I enjoyed my time in Calgary, but had to eventually get to Vancouver for my flight back to Toronto and I had to start that journey at some point.  I was talking to a friend on Instagram a few months before based on a comment on a post I made and we hadn’t talked in a while so we had a little chat.  She mentioned that they were doing a camping trip halfway between Edmonton and Calgary and that she would loop me into the details when they had figured some things out.  When I got the info a few weeks before heading out, the dates actually worked pretty well and so I made it work!  They were going to be camping in Cline river and so I asked to see if anyone could give me a ride from Calgary and Alex was nice enough to offer me a ride.  I met a few of the people at Engineering Conferences during my undergrad and hadn’t seen most of them in more than 5 years, so it was nice to catch up!

We arrived at the campsite and it was raining decently hard but after  bit of waiting it soon stopped and we were able to properly set up camp and get to the the best part.  Doing absolutely nothing around a camp fire.  I accidently put my shoes too close to the fire and the softer foam on the under sole melted.  This was not ideal as it was my only pair of shoes for this part of the journey.  It ended up being ok but was kind silly.  We drank some beers and had a great time telling stories and chilling around the fire.

The next morning we made a pretty great breakfast and went on a firewood adventure.  We were camping on crown land, which meant we could camp anywhere and take wood from the land.  We had brought a big axe and a chainsaw and went on a hunt for a downed tree, which we eventually found!

Everyone wanted a turn at the chainsaw as most of us had not used one before.

After the wood was sawed and chopped and delivered, it was time for games!  The first game up on the schedule was beersbee which is where you put two hockeysticks a distance apart and a beer can on top.  You try and hit the beer can off the stick without the other team catching the can before it hits the ground.  It is a pretty fun game and lasted into the afternoon.

Brief rain delay but then it was back to games…

The next game was beer darts which is an old classic from the Westies.  You essentially throw darts at beer cans and if it punctures you have to shot gun the beer.  Blocking is only allowed with exposed skin and you have to sit closeish to your can in order to get it fast when it is pierced, so you better hope your opponent has good aim.

We then decided to go for a walk to the water and about halfway into the walk it started to pour rain, so most people headed back.

It eventually stopped once again and it was time for more campfire chill outs.

I come back to this post the next night and realize that I am just describing a typical camping weekend to you so i will post a few photos and move on.  I am a few months behind on these posts and need to catch up.

In the morning I went for a super trail run up into the hills near the campsite but didn’t end up bringing my phone with me so no photos.  After returning from the run, I rinsed my running gear in the river and packed up camp.

Once everyone was all packed up we headed to a nearby waterfall, which is actually where Ben proposed to Melissa about a year ago.

We walked around the waterfall for a bit then hit the road towards Banff.

The route back to Calgary is basically equal distant travelling through the mountains and going back out to the flat lands on the big highways.  I wanted to get to banff so Alex drove the mountain route, which was both more beautiful as well as more convenient for me.

In wasn’t sure where I was going to stay in Banff as I didn’t know if i was going to camp or stay in a Hostel.  The campsites were mostly full but the hostels were over $60…..! I decided that for the first night, I would book a hostel and use the internet and what not to figure out my plan as I wanted to do a backpacking trip the next day but hadn’t really planned where I would go as most of the trailheads needed a car to get to.

Turns out that a lot of the hikes I wanted to do were still very snow covered and the other one was closed due to bear activity.  Therefore I just looked at a trail map and picked a campsite that looked a decent distance away while being accessible from town.  I opted to hike to BW10 which was a campsite about 20km or so away from town.  I headed out in the morning equipped with my bear spray and having told some people where I was headed and then set off into the woods.

I must not have seen more than 10 people the entire walk over the two days.  It was so nice to be utterly alone in the woods, although the trail turned out to be a horse trail and wasn’t really that interesting.  The views were not that great (tree lined) and after a long and uphill climb, I didn’t really get a beuty view at the end.  However, my campsite was right on a river and there was nobody else there.

Upon arriving at the campsite I laid down for a bit by the river reading, and then had a nap.  It was probably one of the more hill afternoons I had had in a while.

The sunset was very pretty and I enjoyed some reading while enjoying a can of chilli which i heated over the fire.

It got dark very late so I stayed up until dark and then went to sleep, which ended up being at around 11pm anyways.  The next morning, I packed up camp whenever I woke up and headed back into Banff.

I had booked a front country campsite for that night and so i took a Banff city bus over to the campsite and then walked around a bit enjoying the view surrounding the campsite.

After setting up camp and resting a little bit.  I headed back into town on the bus towards glacier mountain for which I had heard the gondola down was free after 7pm, so I timed my walk up to allow me to go down for free (It’s almost $40 return) The hike up was straight up hill in switchback format, but took me just under an hour to walk the 4km. It was a great little hike and the views at the end were totally worth it.

I took the gondola back down after hanging out on the top of the mountain and then walked the short distance to the Banff hot springs which were very reasonably priced and would rent bathing suits as I forgot to bring mine when I unpacked my camp.

It’s very much just a large swimming pool, where they pump in the natural hot spring water for people to enjoy.  It is a very large hot tub and there were a decent number of people there.

After so much walking with a pack on my back over the past few days it was nice to have a soak in the hot mineral water.  I also opted for the “Traditional” bathing suit rental which was pretty great!

I headed back to the campsite as it was getting dark and retired for the evening.

The next morning it was my plan to head to lake Louise, but I had heard that Johnston Canyon was beautiful and not to be missed and there was a public bus that would take me there.  I had met a guy on the bus who was also interested in joining so we got up in the morning and caught the first bus out to Johnston Canyon.  We arrived a bit early for the bus, so we had some time to kill at the Train station and while we were waiting, the Via rail Rocky Mountaineer train was preparing to depart and all o the employees came out to see them off.  It was kinda cool to see all the employees in the parking lot with flags, waving off the passengers.  Looking through the window they were mostly retired age looking.

Eventually the Johnston Canyon bus came and we were on our way.  One of the issues I faced with this addition to my morning was that I was stuck with my big bag and the train station did not have lockers.  The bus to lake Louise was also departing from the train station so I didn’t want to leave my bag at the hostel.  Therefore I just brought it with me and hid it in the woods, while i did the hike.

The canyon is basically a hike along a river that flows through the canyon with a few waterfalls, eventually it opens up into a beautiful view of the mountains!

I had to run most of the way back as I didn’t want to miss the shuttle as it was another hour before the next one came and I needed to catch the bus to Lake Louise.  I retrieved my bag from the woods and made it back to the shuttle on time.

This post is getting a bit long, so I will continue in a new post.  Lake Louise is coming up next!