Day 17 - a rainy day!

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Today we woke to sound of rain. Once the curtains were open we confirmed that it was definitely raining, and the view of the mountain from our window was cloaked by a layer of grey cloud. We had checked the forecast yesterday so we weren’t surprised, just a bit disappointed that the forecast was correct!

We had planned to ‘do’ Lake Louise today, so we did. The lake is about an hour drive along the Trans Canada Highway, and it was unnerving at times with the massive tandem-rigged trucks thundering past in the rain, at speeds exceeding the speed limit, and with the spray from their wheels obscuring vision for a few seconds. What size engine do these things have to pull such huge loads at such speed?!

The Bow River flows along beside the highway for quite a way, and the water level was decidedly higher today, with what appeared to be a much faster and choppy flow. The river is a long river at 584km, and originates at Bow Lake in Banff National Park, winding through the Alberta foothills and onto the prairies until it meets the Oldman River, the two forming the South Saskatchewan River which then joins with the Nelson River, emptying into Hudson Bay. We’ve seen a lot of this river over the past few days; maybe my tattoo for this trip will be a bow. At the moment it’s between a bow and an Adirondack / Muskoka chair!

We had heard parking was really difficult at the lake, so we decided to use the Park & Ride. What a palava! We hadn’t pre-booked, so we had to wait for those who had done so to check in before we could buy our tickets. I did try booking online while we were in the queue, but couldn’t get the appropriate page to load – the blokey organising the queue said it was because I had weak internet; I pointed out that it was his internet that was weak and that was why my phone couldn’t load it! What’s wrong with tap on tap off like the Park & Rides in the UK? Anyway, eventually we boarded the coach and were greeted by our driver, Max.

The bus journey was a very calm and gentle one, taking around 10 minutes, and we were dropped off a couple of minutes walk from the lake. It was raining steadily, and quite wetly, and there were many people trying to blind others with their umbrellas. We spent a few minutes looking at the lake from the boardwalk near Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise; it would cost around CAN$1000 for a room for one night here. If I’d been spending that money I’d have been really annoyed with the noise from the contractors working just in front of the lake – it was really invasive!

I had taken my cossie just in case, and dipped a hand in to the lake to check the temp. It felt chilly - not a problem as I swim all year round in the UK - but there were no other swimmers and it was still raining (had I said it was raining??) so we went for a hike up to Fairview Lookout instead, a 1.4 mile hike each way. The outward hike was up, most definitely up for all the way to the top! We had passed several peeps coming back down as we puffed our way up, and they reassured us it was worth the effort. The view was good, looking down onto the teal coloured milky water of the lake with the hotel in the background. The naughty contractors between the lake and the hotel did continue to make a noise and did mar the view a little though.

Coming back down was a lot easier, although Susan thought she heard a whistle being blown at one point; this is done to scare off bears. We decided (hoped!) that it was birdsong, and arrived back at the lakeside without any bear interaction.

As we were both quite wet, it was still raining and cloudy, we decided not to bother visiting Lake Moraine and jumped on the bus back to the P&R. Well, we almost missed it, but luckily the driver looked in his wing mirror before pulling away as I ran towards him and opened the door for us. He was thanked profusely!

We decided that we needed to visit a Hot Springs to warm up. We’d seen a sign for Radium Hot Springs which Marg (Halifax) had recommended, so we followed the signs it one informed us it was 105km away across the mountains in to BC, and there would be no mobile phone signal for pretty much the whole way. We made a quick decision to turn around and visit the Banff hot springs again. We had a short stop at a level crossing for a freight train to pass by. It was soooooooo long, it took several minutes to clear the line! Google tells me that Canadian freight trains can be up to 4km long – yes, that’s nearly 2½ miles long!!

When we arrived at the hot springs it was around 14:00 and we hadn’t had lunch. Susan can suffer from hangry-ness, so we ate in the cafe, then spent around 45 minutes in the pool with well over a hundred other people – it felt a bit like like human soup. There was a bit of a kerfuffel when a man collapsed after he got out, but it was just a simple faint and he soon recovered under the care of the lifeguards.

I had a fabulous cold shower afterwards, but Susan decided she’d rather stay warm. We then drove back for a last pootle around Canmore, and popped into a couple of art galleries. One place that really caught my eye was a gallery called All in the Wild, selling the most incredible nature photos by Jason Leo Bantle. I highly recommend checking him and his work out if you’re not familiar with it. His website is at www.allinthewild.com

By now it was nearly 18:00, so we picked up some snacks and headed back to Dead Man’s Flats for a quiet evening with a Mikes.

We head back to Calgary tomorrow.

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