Canada blog vol 2 (11th-12th)

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So now onto the first few days.

The first day started with Tina picking me and Mari up on the first day from the Juniper lodge. The Juniper lodge has very friendly staff, luckilly for us as we are living in the same building as many of them, and invited us in for free coffee. After Tina picked us up we went to Johnson lake (remember its a completley different area from Johnston Canyon) and had a mini trek with Dave who took us round the lake and gave us a very interesting talk about forest firs and how they are very necessary.

Following this tour which probably lasted 2 hours ...ish? We went back to the main information centre in the centre of Banff where we re-met up with Tina. Over the first few days the information hub becomes almost a second home. On the monday we went through some paper work and gradually talked about some of what we would be doing over the coming weeks. The presentations and slide shows were fairly entertaining and informal esp as we were only in a group of 2, however, when you come to the Rockies and to Banff you don't particulary want to spend that much time indoors. The day ended with us being given out bokes that we were going to be using for the next 4 weeks. No suspension and thin tyres mean they aren't suited for off road/mountain biking, but with 24 speeds they are perfectly adequate for getting from A-B. Along with the bikes I have been given enough safety gear to be spotted from space. Personally not being used to either driving or riding on the right, I definatly like having some of it, although having a little orange flag on the back does make you feel like a bit of an idiot, and I do find myself kicking the pole it's on every single time I either get on or dismount.

The next day was much more energetic. It started with a bike ride into town to meet at the info center. Todays objective was to undergo our first trail check. Simply put this involves walking on a certain trail, speaking to other people and making sure the trail is in a restectable condition e.g no litter or fallen trees blocking the way. The trek was the sealevel C- crique (i think thats right) which has some stunning views along the way including a magnificant view when you reach the very edge of the sub-alphine. The trek itself was rather arduous, which was not helped by the distance we cylced in order to reach our destination. However, I really enjoyed the experience and liked the work out that it resulted in. My personal highlight of this trek was seeing a yellow bellied marmot at the peak of the trail, a creature I had never seen before. In total I believe we were out for 5 hours roughly during this hike, this included probably 1 hour and 45 minutes cycling to and from the destination, and over half an hour eating lunch at the summit of the trail.

After we arrived back we were given a few more handouts and shown/filled in the reports that we needed to fill after the end of doing a trail report, before slowly making our way back to the accommodation to rest our weary bodies.

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