What a great night. Finally got out of the City at 7pm after our last Sushi meal at Hana Sushi (well at least for the next 6 weeks) and headed to Cochane. Not that far out of Calgary, but at least we are on the road. We crashed for the night at Nan’s cooperating teacher’s house (the Harker’s). Rand was home but his wife Cathy and daughter Jess were still out. I watched “Heat” with Rand and Nan. Long movie is a little slow in parts but overall throughly enjoyable. Woke up bright and early Cathy and Jess had already left for work, Rand was still waiting for his hiking buddy.
Nan and I decided to take the 1A out of Cochrane on out way to Banff. the first stop was at the McDougall Memorial Church 5 km west of the city limits. I have driven by it hundreds of times, but it is nice to not have the pressures of a place to be. The church itself was built in 1875, but not on it present location. According to the couple in the parking lot it had been move 5 km eastwards. It is in a picturesque setting and can be rented for all occasions.
Stopped for a quick bit in Canmore. Beemers: good coffee, tasty treats. in Canmore we decided to both get a good pair of sun glasses for the long drive ahead. Nan had a great idea that we rent a canoe at lake Minnewanka, so off we headed.
Well you can’t rent canoes on the lake anymore, but you can rent 16′ tin boats for a modest fee of $40/hour. We bit the bullet and took one out for a spin. It was a little under powered, having only 8 HP, but it did the trick of showing us a view of the Lake Minnewanka area that we had not see before. Except for the few sheep traveled along the waters edge to the dam, the area was pretty devoid of moving life. We killed the motor half way across the lake and enjoyed the relative calm while we ate lunch. the point at which we stopped was a particular sweet spot for echos. We zipped across the lake to watch a chipmunk play at the waters edge. And sailed back to the dock right at the hour mark.
We weren’t done with the area yet, we decide to go for a quick hike. Enter sheep from Stage left. A herd of Mountain sheep decided that they need something more in their diet, they took their turns scrubbing the top and sides of a cast iron rusty cook stove with their tongues. I can only imagine that they are missing iron in their diets. We headed up the trail to find a small bridge crossing a ravine. Here another herd of Sheep had crossed the river across the bridge and while leaving a very small couple of month old calf on one side. As the patriarch bleated the baby bleated back. On able to find it way on the near vertical cliff it doubled back slipped a little and then beyond imagination headed down the steep wall into the water and up the near vertical other side. Pretty incredible.
On our return trip we encountered many more mini herds, also more people wanting to get as close as possible to get that “perfect” picture. A friendly little chipmunk came out to check out Nan. It even jumped up the where her hand was to see if there were any yummy hand outs. None for the little guy but we did stop and get an ice cream before heading to Lake Louise.
We stopped briefly at Lake Louise to grab a few provisions as well as some ice for the cooler. The drive north of Lake Louise is pretty spectacular with vast mountain vistas, and peaking glaciers. At one point after a series of long hills we stopped for a photo op. The van was smoking a bit. Even though I realized that it was burning some oil from a constant slow leak, that was supposed to be fixed before heading off, it was still worrisome.
We finally pulled into Rampart creek campground. What a great place Nan picked out. I must have been a little tired. We decided that the first campsite was not as good as the one right beside it. While Nan jumped out to get the envelope to put our money in. I carefully backed the van into a tree. Thankfully it wasn’t very hard. The tree bent, the bikes which are on the back of the van seemed relatively unhurt (thank god). Parked in the new spot. Got out and stretched.
I knew that I would sleep well that night.
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