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Published: January 3rd 2007
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Rainbow the Clown
Lauren waited in line for over an hour to get a specially made balloon hat from Rainbow. She was very lucky as he cut the line right after her! That's supposed to be a chicken under his hat. Our White Christmas has finally arrived! And almost as if I had my finger on a remote control...snow would start to softly fall each time we looked outside. It was very fairytale like...surreal almost! The Delta Lodge laid it on like nothing I've ever experienced before; not one but two massive banquets through the day, a Santa stocking was hanging from every hotel room doorknob in the morning, Santa made an appearance (apparently)...Lauren had no wish to go down and meet him in person in the lobby. There was face painting, a clown making the most amazing balloon creations and festive music and cheer in massive overdoses for all.
Walking off brunch
After a hefty brunch helping, we decided that we needed to exercise some of those calories off...so we went geocaching! We found ourselves at the helipad and into some deep snow. I had to borrow Wayne's gloves to dig down and find the cache, but we found it alright. We then took the long way back and had a chat to one of the staff on a 6-wheeler...just like in the old banana-splits tv shows. We wanted a ride...but not this time 😞.
That was about all
Merry Christmas
Lauren on the bridge just outside out hotel room on the way to the Xmas Buffet Jane and Lauren could cope with, so they got dropped off back at the lodge and Wayne and myself headed on towards another cache in a different direction. The GPS said 1.5km...but with all the twists and turns, it ended up being closer to 2.5km in deep snow. At each turn there were plenty of ooohs and more aaaahs, shutter clickings and wows. We found the cache easily enough as someone has been there earlier in the day and left some easy to follow footprints in the deep white stuff. It was a coffee tin wrapped in a plastic bag.
Backtracking
After signing the log we decided to try a different way back. We had consulted the map prior to our trek and thought we knew where we were....so we though we'd bush bash through the deep stuff and meet up with one of the other trails for a different way back. We kept going...and going...and going...and it always looked like there might be a path up ahead. But after about 200m we decided that enough was enough and back we went the way we came. It turned out to be a very wise move as we discovered later
6 Wheeler
We bumped into this guy on our way back from a 1km Caching Run to burn off some of those Christmas calories! on a re-consultation with the map that we had gone down a long singular track with no other tracks anywhere near it! We could have easily gone on for hours deeper into the mountains - well...the GPS would have always led us back in the end...but it all comes down to how long before you decide to go backward.
Good Puppies
On Boxing Day...we went Dog Sledding with the Snowl Owl Dog Sledding Tours outfit out of Canmore to the Spray Lakes over the back (near Kananaskis). This is one of the few outfits that allow the general public to drive their own dog team. The groups of people were divided up into drivers and passengers. For each sled there was one or two drivers and two passengers. On our sled; I opted to drive and Jane and Lauren got into the sled for the ride.
I was a bit nervous as I had no idea what I was getting myself into...but I had faith in the guides. They gave us all a 30 minute lesson on how to handle the dogs that was very informative and amusing at times. We felt more confident and we were assigned
Forest Path
Walking along the forest path leading away from the resort in search of yet another cache. to our dogs and sled in order. We scored the first sled behind the front guide and made fresh tracks in the new snow that had fallen over the Christmas day break. We chose the first sled tour of the day as the dogs are at their freshest then...by 3pm they are dog tired (ha ha!).
The one golden rule of dog sledding is..."Don't Let Go!". You can pretty much get away with anything else as long as you remember that one rule. The sleds are flexible and can be easily steered around a path and the braking system is easy to use to stop the sled (and dogs) or keep the line of dogs stretched out properly.
Our lead dogs were Athena and Blaze and they set a cracking pace. I felt guilty that I had to keep pulling them up as they kept catching up to the guide in the lead sled that we were not allowed to overtake. They were fast and had no problems pulling our weight along - although I did hop off the sled on the uphills and ran along behind to ease the load up the hills.
At the end
Still Going
The path wound it's way through 2.5km of snow covered trails and bridges towards the cache site. of the ride, Jane asked if she could quickly visit "the facilities" as she thought that we were only half way through the ride! But alas, it was the end and we adjourned for cookies and hot apple cider around a roasting fire to fight the chill away. Next time I go dog sledding...it will be the 2 day tour with overnight camping....2 hours was a lot of fun and no way near long enough! I could have kept going for hours!
Canmore
We did a bit of geocaching around Canmore after the sledding and had lunch. One interesting place that we found ourselves was over near the mountainside by the river. Wayne found a load of ice sheets that someone had broken off in the river and piled up on the remaining shelf ice on the edge of the river. Jane and Cathy were very nervous about us falling in once again...but this time I noted that the river was only about 4 inches deep and that we wouldn't sink too far if it did break!
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the farmers 5
non-member comment
your trek
Hi bacPAQers,good to see you all enjoying this trip,seen all the pic and comments,but wheres the cache finds.Lake Louise looks as good as ever,plenty of squirrels by the lake i'll bet just as we saw!!Be good.c u soon