I love mountains!
I've never, really, seen mountains before. I've seen some of the high peaks in the Adirondacks, and mesas in New Mexico, and I suppose other mountains from far away (Seattle/Ranier), but the Rockies are something new for me. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melted_snowball has been making a bit of fun of my reaction, but I'm unapologetic about being excited by mountains.
Today we took a drive to Lake Louise, about an hour west of Banff, and hiked 3.4km to the Lake Agnes tea house near the top of Mount Niblock. It was delightful sipping tea and eating a cookie from somewhere around the top of there (near the top of the right-hand peak in that picture). Of course I've got photos of my own, but I can't be bothered to find the cable to plug in the camera. :)
From the tea house, I was surprised to notice there was OK cell signal, but I intentionally did not change my facebook profile, 'cause that seemed gauche. I did try to get a phone-number for dan, but google SMS failed us. Oh well.
We seemed less equipped than most of the other hikers; those with one walking pole, two walking poles, properly wicking clothing, and who knows what-all in their backpacks. (Maybe bear-treats, or mountain-goat whistles?) I didn't feel under-equipped, given the duration, but still, I'm curious how many of them actually went on to a longer hike, versus just the same hike as we did.
Ont he way down, since it was nearing noon the hiker density went up a bit. According to National Geographic, this is the most popular summer walk in the Rockies. I'd say "walk" is slightly understating it; I was pretty well exercised by the end of it. A good hike. I've got no idea how close we came to the glacier(s?) but we certainly saw snow at the peaks around Lake Louise. So cool.
I had some fun last night watching the sunset from Banff Gondola's live cam. ...In addition to being an awesome webcam, you can see where we're staying in that picture- toward the lower centre of the low mountain in the foreground. *waves at camera*
melted_snowball is off for a walk to find a snack and make us dinner reservations. Tomorrow is an official day-off from the conference for dan (in contrast with today, when he played hookey! (shh- don't tell his colleagues (oh wait, he's tenured, they won't do anything.))) Tomorrow possibly we'll do some more hiking, maybe some cayaking or something else on the water. Thursday, dan has more conference, I have a bit of work I want to do, and by late afternoon, we'll be on our way back home. And back at work on Friday.
melted_snowball has been making a bit of fun of my reaction, but I'm unapologetic about being excited by mountains. Today we took a drive to Lake Louise, about an hour west of Banff, and hiked 3.4km to the Lake Agnes tea house near the top of Mount Niblock. It was delightful sipping tea and eating a cookie from somewhere around the top of there (near the top of the right-hand peak in that picture). Of course I've got photos of my own, but I can't be bothered to find the cable to plug in the camera. :)
From the tea house, I was surprised to notice there was OK cell signal, but I intentionally did not change my facebook profile, 'cause that seemed gauche. I did try to get a phone-number for dan, but google SMS failed us. Oh well.
We seemed less equipped than most of the other hikers; those with one walking pole, two walking poles, properly wicking clothing, and who knows what-all in their backpacks. (Maybe bear-treats, or mountain-goat whistles?) I didn't feel under-equipped, given the duration, but still, I'm curious how many of them actually went on to a longer hike, versus just the same hike as we did.
Ont he way down, since it was nearing noon the hiker density went up a bit. According to National Geographic, this is the most popular summer walk in the Rockies. I'd say "walk" is slightly understating it; I was pretty well exercised by the end of it. A good hike. I've got no idea how close we came to the glacier(s?) but we certainly saw snow at the peaks around Lake Louise. So cool.
I had some fun last night watching the sunset from Banff Gondola's live cam. ...In addition to being an awesome webcam, you can see where we're staying in that picture- toward the lower centre of the low mountain in the foreground. *waves at camera*
melted_snowball is off for a walk to find a snack and make us dinner reservations. Tomorrow is an official day-off from the conference for dan (in contrast with today, when he played hookey! (shh- don't tell his colleagues (oh wait, he's tenured, they won't do anything.))) Tomorrow possibly we'll do some more hiking, maybe some cayaking or something else on the water. Thursday, dan has more conference, I have a bit of work I want to do, and by late afternoon, we'll be on our way back home. And back at work on Friday.