Canadian Rockies - Banff, Jasper, & Yoho

After my whirlwind tour of Chicago, I made back to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I got into Calgary about 9ish, and was a bit dismayed that my luggage didn't make it and the only convenient way into the city from the airport was a $40 cab ride. Oh well. I checked into the hostel and the first thing I did was look for my friend who showed up the day before. Took me a while to find him but find him I did & boy was I glad that he didn't take off without me :) Although it was late, we went out for a bite and a drink to catch up. The next morning we got up early to get our rental car and head to Banff. Here was how the rest of the trip went:

Day 1: Banff - Castle Lookout

It was probably noonish by the time we got into Banff on this day. We grabbed a bit of lunch, saw the Fairmont, and walked around a bit looking for a change of clothes for the night so I can put my only set in the wash (else I would have had to borrow my friend's clothes again). After hanging around the town a bit, we headed out to do a 3 hr hike up to the Castle lookout (~520m) and back. It was not the most spectacular hike, but still had great views and was a good warm-up hike. After the hike, we checked into our hostel at Castle Mountain, got cleaned up, and headed back to the town for dinner & a walk around Fairmont at night. No luck with the luggage yet, so tomorrow would be my 4th day of wearing the same clothes - fantastic!

Day 2: Bourgeau Lake Hike

Today we did a 5 hour hike up to Bourgeau Lake and back. I really enjoyed this hike since the terrain and views varied so much on it. The trail took us through trees, places with views, and by a waterfall. At the waterfall we had a short river crossing, but fortunately I got a piggy back ride across the ankle high water. Soon after we crossed, a group of 6 women came along and trodded through no problem and made me feel silly, but I justified keeping my boots dry since it was the only pair of shoes I had until my luggage showed up. And why bother getting my feet cold if I don't have to ;) The trail continued steadily up for a bit longer and then openned up to the tundra after roughly 700m elevation gain. There were some snow on the trail, and the Bourgeau Lake was still mostly frozen over. It started to rain while at top though, so we didn't linger too long. After spotting a marmot or two and grabbing a bite to eat, we headed back down. From there, we headed up to Lake Louise hostel for the night. By now, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to get my luggage, so I decided to do some proper shopping. The village of Lake Louise is very small tho, so I had one shop to choose from. I guess that made things easier. Not a whole lot going on in terms of nightlife there either, so we ended up at the bar in Lake Louise Inn. Not a bad place. It had dart boards so that's what we did for a while and then turned in.

Day 3: Lake Moraine, Lake Louise, and Lake Agnes


My luggage had finally arrived - but in Banff :S So I had to backtrack an hour to go get it. Stupid airline. I'm glad I finally got my luggage, but by now, I really didn't need much of anything in here since I got so used to dealing with what I had. Having the CDs for the road was nice tho. Once back in Lake Louise area, my friend really wanted to do a canoe ride on Lake Moraine, but the weather was pretty crappy. It was quite cold and overcast, so we opted to do a walk around the lake instead. The trail ended part of the way around, at which point the sky cleared some and we could get better shots of the lake. The sky never really fully cleared, but at least it didn't rain. We also took a little hike up to the tea house at Lake Agnes and back (~3 hrs). The trail was not so exciting, with Lake Mirror being the only thing worth seeing on the trail, but the tea house is kinda cool. They don't have any running water or electricity there and the people who work there live there.

Day 4: Icefield Parkway - Bow Lake, Petyo Lake, and Wilcox Pass

For some reason the weather always tends to be the best when we are spending the most time in our car, as was the case today. Today we had to head up to Jasper, but not before checking out the Bow Lake & Peyto Lake. Both are very beautiful. We also stopped at the Icefield Center, but didn't really do much in terms of looking around since we couldn't get a hold of our B&B host to tell them we would not get there in time for a 5pm check-in like they asked. We had just enough time to do the hike over Wilcox Pass, which I liked very much. You get a nice view of the Athabasca Glacier (tho it can be seen from the road also), and we also saw couple of Bighorn sheeps along the way. Btw, just a note about driving in Canada. People here tend to drive really really really slooooooooooooow. I suppose with all the wildlife around, that is the smart thing to do. I didn't have much patience for it tho, and found myself speeding and passing a lot. Also, Canada doesn't do signs very well. Their roads aren't always marked well, and neither are their trails. We found ourselves backtracking a few times to get where we want to go.

Day 5: Jasper - Maligne Lake, Maligne Canyon, and Mt. Edith Cavell


Today was a bit of a packed day. We started off with a canoe ride on Lake Maligne, but it was a bit overcast. We only went out for about an hour and headed over to Maligne Canyon. On the way over, we got a close-up look at an Elk along the side of the road. We stopped here a while trying to get some nice shots. Once at the Canyon, I really didn't know what to expect here, but I enjoyed it a lot. A short trail takes you on a walk along the canyon. I think there's actually a proper hike associated with it but we weren't planning to spend so much time here so we turned around after an hour. Our next stop was Mt. Edith Cavell. The weather kind of turned again to rain, and it was getting a bit late, so we decided to skip the hike to the meadow and did just the glacier loop. This was also a very neat walk since you got to see two glaciers: Cavell & Angel. The Cavell glacier came right up to the ground where it melts into a lake. On the way back, the sky started to clear and we could hear some avalanches rumbling behind us. We sat around hoping some of the big chunks of snow up top would come tumbling down, but not much luck. We only saw a trickle of an avalanche.

Day 6: Yoho Valley & Takakkaw Falls

We had a looooooong drive back to Banff today from Jasper. So of course, it was a gorgeous sunny day. I guess the point of it being nice when we're on the road is that it gives us an excuse to stop along the way to look at things. We stopped at a few view points along the way and it was a very nice drive. Still, sitting in the car all morning was a bit tiring. We decided to check out Yoho Valley on the way so we stopped there for lunch. Afterwards, we headed over to the Takakkaw falls but we were both so tired we ended up taking a nap in the car for a few minutes before getting out the car. It was a nice nap :) We strolled around the falls a bit, and then headed back to Banff for the night. We didn't last very long into the night either. I think the long days and lack of sleep at night have been catching up to us. Oh, btw, today was another good day of wildlife viewing. We saw a Coyote and bear!

Day 7: Banff - Hoodoo Trail and Lake Minnewanka


We started the day off on the Hoodoo Trail. It wasn't supposed to be a long walk to the hoo doos, but the trails weren't marked very well so it took a bit longer than expected. I think we ended up off-trail, although we never really did figure out exactly which was the main trail. At some point the trail ends up splitting in every which direction, and the one we took led us by the water. The grasses here were high, and we almost needed a machete to bushwack our way through (ok, a bit of an exaggeration). I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It wasn't a highly recommended hike by the book, but I think it should be. The hoo doos are interesting to see, and if you get up high over them, the view below to the river is magnificent. But you could also get this view with a short walk from your car.... We just didn't know it. By the time we got back to our cars, we didn't think we had enough time to do a 3 hr hike like we planned. Instead, we grabbed lunch in to go and had a picnic at Cascade Pond, and then headed over to Lake Minnewanka. Lake Minnewanka is the largest lake in Banff. We didn't have much planned before we needed to head back to Calgary, so we sat in front of the lake a while enjoying the view, but half disappointed we had to leave. Once back in Calgary, we had a nice dinner out to finish the day off.

I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable trips I've ever had. I really like being out in the mountains, getting away from people, and hiking. I gotta admit though that my travel partner had a lot to do with it also. We were pretty much two peas in a pod so everything went really smoothly. We had lots of fun together. So here's a shout out to my boy Brad - thanks for a great time & I miss you!


Pictures are here.

Chicago

After talking to the guy in the bar, I decided it was worth while to venture into town to see the aquarium, and perhaps the Science & Technology museum. I ended up with a bit of a late start tho, and I underestimated how long it would take to get into the city and get to the aquarium. By the time I got to Shedd's, it was 1145. It took about 2 hrs to get there, which means I had to leave the city by 2ish to get to the airport by 4ish to catch my flight at 6ish. On the way to the aquarium tho, I got a glimpse of Chicago's waterfront and parks, which looked really nice. It was a very nice day to boot, so I decided I would try to see a bit of the city as well. I ended up running through the aquarium in 15 minutes. As good as the aquarium was (comparable to the one in Baltimore), when you are sharing it with a load of tourists, it's not as enjoyable. Once out of the aquarium, I debated whether or not to go into the Field Museum next door, since I like natural history museums. By the time I finished lunch tho, it was 1230 and I knew I had very little time left so I gave it a pass. My plan was to walk all the way up through the park to the Navy Pier. Along the way, I unexpectedly found the Buckingham Fountain and Millenium Park with the "bean". To be honest, I never really knew what Chicago had to offer. It turned out to be a very nice city tho so I guess I'll never have to wonder why people go there. In any case, by the time I got to the Navy Pier, I had just enough time to get some Italian ice and work my way back to the city center to catch the train back to the airport. Although I lost a day in Banff, I had quite an enjoyable day running around Chicago. I may never have come here if it weren't for the cancelled flight.

Flight From Hell

We've all seen those news reports, especially during the Winter, how people are stranded in airports due to weather. In all my years of travelling, I have never encountered a serious delay like that... until yesterday. The day started off just fine. A friend dropped me off at the airport, breezed through check-in and security, and flight was still on-time. Well, after we've all boarded, the flight was delayed 45 minutes so they let us off the plane. After we got back on the second time it was delayed another hour... at least. So they started de-planing (i.e. getting everyone off the plane), only to get the go-ahead to pull out in 30 min., so they hurridly kicked everyone off the plane so they could re-board everyone. We took off at 1630, which would get me in Chicago at 1730... just in the nick of time to catch my 1800 flight (which was likely to be delayed anyways). As I sat on the flight, all I could think of was how annoying it was that I did not get flight insurance this time. Usually I do, but I was so busy leading up to the days of my flight that I didn't get around to arranging it until the day of, at which point I was told it would not kick in until midnight. Since I usually get coverage in anticipation of flight delays or lost luggage more than for the medical stuff, there was no point in getting it if I could not get covered for my flight out. Sure enough, the one time I don't get it, I could've used it.

My first flight got into Chicago at 1730 as expected, but it turned out that my 1800 flight was delayed to 2330. The airline had apparently re-routed me through Denver (i.e. I would have to fly to Denver, then to Calgary) but I did not know it. So when I got an automated call telling me my Denver flight was cancelled, I had no idea what they were talking about. In any case, I thought my flight was at 2330 so I was glad at least I was going to get out that day. Until around 1830 when I got another automated call saying my 2330 flight was cancelled. Damn it! I had no idea what to do at that point. The weather in Chicago that was actually so bad many other flights were delayed or cancelled. There was a mob of people in the airport in a simular situation as mine so the lines to any customer service agent was a mile long. I tried calling up customer service by phone, but they said wait times to reach an agent was 20 minutes. I didn't bring my phone charger so I decided not to wait on my cellphone that long to reach someone. So instead I called up a friend asking her to google distance between Chicago and Calgary. It was a whopping 1600 miles. It would take me 2-3 days to drive it so that option was out :( I also ended up giving her password to my United account to see if they had updated my flight info, but it wasn't. I had no idea what was going on, but one thing was for sure - I was stuck in Chicago overnight.

Right after talking to my friend, I went down to see if I can get my luggage. Apparently, no one can get their luggage until their final destination - no matter how long you are stuck in your layover. Fantastic. Now that I am already out of the terminal I couldn't go back in, so I decided to go back to check-in to see if I could get an idea of when I can get out again. After standing in line that did not move for about 20 minutes, I had enough of it and thought I'd walk to a nearby hotel, hit the bar, and pimp myself out to someone for a room. Except I didn't know where the hotels were & there were no signs. As I walked around aimlessly I saw the automated check-in kiosks. I couldn't check-in using it, but I could use the phone by it to talk to an agent. It took 30 minutes to get an agent on the phone. As I was waiting there was a guy on the phone next to me, who was also talking to a friend via cell. I started talking to him and found out that the airport was giving out vouchers for discounted hotels and he had one. I recalled him saying something along the lines of "not sure what to do" to his friend, so I took a chance and asked, "Er, are you going to use your voucher?" At which point he replied, "I'm going to stay with my buddy, you can have this." Sweet! I had no intention of standing in one of those lines for two hours to get one myself so I was so happy I scored one.

I had the voucher in hand, and finally found out when my next flight out was - 1800 the next day :( I thought briefly about driving four hours to see my Dad in Springfield. I'd have just enough time to drive there, sleep, have breakfast, and drive back. I decided it would be too taxing and called the number on my voucher to find a hotel. "Your approximate wait time is... 7 minutes." Ugh. So this time I called up my brother to ask him to go the website on the voucher to book something for me. He tells me, "Comfort Suites, $55, catch the shuttle at Door 3. Shuttles depart every 30 min." I hurry myself to the shuttle stop to find a mob of people waiting. Shuttles from various hotels in the area came and went but no sign of my shuttle. Then I start to get a tummy ache. Damn, I can't leave now. If I miss the shuttle it's another 30 min. By now it was after 8. Finally a shuttle for "Comfort Inn" comes. A hoard of people approach it and I get on. Then I think, "Comfort Inn... Comfort Suites." I ask around and everyone tells me they are two different hotels and that I'm on the wrong shuttle. There are some people trying to get on the shuttle that looked like they were ready to physically throw me out for my seat. I tell everyone to chill and get off. The "Comfort Suites" shuttle finally arrives. I'm on and get to the hotel... only to find out they have no electricity.

Apparently the power had just gone out. Of course they have no idea how long it will be before it is up. I hesitated and thought about getting another room, but at this point I couldn't be bothered. I checked in, went to my room, and feeled my way around. There was enough light coming through the window to see most of the room. Except the bathroom, which was pitch black. I feeled my way around like a blind person would with her hands and feet (since I didn't have a stick). I ripped off the wrapping on the toilet paper only to realize later there was already an open roll. Any case, now it was around 9:30 or so and there was not much to do in the room except sleep, so I went down to the bar. There was a wedding going on. Most things in the bar were candle-lit, with the few important things, like the music, running on the generator. I don't really drink much these days, but I felt like I needed something to take the edge off so I ordered a martini. Soon afterwards, some guy sits next to me so we start chatting. He's actually local and frequents the bar so he got me some chips and another martini on the house (or him). I asked him what there is to see/do in Chicago and he tells me about the "bean" and the museums. The aquarium, and Science & Technology museum caught my interest so I decided I would check those out. After my second drink I decided to call it a night.

Before leaving the bar, I grabbed four of those little candles that were unlit. I lit one and walked toward my room. Of course the darn thing blows out in the elevator so I had to get someone to relight it. Once safe in the room I light all four candles and now I can see!! I got a toothbrush from the hotel, and used the soap to wash up a bit. No shower tho since there's not likely to be hot water. I also washed my shirt since being in the muggy airport made me sweat a bit. I rolled in to bed with a candle lit in the bathroom and by my bed. I feared that they would die out by the morning so I did not sleep well. I think at least on one occasion I transfered the light to another candle to make sure. I also had this wicked nightmare. I was sleeping, and some big black muscular dude smoking a cigarrete comes into my room. I think he's hotel staff but then he asks in a husky voice, "You got your stuff in a safe?" I reply, "No." He says, "Too bad." Then whips out a knife and stabs me right in the chest! At which point I wake up. I managed to get some sleep afterwards but woke up earlier than expected. Luckily power was back on so I grab a quick shower, head down to breakfast, and see what the day has to offer. Skies today are expected to be mostly clear, so I hope that I make it to Canada! My friend is already there waiting for me to arrive.

Manassas National Battlefield Park

The sun finally decided to come out for us this weekend - yay! Yesterday I was throwing a baby shower for my good friend Michiko so I had to make sure I got out today. What I really wanted to do was a nice hike, but I am finding that it is quite difficult for me to get up early on most weekends... and er, days. Plus, I don't always have time to take the whole day out to go couple hours away for a nice long hike. Today I was looking for something closer to home and medium length hike. I had already been to Bull Run, Raven Rock, Sky Meadow SP, and Harpers Ferry - all fitting the less than 1 hour away & taking about 3 hours to hike criteria. Fortunately, there was still the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

The hike that we did was called the Bull Run hike, although there really wasn't much of an elevation to call it a hike. It still took couple hours tho since the trail was ~5.5 miles. Although it wasn't challenging, it was an interesting walk. The trail takes you past canons, Stonewall Jackson statue, stone bridge, stone house, and some deer (well, they were there for us). The view is probably most similar to that of the Sky Meadow SP hike. You don't get anykind of an overlook but that of a meadow. The theme was similar to that of the hike at Harpers Ferry - another civil war site.