Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

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Radium Hot Springs - Lake Louise (return) (325 km. 4 hours. Max elevation 1,747 metres)

We've had a fantastic day driving from Radium Hot Springs, through Kootenay, to Lake Louise.

The Banff-Windermere Highway goes across Sinclair Pass and Vermillion Crossing to the Continental Divide. We got to drive along the Kootenay river and catch glimpses of Kootenay National Park. Some of the road cuttings were very impressive also with red rock like we have seen so many times in Colorado.

There aren't many photos to document the drive because of the rain. We have now learnt that it only rains in BC - when we were in Alberta at Lake Louise it was fine! The same happened when we drove back from Lake Louise a different route through Golden - rain started as soon as we crossed into BC. These mountains are so big they run the weather.

We could see that large stretches of the forest through Kootenay had been burnt and was recovering with smaller trees covering the area. Because were were without mobile- and internet-coverage we did a guessing game as too how long ago the fire was. We guessed 8-10 years, but from what we read the last big fire in this area was in 2003.

Along the Vermillion Crossing there were several overpasses for wild animals to move across the road without risking colliding with cars. Fences run the length of the road to guide the animals across the overpasses. Very handy - and with nice designs.

From our research online, we had learnt that parking is difficult in and around Lake Louise. Even if it is the shoulder-season now, we feared that it would be very busy by the time we made our drive from Radium. Some more research had hinted that a sneaky place to park was at the Lake Louise village railway station restaurant. Apparently this fills up too during summer months, but we arrived there first! Very sneaky - if you are willing to do the 5 km hike up the mountain to Lake Louise. We parked Mary Jane and enjoyed the Tramline trail very much. When we reached the top we were smug that all the people at the car park in Lake Louise were stressing over finding a space and having to pay! We paid with our boots.

When we got up to the lake, we could see what all the fuss was about. The water was so clear and the famous turquoise colour was starting to be visible. We learnt later that the colour is more striking when you view the lake from higher elevations.

Before setting off on our planned hike, we enjoyed the look of the famous hotel Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Not quite within our budget at $1,000 per night!

As we set off up the mountain side next to Lake Louise, we were pleased that Hild remembered to bring the piggies - they were the best things on the walk up to Lake Agnes as we breezed past all the silly people in their trainers sliding on the icy bits.

Sometimes we had just muddy paths, sometimes the slippery ice was disguised as mud. Sometimes we had single-file hard-packed snow with the odd meeting-place to allow other hikers to pass, and sometimes we had two-lane "highway" made of snow.

For added entertainment there were lots of doggies showing their Mums and Dads how to do it - four-paw drive is the best!

The water in Lake Louise looks fake - like the fake lake in the volcano in the James Bond movie - You Only Live Twice". We kept waiting for it to open up and shoot a rocket or some attack helicopters out! But we can attest that it is real - we dipped our fingers in it to check.

We made it up to 2,135 metres where we found a semi-frozen Lake Agnes and a tea room. As the trail became more and more difficult to walk, we had convinced ourselves that there is no way that there is an open tea room at the top. But we were proven wrong!

After all the huffing and puffing to hike 400 metres up in 4 kilometres we were tired and sweaty. The temperature was only about 5 Celsius so a quick sit-down break with water and chewy bar was enough for us. Other hikers formed a rather long and daunting line to purchase tea in the tea room. Maybe the line was long because of the number of hikers, but we suspect it was also related to the 5 pages of instructions on how to order our drinks! So many flavours and types that people were clearly overwhelmed. We didn't go inside, but our memories cast back to the Seinfeld episode where you were told "no soup for you!" if you couldn't articulate your order quickly and clearly! Tee-hee.

A quick stop at Mirror Lake below Lake Agnes caused us to picture what the view would be like without snow. We figure that the impressive bluff/mountain with the apt name: The Beehive would reflect very beautifully in the lake below. Arriving here before summer means we miss out on some views, but on the upside it was less crowded now.

After deciding that the lunch options near the lake were not quite for us, we hiked down the road to the Deer Lodge restaurant. We ordered bison burger and sandwich with something close to nepespa (Norwegian turnip soup) it had a few other things in there too, but you could taste the nepe (they called it rutabaga, but it was swede/turnip/nepe to us!). Delicious!

From the Deer Lodge we found a short-cut trail back to Mary Jane. Back down the hill and off across the mountain again. Back into BC, back into the rain....

As we were getting closer to the town of Golden, we came across more huge and photogenic road cuttings. The one in the photo even had a nice runaway lane for trucks without breaks.

This stretch of road is in the process of being widened from 2 to 4 lanes. Some of the bends hanging off the side of a mountain do look to be very hard to widen, but they probably know what they are doing!

Normally we work very hard to not drive/walk/run the same piece of road more than once. Loops are the best! Although we did drive on one road that we drove on yesterday - this time Rob drove instead of Hild, so that was OK. The road between Golden and Radium Hot Springs. It meant we got to see the big paddle properly (after driving past yesterday when Rob was navigating and Hild couldn't stop in time). Yes, it is a big paddle - in a field with a gravel track to it. We are still not sure why....

Other exciting sightings today included: a grizzly bear busy eating breakfast at the side of the road, a black bear eating lunch at the side of the road, and road-side nesting poles presumably for osprey.

Little ground squirrels/gophers in Lake Louise - they were having fun and messing up the power washer the guy was using to clean the floor outside the Deer Lodge restaurant.

Speaking of gravel roads going nowhere, we also tried to see the upper spiral tunnel at Kicking Horse pass - but the gravel road was listed as private! We saw the entrance to the lower spiral tunnel - where the trains spiral around and come out 50 meters or so higher so that they can reduce the slope - and there is another one higher up which we wanted to see, but no luck. It was also raining again as we were back in BC......

Click to read about the spiral tunnel.

Back in Radium Hot Springs we drove past the huge operations of CANFOR. There was just logs and logs and logs as far as the eye could see. One of the 40 tonne trucks were being weighed and showed as 39 tonnes. Good to know when they thunder past us on the road.

On the list of special or peculiar items seen today:

a road sign with not only a bear but also a baby bear. Cute!
a road sign for the town of Spillimacheen, which is only funny in Norwegian because it sounds like "spillemaskin", which would mean a machine for gambling/playing games. The town looked like it had two houses, one shed, and closed shop.
the town of Harrogate - far from the one in the UK
crossing the Continental Divide and entering back into Alberta - for a few hours
a warning that we would be without mobile phone and internet connection for 105 km
one of the biggest disasters: someone having dropped their last Oreo cookie on the floor and then stepped on it!!! Maybe that is what the bears were eating?

May/June 2022

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