Mid June update

Friday 9 June we went out to watch the Canadian Football League. The Edmonton Eskimos (who won the cup last year) are playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders. We were shocked to discover people everywhere – what we thought would be a quick park and walk to watch the pre-season game turned into a huge venture. We had to park miles away – but a stroke of good luck got given free tickets in these great undercover seats (prime seats!) as we were lining up!. The crowd must’ve been getting bored also because the ‘Go Oilers” chant came up!!

17 June - we walked in to Siffleur Falls. Its about a 4km each way walk in. About 1 hour in and 40 mins out. Pretty easy over flat montane land with one short ascent. The falls were formed where the river flows over a particularly erosion resistant layer of limestone and quickly wears away the softer shales of the Banff Formation. Its really spectacular – but clearly could be deadly if you fell in – there are 2 memorials at the car park for people who have done just that!

Saturday afternoon we set up camp ($24 for the night) at Lake Louise campground (complete with it’s newly electrified fence!). It’s a great campground but too near the train line! Tonight we went to the Post Hotel (which has these gorgeous cabins on the river) to watch the Oilers game. A much more refined crowd than the Edmonton brewery! The Oiler thrashed the Hurricanes 4-0 to level the series 3-3 – it’s goin to the 7th game on Monday!!

We headed off at Num-Ti-Jah to hike the Bow Glacier Falls walk. It’s VERY cold leaving the car park! A lovely 5km each way walk – mostly along the Bow Lakeside. A short steep climb leads to a fork in the trail where one path goes up to the Bow Alpine Hut – but to get there you must cross over a huge wedged rock in the canyon!! Not likely!!! The view opens up into this magnificent vista of the mountain bowl. You can see 2 glaciers (one of which is Bow Glacier and the start of the Bow River) and numerous waterfalls – the main one – Bow Glacier waterfall. It took us 1 hour to this view point – then another 30 mins over the glacial moraine rubble to the base of the falls. We spent a good 30 mins up here just taking in the sights.