Glacier and Banff National Park 2010

Friday, September 3, 2010: Larry took a cue from my little morning excursion yesterday and went himself at about7am to see if he could catch the glacier turn pink as the sun came up, so I tried to sleep a bit more but lost. I ended up heading into the little breakfast sitting room at the front of the hotel, which is very quaint and where they also have coffee and tea set up each morning. There is free WiFi in the hotel, but my room doesn't seem to get the signal, but it quickly picks up if you're in the common areas. Since I've been here, there have been two staples every single morning in the common room: an odd woman who sits there for hours drinking coffee in her white bathrobe, occasionally met with either a husband or a son who liked to hover around the beverage service table, and really bad country music on XM radio. This morning was no different, white bathrobe was seated in her usual chair, this time husband came down and sat with her where they argued for the entire hour that I was present. Lovely listening to other people argue, this was something about paying for food for 6 weeks and something about the son and father leaving her in some way. I tried not to listen, working on this website instead. I still have to locate the Bear Swear for you.

The day was gorgeous. My legs were feeling a bit tired, so I wasn't sure I was up to taking a big hike although Larry was tossing around the idea of hiking up to the Plain of 6 Glaciers (about 9 miles). I wasn't sure I was up to and didn't really want to find out 5 miles into it that this was a bad idea, so instead proposed breakfast, then a ride on the Lake Louise Gondola which is close by. Larry agreed, apparently swayed by the possibility that his legs might also not quite be up to the task of hiking another 9 miles today. Down in the little town, the book said that Laggan's is a semi-famous place to get breakfast and lunch, lines out the door, etc. It was crazy busy, we both ordered the breakfast sandwiches (not sure what all the hubub was about, it was okay) and I got a Jamaican chicken pocket thing that I thought I'd eat for lunch but ended up tasting and then eating anyways because it was so darn good. I gotta grab another one of those for today... delicious... I got some money changed, bought a new round of stamps and postcards (gasp! They finally make them with postage PAID!!!) and drove the short mile or two to the ski area.

The ski area is gorgeous. Another classic lincoln-log cabin-style building that sits at the base of the Bow River Valley and you can see the ski trails lining the hills behind the Fairmont hotel, carved into the sides of the mountain.

Bears like hillsides that have recently been in an avalanche. This clears trees away which are replaced by low-growing brush and bushes that are food for them, so it's a favorite place to eat and a good place to spot them if you're out looking. The marketing takes advantage of this and lets you know it's a great spot for bears as they think the ski slopes are avalanche hillsides. The sun was shining brilliantly in the bright blue sky, a few big puffy cumulous clouds dotted the sky and the weather was warm, very warm. One fleece and I was perfect. The ride up was gorgeous- it was like the first time I skied in Tahoe, although this area is a much, much grander scale- you can't believe what's behind you on the chair lift as you ascend. Wow. Lake Louise shone its eerie blue brilliance in the distance, the Victoria Glacier looming large behind her and the Fairmont hotel looking like a small little structure and the absolute magnificence of the Bow Valley- and some of its vast scale finally came into view. It's HUGE. The Bow Valley is the main glacial valley carved so long ago and it's unbelievable to see if from so high up, lined with 10-12,000 foot peaks on either side.

We walked up to the Interpretive center where there is a huge display for each of the common animals and of course the apex predators living in the area, and their conservation efforts. Bears, of course, are a focus and both Larry and I milled around in there for a good hour reading each and every poster. They had skulls of cougars, bears, wolves, pelts of a linx and wolf (both got hit by cars here in the park) a bighorn sheep pelt, skull and the rams that grow on their heads. It was a very cool place. I had the binoculars, in case we did spot anything, as I had the idea we'd likely do a little hiking at the top (they have some trails up there you can do). There are signs of recent bear activity and trail closures...

They show a movie focusing on bears in the park every hour, and both Larry and I wanted to see it, so we hung around until it cycled on again. They talked at length about conservation efforts, as well as preached the harms of habitulaizing the bears. They ended with a story that of course made me cry- one female bear, named Bear 56 seemed to be well tolerant to humans. Nobody knew why, she was never aggressive and this seemed to just be natural. Her mother and her two sisters were not tolerant at all, but Bear 56 was well known not for getting into bear/human trouble, but for being around sometimes, and never being aggressive. Last year she got hit crossing the road. The last footage was of this huge sow trying to limp across the road and two of her legs not working and her two cubs fluttering around her, not knowing what to do, licking her face, and she finally just goes down in the middle of the road in front of a ranger's truck. It was one of the most horrible things I've ever seen. Important, as not all visitors to the park have taken the Bear Swear like Larry and I, so this was a good thing to show people, I think, since all of this wildlife death is human-caused and never has to happen. But still. I'm crying just thinking about it still.

On the deck after the movie, everyone was crowded on one side of the expansive platform looking into the distance and lo and behold, there was a huge grizzly there making his way across one of the ski trails near the lift eating. We learned that you can take pictures with the camera through the lens of my binoculars (just never with the zoom) and they actually turn out, so we took turns just watching this huge bear (our park friend Jane said nobody recognized this bear- probably a male just judging by his huge size) and they evacuated the people in the area out of the area as Jane said "They can move really fast." I was so glad I had the specs as he was so cool. Grizzly brown in color but dark, with a silvery patch on his shoulders. He just wandered about for a good 30 minutes as we watched him. I let the kids next to me borrow the specs to have a good look at him, they seemed to like that.

After a half an hour, Jane let us walk back to the gondola for the ride back down, where we hoped to spot the bear again. As luck would have it, just at the moment Larry and my chair went past, the bear came under the lift and I got about 5 amazing shots of him (above!). When i got home and looked closer, I saw this blue color and what looks to me almost like a person sitting there (two legs in the foreground) near the bear. Larry wasn't so sure he agreed that it was a person, but I'll blow it up and you can decide on this bear mystery...

As our chair went past, he slipped into a patch of trees and disappeared, we were so lucky that he came into view just for our chair. Totally awesome. Our bear count was now 1 black bear on the trail, 1 black bear on the side of the road who I hope mauled the moron who ran across the road to get close, 1 mother grizzly with her 2 cubs in Glacier, and now this one solitary grizzly male munching his way across the hillside in Banff. Possibly completely ignoring a hiker with a blue backpack taking his photo in the tree line.

The ride down was of course filled with a bit of adrenaline for this awesome experience with this bear (they closed the gondola for up traffic for a bit because I suspect he was too close to the lift) and we left and noticed that the weather was at least 75 degrees and gorgeous for the first time in this entire trip :)

The afternoon when I got back to the Deer Park was so beautiful that I decided to fill out my postcards, then walk over to the Fairmont to walk around the lake trail and mail them over there. Larry came with. We donned shorts (woah! I packed two pair and haven't been able to wear anything but pants and even those I'm missing long underwear as it's so cold!) and flip flops and wandered over there. People were out in spades enjoying the day. Dogs are welcome in Canada's national parks, and you can even bring them on the trails (leashed, of course) so there are tons of dogs around the lake, this one in a canoe sitting placidly, and another one fetching a stick in the freezing alpine water. I stuck a toe in and holy cold! The man tossed the stick and let the dog swim for it three times, and the dog got out wanting more but the owner was laughing with us "No way, he'll freeze in there."

We walked around the lake, 2 kilometers of very flat paved trail, found the trail head to 6 Glaciers, and thought about it for a minute, but not in flip flops. The trail was packed and people watching was quiet interesting. There were lots and lots of german tourists, some french tourists as well as lots of americans. As we got back to the main walkway off the trail, a bussload of English tourists wearing nametags got off a bus to head into the Fairmont for tea.

We walked back to the Deer Park in the sunshine where the patio was open and people were sitting out there for the first time since I've been here. Larry wanted to get a beer and maybe a snack before our dinner reservation at 6:30pm in the hotel's restaurant for our "nice" meal on this trip. So we found a spot in the sunshine, got a couple of Calgary-brewed beers and sat out in the gorgeous afternoon just chilling out for a bit. I went back to the room to read for an hour before dinner and Larry stayed and researched the wine menu to find something suitable for dinner.

I shot a picture of the patio with some of the amazing landscaping in the foreground, and there were two guys sitting in the front who asked when I got back "Did you get a nice one of us?" I laughed because yes, in fact, Larry is in shadow and they turned out the best. So we had a nice laugh and when they got up to leave offered to snap one of the two of us which was really nice. They left, I finished my drink and headed back to the room for a bit, leaving Larry at the table for another beer and his wine menu.

Larry came back to the room about an hour before dinner and was all excited that he really scored big on the dinner wine choice. They didn't do corkage, so we had to get something there and he was very excited.

The Okanagan Valley near Vancouver is one of the next "up and coming" areas of wine making which is just starting to get some notoriety. They have a similar climate and weather profile to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and are starting to produce some notable wines and get some attention. We got a couple bottles at the local wine shop and I specifically picked an Okanagan blend called "Open" which was pretty decent, so Larry was thrilled to find a vintner from the valley who really put it on the map with his first vintage of real success. Mission Hill is a family run winery that's supposedly got a gorgeous tasting room and in 2004 he produced the Oculus as his flagship blend: 72% Merlot, 15% Cab, 10% Cab Franc and 3% Verdot and it was a smashing success in winemaking that put the entire valley on the map as something of a contender in the new world wine market. 2004 was something of a surprise, and the wine was so good it flew off the shelves. The Deer Park happened to have it, so that was Larry's big wine choice for dinner. He was of course, right on.

At 6:30 we went down to the restaurant which is pretty nice, and I felt like a colossal heel in flip flops (it was that or hiking boots, my only two choices in footwear on this trip) and a tee shirt, but away we went. We got seated and our waitress was this lovely french woman named Vicki who got us drinks (our buddy the bumbling bartender Jonny making them) I got a martini, a little dirty with olives and Larry got one with a twist. Mine came back typical Jonny- a little confusing as it was slightly pink, and he had managed to put sweet vermouth into my vodka martini. Vicki picked up on my confusion and said "If it's not right we can take it right back, really." I drank it anyways, a little odd tasting for a martini, but this is Jonny. He managed to make a lemon rind strip in the manner that Larry and I showed him the other night, so he got Larry's right this time. We ordered a salad of baby greens with aged balsamic, peach slices, gorgonzola and macadamia nuts to split to start with, and we got the bottle of Oculus (very cool marketing I should have taken a picture of the bottle- Oculus made for the hole in the top of the Pantheon) and Vicki decanted it for us. Salad came, bread, and a taste of the oculus while it was breathing revealed an extremely well balanced, lightly tannic and smooth medium bodied bordeaux style blend that is drinking well right now. An excellent choice for Larry. The man is good with wine.

This being the end of the season, we noticed since we arrived here at the Deer Park that there seems to be a fruit fly infestation in the entire hotel, our room, and again right here in the dining room as the flies were congregating all over our table. Vicki kept apologizing, the hotel was trying but they'll all die in a week so there wasn't much to do about them- and offered to move us to another part of the restaurant. Larry was more bothered by the flies than I was (they didn't seem to want to fly into my wine like the ones at home do, so I was okay with them), and Vicki relocated us. The main course came- I ordered the Halibut which had a nutty crust and a hash of root vegetables along with a lobster creme sauce and Larry got the special, Elk Loin served up medium rare with crab-stuffed ravioli, white asparagus and a yam chip. Mine was a bit overcooked, the halibut just a bit dry, but the hash was outstanding and the lobster sauce actually had chunks of lobster in it and that was the best part of my plate. Larry liked the elk, mostly. Elk is very lean which can mean gamey, and this was. Cooked well, and with a bourbon sauce and dried blueberries in the sauce that went so nice with it, and the ravioli was delicious but I think the best part of his plate was the white asparagus salad. Delicious.

I was completely stuffed on delicious wine and good food, but somebody talked me into dessert- the dessert menu looked pretty fantastic, with a panna cotta, cheesecake, chocolate fudge cake and the creme brulee which eventually tempted me enough to succumb. Larry ordered the three cheese platter with a glass of tawny port (two cow's milk selections from Canada, and one French Bleu which was his favorite). What a meal. As we were finishing up our desserts, the restaurant flooded with a wedding party- this blonde, pregnant and crazy annoying bride fluttering around taking pictures saying "Say WEDDING!" And a bunch of odd people as wedding assortments often are milling around in there for dinner. We left, since Jonny had his hands full with just two people at the bar, let alone a group of 30, and chuckled at them on the way out.

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