the adventures of pinkaholic girl

The Moose Tour

Today I met my tour group for the next four days. When I first met our guide, Heidi, she was perched on a log eating a bacon and egg sandwich with a large travel flask of coffee next to her. Brilliant!

We have five Australians, an Englishman, a Dutchman and three Swiss-Germans. All of them seem pretty cool, but the bus ride has been unexpectedly quiet (I think some people are still recovering from drinks last night).

We started with a morning hike at Johnston Lake, which was pleasantly flat. There was a wonderful reflection in the lake because the waters were so still. Afterwards we headed to Lake Louise, but it was a bit smoky due to fires burning in British Columbia and Washington State. :( The glacier at the back of the valley seems to be disappearing at a rapid pace, but I suppose it is the end of the summer… We hiked up (and up, and up) to Lake Agnes which sits at the top of one of the mountains in the area, and has a beautiful waterfall and teahouse (a teahouse!) at the top, perched right on a cliff next to a waterfall. We saw a whole lot of people in their 50s and 60s on the way, which was really impressive. The trail was fairly steep, and at least an hour of solid uphill hiking. I hope that when I’m that age, I’m that fit!

We had lunch at the top of Lake Agnes, but I think the highlight is seeing all the valleys and mountains along the hike, and the occasional shimmer of Lake Louise’s brilliant blue colour through the trees. I lamented more than once that I couldn’t fit all my peripheral vision in a single photograph. You just have to visit, and drink in the scenery. :)

After the hike, we spent the rest of the afternoon being ferried around by Heidi in the Moose Bus (an "11 seater" grey wonder). This included Crowfoot Glacier, Bow Lake & Bow Glacier, and Mistaya Canyon - my favourite.

We stayed at the HI Hostel Rampart Creek which was a wilderness hostel (read: no running water, no electricity)... but it had an outdoor bonfire, and a great sauna! After the sauna we jumped into the icy creek, which felt very Scandinavian and also a bit scary because it was DARK and STORMING!

posted by d @ 2:00 pm