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Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

26 September 2005

Highlights of our trip to Canada

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Blog Posts for Canada 

Highlights

15 September 2005

Trip to the Canadian Rockies

Hiking in the Canadian Rockies has always been on my life list so I was particularly excited, after a 6 hour drive through spectacular muntain passes and shimmering emerald lakes, to arrive in Banff National Park, one of the oldest and most famous parks nestled right in the middle of the Rockies.

Within minutes of entering the park we had seen ospreys nesting and a gorgeous black bear galloping along the road. We spent 4 nights in Banff where we did an awesome hike (Edith Pass), visited several lakes (Lake Louise, Vermillion Lake, Morraine Lake) and the Columbian Icefields. Then two nights in Jasper where unfortunately the warm, clear weather turned on us, but not before we'd had close up views of elk right in our camp site.

Thanks to Mike and Trish for this amazing experience - all in all, a trip to remember for a life time.


14 September 2005

Californian Grouse

Photographed this little chap in Mike and Trish's garden in Vernon. Spent two very happy afternooons exploring the creeks and lakes in Vernon. I saw a total of 25 new species of bird during our time in Canada. Very excited. Lifts my life list up to 640.

13 September 2005

Zip lining through the Forest

Another major highlight of our Canada trip. We drove up into the mountain forests and climbed wooden staircases into the canopy of a 90 foot high tree. Then, attached to a cable, we zip lined at heady speeds down and along a river canyon to another tree over 900 feet away. A total adrenaline rush - and beautiful views too of the forest canopy. In total, we zipped 4 times between 5 different trees. This was our first experience of zip lining. Mike and Trish had done it in Mexico on their last trip and it was thanks to them that we tried it out. Would highly recommend it!






12 September 2005

Exploring Whistler

We spent our last couple of days in Whistler, a 6 hour drive from Vernon. We drove up with Trish and Mike and Keira travelled up by bus from Vancouver to join us. Whistler is North America's premier skiing destination in the winter and will host the winter olympics in 2010. It also happens to be the courting ground of Mike and Trish during their first few years together (when it was a whole lot less developed.) It has now become an extremely yuppie spot with multi million dollar condos overlooking the ski slopes. A very scenic place with snow capped mountains, beautiful forests and lakes and lots of outdoor summer activities like biking, white river rafting and zipping.



On Saturday, it rained quite a bit but that wasn't going to scare us from exploring. We put our rain gear to the test and visited some of the local forests and stopped by the Lost Lake. I love the shot above of me in Silhouette, taken by Ally, at the lost lake. In the second shot, the girls are standing on a rather wobbly and high suspension bridge.



In summer, biking is the primary sport around Whistler. Mountain bikers hurl themselves down the ski slopes at crazy speeds, with extra ramps along the way to spice up the experience. The famous Whistler 24 hour bike race was being held while we were there. Bikers speed around a large course over and over for 24 hours non stop - from 11 am to 11 am right through the cold night - the ultimate endurance bike event. I've never seen such muddy, bedraggled creatures as those that sped past us in the muddy conditions, and the night hadn't even started yet. Some people are serious masochists!!

11 September 2005

Columbia Icefields

One of the highlights of Rockies was our trip up into this glacier by specially adapted "glacier buses".

The adventure started with the "sheerest descent in North America" (according to our petite female driver) straight down the almost verticle slope of a Moraine and then a chug up the ice on powerful "snow wheels".

The glacier is enormous, covering close to 400 square kilomters. It was a weird feeling getting out of the bus onto the glacier knowing that there were hundreds of feet of ice below us.

The water running off glaciers is the purest you can get - 75% of the world's fresh water originates from this source. Legend has it that drinking it can decrease your age by up to 20 years, so of course we all gulped greedily from the stream!






10 September 2005

Cory Pass and Edith Path hike

Mike led us on this gruelling but absolutely spectacular hike through thick pine forests to a wind swept, barren alpine path that climbed over a snow sprinkled ridge and back down into forests culminating in a gorgeous lake view.

Ally was a stalwart and slogged her way up the steep climbs like a trooper. Unfortunately, I had a streaming cold that broke in the middle of the hike so wasn't too strong on the way down.

This was one of the most scenic hikes I've ever done - long will it remain in our memories.

Trish unfortuntely was still on crutches due to her poor foot so was unable to make it but fortuntely she had done the hike before so was able to relate to all our stories when we returned to base.









8 September 2005

6 September 2005

Banff Town

The town of Banff at dusk with it's beautiful mountain backdrop. Mike loves outdoor camping and adventure stores as do I, so we had fun perusing the fleeces and other goodies. Ally found us a worthy new addition for the printer's tray to symbolize our Canada trip - a little, jade bear.

31 August 2005

Lake Louise

Known as the "Jewell of the rockies", this enormous lake provides stunning views of the Victoria Glacier nestled behind it. We also visted the famous Lake Louis hotel built in 1890 as a back water tea house. That's where the photos of the elk heads were taken. We preferred seeing the live versions at Jasper.



30 August 2005

Morraine Lake

If there is a lake in heaven, I would imagine it would look something like this. Shimmering emerald waters, dotted with the occasional kayak, fringed by tall, regal pine trees, surrounded by towering glaciers and soaring mountain peaks. If I ever grow tired of life, I'll book myself off for a month and come here to meditate. Absolutely beautiful.




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