October 9
Canmore to Lake Louise
I am almost embarrassed to include this as a leg of the journey, but we changed locations so I guess it counts. Lake Louise is about an hour and a half from Bow Valley Provincial Park where we stayed last night. The campground here remains open year round, and seems to work on the honour system, with campers having to fill out payment slips and depositing them through the office door mail slot. We were here by 10:30, unhitched, and waited for Steph to arrive before heading over to the Chateau to begin our hike. Literally throngs of people visit this place, and they come and go all day long. Most simply park, walk up to the lake, snap the pictures for the family album, mess around a bit, and then leave, but many other like us are here for a hike on their great but busy trails system.
The lake promenade in front of the hotel was very very busy with people, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. This was the most people I have been around since Covid, but at least we were outside and most tended to observe at least some distancing. Snapped the obligatory shot looking out over the lake…….beautiful…….and we were on our way.
Our choice was to do the Lake Agnes hike………lets go…….3.5km all up…….no flats……..good little workout, and the bonus was that at the top there is what they call the tea room…….big log cabin that serves nice hot tea, dry biscuits and honey, bad sandwiches, and home made energy bars. Jutta and Steph decided to extend the uphill a little and went on the Beehive trail before heading back down to the lake and the chateau. I plodded my way down from the tea room with instructions to get online, make some calls, and find a place for dinner. All these people have to eat somewhere.
You know what they say about tea………it makes you pee. Most of us know that on most trails you can just wander into the trees a little and take care of business. Hold on a minute here. Uphill from the trail was about a 75% grade, and you guessed it, downhill was just the same. This guy is no mountain climber, especially with a full bladder, and I had left my repelling gear back in the truck, so what to do??? I have to tell you it took a lot of cunning, skill, and planning, to properly space myself between the people ahead who I had let pass, and the family behind who did tend to dawdle a little. Throw into the mix, the uphill traffic, and this was a logistical nightmare. However, when the moment was right………ahhhhhhhhh.
Lake Louise is surely a stunningly beautiful place. Sorry for all the pictures because I know many of you have seen them before or been there in person, but for those who haven’t…….enjoy.
I did check at the Chateau to see if we could have dinner there, but non-guests of the hotel were only permitted in the dining room overlooking the lake between noon and 4pm………breakfast and dinner was for hotel guests only. That was the case also at the Post Hotel which was a dinner target for us because of its reputation, and many other restaurants I checked were closed. Could have gone to Banff I guess but settled on the Lake Louise Inn.
Dinner was barely ok, but we were starved and would have eaten a lot worse. Goodbye’s to Steph back at camp……..and off to BC tomorrow.
Sorry just one more
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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