Bush Life: Summer 2012--Thunder Bay to Banff

Wednesday: Jordan picked me up Wednesday morning. It was glorious! I got in the Subaru while everyone else got on the bus. Suckers! He navigated the windy gravel roads away from the misery- and mosquito-ridden camp, and then I took over in Long Lac so he could sleep, since he’d driven through the night to save me. We made it to Thunder Bay by noon, and headed straight for the Hoito for a deliciously greasy breakfast. We stayed the night in Kakabeka Falls, enjoyed some sub-par Shake Shop icecream, as per planter tradition, then really enjoyed watching Spiderman, since we were rained out at our campsite.

The Hoito in Thunder Bay--up for best greasy spoon against the Thunder Bay Restaurant.

Thursday: Drove to Brandon, Manitoba. Uneventful. Campground was crap—they had a swampy pond for a lake. Totally lame.

Manitoba: Subi crossing the country like a champ.

Friday: Drove to Lethbridge, Alberta. Arrived to find Robyn sitting on the fence waiting for us! After crossing 4 provinces in 2 days, it was great to stop and take a break. Robyn’s family were gracious hosts, immediately feeding us, and then Robyn took us out to see a bit of Lethbridge. We climbed part of the deathbridge (any higher, and I likely would have re-created my anxiety-panic moment on Ree’s roof), caught up over drinks at Robo’s favourite café/bar place, then headed back to watch a movie.

Saskatchewan

Alberta

Weekend: Robyn took us to Writing on Stone, which was amazing! In the middle of flat Alberta, there is a valley with hoodoos—oddly-shaped pillars of stone—carved out by the water and wind. And you can climb them! Jordan was in his glory, I definitely a bit more tentative (heights…anxiety-panic thing…) Such a neat geological feature though. Then it was off in the other direction to Chinook Lake to camp for the night with Robyn’s brother Josh, and his wife Tori. It was amazing to watch the mountains get closer and closer, bigger and bigger, until were were right in the middle of them. Camping turned out to be a DeGroot family affair, as Robyn’s brother Pieter and sister, Meaghan were there as well. Great company, and a great day at the beach on Sunday. We read in the sun, surrounded by mountains (which I couldn’t get over), learned how to play spike ball, and jumped in the glacial lake for all of 20 seconds. After they left, Jord and I decided to stay another night, and we pretty much had that loop of the campground to ourselves. It was both eerily and beautifully quiet.

Jordan in his glory

Robyn, the fearless guide; me, the very timid follower

Chinook Lake, Alberta

Monday: Drove to our next destination, White Swan Provincial Park in B.C. We heard that it had hot springs that weren’t as touristy as the ones at Radium or Banff, so we decided to check it out. To get into the park we had to drive down a logging road that wound through the mountains, getting increasingly higher, and higher, and with decreasing safety barriers. At one point I could look down out the passenger window, and about two feet from our tires the road just dropped off….about 500 meters down to a river bed. It was so freakin’ scary! (Again, heights…anxiety-panic thing… There’s a great video I made where you can hear the fear in my voice.) But we made it in alive. Only to find out that the hot springs are currently cold. Go figure….It was a gorgeous campground—turquoise lakes very literally hidden in the mountains, a carpet of green going up on every side. But we decided to head to Kootenay to camp instead, so we took Death Road back out and headed further north. We found a campsite, again very eerily alone, and then headed to Radium to relax in some very touristy, but hot hot springs.

The road into Kootenay National Park

Relaxing in Radium Springs

Thumbs up for big horned sheep walking down the centre lane. They don't even care.

Tuesday: Enjoyed a lazy breakfast at our campsite, then did a bit of touring. We saw Moraine Lake, another gorgeous blue-green lake, and had lunch sitting on a log in the icy water. We considered hiking a steep trail to a glacier in Kootenay, then decided, hey, it’s vacation, let’s sit on a beach in Banff instead. And it was awesome. We came back to our site to find that the dishsoap we left on the picnic table had attracted a bear, who ripped open and guzzled the entire bottle. He also dragged our stove into the woods, shredded our doekjes, and poked a hole in our mattress. Somewhere in the forest a bear was burping bubbles. We did eventually hike later that evening (since it doesn’t get dark til 11), which included crossing a suspension bridge that was closed because of a giant hole ripped in the middle, with a freezing river rushing below (again, excellent film footage covering the feat if you’re interested). We made it across alive and back to our site to enjoy s’mores….and to discuss escape routes if a grizzly visited our site that night.