Banff National Park.
oday I headed to Banff National Park, about an hour west from Cochrane. Very quickly I saw the Canadian Rockies starting to rear its head along the drive, and pretty soon they began to dominate the view all round.
On my way to the park, I thought about Bev a lot, not only because I’m now more regularly dreaming about Bev, but because I dreamed of her this morning. In this dream, Bev was sort of not well, not like in real life, but in a milder way, but it seemed clear things were going to worsen, and I was starting to play a mild caregiver role.
I’m glad to have these dreams, because in them I’m interacting with Bev, and I like talking to and seeing her. But, while driving it did set off a wave of sadness, and especially because that song by Bread came on the radio again. A big part of the sadness comes from re-living and thinking about all that Bev had to endure, and all she lost, and how she wasted away as everything was sucked out of her. Every time I think of this and what happened to Bev and how she lost everything, it takes it out of me, even now as I’m writing this.
I planned to first visit the town of Banff, before exploring the park, but, at least the way I came, you have to first enter the park. Interesting, as it means the town is in the park, which is unlike US national parks that don’t contain communities, but just like British national parks, which embrace and encompass towns and villages.
Thanks to the pass Marilyn gave me, after she and Alan’s recent trip to Banff (which made me want to visit, given their description), I got in for free. Thanks, Marilyn.
I made my first stop the town of Banff, and a lovely town it is. But, before I started walking around the downtown area, I took a drive outside of downtown, partly to familiarize myself a little, and my first stop was the lovely Cascade of Time Gardens, also called Cascade Gardens, which also also houses the very impressive looking Parks Administration building.
I noticed that grounds crew were uprooting many of the flowerbed plants and some of the ponds had been drained, perhaps because we’ve entered the fall, or perhaps they’ll be planting fall flowers in their place.
Then, I drove toward the town, but decided to first take a walk along the Bow River Trail, which follows the Bow River, which flows west from Calgary to Banff, and then north west into Lake Louise.
It’s a short walk, and actually goes into the downtown (or, as they say out this way, downtoon) area, but quite lovely, and spurs off into other walks through the adjacent park, and gives a great view of Bow Falls, really a set of powerful rapids along the river, and quite impressive. It was a short walk, but with plenty of steps, and nowadays (and for a while now), I’d prefer no steps, but, hey, waddya gonna do?
Even before walking downtown, I stopped at the Farmers Market, right where I parked, which is held every Wednesday. Actually, although there is farmers market produce there, such as vegetables and fruits, there’s many stalls that carry other things, like clothing, jewelry, artisan products, and food. It’s pretty active and busy, and sits on the edge of Central Park, where I wound up later.
Among towns like Banff, ski towns or national park towns, which draw lots of young people and many tourists looking to engage in some way with the environment, I think Breckenridge has been my favorite (and Vail my least favorite). But Banff is certainly a lovely place, with a main street and side streets filled with stores, restaurants, bars, and other store fronts that are interesting looking and inviting, with lots of activity in the town, although it wasn’t especially crowded, as I’m sure it would have been just a few weeks ago.
Nevertheless, it was crowded enough, even though you’d think the season was drawing to an end (before ski season, that is), and the town is still full, and local tours, for instance, were completely booked for the day, including the Banff Gondola, which travels up Sulphur Mountain. It was fully booked until about 7 pm, so I booked a ride for tomorrow morning. But, it’s an example of the town still being full of tourists of all sorts, and the town, without being too crowded, was jumping.
The weather was nice also, and not what I was expecting for late September, almost October. Eventually, I gave in and changed from my long pants, t-shirt, and sweatshirt to my (for many years now) customary summer weather wear of shorts, tank top, and sandals. Later in the day, after getting to Lake Louise, I did change back to long pants and t-shirt, carrying my sweatshirt, as it cooled a little, although plenty of people were wearing shorts. It was really the wind, with sometimes strong-ish gusts, that cooled things down, but it was still lovely weather.
After walking around downtown some, I headed back along another small trail, and wound up opposite Central Park, and crossed the Bow River on the Nancy Pauw pedestrian bridge, and into Central Park. As I crossed the park, I realized the farmers market was right on the edge of the park, with “Market Music” being played by a couple of locals.
Then, after trying to get the Banff Gondola, which was fully booked (but I instead booked tickets for tomorrow), I decided to take the 35 minutes drive north west to Lake Louise. Although it took me a while to figure out how to actually get to the lake, like everything else, it is beautiful. In fact, the scenery could hardly be more beautiful. The lake itself is an incredible creamy green, which may not show quite as clearly in photos. But is really an inviting and warm color, and really has a creamy texture to its color.
It was cooler and a little windier now, so back into long pants, t-shirt, and shoes. I took the Lake Louise trail around the lake, which is an easy and mostly flat walk, but where the trail, and lake, ended, I continued onto the Plain of the Six Glaciers trail, more rugged, in the woodlands, and up the mountain, for several more miles. I wound up taking a 6 mile hike, lasting over 3 hours, but it was a little longer than it would otherwise have been because of a situation I encountered.
Unlike the trail around the lake, the Plain of Six Glaciers trail is uphill and through the woods, quite rocky at times, and considered moderately challenging. I followed it for maybe two miles or more before turning around, when I realized it was several more miles till the end (it’s a little over 9 miles in all), and headed back to the trail around the lake, seeing some wonderful woodland scenery along the way.
As I was heading out along the Plain of the Six Glaciers trail, I passed a man, maybe around 78 or 80, who was very clearly having trouble walking, heading back toward the start of the trail (by the huge Fairmont hotel), and being assisted on both sides by a younger couple, with his same aged wife walking alongside. The trail was not too easy to negotiate, and even coming back toward the lake it was hilly and rocky.
On my way back, once I turned around, I came back upon them, but by now he could barely walk, and was having difficulty taking even one more step. The young couple, who obviously were not with the guy and his wife but had cearly stopped to help, helped him sit, and began massaging his legs, which were apparently very cramped. They were unable to get a cell signal, but I could and they called the hotel to see if they could get help, but the hotel said they couldn’t be of assistance (not very nice). I asked if they wanted me to call 911, but the guy declined, thinking he’d be okay to keep walking, with the help of the couple, in a few minutes.
After the young couple said they they didn’t need the extra help (maybe they thought one old guy was enough), I walked on, but after seeing how hilly, up and down, the trail was ahead of them, I called 911, and they transferred me to Emergency Services, who were prepared to come out by helicopter, but wanted me to check back in with the group, and then call back to say yes or no to the helicopter rescue. I walked back maybe a half mile or so, and was surprised to see they’d actually cleared the hilly parts of the trail, and were now on the home run of about a mile, along pretty flat ground. The guy decided he could make it with help, and his wife now went on ahead to the hotel to get a wheel chair and then get back to him, which would certainly fix the problem.
I called off Emergency Services, and, after the couple again said no to my providing additional help, I then went to the hotel to check on his wife, and discovered that she had indeed just gotten a wheelchair from the hotel moments before, and was on her way back to her husband. I caught up with her, and she was okay, and we said goodbye. Thank goodness for those two younger people who stopped, and then must have give at least 90 minutes, if not more, to assist this man and his wife.
The entire walk, incident and all, took a little over three hours, covering just under 6 miles. Then, time to get back to Cochrane. It was a good day, with . I hope, a good ending for now to the situation with the older man, and enjoying Banff and Lake Louise.
