), so we went out of the park to Canmore- where the hostel was also full. It meant it was the first night I had to sleep in Shazza- which was surprisingly comfortable. After a quick bowl of cereal in the hostel carpark we were off to where the locals go to escape the summer crowds of The Rockies- Kananaskis Country. It’s the next mountain range over towards Calgary and is best described as a little less than The Rockies- less snow, less colour in the lakes, less dramatic
Top of Kananaskis Country
At the summit- about to descend peaks etc. It also only has a fraction of the crowds and is free to visit as it’s a recreational area rather than a National Park. We had a close call of the nature kind. When travelling at 100kms, an elk decided to run across the road around 10 metres in front of us. Luckily Shazza spotted it first and put on the anchors. After that I did a tough 2.5 hour hike- starting at 1700m. The hike was just less than 4kms, but had a vertical elevation gain of around 1km and involved scrambling across slate-like rock at the peak.
From there, we cruised south-east and out of the mountains, into The Prairies. The change in scenery is quite amazing, as the steep mountains go to flat plains almost instantly. I spent the afternoon driving south with the evening sun on the flat ranches to the east and the silhouette of The Rockies to the west. Since I was on "The Cowboy Trail", I thought it was fitting to stop at Longview for "The World's Best Jerky" (pretty damn good). I then headed out to spend a night at the outdoor-activity town of Fernie, B.C., passing the "Frank
Slide" along the way. In 1903, 90 million tonnes of rock fell slid from the mountain which took out an entire town and killed 70 people. The strange thing is, all the rock is still sitting in the valley, they just moved some of it to reconnect the road and train line.
I doubled back into Alberta to visit the "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump"- a 10 metre cliff where the local natives used to round up buffalo herds and trick them into running off the cliff to die. The tribes would be gathered at the bottom of the "kill-site" and process the bison in camps below.
From there I went down to the stunning Waterton Lakes National Park. The park forms park of the Waterton-Glacier International Park with the US. Waterton has to have one of the most scenic pubs in the world- situated on a bluff overlooking the deepest lake in The Rockies. I camped in a nearby campground, and when driving out in the morning I finally spotted my 1st wild grizzly bear! I was still in the campground when the beast plodded casually across the road around 20 metres ahead of Shazza's bonnet. That day I
Beer with a view
The view into Waterton Lakes N.P. did the famous Crypt Lake Trail- a 20km round trip that begins with a boat ride across to the other side of the lake. From there you hike up into the valley, past several waterfalls and meadows, before the final climb. The ascent to the lake involves climbing a ladder that leads in to a 30m (crouching) cave, before opening out to a ledge with a steel cable up to the lake. The front of the lake has a 250m waterfall and on the other 3 sides are 500m high cliffs- the back one of which forms the USA-Canada border. After the hot hike up, we all jumped into the glacial lake for a refreshing dip.
That afternoon, Shazza and I headed into Montana, USA. My only problem with crossing the border was the Alberta jerky I had. My options were to throw it out or scoff it all down- no prizes for guessing where it went. Montana is home of 'the big skies', but it also has some decent sized meals too- my kind of place. Yesterday we did some driving and hiking in the US side of the park- Glacier National Park. There was some amazing scenery,
but by the afternoon it became very hazy with the surrounded forest fires. We headed out to the college town of Missoula for dinner, and then spent the night at a road stop en-route to Yellowstone National Park. It was on this section of highway that Shazza had an injury. Travelling along at 75 miles (125kms- the legal highway limit), we unavoidably ran over a shredded truck tyre. At first we didn't think much of it, but in the morning it turned out it ripped all but one bolt from one of Shazza's exhaust-support brackets. At the mechanic's, we agreed it wasn't structural and didn't need to go drilling holes through the floor to re-secure it. Instead its come off and she's now travelling more aero-dynamic.
The last 2 nights we've spent in Yellowstone National Park. While not as scenic as the other parks, it has some interesting geothermal activity and an abundance of wildlife. In 1 hour's drive I saw a moose, black bears, big-horned sheep and a coyote. At night and early morning, the whole valley echoes with the howls of wolves, communicating to each other. You can swim in some of the thermal run-offs, which is
At the cave exit
Crypt Lake Trail handy because the campgrounds have no showers. At Boiling River, the hot thermal water meets with the cold mountain stream, meaning you can adjust the your temperature by moving closer to one or the other. I've driven down to the wild west/ snow town of Jackson for a look around. I'll next travel back through Grand Teton N.P. and over to Black Hills/ Mt Rushmore.
Spanish known at this point: the Spanish alphabet ('b' and 'v' have the same sound- like a soft english 'b')
Distance travelled: 3000 miles
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Eichner
non-member comment
Shazza's injuries...
dude, you know the only way to fix an exhaust is with a milo tin... duct tape... WTF were you thinking.... peace out