... try and find us

  Holy Frejoles, this is actually happening.

It is a rare privilege to spend four-and-a-half months with your octogenarian Mum.  I am sure it is the longest time we have spend together since I started university. It is also a blessing that Mum is so fit and healthy - and oh so intrepid! We do believe that some of this is driven by the chronic FOMO (fear of missing out) from which, we as a family, greatly suffer.  After equipping her with solid walking shoes and hiking poles, Mum was completely unstoppable and came along for every adventure from hiking on glaciers and through Algonquin Park to boating on Lake Minnewanka, and Chesapeake Bay to snow shoeing and making snow angels.  She certainly earned her handle - The Intrepid Mother! The Intrepid Mother balancing on a beaver dam when canoeing down  Twelve Mile Creek from Vermillion Lakes near Banff Riding The Legacy Trail from Canmore to Banff - on the tandem! Hiking on Athabasca Glacier in Jasper National Park Climbing up The Dorset Fire Tower, Ontario Helming ...

 With the Australian rellies visiting for the holiday season, we dropped into Tour Guide mode.    Visiting the Banff Instagram mecca Walking on a frozen Lake Minnewanka Out for a snowy stroll around Canmore, with Mt. Rundle in the background Jack and Emily at Sunshine Village The oldies show off their snowshoeing prowess Jack and Emily will be snuggled in here for the ride  Sled dogs getting ready for a workout Our soon-to-be Nephew.  Can you guess what his name is? There was snow shoeing, dog sledding, downhill skiing ...  but we also allowed ourselves a unique adventure.  We decided to see the first sunrise of 2023 from the top of Sulphur Mountain. Doing a sunrise hike means you are leaving the house at the coldest part of the day.  January is the coldest month of the year, too.  Pleasantly, sunrise doesn't happen that early on January 1st. Kate, Wendy and I were at the trailhead at the Sulphur Mountain gondola station at 6:15 am.  Wit...

It would be a bit vain to say that Kate and I make our own luck, but we do say that the things we do make makes it easier for good fortune to find us. Three years ago when we met a group of hikers at Assinaboine Lodge and offered to host them in Canmore for a few days, we thought that our adventure with them had run its course.  Little did we realize that we would stay in touch with them over the next few years, then have opportunity to stop into their farm in Pennsylvania on our Fall 2022 road trip. We arrived last night, not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into as we allowed Google Maps to direct us to the address on Binkley Road that we had been given.  After driving from Niagara Falls, across the US border, through New York state and into the backroads of PA for a few hours, in the fading daylight we finally pulled into the driveway of a tidily-kept, two-story modern farmhouse.  There, we were greeted by a friendly Yellow Labrador named Winston, along w...

As we are now temporarily guest-free, it is time to reconnect with our fellow Canmorons.  We have added to our list of things to do and it is time to start crossing things off that list. Proof that we were there. The Wishing Well - this funky art installation was originally located in northeast Calgary but stored away after the first few days of display (its amplified solar reflection was dangerous ) then was relocated to a shadier spot in Bridgeland.  Finding it was part of the adventure, then hearing the otherworldly sounds inside the spheres added to the experience.  Because of its highly reflective surface, the observers become part of the display. Hikes galore. The origin of Healy Creek Can you spot the little fella? Sunshine Meadows - although we have been before, purchasing a summer pass to the gondola means that we can use Sunshine Village as a 2300 metre-high starting point for a number of interesting hikes.  We have found a few ways down through Simpson P...