Don't Stop Belize-ing - Monday, Sept 7, 2015

So there's a cast of characters I've alluded to - John, the dive master for the first half of the week, then he will trade off with DelRoy to captain the boat for the second half. There were seven divers with us the first day - Ron and Denise, a couple from Chicago that's diving with Nitrox, photographing everything, and knowledgeable about the Caribbean sealife. There's LeEllen, who was an original diver on the site and also a expert fish finder and identifier, then Haydee and Stephen, her husband, who have been diving for years and are experimenting with a GoPro and are shareholders and have some fish knowledge of their own. 

Once we get underwater, everything is gestures and clicks, but that just means that the conversation gets stored up for our hour surface interval. I've gotten advice on relationships, cooking, vacations, scuba, health, and raising children. And we're just on our second day!

Stephen had to go to a shareholders meeting, so our merry group of six headed to the northwest part of the atoll by Rendezvous Point. Our first site was The Terrace. Having LeeEllen along means that she knows all the sites and gets excited when they are announced. 

It was our checkout dive for Blue Hole tomorrow. I am a slow acclimater - it takes me and my ears five minutes to slowly creep our way down to forty feet, while Alisa and the others could be at eighty in half that. I'd like to see the stalactites at 100+ feet tomorrow, but there's a shelf at forty that everyone needs to be at in order to duck under and continue the dive. I'm prepping myself for the worst - that I get in and am too slow getting down to see the cave - but this dive at least assured me I don't get narcosis. 

I eventually got down along the wall with the others, and the nooks and crannies were exactly what was described. Giant Caribbean lobster, at least three moray eels free swimming along with us, then dozens of species of fish and coral and creatures. We worked our way back up the wall, and onto the shelf. 

It was far in the distance (so about sixty feet, the end of the visibility), but I caught the last shadow of an eagle ray. Alisa didn't get the memo quite in time - but she saw a flying fish take flight this morning, so we've got some healthy competition. 

In general, we are pretty good about pointing out the fun stuff, but it's always a crap shoot on whether we can communicate what it is we're pointing at. John has a slate - cheater (but thank goodness - no idea how he'd mime "white spotted frogfish" from the third dive).

On every dive today, we had sea urchin, parrotfish, squirrelfish (which are becoming my favorite - brilliant red colors and popping eyes... And I got a squirrel card for my birthday from Mark), blue tang, angelfish, butterflyfish, gobies, bar jacks. The diversity is incredible. 

I was sticking close to John, which meant that he tried to play connect the dots with my numerous bug bites during our safety stop. Good thing his marker doesn't mark on skin or I'd have constellations. 

Our first surface internal involved pineapple, and some great sun on the deck. I missed the outside of my thighs, so those are a little redder than the rest of me. 

Our second site was Mandy's Dandy - given the story of how LeeEllen's Melons was named, I'm not sure I want to know what was quite so dandy about it. Nevertheless, it was along the same wall, but with its own set of creatures. Most notably, John pointed out a juvenile drumfish, with a great mohawk fin complementing its zebra wear. I was proud of this dive, because I was the one pointing out the lobster, sea urchin, and the tip of a moray that I found. 

Lunch was our next surface interval, so out came the individual tubs of salad (or wraps or sandwiches - we pick each night before dinner). I slathered on more sunscreen (missing my legs, as noted above) then lay back on the front of the boat for some sunny relaxing time. While chatting it up, of course!

The third dive was at Chasbo's Corner. Another group had set up shop on the mooring line, so we got a little over an hour to chill while they headed down. We didn't see them while we were diving, but they might have been the reason for the psycho eel. 

We were about fifteen minutes into the dive - had come back onto the ledge after diving along the wall for a bit - when John found a white spotted toadfish, endemic to only this area. I had seen the spots and was clearing the way for Alisa to look when John took my elbow and pushed me upward just as a moray came free swimming toward me. 

For the next ten minutes, it was John using the GoPro on a stick to herd the eel toward a lionfish we had spotted as well. The eel was attracted to the light from Denise's camera and the scurrying fins of whatever diver he surprised as he was cruising around. I pushed Haydee out of the way once, then used my fin to guide him away from me as he was coming at me, teeth first. 

It was shocking, then fascinating, then just plain nuts how the eel was swimming around. Not sure we even had a spear to get the lionfish that we saw to fed it and placate it, but the attempt to give the invasive lionfish a natural predator is a great one, and morays top the list.

It is time to wean them off the people-hunted lionfish and let them get their own. 

Alisa and I proudly found trumpetfish and squirrelfish on our own. She pointed out a snail to me; John beckoned me over to see two of those peacock tony snails "doing the nasty," as he wrote on his slate. 

I counted twenty species of fish in less than a minute while hovering above the reef - and DelRoy was giving us grief for not knowing all of them back in the lodge this evening. I have now done two days of diving in the Caribbean. Give me a break!

During our safety stop, Alisa leaned over to check out my dive computer. I look down at it, and a giant green face is in mine! The moray swam up to 15 feet, still looking for his free lunch!

We hopped out of the water after an hour, and headed back in to the resort. Three dives a day is very nice - it gave me time to sit and finish my book by the pool while Alisa drank a coconut (and had them chop it open so she could eat it too). 

We washed all the salt off before dinner, then went inside to use some limited internet while studying our fish. I think I'll look for some hamlets tomorrow - I haven't been able to identify any of those. 

Dinner was pork tenderloin, with delicious glazed carrots and - for dessert - rum-soaked pineapple topping cheesecake. Yeah... I might have had two pieces since Steve the bartender didn't want his. 

Steve had made a drink of the day that was sweet, fruity, and secret; all I wanted was the banana shake I had requested at the beginning of the week, but they were out of bananas! So it was a pineapple shake instead. 

Jim went out to see crocodiles with us again, and I saw the eyes of a little one, but not the head like I saw Saturday night.

It was dark, I was done with people, and so lights were out at 9pm - we'll have to stay up a bit later tomorrow for our real croc hunt with Abell at 8pm!

You Better Belize It - Sunday, Sept. 6, 2015

We fell asleep before 10pm last night, and that was only not 9:30 because I spent a while blogging. We could redeem ourselves and say we're still on EST, which is two hours ahead, but once the sun goes down, it is an easy path back to bed. 

This meant I was tossing after 3:30, then decided to get up at 5 and check out what we couldn't see in the  nighttime. 

Man, if my birthday started great, my second day of being 27 really sucked. As in, those mosquitos and no-see-email sucked all my blood in the twenty minutes between us getting up and the breeze picking up. I probably got 27 welts on my legs from those suckers. 

We definitely weren't the only ones up at that hour - there was even a guest who was already in the pool. But, we eventually retreated to the enclosed veranda, right before the breeze started, and the issue disappeared. 

With hours before breakfast, we played Carcassonne then gin rummy. It was finally time to eat - juice and water were waiting to be consumed, and we ordered some combo of toast, eggs, and papaya pancakes. The pancakes - spot on. 

After that, it was time for our orientation. Alisa and I showed up early since we had equipment to check out, but the group slowly assembled around 8:30, then was so excited to dive that poor DelRoy, one of our two guides, couldn't get through a section on his briefing sheet without a question or point of interest. 

Based on the wind, we headed to the west side of the atoll, so back through the lagoon. Our first dive site was Crickozeen Cut, just past where the lagoon opens into the ocean again. 

The briefing had gotten both of us a wee bit anxious to shake the dust off and start seeing some beauty. It was planned as an anchored boat dive - we'd hang out at the sandy half moon, make sure weights were going well, then continue outward then back in to the stationary boat. 

This was the classic example of good ideas gone sour. The visibility - 25 ft. The current - stronger than expected. We were quickly swept from the sand, then along the wall. We were struggling to stay grouped, and, as LeEllen put it, it was too much work and not enough fun. 

So what was planned to be an hour lasted twenty minutes. The bar was set, and, while way better than a quarry, there was some room for improvement. 

We trundled along to Snake Point, munching on watermelon on the way. We started to gear up after 50 minutes, and then we were headed down, among the coral almost completely covering the sand. The barrels and fans gave the world a funny geometry that the fishes poked in and through. 

It is such a busy world down there. You can't look at anything without seeing something floating, wriggling, or stalking something else. The fish ranged from the nearly invisible to the giant - a big grouper was by the group to take his place as the big fish of the dive. 

Alisa was getting low on air, and our 60 minute dive plan was nearly through, so the twentieth dive of my career came to a close with a boat pick-up. 

The sun had come out, so we met Steven, who had sat out the second dive, and claimed our spots on the front deck of the boat, along with some sunscreen. We might not have done our legs, as visible by Alisa's sunburnt patch right on the rim of her wetsuit. 

It was time to break for lunch - we had put in our orders yesterday evening, so DelRoy and John doled out the containers of salad, the sandwiches, chips, and cookies for everyone. 

During lunch, LeEllen told us about how she was on the first proper dive trip to Turneffe. They had explored different sights and named them - that's why there was one called Lee Ellen's Melons on the map! 

Our final dive site for the day was Pine Ridge. We hovered along a ledge that slowly led upward, again filled with batches of corals. About thirty minutes into the dive, a stingray cruised by - the fun macro-fauna of the day. But the sea cucumber, the spotted drum fish, the spotlight parrotfish, and the lobster made for some other memorable creatures. 

As we got back on board, I began listing them all out in my dive log. It was clear that I had the least knowledge of the group of Caribbean fish - the five other divers had lots of experience, and lots of examples of fish they had seen. It'll be time to study up when I get back to the lodge!

We returned through the lagoon (a fast trip this time since we all had our "big fish" story of the dives) and docked. With two hours until dinner, Alisa and I hopped in that infinity pool and chatted with Mary and Jim about their travels, which include a South Africa trip almost yearly. 

Hmm, South Africa - diving with sharks and driving through wine country? Might have to explore this option further...

We mingled during hors d'oeuvres, then sat down for a tortilla soup starter, followed by Belizean chicken with rice, plantains, and potato salad. Our table of six was abuzz with everything from growing up with siblings to the two types of crocodiles around - related because the smaller ones are usually feistier. 

Dessert was coconut cream pie - Jim (of croc fame) gave us a preview of some of the other meals and desserts, so now Alisa's excited for the key lime as well. 

I was plenty socialized by that point, so it was time for bed and blogging. Lights were again out by 9:30!

A Stop in El Salvador - Friday, Sept. 4 and Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015

We were a bit more reckless than usual in our timing to get to the airport. I wanted to finish up some emails, and celebrate a coworker who was moving to New York, so we left Arlington in the 2pm traffic rush (because it's a long weekend and government employees get early dismissal). We made it to my grandparents' house for a pre-birthday hug, then hopped in the car to get to the airport 90 minutes before our flight. But we waited in the short security line, and got to our gate an hour before the flight when it was supposedly boarding. It took half an hour for them to start loading the plane, then we chilled on the runway for another hour.

It had been dark for hours (but was only 8pm local time) when we landed. We walked the long, narrow airport to get to immigration, where there was some English attempt to tell us we needed to go to Gate 14 to pay a tax. 

We hauled our way to the other side of the airport. Gate 14 was just another gate, but the Avianca representative booth right next to the gate knew what we were talking about, and gave us a piece of paper to show. 

As we were waiting for the printer, an airport golf cart shuttle pulled up and dropped his load off. Alisa mentioned to me that it'd be great if he would give us a ride all the way back to Immigration - and the gentleman did just that! He jokingly told us it was $100, and we asked if we could just keep him for the week. First interactions with Salvadorians were great!

A driver was waiting for us, as we had arranged with the hotel. Sebestian took us first to a gas station (which was guarded by a man with a machine gun) then through darkness to Rancho Estero Y Mar. It was slightly longer of a trip than I expected (35 minutes versus 20), and Alisa and I were very glad we had paid to have a driver who knew where he was going. 

The property was big. We checked in, but across the street at the beach was an open-air dining area with a counter for food. 

Inside the complex, it was painted and pastel and jungle-y, with a giant dose of creepy as we wandered it at night. There were three glowing pools hidden between the groves of trees with hammocks. The creepiness came in with the painted statues of lions, turtles, and people. 

Opposite the beach was a lagoon with kayaks and what looked like mangroves. We found some horses, I had a heart attack when some geese started hissing at me, and a frog jumped across the path as we were poking around in the near dark. There were Christmas lights on the trees that kept it from being pitch black, but there was a very eerie quality to our exploring. 

We crossed the road and walked out onto the beach. This was a taste of the Pacific before we hop back over the isthmus to Belize. I noticed a lit cigarette, and a man crouching, and then some disturbance in the sand. First, I thought it was a woman doing sand angels, but then it was a flipper...

A SEA TURTLE! I'm not sure if the man (and the stray dog) by it were trying to protect it, or harvest its eggs (if it was even laying eggs?) but we took pictures of it in the dark until it retreated back into the ocean. What a cool, cool way to start vacation!

This morning, we were up at 5am - which is 7am EST. We wanted to check out the ecological park in the daylight. The grayness was good enough. We found some cows, then walked a boardwalk through more of the mangroves. The "I'd have a heart attack, there's a person behind every tree" feeling had left, but the bizarre statues - such as the Seven Dwarves - continued despite the light. 

I was convinced there were monkeys, so when we got to the end of the boardwalk, we kept going. It rained hard just as we were going to bed last night (and there was crazy heat lightning all evening), so it was squishy soil we were walking through. After 100 yards and no sight of anything interested, we headed back to the boardwalk. 

As we walked back to our room, I look up, and a white moon face is peering at me from behind a chain link fence. The monkeys were 20 feet from our room the whole time!

We popped back out to the beach, took some pictures, and, as we were heading in to pack up, a car pulled up and asked if I was Corinne. 

Guillermo, our driver, was half an hour early, which was awesome, since we didn't want to cut this airport and flight quite as close. I had no idea what to expect for security at the San Salvador airport. 

Guillermo was a gem. He lived in Toronto for ten years, and is now a tour guide and interpreter. He, like Sebastian last night, asked why we were only here for a night. Both of them were very excited to tell us about the wonders of their country. We said we were going diving in Belize, and he said we could dive in a volcanic lake at the top of a mountain. We said we liked hiking, and he said there's a crater you can see a few hours outside of the city. We were curious about the people, and he talked about the uprising of the natives about 30-40 years ago, and some of the Mayan sights, including the Pompeii of the Mayans, where archeologists can see how regular ancients lived when they were trapped by a volcano. He also mentioned that black people aren't allowed in El Salvador, but mentioned there are some in the Navy that you see around now... That was an interesting comment. 

He, as he put it, was being an ambassador for El Salvador. I was excited for him, and for his and his country's future. We'll see if some volcano tourism ends up on our list! Oh, and learning to surf - we could do that too. 

I'm so glad we left early, because the chaos at the airport would've been extra unpleasant. We joined the mob, sidled through to the door into the airport, then pressed through yet another crowd to get to the roped line to get our passports checked. After that, we were in - and found our flight on a monitor. (The first monitor we saw cut it off, which made me a little uncomfortable until we actually saw it on a departures screen.)

One of the things discussed with Guillermo was coffee. We had gotten a bowl of semi-frozen pineapple, papaya, and watermelon for breakfast, but a croissant wasn't uncalled for. Neither was the stop at duty free - we'll have some *ahem* beverages if we need them for the resort, which includes everything but alcohol. 

The flight went fast - individual screens so I could watch How I Met Your Mother while eating my breakfast burrito. 

We landed, hopped through immigration, had customs take a cursory look at our wine, then walked outside. After about ten minutes, we found our representative, and then ha another 30 minute wait until the next flight landed. Our shuttle driver was also a tour guide, so we got the highlights of Belize City on our way to the Radisson docks. 

There were schools run by Jesuits, and schools from the West Indies,  and schools named after famous people. There was a hospital that was named after a doctor that practiced until he was 87 and died. There was a road named after Princess Mary when she came with Queen Elizabeth. There was Benny's, the Home Deport of Belize. Then there was Brodie's, the Walmart of Belize. (Belize City isn't actually why people come to Belize.)

When we got to the hotel dock, we dropped off our luggage with Jad and Nick - two employees that we'll be seeing a lot of - and walked to go find food. After crossing a bridge into the "Wall Street", we walked a few blocks along the well-trafficked streets and popped into a Brodie's (Walmart) to grab some water. 

Also, air conditioning. Our "airplane appropriate" clothing was getting hot, and the fact that we'd been in it for two days probably also didn't help. 

We wandered back to a recommended restaurant. At Marlin's, a grizzled Hawaiian-looking man took our orders - one chicken chilimole and one fish burger. 

While my chicken in a soup of spices, served with a hard-boiled egg and tortilla, was much more authentic than Alisa's fish sandwich, her French fries were amazing. 

We were so ready for A/C again, so back to the Radisson, with a stop at a gift market on the way. Once we got into the bar overlooking the pool, my sweat chilled immediately, and it was freezing. 

You know what else was frozen? All our drinks: pinã colada, banana-nana, and a mudslide. Happy birthday to me!

Well, eventually the freezing room plus the frozen drinks became too much for us. The drowsiness from the mechlesions had also set in, so we were falling asleep. The lawn chairs by the pool looked tempting, so we went down with an hour and a half yet to wait. 

Well, I did sleep for 30 minutes. And I awoke with rivulets of sweat running down my back and forehead. I called it quits, and headed to the less comfortable chairs in the shade. 

It was another thirty minutes of using the hotel's free wifi. It was another ten minutes of chatting with the staff on the dock. It was another twenty minutes of watching for dolphins while people were getting on the boat. Then, finally, it was 4:30 and we set sail. (Or, at least, dropped the mooring and started the engine.)

The first thirty minutes there was before the barrier reef. The day picked up pace again when a pod of dolphins started playing in the wake. Jad slowed down to just under 12 mph to keep them around, and they played for at least twenty minutes - cruising in the waves, then jumping through the air. About a dozen delighted us as we continued into shallower water, where they disappeared. 

The resort is on the east side of the atoll, which looks a little like a north-to-south eyeball. It is a oblong oval, but in the middle is a lagoon, the iris. We passed through mangrove channels, hardly wider than the boat, to reach the center, where you could hardly see the low-lying land on almost all sides. 

We docked, and my, what a wonderful first impression. The crisp white clapboard houses where on stills, circling along past the dock to the infinity pool that was in front of the lodge. 

We climbed the steps, and the homiest little dining and sitting room greeted us, with a wood bar tucked back in the corner where rum punches awaited us all. 

Since we encountered the first couple in the boat, to when we entered the property and shook Karen and Craig's hands, everyone was introducing themselves, asking what our plan was for the week (since it is both a fishing and diving locale) and being generally amiable and friendly. We milled about, getting our check-in packets with our room assignment. 

Hors d'oeuvres were served, but dinner wasn't for another 30 - perfect for us to check out our cabana on the ocean and rinse off the sweat. 

Our duplex is adorable, and so perfect for what we want. Two beds, a large bathroom, drawers where we could put our things, and an A/C unit for nighttime. 

We were back in time to grab a glass of Malbec before dinner. During the ten minutes before the almond-encrusted snapper, we met another few couples - including a boy who was college-age, so we aren't the youngest. We then sat with six others and ate well together. 

With four tables of roughly eight, which is the max for the dining room, the resort seems full this week - but not crowded. The wide views of the Atlantic, the sand and palm trees, and the small size make it all just right. 

With the fudgiest chocolate cake ever, my birthday was essentially over. Jim asked for candles, but the staff didn't quite know what to do with the request, so the red velvet cheesecake that I got surprised with on Thursday (and still dream about) was where I made my wish.

But after finally getting to Turneffe Atoll? I'm not sure I need any wishes.

Though, we did wade in that saltwater infinity pool, which meant that when Nick came down and asked if we wanted to go croc hunting, we were ready. Jim (a different one) had just scared them off the beach since they were headed to the dump a little ahead of schedule. We didn't see them at first - the second time Nick had let us down, since he had told us about the dolphin at the Radisson dock that we never saw - but, like the dolphin, he made up for it when ten minutes of stargazing and ten feet back down the beach, we saw the red eyes and small head of one of the last bastions of Atlantic saltwater crocodiles. 

Canmore to Calgary - Aug. 14th, 2015

You would think with the fact that I had a three hour flight and some airport time, I'd find a time that isn't crazy late at night to write blogposts, but old habits die hard, so here I am, at 2am EST, waiting for my last public transit connection. 

Checkout from the Worldmark wasn't until noon today, so we took it easy. We missed Shakespeare in the park in Calgary because of it, but Val didn't find that until it was almost too late anyway. 

Instead, after we divvied up the food, made sandwiches with interesting ingredients (tex-mex cheese and ham, anyone?), and said our goodbyes. There was a hike called Grotto Canyon that was on the way to Calgary and didn't request another day pass into Banff, so we decided to check it out. 

The forecast was stormy for today, but we didn't think about it much at the start of the hike. We parked by a fishing lake, then hiked not a quarter mile until we got to a sign with an arrow pointing at another gravel parking lot. 

Of course, we didn't follow the sign. Why would we hike to a parking lot? So we took a right. 

And we found a canyon. The trail sign said there had been some water damage, so we attributed the lack of a clear, single trail to that. It was when the angle of the trail turned so steep that even if there was a clear trail, we couldn't have classified it as easy, did we think we were on the wrong track. 

There was also a couple and their six or so year old that was hiking up it too. And they initially confirmed our original thought - washed out, but this is it. They began to suspect something fishy as well. 

The trail got smaller and smaller until it petered out. We could see some hikers on a hill nearby, but no falls and no grotto. So we decided we were a canyon too early.

We passed the parking lot, cautioning another couple who was headed up the fake Grotto Canyon, then started speed-walking up a much wider, much nicer incline of a trail. We were happy to be able to walk quicker, yes, but the real reason for our speed was the ominous clouds that were covering the sky. The first lightning flash was ten minutes in (but many miles off - we were counting). The drips started, leading a kid who was leaving the canyon to tell us that we should stop hiking because it's raining. 

We just put the rain-repellent cover over my bag, stuck the electronics in it, and continued on. 

The drops were pretty large when we finally hit the end of the canyon. There was a waterfall, as promised, as well as a geologic field study group, with tape measures and clipboards everywhere. 

With the assumption that the storms would last, we took a quick selfie, hundred Ben enough to let him get twenty feet further up the stone incline to see the grotto, then hightailed it back. The rock climbers we had passed while they were setting up their gear were now setting anchors on a wall. 

It wasn't ten more minutes out of the canyon that the sky turned blue (though the rain took a little longer to stop - sunshowers!) and the chill from the wet drops receded. By the time we reached the car, it was 1:30 and back to a beautiful day. 

Except for the fact the picnic table by the lake was still wet. We fixed that with some extra clothes and rain gear. 

I guess last night was our last family supper, but the mismatch of food was the final one with Val and Ben. 

We headed off toward Calgary with plans to check into the hotel so that Ben could get a shower before getting on a plane (then sleeping in the airport during his long layover). Since Val's flight was in the morning, she booked a place. 

There was quite a bit of construction traffic, then the room wasn't ready when we were there at 3:30. So what was a comfortable gap turned into a bit of a squeeze, but Ben, the car, then me got dropped off at the airport, after we filled up the Jeep with gas as a sketchy station between the hotel and airport. 

And that was the end of the nature adventures. The urban fun came with a bus, a second bus, and a streetcar, but I made it to my hostel safely. I am still going to be sleeping in a room with a handful of other girls. I just won't be related to them now. 

Sweet dreams, Toronto!

Actually Vacation in Banff - Aug. 13, 2015

For once, there wasn't a time prescribed to leave the condo, so it was a more relaxed morning. A dad and his kid were in the fitness center, and the kid kept talking about how many calories he burned on each machine. I just watched and learned about explosives on the National Geographic Channel.

Mom made pancakes. There was honey from Greece thanks to Valerie and Ben. There was also nutella, peanut butter, and blueberries. And bacon.

My ideas for the day centered around two breweries and a distillery in Banff. The distillery wasn't doing its tours. One brewery (Grizzly Paw or something) only did tours on weekends. The other only did them on request, which made us feel like it wasn't worth going to. So, we ended up with a few walks instead.

First, though, Canmore was having its farmers' market, and we had to wander around that. There were artisans selling jerky, jewelry, and produce. We got some of each. We walked up Main St. to a flannel shop. I peeled off to find a post office, then found everyone in, surprise surprise, a bookstore. We probably spent slightly more in there than in the game store a block away. We did purchase "Three Cheers for Master", a macabre cheerleading, physics, card-lying game. Dad couldn't purchase the stone gothic arches at the book store, sadly.

It was home for lunch, then the next "plans" were made. Mom and Dad found out there was a geocaching coin one could get for doing 3 of the 10 easy/moderate caches around Banff. They had done three yesterday (Vermillion Lakes, Fenland Trail, and Cave and Basin's Marsh Loop) just in case, but we had two more on my list for today - the Hoodoos and the Bankhead Trail.

I could only find one mention of a Hoodoos Trail in the piles of brochures I was carrying around, and that was a 3-mile hike starting in downtown Banff. We packed up the cars, and Valerie and Ben followed us in the Subaru.

I looked at the map of the Hoodoo Trail, and there was a parking lot at the end of it, like, right where the viewpoint was. Turns out, you can just drive there. Since all of us were less in the hiking mood, more in the "vacation" mood, we just drove to the parking lot, then walked the 1/8 mile to the overlook.

We found a geocache, saw a stand-up paddle-boarder, watched some ravens pretend to be eagles soaring on the thermals, and got wind-whipped. The hoodoos were different than those we saw in Utah like a decade ago - more peak-like, and along the Bow River - but the geologic premise (that a "cap" prevented them from eroding like the road around it) remained the same.

The geocache was found, trivia was learned, and we headed back to car. Since that hike wasn't a hike at all, we headed straight to Bankhead, an interpretive trail about the town of Bankhead.

A mining town for 17 years, Bankhead had been told to remove itself from existence by the government presiding over the national park in about 1925. With coal prices down, it was no longer convenient to have a mine inside a protected zone. All buildings were removed (with the exception of the transfomer house), and the mine was shut down. As we walked around the gravel trail, each piece of ruin told its story of a family whose lives were changed when a town disappeared underneath them.

We hopped onto a train car, but otherwise, were told to avoid contact with the rhubarb and raspberry bushes from backyards of former houses, because there are known carcinogeons around the abandoned mine.

Both trails were exactly what we wanted - to learn something, to not sweat in the (gasp) 85-degree weather, and to not have to have hiking clothes on.

We circled around Johnston Lake (which looks very similar to a power plant) ad found some mountain sheep, right on the road. There was a "wee" one with his mom. The males are much more weaned then

 

Driving the Icefields Parkway - Aug. 12th, 2015

Valerie, Ben, and I split off from Mom, Dad, and Deanne today. We wanted to head north to the Columbia Icefield, which they will see on Friday as they head up to Jasper to camp.

There was a fair amount of driving involved. The Athabasca Glacier is 100 km past Lake Louise, which is already slightly over an hour away from Canmore. I dictated we leave at 8am so we could have some flex time and still be back by dinner. Valerie and Ben begrudgingly agreed.

We were actually only about ten minutes off of that time - the closest we've been all trip. Good thing it's a vacation and no one is actually timing us.

In our "efficient" leaving, we also left:

• Sunscreen
• Bugspray
• Bear spray
• First aid kit
• Hand sanitizer

So, we got our food and now we're sunburnt. But not bitten, by bears or bugs.

There was a coffee stop in Banff, then we were on the road. Our first stop was Bow Lake and the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. We walked by the lake, which had "waves," unlike the rest of the glacier lakes we've visited in the last few days. It wasn't bigger than Lake Louise, but I guess it was less sheltered, and the wind sweeping through the carved valley was stirring up some current. We could see our "first" glacier, Crowfoot, hovering over the water.

We popped in the lodge, admiring the furs and postcards. (I bought some of the latter, not the former.)

Next up the parkway was a mini-hike up to the viewpoint over Peyto Lake (it's pronounced Pee-toe) at Bow Summit. It wasn't quite a walk, because it was pretty steeply uphill, but it was paved the whole way, with a boardwalk overlook. It was another glacier - the Peyto Glacier that fed the lake, named after a mountain man the "didn't care what anyone thought." I looked him up, and he was a trail guide and one of the first park rangers, but had a style of his own. The lake was named after him because the typical campsite by Bow Lake got too crowded, so he'd hide out at his own lake. He also wore a sombrero at a rankish angle.

After that exhausting uphill/downhill, we had plenty of time to rest as we passed the Waterfowl Lakes, crossed over the Saskatchewan River, and glanced at the Weeping Wall (with intentions to go back to the last one on our way back south).

We were originally going to just drive past Bridal Veil Falls too, but about 100 yards before the turnoff, a lone mountain goat was eating five feet from the road. We pulled over, saw enough of the waterfall, then watched the goat for a bit.

It was making its way up the road, a few feet every few minutes. "Hey," I thought to myself, "Aren't goats herd animals?" And, staring up the rock face on the other side of the road, I spotted another goat and a kid (baby goat). We watched them, then as we were going to turn and set off again, those that we spotted started moving - along with another goat and another two more kids that we missed the first time.

They wandered into and then across the road. If you are really good, you might see the three on the hillside to the right, and the two that are left of the RV just past the road.

We continued to the Icefield Center. When we checked online yesterday, there were plenty of tickets for the 90-minute "CAT" tours of Athabasca Glacier, since it left every 15. After using a restroom with running water (small successes!), we were told that they weren't selling day-of tickets. We had lunch, confusedly, because the two different UK families we sat with both had tickets and intentions of going out on the ice, until we learned they were honoring previously purchased ticket. Ticket sales were being delayed because of some "large incident" that the employee didn't know more details about.

So, bad news - our big adventure on the icefield (though technically just a glacier - the icefields are beyond the crest) was not going to happen, But, we also didn't spend $55 a person to go walk on some super-compacted ice. We did walk up as close as the public is allowed to Athabasca. The temperature dropped ten degrees as we walked up then across the scree to the boundaries of safety.

Not to be thwarted, we continued up the Icefield Parkway to hit two more stops before turning around: Tangle Falls and the Stutfield glacier.

The falls were very pretty. No mountain or bighorn sheep, though, despite the fact the guidebook told us to look. The glacier was another geologically grand piece of the icefield puzzle.

So, about this icefield - it is cradled in the mountains, with at least half a dozen glaciers fingering off through the passes in between the peaks. It is a hydrological apex - the runoff goes to multiple oceans. In this case, it is the Pacific, Atlantic via the Hudson Bay, AND the Arctic! There are only half a dozen like that in the world.

We decided that a roughly hour-long hike (it was around 2:30) would serve us, so we found Wilcox Pass. The "first viewpoint" was an hour round-trip. The entire trail was 8 km and 2-3 hours.

Well, we got a viewpoint at 3:30. A man showed us two mountaineers climbing one of the peaks that was covered in snow. There were cute red chairs to sit in. We had climbed uphill that entire 45 minutes. It would have been great to call it a day right there...

But there was this ridge the hikers were disappearing over as they continued walking along. "Maybe just to the ridge."

Do you know the song "The Bear Climbed Over the Mountain"? Bear climbs up, then sees anther mountain to climb.

That was similar to our experience. It wasn't like we were that tired, or that hungry, or that we had to be anywhere. It was the after each ridge was another one, and another one.

The ridges actually started blocking out the glaciers. The alpine meadows weren't quite the brilliance that Valerie was expecting. The river we were following was deep in a canyon, so not  many good looks there either. It was really apparent that this hike wasn't our best when Ben bled not once, but twice - from a mosquito and from a "spiky" spruce (unlike a "friendly" fern). Not great, but not bad. Just kind of annoying.

We had our snack, did some dog-watching, then we started our hike back as all. Really, it was the red chairs that were the highlight of the tour.

So, our final push back to Canmore. I drove, and I missed the Weeping Wall somehow. But, peeked at the instructions before hopping in, and there was a walkway at Lake Herbet to stretch our legs.

Well, Lake Herbert turned into "lake with an H name." We stopped at Lake Helen - 6 km trail and blocked off because of bears. Odd. Then Lake Hector came up. It was probably Hector that I was thinking of. Except Hector just had a pull-off.... Lake Herbert!

Lake Herbert was calm, clear (no glacier flour), and relatively warm. A few families were taking advantage of the picnic spots around the parking lot and the warm day to go for a float and a dip.

We made it back in time for supper. The risotto that Deanne and I made a crazy ton of a couple nights ago was now being repurposed as fritters! I had to supervise and make sure there was enough oil to actually fry them, and not just saute them.

After dinner was hot-tubbing. After hot-tubbing was finishing the game of dominos from a few nights ago. (I won!) After dominos was the Perseids meteor shower! I saw about three big shooting stars, including the last which had a tail, it was so big. No one got run over, either, despite using the driveway to the place as a backyard.

Tomorrow is city stuff - or as "city" as you can get in towns like Banff and Canmore!

Matter of Minutes - Aug. 11th, 2015

There was a quick fly-by change of plans last night. Instead of going to the ice fields, we convinced Dad to take a family hike up to the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse.

I definitely was instrumental in convincing everyone - the idea of teahouses halfway up mountains is so quaint that I wanted to participate in the afternoon tea while in the middle of a hike. Of two teahouses (Lake Agnes and Plain of Six Glaciers), we chose the one that also offered views of six different glaciers. It took some Googling, but the six glaciers are Aberdeen, Upper and Lower Lefroy, Upper and Lower Victoria, and Pope's. Can you see them, left to right?

(Yeah, neither can I. And it's not just the fat dude in the way.)

Well, we didn't quite get the 9am start we were looking for, but 9:30 was close. There were a couple cars pulled off at different points when we took the hour-long drive back to Lake Louise (since we were just there yesterday), but we didn't stop to look for animals. Which was perfect, because we got some of the final "spots" (at that point, it was merely concrete surface area - lines were a formality) in the parking lot at Lake Louise. Another minute, and we would have been circling for ten, or parking hundreds of yards away.

We trotted off, along the same path as yesterday's geocaches along Lake Louise. That was the first mile. The next mile was some decently high grade. Then a mile of gradual slope. Then, the trees began to decrease.

We were high above Lake Louise. Abbot Pass, named after the "first" mountaineering fatality in Canada (though we all decided that it was probably just the first by European settlers) was across a pit of gravel and scree that hid the crevasses to a glacier.



We stopped to have lunch (given that it was 1pm - our 6.6 km/4 miles took two hours). The critters that were around every picnic area were checking us out too. The magpies quirked their heads at us; one ground squirrel was bold enough to put his paws on Valerie's thigh before she shrieked. (That yell helped her out a week and a half ago when her phone was stolen.)

The slight sun-basking on flat rocks on the scree pile made it hard to get up and walk the final 2/3 mile to the viewpoint, but hike we did. Uphill, with a hyperbolizing groaning father in the rear.

However, he was also the one that called out, "A big one is falling!" Not to be taken in by his hijinx (but also wary enough to check out the surroundings), Mom and I both saw no rocks falling... because it was an avalanche cascading off the mountainside opposite us.

A video, you ask? Sure:

We played in the scree pile for a bit as Valerie and Ben headed up the path toward a waterfall. (There was apparently some skidding involved on their part, but Mom, Dad, Deanne, and I all stayed on our feet.)

We had planned to meet up with them back at the teahouse - the exposed slope of the mountain was a bit chilly for just dilly dallying. On our way back, we ran into two of Valerie's friends from Alabama we had seen on the street in Banff the night before. Shortly after we told them of our avalanche and continued down the trail, we heard the rumblings of another small ice slide. Well, "small" in that grand scale.

We found those lovely flat rocks again, and waited for Valerie and Ben. It was mid-afternoon, but the first hike wasn't all that tough... and there was something called the "Teahouse Challenge"...

Valerie, Ben, and I peeled off to do tea at the teahouse before hiking on to Lake Agnes. The other three started back down the mountain.

We pretty much remained along the treeline as we went along the Highline Trail. It was gradually downhill for a few miles, which meant once we hit the forest, we were starting to hike steeply up to Lake Agnes.

We've been seeing some great wildflowers and berries. Summer is short in these mountains! I caught a bee headed to some lupine (or other flower... I'm not too concern).

Lake Agnes was named for the first two women that got to it - thankfully, both were named Agnes. It is nestled between two "beehives" (rounded mountains) and is framed by a range in the background as well.

More tea, a half game of Love Letter, a mountain square (graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, raisins, coconut), and some of their delicious brown oatmeal bread and hummus, and we were headed back downhill to drive back to Canmore and meet up with the parents.

Oh, I almost forgot to mentioned the best part about the hike! The teahouse was situated right over a waterfall from Lake Agnes down to Mirror Lake!

We stopped at the lodge to pee, then got home in time for sausage, broccoli, beer, and a game of Istanbul. Dad won - shocking, right? Pretty good for a guy we dragged around for ten miles.