I woke up at 6am today. I didn’t get much sleep because I didn’t go to sleep until 2:30am last night. I knew it was going to be a rough day but that’s the price I’m willing to pay for this trip. Because I was pressed for time, I skipped taking a shower. I’d rather be a little dirty than miss the precious morning-light.
Any sense of being tired vanished as I pulled open the drapes to my hotel-room window. Even though it was still before sunrise, I could vaguely see the snow-capped mountains outside my window. This got me very excited to get started today.
I put some stuff in my backpack and headed down to the lobby. In order to get into the park one must pay a $7 CDN entrance fee. I didn’t have any Canadian money with me. I planned on going to an ATM and withdrawing some Canadian money. The same blue-haired girl from last night was still working the front desk. I inquired about ATM machines, and she informed me that the only one is in a bank that doesn’t open until 9am. That isn’t acceptable. I left the hotel.
I drove down the empty streets of Canmore to a gas station that was open. Once inside I looked for an ATM but didn’t see any. I asked the lady working the counter where I could find one. She said the best western down the street may have one. I explained that I’m trying to get some Canadian dollars to get into Banff and that I have a credit card. She said, ‘I’m not supposed to do this, but let me charge you $20 and I’ll give you the cash’. That was really cool of her to help me out.
With 20 Loonies burning a hole in my pocket, I raced to the Banff entrance which was about 15 minutes away. I bought a two-day park pass for $14 CDN.
After entering the park, I continued along highway 1 towards Lake Louise. As I drove along the valleys I saw the sunrise across the clear sky. It gave me goose bumps to see the majestic mountains and the anticipation of hiking and photographing everything. I was definitely very excited to start my hike. It took me about 30-45 minutes to get to the Lake Louise townsite.
Once at the Lake Louise townsite, I had to drive another twenty minutes to my destination: Lake Moraine. I got there fairly early but there were still some cars in the huge parking lot. This particular lake (and Lake Louise down the road) is very popular to the camcorder-wielding tour-bus riding tourists.
I ’suited up’ with all of my gear: gloves, yellow Abercrombie hat (on backwards so I can use the camera), ski jacket, backpack with camera gear, protein bars, water, and fleece pullover. It was pretty cold out this morning. I think it was probably around 36 degrees or so.
I snapped some photos of the calm lake Moraine and then started towards the trailhead for the ‘Valley of the Ten Peaks‘ trail. As I walked up to the trailhead I saw several large signs indicating that it is against the law to hike this trail unless you are in a party of six or more people. Apparently there have been recent bear attacks in this area and they don’t want anyone getting maimed/killed. This was highly disappointing to me. I tentatively walked on to the trail and saw a large sign prominently in the middle of the trail warning, once again, of the law and fines if you got caught.
As I contemplated going on the trail anyway, I saw two other people. An older man and woman who were looking as distressed as I was. Here we were on a beautiful clear morning at the trailhead of an awesome trail and there is some silly rule about bears. We chatted about this for a little while and the guy saw my camera slung around my neck and inquired what type it was. I answered, ‘It’s a Canon 10D’, fully expecting him not to know what that is. Fortunately he knew and said that he’s using the same camera. At this point I noticed him wearing a Lowepro photography backpack.
We waited around for about ten or fifteen minutes and then decided that the three of us would go on the trail. Because it’s a Saturday and this is one of the more popular trails, we should run into scores of people.
The hike was quite pleasant. The first part, however, was pretty rough and a pretty steep climb uphill. The great thing about most of the hiking trails in the Canadian Rockies is that the forests are full of giant pine trees. There isn’t much shrubbery or overgrown weeds and such - at leas that I’ve seen. During the hike, the guy and I had a great conversation about cameras and photography. Terry is retired from BellSouth and he and his wife are visiting from Atlanta (quite a coincidence that we’re both from Atlanta) for vacation and have been here for about a week. In addition to the 10D, he had with him the 17-40mm L as well as a 70-200mm L lens. He was carrying a large carbon fiber tripod with a ball head. His camera has a cool ‘L’ bracket that allows you to very quickly mount the camera on the tripod’s quick-release head in either a landscape or portrait orientation.
Terry also mentioned to me that he’s attended the Roswell Photographic Society meeting. That’s something I wanted to go to but have been a bit tentative about it because I don’t know what to expect. From what he told me it sounds pretty cool. I think I’m going to try to attend the next meeting. His wife asked me if I usually hike alone. I explained that this is pretty much the first time I’ve done something like this, mainly because logistically I couldn’t get anyone else to go and because the season is almost over here. I didn’t want to miss out on the excellent weather and awesome views of the Canadian Rockies, so I took this trip.
The hike was really nice. Once out of the thick forest we emerged onto a beautiful alpine meadow that was sprinkled with snow. All around us were pine trees, most of which were ‘Larch’ pine trees. We finally made it to ‘Larch Valley’. It looked really nice because the trees were starting to change color.
Originally my objective for the trail was to hike all the way up to sentinel pass. However once I saw how far away sentinel pass was, I decided to stick with Terry & his wife and turn around at the valley.
It was pleasant hiking with them because they didn’t mind stopping at times to photograph for an extended period of time. After we turned back, we passed many large groups of people. We must have started just before the throngs arrived.
Terry suggested that I try to photograph a place called ‘Lake Hector’ tomorrow morning for the sunrise. Supposedly it’s one of the premier places to see a sunrise. I gave Terry my website URL so he can see what photos I ended up taking.
After this hike, I drove to Lake Louise to start the ‘Plain of the Six Glaciers‘ trail. The parking lot at the lake was pretty full and I had to park far away. It was around 2pm when I got to the lake. There were a lot of people around. This is probably partially attributed to the huge hotel sitting on the lake.
I winded my way through the mass of people to the actual trail. I noticed a lot of couples. Indeed, probably 90% of the people there were couples. I also saw at least two different wedding parties. I imagine it would be cool to get married at a place like this. This is my third time here and I have yet to go inside the hotel.
As I started the trail, I noticed the sky getting a bit cloudy. This didn’t make me very happy. Walking along Lake Louise was quite pleasant. The glacier-melt fed lake is a nice greenish-blue color and is framed by mountains behind it.
Halfway down the trail my legs started to feel like lead. I was getting tired, maybe from a lack of sleep the night before, or maybe from the growing overcast skies. Indeed, photographing the vistas wasn’t too enjoyable because it’s very difficult to expose a mountain scene against a white sky. I did try some bracketing (handheld) but it was still quite a chore.
Photographic challenges aside, the cloudy sky and cold wind from the glaciers at the end of the valley were making me quite cold. Eventually I decided to turn around and call it a day. I knew that I would most likely reach the summit of the trail and not have much to see.
I went back to the car and drove south to the Banff townsite. I parked along the street and walked around the busy resort town. I looked for a restaurant called ‘St. James Gate’. That’s the place Kyle and I went to the first time I came to Banff. I finally found it but unfortunately it was closed for a private party. Instead I went to a Mexican restaurant and had some enchiladas. It was a bit awkward eating dinner alone in a restaurant but I was pretty occupied reading my hiking book to brush up on the trails for tomorrow.
After dinner I went back to Canmore to the hotel. I had a voice mail from Dad with bad news. Grandpa passed away this morning due to a blood clot. He is still trying to get info for the funeral and will be getting back to me soon.
