... try and find us

We love having adventurous friends come to town, as it encourages us to hit the trails.  Today we hiked to the summit of Fairview Mountain.  Whoever chose this name wasn't very good with adjectives ... or had never been to the summit.  The views were beyond breath-taking.  We couldn't get enough of looking around and by the end of it, we grew very tired of saying "Wow." This season's list of interesting trails didn't even include Fairview Mountain. Starting from the Lake Louise parking lot meant that we had to be there early.  As this year the hiking (and the National Parks, in general) have been much busier, we needed to be at the trailhead by 8 am.  Luckily, we live just down the road. Gaetanne, Brynn and Seán Murphy joined Kate and Sean for the hike Up to the treeline and out towards the summit Getting close to the steep parts. Lake Louise ski hill is in the far background. ... and UP to the summit. Do we really want to go all the way up there? The sign ...

This is Gordon.  Gordon is turning 50.  Gordon thinks doing a 50km run is a fine way to commemorate this milestone. This is a bottle of wine.  It is while drinking this bottle of wine that Gordon managed to convince Kate to join him of his 50km/50th birthday run. Oh dear! This is the course they decided to run.  From Buller Mountain, along the High Rockies Trail to Goat Creek then along the Goat Creek Trail to Bow Falls in Banff.  If you have your choice of routes, one with plenty of down is a wise decision. Even so, 50km is a bloody long way to run! This is at the starting point at Buller Mountain.  They are smiling, looking keen and eager.  Gordon still seems to think this is a good idea! This is at Three Sisters Dam, almost at the halfway point.  Still standing, still smiling - this is a very good sign.  Or perhaps it is just the fresh shoes and socks that is causing the smiles? This is at Bow Falls - the 50km mark....

After a long winter of running on snow and ice, it was with great enthusiasm I signed up for the Banff Half Marathon.  It is always a gorgeous run - along Vermillion Lakes Road, out Highway 1A to a turnaround then back, a circuit of Banff to the finish line with cheering crowds. Last year's finish - I obviously didn't pay for the official photo! It is just glorious.  And it is a "destination run" so thousands come from all over the world to enjoy running in our beautiful Rockies.  Being fit and strong from a winter of running, I was looking forward to a great run complete with all the fanfare.  Then COVID struck our world... So the Banff Half went virtual.  This means you have paid to run 21.1km by yourself on any course and, unless you finish the race and upload a time, no t-shirt for you! So dammit , after coughing up all that cash, I was determined to get the t-shirt. But what course to run?  I considered Two-Jack Lake to Canmore along the Le...

Long weekends in the mountains are for working folk.   We have learned that Canmore locals try not to use the trails, rivers, pathways or any alpine niceties when the hordes from the flatlands are released from their jobs on Friday.  What used to be a trickle of outdoorsy people that came from Calgary has become, mid-COVID, a flood of locked-down freedom-seekers.   Highway 742, a normally quiet road that happens to have a trailhead close by If we have friends that suggest a weekend hike, we sigh deeply, then try to pick one of the non-popular trails ... and one that isn't just a slog through the woods.  I, personally, prefer a panorama to a idyllic lake nestled in a valley.  Also, instead of just summiting a single peak and having to turn around, I LOVE a chance to walk along a ridge, from peak to peak, coming down a different way so I don't have to see the same trail I just slogged up, in reverse. As Kate has been doing quite a bit of trail running t...