Spray River Loop

Today was not a very nice day in Banff, it was cloudy and cold but Simon and I decided to go for a bike ride anyway. We started out with the trail I mentioned a few days ago that comes down from the Rimrock. It was a really fun trail and it hooks up with the Spray River Loop, which was our next objective. The loop trail was relatively easy and there is a really beautiful, brand new cedar bridge at about the halfway point. You can see a photo of Simon staring pensively into the water. The loop comes out on the 15th hole of the golf course.

After the bike ride we grabbed some BBQ from the cafeteria and went to town to visit the library. The rest of the day has been uneventful but hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day and I can get some more stuff done.

I also added a photo of some elk I took on the golf course road the other day. I don’t like getting too close because the elk get scared and run. They also have charged people in the past.

a Bear and a Bike

Today was a very exciting day. As some of you may know I’ve been shopping around for a bike and today I finally got one. I won’t go into too much detail, but it’s a Giant Rincon and I’ve never felt this good on a bike. I went for a pretty long ride after I picked it up. My first trip was up to the Rimrock, it was a pretty intense climb but the ride down was well worth it. The second part of my trip took me down to the golf course, where I took some photos so people can get a feel of what it’s like to golf and work there. The first and fifth pictures were taken from the fairway of Stanley Thompson 2. The next picture with the pool in front of the green is Stanley Thompson 4, rated one of the most beautiful 18 holes in the world. The pool is not quite full but when it is it will look even better.

This morning at the pre-work meeting our boss, Dan, went through some bear safety protocols. I won’t bore everyone with the details but my main takeaway was, don’t approach bears for pictures. Oddly enough we had our first bear related stoppage of play on the course this afternoon. There was a black bear hanging out along the river around 3pm. They delayed a few tee times but eventually the bear crossed the river and was on his way. Dan said he was quite skinny, which is normal because they are just coming out of hibernation.

Since I really enjoy competitions and I think Riva’s blog contests are cool, I’ve decided to start one on this blog. You’ll notice I didn’t name any of the mountains, ranges or rivers in the photos. The first person to correctly identify a MAJOR feature in each of the photos in this post will receive a prize. I’ll announce the winner in the next post, this may be an ongoing thing if there are enough responses. You can reply in the comments or email me directly. There are features in each picture that I’ve already mentioned multiple times. Just to be clear a feature would be something like the Sawback mountain range, not a bunker.

Good luck!

My room

Just a quick post with some shots of my "apartment". I put apartment in quotations because it's pretty much just a room with a stove, sink and two beds. It works for me though.

Tunnel Mountain

I hiked up Tunnel Mountain today. It's a pretty short hike but I got some good shots of the golf course, the Fairmont and the river valley in general. The mountain was named because originally the CPR engineers wanted to blast a tunnel through it. It was later decided to just go around the mountain but the name stuck.

Canoeing up the Bow River and the Elk and Oarsman

The weather here has been much nicer recently. The week I arrived we still had some snow and I was wearing long johns and winter gloves to work every day. Now it gets up to about 20 every day and it has stopped snowing. The warm weather has had a huge impact on the river, as you can see from the picture I took from the bridge today. It has risen so much in only a few days!

Yesterday my roommate, Simon, and I canoed up the Bow River with one of the hotel canoe passes. The river is still pretty calm but it will start to get more lively later in the summer. One of the guys working told us once the river is at it's full height you can canoe all the way to Vermillion lakes. Unfortunately I have no pictures because I forgot my camera in my room for this trip. I'll have some canoeing photos soon though, as I'm sure this wasn't out last trip out on the Bow River.

I ended up at the Elk and Oarsman on Monday night to watch the basketball game. It's a great pub with good pizza and a really nice rooftop patio. Definitely check it out if you are in Banff.

Mount Norquay and Tunnel Mountain

The Hoodoos

Following my Sundance hike yesterday I took a bit of a break and then headed out to see the Hoodoos, located just outside of town. Hoodoos are pillars of sandstone that are protected from erosion by a stone at their peak. Natives believe that free standing Hoodoos contain evil spirits.

The hike to the Hoodoos led around Tunnel Mountain and then through some forest and eventually I ended up at the three main lookouts for the Hoodoos. I was a bit disappointed with them but I got a pretty awesome picture of Rundel Mountain. My friend Paul and I decided to bus back to the hotel after our hike because we were both pretty tired and the walk was a bit longer than we had anticipated.

The mountain range that you can see in one of the pictures is the Fairholme mountain range, this is also the name of the residence I live in, Fairholme house. Again, the river in one of the photos is the Bow River again.

I took out a couple of trail guides from the library today to plan out my next hiking excursion but if anyone has any recommendations, let me know! Also I really appreciate the comments, so thanks for reading everything so far everyone!

Sundance Canyon

After leaving the Cave and Basin yesterday I started on the trail I originally planned on doing, Sundance Canyon. The trail leading to the canyon is paved and there is very little elevation gain, so it does not take very long to complete. The mountains in most of the photos are part of the Sawback Mountain Range. The body of water in the pictures is the Bow River. At the end of the paved walkway there is an additional unpaved trail that leads through the canyon and loops back around one of the ridges. I left the trail to scramble to the top of the ridge and it was very interesting to see the canyon from above. The photos don’t look as impressive as I’d hoped but it was an excellent hike with some great views of both the mountains and the canyon. I’ve since heard Sundance is much more impressive in the summer because the snowmelt transforms the stream into a roaring brook. Looks like I’ll have to go back!

The Cave and Basin

The first part of my hike today took me to the Cave and Basin National Historic Site. This is the area where William McCardell and Frank McCabe first discovered the hot springs while working on the CPR. As I said in a previous post, McCardell and McCabe tried to lay claim to the land in 1883 but eventually John A. Macdonald and the new Canadian government stepped in and reserved the land around the Cave and Basin hot springs, creating Canada’s first national park and the third in the world. There is a large naturally occurring pond and there was also a pool built, both are fed by the hot springs. The pond in the rock beside the main building is known as the “basin”.

The “cave” is located behind the Cave and Basin building, beside a boardwalk that leads you around a few ponds and streams fed with the spring water. The “cave” itself is a hole in the ground with steam coming out, as seen above. You can’t see much of the steam in the picture, but there was enough heat coming out of there to make me sweat after standing in front of it for a couple of minutes.

None of the ponds or pools photographed are open to the public. Many of the ponds by the boardwalk contain fragile wildlife like the Banff Springs Snail, but I am not sure why the pool down at the building isn’t still open.

On the trail leading up to the Cave and Basin you can see a small pond that is fed with the heated spring water. In the pond there are a few tropical fish as well as some species that have adapted to live in the hot spring water and are unique to Banff. It is an interesting habitat because the pond and the streams leading to it don’t freeze over in winter, which means it is warm all year round. The tropical fish were introduced in the 60s and 70s as a science experiment, and now compete with the natural species, some of which are now endangered.

I'll have a couple more posts tomorrow, coming up the Sundance Canyon and the Hoodoos.

Some Wildlife and Cascade Mountain

It seems like it's been awhile since I posted last, but I’ve been busy with work and haven’t been taking many pictures. Today, however, I took a bunch of pictures so I’m splitting it up into four posts. This is the first and shortest, just about some of the wildlife I saw on my hikes today. The first picture is of Cascade Mountain, viewed from the Banff Springs Hotel.

The second picture is of a ground squirrel. They are everywhere, and have been causing some problems on the golf course because they like to burrow into the sides of bunkers.

On my way to see the Hoodoos just outside of Banff I saw a bunch of deer as you can see above. For some reason I had an urge to chase after one and see if I could catch it, but I resisted the urge and continued on the trail. All the deer I’ve photographed are mule deer, despite their white tails. White tailed deer have shorter ears and longer white tails.

Orientation and a Forgotten Pic

Today was my second day of orientation, I'll post some pictures of the inside of the hotel when I have a chance to go take some. Since the blog didn't post the best picture of Banff I took from Sulfur mountain I posted it again. There is a much better view of Cascade Mountain in the background.

It has come to my attention that Dan the deer may be an elk. I don't think this is the case as I saw a herd of elk today on the golf course. There were about 20-30 and they were much larger than Dan and they had not shed their winter coats yet, but if someone is sure let me know! I'll bring my camera to work sometime and take pictures of the elk to compare.

I made it up to the Upper Hot Springs last night with some of my co-workers. It was excellent, the water was very warm and there is a great view of the mountains. It also started to snow a little bit while we were up there which was pretty cool.

The weather has been pretty bad lately, very cold with some snow, so I haven't been out to do much but get a library card and try some certified Alberta beef. I'll hopefully have a more interesting post later in the week about the hotel and have some pictures of the inside and the golf course.

Dan the Deer... and other stuff

Good evening!

I was pretty beat after my hike up Sulfur Mountain yesterday but decided to go for a short walk around town this evening, this turned into a short hike up the Bow River to Bow falls. I just couldn’t resist. By the way the Sulfur Mountain does actually smell like sulfur(rotten eggs), which has something to do with the hot springs, I’m sure.

The Bow River was named because the natives used to collect Douglas fir saplings from it’s banks for their bows. The trail was really easy and only 1.5km, so it was a good hike to do after Sulfur Mountain. The falls were very beautiful, as you can see from the photos posted. The only other interesting thing that happened on the hike was my deer sightings. I saw three and got a good shot of one trying to climb down a pretty steep hill, I named him Dan. The other two were sleeping on the Golf Course near the hotel.

I'll be in orientation/working for the rest of the week so not sure how much I'll be posting.

Upper Hot Springs and Sulfur Mountain

Hello again!

Today was a pretty busy day again. Orientation starts tomorrow so I thought I’d get a bit of hiking and exploring in. I woke up pretty early for a Sunday (around 7) and it felt like Christmas morning. There are so many things I’m excited to do that I think I’ll feel like this every morning here.

I began today by wandering around the woods behind my residence building. I was really trying to find my way to the Upper Hot Springs without having to go into town and follow a road. Eventually I found a huge resort (the Rimrock) and from there, the Upper Hot Springs. There are hot springs all over Banff, even some at the Fairmont but the Upper Hot Springs are the largest and easiest to access. The first hot springs were discovered by railway workers in 1883. The workers tried to lay claim to the springs but were eventually bought out by the Canadian government for a very small price. The hot springs in Banff have made it one of the premier spa and resort towns in the world. I was there way before they opened the springs to the public but since it’s so close to my residence I might go by tonight for a quick dip, since they are open until 11pm. The mountain you see in the photo is Mount Rundle and the Rimrock is the building in the bottom right corner.

Near the Upper Hot Springs is the Sulfur Mountain Gondola. The gondola takes passengers to the top of Sulfur mountain where there are a couple restaurants and some really great views. Since I thought it would be like cheating to make it to the top of the mountain without having to hike, I decided to take the trail instead of the gondola. The hike is 5.5km and gets pretty challenging near the top. About halfway up, the trail becomes snow covered and icy, which made me thankful I was wearing a good pair of hiking boots. I’ve posted some shots of the trail and a really good one of the golf course I’ll be working on, taken from the trail. The small mountain in the picture of town is Tunnel Mountain, the larger mountain behind it, which isn't really visible is Cascade. Cascade is supposed to have a large population of mountain goats… I think I know which hike Adam and I will be doing if he comes out this summer.

Arrival!

Greetings from Banff!

This is my first blog post so bear with me if it's not the best piece of writing in the world. I arrived in Banff today and it's probably the most picturesque place I've ever been.

After my flight arrived in Calgary I took a shuttle to the Fairmont where I'll be working. Our driver was pretty interesting, pointing out areas of interest as well as a surprising number film locations for movies like Brokeback Mountain, The Edge and Unforgiven.

After arriving at the hotel and checking into the staff accomodations I debated going for a run but considering I got tired just carrying my bags to my room I decided to walk to town instead. Apparently Banff is the highest altitude town in North America. One of the photos to the right is of the Banff Springs Hotel and the other is the view from the river when walking into downtown Banff.

I'm off to find some supper now.