Canada Adventure Part 3

I think I deserve a "Wife of the Year" award after this trip is over. First, I should probably clarify that the cold weather and the snow isn't the problem up here. I'm from New Jersey. It snows in New Jersey. It also gets cold. However, apparently the snow and cold I have experienced throughout my entire life doesn't compare at all to what is up here in the Canadian Rockies. I feel like a person from Florida who can't handle a few snow flurries without freaking out! But again, the problem isn't the snow. The problem is my lack of energy and enthusiasm when it comes to doing outdoor things. I used to work at a camp so I thought I was outdoorsy. I have camped and canoed along the Delaware River and hiked the Appalachian Trail. Those adventures are NOTHING compared to the adventures out here. The Canadian Rockies make the Appalachian mountains look like tiny little hills.

Today I think I officially earned the "Wife of the Year" title, for 2 reasons. 1 - Mr. V has been trying to convince me to become more outdoorsy and today I let him drag me on an INSANE hike up a huge mountain. 2 - I need to pay more attention to what he is dragging me along to do. Lesson learned - a shorter hike, does not mean an easier hike. I should have thought about that before I set foot on the trail today.

We left the town of Banff this morning and headed off to Lake Louise, which is still in the Banff National Park. Mr. V has been dying to hike this trail that takes you around the lake to a point where you can see 6 glaciers in the same area. The trail is called something like "The Trail of 6 Glaciers" so its pretty self explanitory. However, as I mentioned in a previous post, this is avalanche country out here. The radios and parks have warnings all over them about avalanche risks throughout the area. Certain areas are more prone to them, certain areas can be guaranteed that there will be an avalanche and others are considered "safe" - meaning that there most likely won't be an avalanche. We looked at a map yesterday and saw that The 6 Glaciers trail is in an area very prone to avalanches. Since this is prime avalanche season, I promptly declared that there was no way in hell I was hiking on a mountain trail where the danger of avalanches was high. Mr. V wasn't happy about that so we compromised. We agreed that if we asked the park ranger about the danger and we were warned away from an area, we'd pick a safer hike. If the park ranger thought the trail was safe, then I'd suck it up and go with him.

Let's just say that I was ECSTATIC when the park ranger said that the 6 Glaciers Trail was almost 90% in a high warning avalanche zone and it wouldn't be a good idea to hike it. Mr. V pounted but I skipped out of that visitor center happy that I wouldn't have to hike this insane hike. The ranger did tell us about another trail that is popular and only had a small little section in an avalanche zone. The hike time was shorter and she assured us that the avalanche danger was very, very minimal because of the small area. So stupid me, I assumed that a shorter hike would be an easier hike. If I had paid attention and asked more questions I would have learned that the shorter hike was actually a more difficult hike because it was MUCH steeper. It sounded interesting though because my history nerdiness kicked in. This whole area is a historic area and back when the resorts here first opened, tea houses were built along the mountain trails. The second hike would take us to one of these tea houses and even though its closed for the winter, we'd be able to see what they were like. I thought that was pretty neat. So we set off on the hike. About 30 minutes into it, I realized that I was waaaayyy out of shape. I pushed on and felt like dying about an hour into it. At about an hour and 15 minutes we came across the avalanche zone.

This is the part where you can tell the difference between Mr. V and me. Mr. V got excited because the trail opened up to an amazing view of the mountains and glaciers around us. i got excited for about 5 seconds. The view was beautiful, but reality set in quickly when I realized that we could see the view, because avalanches had knocked down every single tree in the way. This was also a point where the trail sharply curved up and around a bend (I guess to avoid the avalanche area). First I freaked out when I saw the remnants of an avalanche. Here's a picture to show that...this is taken looking up the trail from where we were standing...

Once I convinced myself to not freak out about the avalanche that I could see right in front of me, I then proceeded to freak out because the sharp turn of the trail was completely icy and one bad step could send me sliding backwards. If I didn't catch myself in time I could have slid down the entire mountain. So of course that scared me and I had to literally crawl up the trail at that point, completely ignoring the fact that snow and jeans don't mix well. Now my hands and knees were freezing, but I was on a stable path again.

We continued hiking steeply up. By this point I just sucked it up, pushed forward and moved as quickly as I could. Everything was fine until we came across some animal tracks. Thankfully (and not thankfully) we saw a great display of all the local animal tracks a few days ago. Thanks to that display I was educated enough to know that these were grizzly bear tracks!!! When I worked up at my camp, we had black bears all around, but black bears typically eat berries and ignore humans. I know that they CAN harm humans but they usually don't. I could handle seeing a black bear in the wild, but not so much a grizzly bear. Here are those tracks. If you look closer you can see the long sharp claws at the top of the footprint...


By this point, I'm cold and achy. I can barely breathe and now there are grizzly bear tracks around. Mr. V pointed out that we were pretty close to the tea house, so between him nagging and my stubbornness (I came this far, there was no way I was turning back now), I pushed on.

We finally got to the tea house and we were treated to an amazing view of Lake Agnes frozen over, with mountains and glaciers behind it. But first, we had to hike up the steps of the tea house which were completely covered in snow and ice. I had to literally get on my hands and knees again to make it up the first few stairs before they turned into something that actually resembled stairs. The first few were so covered in snow and ice that they looked like a slippery, steep ramp). At that point I did have a slight panic attack so when we did get to the top, the view was beautiful but I was soooo ready to go back down that I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have. Looking at pictures now though, I think I look miserable but the view really is beautiful.

I think the point when I completely lost my composure was on the way back down. That slippery ramp part of the tea house steps was hard to get up, and even harder to get down. I had a quick real anxiety attack at this point. This time Mr. V had to attach some ice clamps onto my shoes to prevent me from slipping, but I still had to resort to sliding on my butt to a point where I could stand safely. So now my hands, knees and butt were snow covered and freezing. Thankfully the hike down was much shorter and I was even brave enough to pose for a quick picture by the avalanche...


Now that I am all thawed out, I've informed Mr. V that our hiking adventures better be over for the duration of the trip! Tonight we are staying at an adorable lodge in Lake Louise. This place was built in the 1920's and there are no TVs in any of the rooms. At first I thought that was strange but we wandered around, touring the hotel and the history nerd side of me kicked in again. The hotel is still set up the way it was originally. So no TVs means that people have to sit in the reading rooms playing cards, playing the piano, reading books, etc. The front desk also gives you games to take up to your room or into their game room. I thought it was odd at first, but its kind of neat to be forced to entertain yourself the way people would have done it almost 100 years ago. Mr. V and I played a board game for a while after exploring the hotel (we thought it was neat, but took the game back to our room instead of socializing in the game room like we were probably supposed to do), and now I'm writing this blog.

Tomorrow we are leaving this hotel and then going dog sledding! I have to admit that I am very excited about that, especially since I don't have to do any of the work. We get to sit in the sled while a guide takes us on a trail along the Continental Divide. Then afterwards we are leaving Lake Louise and the Banff National Park and heading to Jasper National Park for the final days of our trip. Now that I have pictures on the computer, I will work on uploading some from my previous days adventures.