9 June 2008 - Canada

Day 245 - A day trip into Banff National Park. We stopped by the Information Centre to find out what trails would be open and were given some advice on how to avoid a bear confrontation! On the way out of town we saw a few Elk by the roadside. We decided to do a medium-ish hike which ended up being about 4 hours and 12km long! We didn't see any bears on our walk (a mixed blessing as we wanted to see one but didn't want too close an encounter!).

Day 246 - Another visit to Banff N.P. We visited a couple of scenic lakes and at one spotted a Hoary Marmot (the largest North American Ground Squirrel), unfortunately it moved to fast for us to get a photo. We went on a longish walk through the forest and saw the usual squirrels and chipmunks on the way.

Day 247 - We left Canmore early in the morning and drove to our next stop - Lake Louise. We went straight to see the lake which was partially frozen but was still incredibly blue. We hiked up to Mirror Lake and encountered our first snow in Canada! Having built up a hunger meandering our way up to Mirror Lake we decided to have lunch prior to visiting Moraine Lake. Although the weather was clouding over, the lake still looked impressive and we got some great photographs. Our overnight stay for the next two days was in a hostel ... in a dorm room (the budget dictates unfortunately!) However, despite having to share a room with two other people, it wasn't too bad - the other people in the room were a young English couple who were really nice.

Day 248 - After booking our accommodation for Whistler (it gets booked up quickly there!), we headed back to Lake Louise to walk the base trail. In the afternoon, the weather brightened up so we drove back to Moraine to get some photographs with blue sky in them!

Day 249 - We drove along the Icefields Parkway taking in numerous lookouts, short walks and the Columbia Glacier enroute to Jasper. Unfortunately the weather was pretty awful - dark skies and plenty of rain! We arrived at our accommodation for the next two nights - another hostel. To our shock we found that it was a 40+ person dorm and not the 4 bed dorm we thought we had booked! The night proved to be quite eventful - a squeaky bed (plastic mattress), a sleep walking and urinating on the floor Japanese traveller and consequently, not much sleep!

Day 250 - Despite the lack of sleep we awoke fairly refreshed for the day ahead. Our first stop was the Valley of Five Lakes - a short 1 hour hike around... five lakes. Unfortunately, we encountered no mammals larger than a ground squirrel! Lots of clapping to make bears aware of our presence proved to be a waste of time! We followed the short walk with a 50km drive to Maligne Lake. We had heard from other travellers that bears, beavers, elk had been seen - so we just had to go. Unfortunately, we encountered nothing but heavy rainfall! After a bite to eat back at the hostel we headed off to explore Pyramid and Patricia Lakes. After more rain and no wildlife, we decided to cheer ourselves up with a pub dinner at the D'ed Dog .

Day 251 - We awoke early (we wanted to get out of the crappy hostel!) and headed off back down the Icefields Parkway to our next location - Golden (west of Banff and Lake Louise). Having not seen any significant wildlife over the previous six days, we were slightly disappointed. However, this was about to change! As we approached Athabasca Falls, just short of Columbia Glacier, the weather clouded over but unlike the rain we had encountered over the previous few days, the skies were full of snow. Ricky had hoped that we might see some snow despite it being June! The temperature fell to zero degrees and the snow kept falling. After a 20 minute stop for photography at the falls, we continued onwards. Shortly after Columbia Falls we also saw our first bear - a black bear munching away on vegetation by the side of the highway. We were really excited - a morning of snow and a bear sighting. Our next stop was at the Peyto Lake lookout, which we had seen three days earlier in miserable weather. However, this time the skies were a little blue and the mountains beyond the lake were covered in snow. Prior to walking to the summit were had a snow-ball fight (hey, neither of us had done this since we were kids!) After getting some great photographs of the lake (a beautiful turquoise blue with reflections of the snow covered mountains) we heard a large thunder-like rumble in the distance - an avalanche. As we descended back down the trail to the car-park we decided to have some more fun in the snow - we made a snowman!!! And to top off what was the best day of our time in Canada (so far), Lynne decided to do a snow angel - quite entertaining to watch! We finally arrived in Golden at about 4pm.