Start the day off in spectacular fashion by inflicting serious, and very painful, damage to myself. The modelling contracts with both TK Maxx and Primark have been put on hold as a result of door hook to face injury. In fact it wasn't as bad as I've hammed it up (quite a bit!) but it was painful nonetheless. Anything for a bit of sympathy.
(Rach decides it's time to take over and tell the story as it really was!)
So, after that drama it was time to head north from Radium. We made it as far as Golden before needing refuelling, ourselves that is, not the car. In the rain we come across a real gem of a cafe, hidden in a bookshop. We rest here a while and whilst eating chose some new literary works from an excellent selection of second hand books. Our lunch over, we head east and on into Yoho National Park. It's still wet and cold so we head to the tourist info in Field for some help finding drier accommodation for the night and walks in the area. We're pointed in the direction of the Fireweed hostel and book ourselves in for the night. One look at the feather duvets and open log fire and the credit card is back out and we're now staying for two nights. The place is total luxury after many nights of camping in freezing conditions (that's not to say that it hasn't been fun!) and as we relax into the sofas with a beer we wonder if we will ever be able to go back to sleeping under canvas!
24/7 (the last 24 hours in 7 words): Can we take this hostel with us?
Saturday September 29th
Today we plan to head to a lake that was recommended to us by a random Canadian lady we met a few days ago at Lake Minnewanka. Lake O'Hara is just up the road from the hostel but they control the number of people visiting it so we're up well before dawn to see if we can get on the bus as stand-by passengers. The recent wet and cold spell meant that lots of people had cancelled (you normally have to book months in advance) so we were in luck and were soon bumping up the track in a yellow school bus. We arrive at the lake some 40 minutes later and disembark into a winter wonderland - rain falling at lower elevations has fallen as at least a foot of snow here and as we were the first arrivals of the day we start off our walk round the lake in pristine snow. It's stunning but we can't help but wonder if our trainers will be up to the job! As we slowly potter on, pausing to look at animal tracks (and hypothesise on their makers) we're caught up by 6 well kitted out Canadians and allow them to overtake us and clear a trail ahead of us (just good honest English politeness!). Further round the lake they start making their way up the mountain on the track we had planned to do but initially but wouldn't had been able to do with our current footwear. We feel obliged to follow and for the rest of the day they find themselves with two very cheerful English hangers on, who quite clearly hadn't banked on there being this much snow ("Are they really wearing sneakers?!") We climb the mountain, first through forest and then across a rocky valley (covered by 2-3 feet of snow) to Lake Opabin. The scenery is spectacular, made better by its covering of snow.
On the way down we meet more friendly Canadians so we stop to chat and leave with their trail mix, cookies and brownies (given to us willingly although 2 less hungry looking people you're not likely to meet!). Back down at Lake O'Hara we head to the Lodge - the only accommodation at the lake and the place to be at 3pm for High Tea! Full of tea and cake we get back on the bus and head back to the hostel via the Spiral Tunnels (one for you train buffs) where the railway takes a 360° loop within the mountain so that it can climb/descend safely. If timed right you can see the head of the train emerging from the mountain as the tail end is disappearing. Dinner and more beers in the hostel and we sleep like logs.
24/7: Snow, great views, free food, tea, cake!
Sunday September 30th
The opposite of yesterday morning and it's a slow start but we're still out of the hostel before 11 bound for Lake Louise. For such a small place it's heaving with people and we're more than slightly dismayed after the peace and beauty of yesterday. The scenery is stunning so long as you're looking up the lake and not at the monstrosity that is The Chateau - a huge hotel right on the shoreline. We escape the crowds and walk a trail that takes us up 500 metres to Little Beehive via Mirror Lake. From here we get more fantastic views and a bit of peace and quiet! We head on to Lake Agnes and then back to the car.
Sunday September 30th
The opposite of yesterday morning and it's a slow start but we're still out of the hostel before 11 bound for Lake Louise. For such a small place it's heaving with people and we're more than slightly dismayed after the peace and beauty of yesterday. The scenery is stunning so long as you're looking up the lake and not at the monstrosity that is The Chateau - a huge hotel right on the shoreline. We escape the crowds and walk a trail that takes us up 500 metres to Little Beehive via Mirror Lake. From here we get more fantastic views and a bit of peace and quiet! We head on to Lake Agnes and then back to the car.
The only campsite open in Lake Louise is uninspiring and closing tomorrow so we decide to make a start up the Icefields Parkway, the road that will eventually lead us to Jasper. The Parkway is a high mountain road that takes you through amazing mountain scenery complete with lots of snow and glacier after glacier. It's often placed within the top 5 drives in the world for its scenery. We stop and look at the Cowsfoot and Peyto Glaciers at Bow Summit before heading to our campsite where we're the only people staying. The day ends with hot chocolate round a campfire.
24/7: Lake O'Hara, Lake Louise, Sublime to ridiculous.
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