Back in Seattle

So we have been in Canada for the last couple weeks and haven't been able to update our blog since they don't have computers up there yet, ha ha.




After hiking and fishing on Slough creek in the Northeast corner of Yellowstone national park with Seattle friends, Joe, Eric, and Kristin, we hightailed to Canada, crossing the border just west of Glacier National Park. Interestingly, the Canadian border guard didn't even ask to see our passports.




We then drove straight into Kootenay National Park, about 200 miles north of the border. We were a bit shocked by the exorbitant access fees to enter the parks and get backcountry permits, but in retrospect, it was worth it.




We pulled into a campground at about 7pm that had 300 sites but only about 4 campers. We soon found out that the campground was slated to be closed the next morning and there was no water or bathrooms. Seemed a small price to pay for having an entire section to ourselves, a much better situation than car camping in US parks. We awoke early the next morning to get to Banff and plan our stay in the surrounding parks of Kootenay, Banff, Jasper, and Yoho, which combine to make an incredibly huge wilderness area. We were happy to discover that backcountry permits for our chosen hikes, some of the most popular ones, were available.




We cruised out of town with clean laundry, permits for a five day and a three day hike, reservations for a B&B in Banff in between the two, and reservations for two nights in a cabin outside of Jasper after all the hiking, plus a night in Vancouver on the way back to Seattle. I have never done so much vacation planning in my life, but it definitely made everything more relaxing.




As we headed for a campground for the night to get our gear ready for our big hike the next day, storm clouds gathered and a few claps of thunder went over. I then won the award for best husband by negotiating the price of a 220 dollar cabin down to 100 bucks. (The parks campgrounds and lodges were surprisingly vacant everywhere we went). The place had a real fireplace and a claw foot tub, serious bonus points were earned for bug infested hikes to come.




After hitchhiking the car to the hikes endpoint we got on the trail (the Rock Wall Circuit in Kootenay) at about 1pm the next day and it was sleeting by about 1:20. It didn't last long and it was a beautiful 9 mile hike to the first nights campground through forest that reminded us of the Cascades back home in Seattle, virtually all the same plant species were there. I could go on for more than most people care to read about the rest of the hike, but suffice it to say, it was one of the best we have ever done. Over four passes, along a thirty mile, 2000 foot sheer rock wall, passed 1000 ft waterfalls, and underneath hanging glaciers, and around partially frozen lakes. It was also bug free until the last night which always keeps people happy. We even saw a little black bear.

After a tiring hike out through a huge burn from a 2005 forest fire, we hurried back to Banff and a waiting shower. We then went out for a dinner and movie date, very civilized. The next day we headed north up through Lake Louise, where I fished the Bow River to no avail in a 50 degree downpour (very Alaskaish, except less fish), and Lauren visited the famous lodge at the lake. From Lake Louise, we headed up the Icefields parkway, which soon made our hanging glacier from the Rock Wall hike look not so impressive. There are pretty much huge glaciers constantly in view in all directions, and then you come upon the Columbia Icefield which is a huge chunk of ice taking up the entire west site of the highway for a distance of ten miles or so.

The next day, while driving to the trail head of our next hike, which involved a 16 mile day, we decided that we had spent a lot of time in the woods and traded in one day of our hike for another day in the cabin outside of Jasper. The hike was beautiful, but not as impressive as the Rock Wall circuit. We hiked 8 miles in over a pass and spent the night and then retraced our steps the next day. Unfortunately, the cabin we hoped to spend an extra night in was not available, so we drove out of Jasper National Park and into Robson Provincial Park and found a campsite. It seems as though once you get out of the National Parks, most campgrounds in Canada are sandwiched between a highway and train tracks. It wasn't very peaceful.

The next day we went into Valemount and met Claude and Alke, the owners of the cabin. They had about 40 acres of land right outside of Valemount (an old mill town, new (sort of) tourist town), they have horses, a llama, ducks, chickens, and two very friendly dogs wandering their property. Our cabin was tucked away in a corner with views of the surrounding mountains. We spent two wonderfully lazy days barely leaving the property spending lots of quality time with the dogs. All too soon it was time to head back south, towards Vancouver and Seattle. The day we left we drove down through Kamloops and decided to take the scenic route down the Thompson river and through the Fraser canyon. That night we ended up at perhaps the worst campsite ever, as the highway 100 feet away had heavy truck traffic all night and just on the other side of that was an equally busy railroad track. We got up at 6AM and headed for Vancouver.

We had never really explored Vancouver and thoroughly enjoyed it, similar to Seattle but a bit different. The highlight was walking around checking out the dozens of cheap sushi places and picking one for dinner.

Then after a quick stop at duty free to pick up some scotch we were back in Seattle. And here we are until our flight to Bangkok leaves at 2:30 this morning.

We sent an album from snapfish with the full Canada pics this afternoon (from felizrica@aol.com)and you can also try this link: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=232645097/a=39097533_39097533/t_=39097533 We hope everyone is enjoying their summer, talk to you next from Thailand.