Day 6-7 Lake Louise

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Soon after breakfast I made my way to the bus station to catch the greyhound to Lake Louise, it’s located next to the train station so I was lucky enough to be there when the Rocky Mountaineer arrived. I would have loved to catch this train but it is extortionate and just caters for the high-end market not the backpacker type. So instead of the train I boarded a packed Greyhound for the 45 minute ride to Lake Louise. The hostel there is the smartest one I’ve been in, it has a sauna! but also one of the most expensive, I had to bite the bullet as it’s the only one in Lake Louise and there isn’t much else to be honest except for the scenery and wildlife.

After checking in I set off for what turned out to be a 6 hour hike. There were 4 adolescent grizzlies in the area and many of the trails were closed off including the tramline which takes you up to Lake Louise. There were a number of other trails open though so I used them to get to the Lake, on my way I crossed paths with a black bear, it was a fleeting glimpse though and I didn’t even have chance to take a pic so not the encounter I was hoping for.

Lake Louise was ice-bound but just starting to break up and many of the trails were closed due to avalanche fears, I did walk up to the lake Agnes tea house which was a good alternative. I walked all the way back to Lake Louise village, my legs have never been so sore!!

The next day I was to visit Lake Moraine which is a beautiful lake with 10 snow-capped mountains in

the background, this was 15km from the hostel so I managed to get a lift from a couple I was rooming with. I had all these grand plans of the hikes I was going to do and they were all to come to nothing as they were all covered in snow 3 feet deep. The only accessible path was the lakeshore which took just 45 mins. My advice to hikers would be to come a month later (July) to get full access to the trails. I started walking the road back from lake Moraine to Banff and got half-way there when somebody stopped for me, I’d had my thumb out for around an hour and no-one stopped, I must look a bit dodgy:-)

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

MAGNIFICENT MOUNTAINS
Fantastic collection of magnificent mountain pics. I'll post some on the Magnificent Mountains thread in the Photography Forum...Enjoy

[David on tour]

Lake Moraine
This pic was took just as the lake was thawing in June, the lake had yet to return to its aqua blue colour in July but the payoff was the abundance of snow on the mountains.