What To Do With a Bum Leg In Banff, Alberta, Canada

 Greetings to you and yours,

I hope you are enjoying your August, 2024.  It is hard to believe it is almost September and almost time for Steve and I to start our journey south to Florida.

We are having a great time.  Yet still, when I see on social media or hear from friends that they are getting together with other people we know, I get a bit envious.  It's me and my love of people, I guess.  I miss my friends and the fun we have over meals and happy hours, on bike rides or walks, I miss my exercise buddies.  I fear that even with all the movement we are doing, I will have to work back up to the fitness level I was at in May before we left.  

My hip, at least, isn't giving me trouble.  After we left Idaho I have been making an extra effort to do the PT exercises and stretches almost every day.  

Steve's pain was going away mostly and then ...  well, I am getting ahead of myself.

I left you last when we were in Cranbrook, BC, Canada.  That was like a rest stop.

Though I did take a little walk and came across a pile of bear poop.  I thought it was big, but Steve said it wasn't real big though it stood probably eight inches high at its peak.   

Steve tells me of a time when he and Margaret came across fresh bear poop and pee.  And the urine was still flowing along the dirt!  That's how close they had been to that bear!

I chose not to ride the trail through town in Cranbrook.  I think it was about an eight mile trail.  It was paved.  The day we were there was extremely windy.  And I was feeling tired, so a walk was better.  I walked to the Post Office and the Canada Superstore.  There I got to see giant sweet potatoes.  

I was excited to be heading to Banff.  It is our northern-most destination this trip and we could see the mountains off in the distance. Right away when leaving Cranbrook we came into some lovely scenery.

We came to an area where the road goes through a dramatic and narrow cut.   There was a place to park shortly after we drove through the cut.  We stopped and explored.  

It turned out that they built the road right over the river that created the cut!

Our campground, Tunnel Mountain Village is in a cluster of three big campgrounds run by the Canadian National Park System.  There are over 800 sites. 

We had just finished setting up when a lovely red fox came through our site.  Though there are signs everywhere about not feeding the wildlife and not leaving your food out, even if you just walk away for a minute, this fox must have found it was worth while to scope out the campground  for goodies.

There was a program on the Indigenous Peoples of the area in the campground that first night.  We went and we learned that this area was an important part of the nomadic life of several tribes.  Under several treaties they were allowed to keep to this area, but then it became a National Park.  And, as I understand it, just like in the USA, the treaties were not fully honored by the Canadians and Canadian Government.  The Government is now doing some things to integrate more Indigenous history and recognition as it manages the park.  And to allow indigenous use of some of the park.  Like allowing them to do some harvesting of the lodge pole pine.

Our first full day, I wanted to check out a trail that runs from Banff to Canmore.  It is paved so we pulled out the trikes and went for a ride to Canmore right from our campsite.  It wasn't a rail trail, so there were hills.

Highway one runs through the park and in order to protect the wildlife and reduce accidents all along the highway they have a tall electric fence on both sides of the highway.   The trail has gates through the fence to let riders and hikers through.  But if you are on a horse or have your dogs with you, not such a good idea.  The gate remains open, and there is an electrified metal pad to keep the animals from going through the gate.  (Some still get through but the animal mortality from car crashes has gone way down).

The trail runs along the highway most of the time.  There were several underpasses for the animals to travel under the trail and highway to get to the other side.

We checked out an off-shoot trail that went to Cascade Ponds.  It was beautiful.  The ponds still and reflective.

Right next to the parking area, in some trees, were three male elk.  Steve got a better picture of them.  I was trying not to be too close.  The voice of Susan Hall, was in my head.  "Keep your distance!".  A couple years ago I had camped by the Elk Center where she volunteers as a kind of ranger's assistant at a place in the Smokey Mountains.  

Steve's picture of one of the elk we saw at Cascade Ponds is much better than mine.  He has a nice zoom on his camera.

A water fall was coming down a mountain next to the ponds.

What a delight.  When we got to Canmore, they were having a farmer's market!  There were lots of families and artists booths and food booths and beautiful produce.

The market is held on the grounds next to an interesting complex that held the city library, a coffee shop, and a large climbing wall.  Steve said we should try the climbing.  Yes, we should, sometime.  But I was worried about pulling a muscle and having Steve's back injury get worse.   I wonder if they have climbing walls in Florida.... Lol.

We watched some people climbing.  A young woman in a sports bra kind of top had rippling back muscles.  Climbing is obviously a great total body workout.

We got something to eat and some huge juicy blackberries, corn on the cob and fresh green beans.  We then started our bike ride back to Banff.  We stopped at the visitors center.  I explained to the clerk that we like to hike but we can't do anything major right now because Steve is nursing a back injury.   The clerk was nice and highlighted several trails that are short and flat and pretty.  He then highlighted where we might kayak.  Cool!   (Later, when we got back to camp, I couldn't find the map anywhere. Arg!) 

We triked straight into the town of Banff.  The trail went all the way into town.  And there there was a pedestrian area downtown that was several blocks long.  Nice!

We stopped at the visitor's center there and got idea on where to find easy hikes and other things we could do while in the area.  We were excited about the dining options there.  But we had to ride home and make use of our lovely fresh produce.

That evening, though tired, I decided to walk from our campsite to a scenic overlook along some trails.   Steve said, "Take the bear spray."

It is the Hoodoo overlook.  A hoodoo is sandstone that had sod or a rock on top of it so it didn't erode as fast as the sand stone around it.

In Canada, they have put two red chairs in scenic spots around the country.  There are a lot in the Banff area.  I found two occupied at the Hoodoo overlook.

Another day we decided to ride to town from our campground on our bicycles. 

There is a lovely trail right in town along the Bow River.  And we followed it a while and came to Cave Basin.   It is a hot springs and when it was encountered by some Europeans, they wanted to create a motel and tourist attraction.  After a few years of disputes, the Canadian Government made it part of the first National Park, their first National Park!

There is a cave with a hole in top and the hot springs bubbling from the bottom of a pool.

We entered a building to get to the cave.

After we left the building we followed board walks and trails and found several other hot springs bubbling from the ground and tumbling down the hill.  The moss looks like the feathers of white birds.

Steve took this neat picture in the cave.  A kiosk said that there were lots of Stalactites and stalagmites in the cave but the early years of tourists using the pool as a... pool and healing pond broke off a lot of them.

Ice Fields Parkway

It was a bit disappointing to be here and not be able to hike up the mountains.  The bike ride we took to Banff included a long grinding ride up the small mountain to our campground.  Steve's sciatic nerve was really screaming after that.  We packed up the bicycles.  No more two-wheel rides for a while we decided.

Well then, what?  I stopped again at a visitors center on laundry day.   The clerk there suggested a drive up the Ice Fields Parkway.   So on a Sunday, us old folks took a Sunday drive north and to a higher elevation.

It was lovely.

We went under three animal overpasses.  And at one wayside they had a model and explanation of it.  I think Canada has done more of this than we have in the states.

Below is "Castle" mountain.   

The roadside and trail sides were scattered with clusters of wildflowers.

We stopped at Bow Lake and all the parking near the lake and cafe was full.  So I dropped Steve off and drove back up the road to another parking area.  I grabbed the last spot there and walked down to the cafe.  There we got two decaf coffees and a couple specialty sweets to share.

Bow Lake was lovely, and off in the distance we could see a large waterfall.  There was a trail to it, but we decided that would be too rugged for Steve while he was trying to recover from back/sciatic pain.

We walked a trail that took us along the shore of the lake and back to the truck.  This raven was either picking stones for its gullet or it was finding bugs that we could not see.  It got real close to us as it searched.  I took a video.

The trail took us to the road where car after car was parked on one side of the road. There was a flashing sign, "No parking on the road".

In Banff and in this area we have never seen so many RV rentals being used.   Every fifth trailer is a rental RV!  As we walked up the road I saw the back of this rental and realized that mountain looked familiar.

Sure enough, the caption reads, "Bow Lake, Alberta"

We stopped at Peyto Lake overlook.  The parking lot was packed.  We were able to get a slot as someone left.  The trail was short and paved.  Steve felt up to doing it.  So we went, along with lots of other families and couples and groups.

Wow, what a view!   The water is that color because not all the run-off from the rocks it traveled over to get down the mountain, not all of it has sunk.  So it reflects or refracts or something to cause that color.  Lovely.

Steve was feeling good, and we were anxious to get away from the crowds.  Though there were still some people hiking up further, there was maybe a 1/4 or less than for the first overlook.   The second overlook was to look over Bow Lake!  The trail started out paved, but then turned to dirt and rock.

Still, Steve felt good.  And the trail was lovely.  There were interesting plants and trees to look at.  We learned that there are evergreen trees at this elevation that cluster together to protect from the cold wind and snow.  And some of the low lying branches get weighted down by snow and lay on the ground and take root there and send up new trees.  So a cluster can be all from one tree.

We saw a marmot that hesitated long enough for me to get a picture of it.

A hiker coming down from the top told us that there were two mountain goats up at the end by the sign.  We got excited.  We have seen moose, elk, antelope, prong horn sheep, mule deer, white tail deer, fox, black bear, and grizzly bear on this trip. We have been super fortunate and lucky!  But we had not yet seen mountain goats.

With the naked eye they were two white dots, almost identifiable, resting on the rubble beneath a shear cliff.

Bow Lake far below us.  The wind was cold and brisk on that overlook.  See the glacier it was blowing over in the picture below?

We didn't stay real long.

We were super lucky. It started to drizzle and we realized we were over the rainbow!  I broke out in song.

When we got down out of the wind we took a break.  We were happy.

Steve took this picture of me walking down the trail from the Bow Lake overlook.

We ate the lunch I packed when we got down from the mountain.  Steve said we walked over seven miles so far.  OMG!.  He was feeling a little sore.  

We continued our drive north on the Ice Fields Parkway.  We drove into a campground to check it out.  If we live long enough, who knows, we might come back this way.  And we will want to spend a night or two at this campground.  It doesn't have any electric, so we would to figure the heat thing out.  

It had good views of the sky and the mountains all around.  And it had two red chairs... unoccupied and waiting for us.  Very nice.  Silverthorn is the name of the campground.  Gotta remember that for next time... lol.

Below is the view from our chairs.

Below is the picture Steve was taking.

We stopped at Waterfowl lake campground.  We thought it was a short walk to go look at the lake.  

But it was a little longer and Steve was feeling it pretty bad now.  So I trotted back and got the truck.

We drove as far as the Saskatchewan River Crossing.  There was a restaurant, a gift shop, a snack shop, a gas station and a motel there.   We went to the restaurant and had the buffet.  I was surprised how hungry I was since we just ate our lunch after three pm.

Then Steve drove us back to camp.  I kept taking pictures out the window.  The mountains change with the angle of the sun.

I booked us a tour on an open top bus for one morning.  We took the bus down to Banff.  The trip down to town is free and the trip back for seniors is $1.  

Our open top bus, the driver told us, was custom made in Detroit.  It has Italian Leather Seats (what is it about those Italian cows?)  he said it cost about 1.3 or 1.4 million dollars!

We went by a huge mansion of a building.  

The bus driver told us it was the Fairmont Hot Springs Hotel.  A room can cost $8000 for one night.  He said that Marilyn Monroe stayed there.  She faked an injury so she wouldn't have to act.  The bell hops drew straws to see who would get to wheel her around all day in her wheelchair.

Another story he told was more on the fictional side.  A man went into a store in Banff looking for bear repellent.  The store clerk said, we don't have bear repellent, we have bear spray.  The man said, "I  will take it."  He then went outside, lined his family up and sprayed them. 

After the bus ride we went to lunch at Barburrito. When we left the restaurant we saw this raven neatly sitting on the back of the bear.  We laughed.

I walked to the gym to workout and Steve  took the bus back to camp to take care of his injury.

This brings us to our last day in the Banff area.  We have decided to leave a day early because our last day is supposed to be a rainy one.  Now we will head west to a hot springs resort.  Hopefully the warm water will be soothing and healing.  

On my last day I had Steve drop me off at the base of Tunnel Mountain Trail.  It is a very popular trail that goes up from Banff to a nice overlook.  I had the bear spray, but I didn't need it.  The trail was well used.

I joined a Facebook group that keeps track of when we might be able to see the northern lights.  Tonight!!!

Only, the sky is grey and it is raining.

Steve has been able to walk enough to enjoy some museums in Banff and to see some sites here in town.  Right now he is working on putting photos together for a slide show that he can have playing on his TV while we are entertaining this winter.  It's pretty cool to go back and see all we have done this year.

Wednesday it is supposed to rain much if the day, so we made the decision to drive to our next campsite on Wednesday instead of Thursday.  That place is a hot springs resort and maybe it will help relieve some of the stiffness and pain Steve is experiencing.  We made this reservation after Jasper campground burned and they canceled our reservation there.

What else is happening?  Besides me missing my Florida people and an active social life?

Well, I got a really nice e-letter from one of my Wisconsin friends, Jeri, with information that will really help me plan our trip to Costa Rica next November.  She went, she loved it, she is going back this winter.  We are planning to go with our friends, Dennis and Frankie in 2025.

I heard from my Florida friends, Cindy and Regis that they are enjoying the Root River Trail in Minnesota (it's a favorite of mine).

We talked with Kevin, Steve's son, about his travels in Germany and Prague and got some pointers.

Steve talked with his mom who told him she is just amazed at how compatible us two are.  Smiles.

Dang!  I lost one of my earrings that Charlotte made me years ago.  I have worn it many times.  I have another pair with different colors.  So all is not lost.

This is our turning point, our northern most stop.  Now we start looping a bit more west and then we go south.  We will take two months to get to Florida.  

What's happening with you?  Are you well?  Are you having fun?  Are you dealing with issues.