Day 6 - Layover in Lake Louise/Banff, AB

Greetings friends and relatives from beautiful Lake Louise/Banff, Alberta, Canada. We got up to crisp, clear skies this morning with temperatures in the mid-fifties and hoofed it over to the local hostel, where one can still get a descent breakfast for under eight bucks. The hostel caters to what I call the ketchup and saltine backpacker crowd, vacationing on the cheap!

The boys all ordered bacon or ham and egg or waffles, except for Lane who ordered a parfait. A parfait, Jack commented, "That's a woman's breakfast." We all had a good laugh at Lane's expense, and then someone remembered the other night while watching the Laker game and drinking beer that lane ordered a Banana Margarita. I think we're going to have to start keeping a closer on Lane.

Today was a layover day in Banff National Park with no particular destination in mind. We began at Lake Lousie because it was close to our hotel. The emerald colored lake is nestled in a steep snow top covered mountainous canyon, reflecting the mountain back like a mirror. At the lake's edge stands the magnificent Lake Louise Chateau Hotel, old world splendor in all of its glory. Rooms start at about $400 a night and go up considerably. We didn't stay there.

Next we saddled up and rode 35 miles south on Trans-Canada Highway 1 to the quaint, albeit touristy, town of Banff. We spent the majority of the day walking, shopping, having lunch, and people watching in town. The is another beautiful old hotel in Banff, the Banff Fairmont Hotel. It is the darker brick hotel in the above photos. The Fairmont Lake Louise Hotel is the light tan one above. Both are remarkable accomplishments of early architecture, construction and splendor.

In the afternoon we headed back toward Lake Louise and our host hotel, the Mountaineer Lodge, via an alternate route, the Bow Valley Parkway, a narrow two-lane road through the forest. En route, we stopped to watch a family of mountain sheep feeding along the roadway. Upon our approach, they all ran down the hill to the river to drink, and then scampered right back up to where we were parked and continued eating, climbing the steep seventy five foot embankment as easily as you or I would walk up a short flight of stairs, except they were not breathing hard.

A few miles down the road we witnessed a violation of what the rangers call the first commandment of dealing with bears. A tourist stopped his van, grabbed his camera, and chased a black bear into the woods trying to get a picture. What a dumb ass! He probably doesn't know that when the bear gets tired of being chased and decides to turn the tables, the bear can run four times as fast as a man and ten times longer. He, the tourist, was lucky this time and survived. We just shook our heads in wonder and motored on. A short distance later we caught a glimpse of another black bear foraging for food along the adjacent railroad tracks.

Upon arriving back at the hotel, the group retired to the local sports bar, watched the Lakers squeak by the Orlando Magic in overtime and called it a night. In all, we still rode 85 miles today. Tomorrow, were off to the good old USA and Kalispell, Montana.