At last! The Last Day. Moraine Lake. Lake Minnewanka, Castle Mountain

I know. I know. I haven't been holding my end up but it has really been hectic around here. Things will get much better as soon as we are on the road again. At least I hope they will. Mom has signed up for Verizon Wireless Broadband so we should be good as long as we are in a service area. Anyway, on to our last day in Alberta.

September 17, 2007

First thing this morning we headed up to Moraine Lake. It truly is a rocky mountain jewel. One of the most beautiful lakes in the world, or so mom says. It was kind of a cloudy day so the water color was not what it can be Course, I don't care that much about it, I just want to hike and explore. All this blasted beauty just holds me back cuz mom has to stop and photograph every darned thing!

Today the lake was dark and calm with snippets of sunlight.

From Moraine we headed south to Lake Minnewanka. Minnewanka is a pretty good sized lake just east of Banff. The best part about it was a small herd of Big Horn ewes that were protecting a baby . Those ewes really held that baby in a huddle. Course, I nearly got my ears boxed because I went a little crazy in the car. Darn I wish I could get myself under control. But, what can I say? I am just a true, blue husky boy.

After Minnewanka we headed over to Banff. The town was pretty torn up with construction. There is a promenade that goes along the Bow River that mom just loves. Across the river we watched a bull elk chasing his girls. That was fun. The sun had finally made an appearance and it turned out to be a wonderful autumn afternoon.

It was getting late so we headed north toward Lake Louise. For the return trip we took 93A. Along this route it was pretty clear autumn was in the air.

As we drove along saw what looked like really perfect moose habitat and soon came across a sign that said it was "Moose Flats". As we drove we saw some photographers crouched down in the grass. Mom thought maybe they had sighted some moose so we pulled over to check it out. She could see they weren't being particularly quiet so she approached them to find out what was going on. It turned out to be three photographers from New Jersey. They were mostly studio photographers and were just like kids in a candy store playing with their cameras and taking pictures of everything. It was truly lovely to see their excitement and appreciation for beauty that surrounded them. They were with nature and they were little boys again.

Heading on up the road we made a stop at Castle Mountain. From there we continued north and made a stop at Morant's Curve.

By this time we were running out of light so we headed for the barn. It was kinda sad cuz we knew this was it for this trip. Tomorrow morning we will pack up and head for home in Montana.

Until next time ....

LAKOTA SUNRISE

©Kinsey Barnard

THE JOURNEY BEGINS: TO LAKE LOUISE

September 05, 2007

We got off to a little later start then we had planned. Don’t tell her I said so but mom is still pretty green when it comes to this RV stuff. We were pretty much on time until it came to hooking up Shadow. Mom cut her finger trying to get one of the safety cables hooked up. There was blood flying everywhere. The problem turned out to be that you have to hook the cable up before the lights or the hook won’t fit past the lock on the hitch pin. Guess she knows now!

Shadow can be a real pain in the rump, as troubles with her were not done for the day. Shadow has to have this braking system (Even Brake) and it never seems to work right. We got just inside Kootenay National Park and pulled over by a nice creek for a quick bite. As soon as we did the braking light came on but we were already stopped. Form this point on it is a pretty good grade. We definitely didn’t want to be pulling Shadow up hill with her brakes on! Mom fiddle round with the thing but couldn’t find anything wrong. We took off but the brake light was still on so we pulled in at Radium Hot Springs. Mom ended up disconnecting the whole thing and going through the connect sequence from scratch. That seemed to get us back on track. Away we went. The drive from Radium Hot Springs to the 93 and 1 junction is really beautiful. There are lots of hiking trails I would sure like to take but we didn’t get to stop for any today, darn. Mom’s biggest regret was that we didn’t stop at Hectors Gorge for a photo.

We just highballed it straight to Lake Louise. All together the trip took us 6 hours. We got some diesel and headed for the campground. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a line so we got right in. I could tell mom was a little on the tired side as it took her three tries to figure out the right way to park in our slot. She had forgotten that in this campground you have to throw your electrical cord under the rig in order to have things right. And, of course, Shadow’s braking light was on again. But, we got set up, had a little chow and headed off for a walk along the Bow River.

The Lake Louise RV campground is really nice and is situated right along the Bow River. We took the nature trail goes along the river. It’s very nice for strolling. Course, I don’t give a fig for strolling but that’s all I got today.

Things probably won’t be that much better tomorrow as we high tail it straight for Jasper.

Until next time ....

©Kinsey Barnard