Mountaineer Lodge Lake Louise

... and there are two buildings. The main building has reception, dorm rooms and kitchens and a huge lounge complete with a gigantic fireplace. There's also a cafe where you can get meals if you don't feel like walking down to the shopping centre. My building seems to be mostly private rooms or family rooms and there's a kitchen and laundry in the building. There are wooden decks all around and lovely grounds (although its ...

... the hike up to a mountain called Big Beehive (because it looks like a beehive, go figure :-p ) was a steep climb up. We had to take quite a few breaks. It was the very last part that had me alomst giving up, when I looked up and saw the skyline and realised that I was right at the top. And the views made it so worth the agony. From the lookout on Big Beehive you could see Lake Louise, the valley the the highway runs through to ...

... on muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness. We passed by Helmet Falls and climbed the side of the mountain along a series of switch-backs through the forest. Many small delights dotted the trail and Kevin, Celine, and I enjoyed the hike up while the kids surged ahead. As we crested the summit, the landscape opened up into a wide meadow in full sunlight ...

... drinking tea and eating a very nice cinnamon bun whilst reading. I had planned to get an early night but Maake joined me and for a final chat before we went our separate ways the following day. I got talking to Matin who Maake had been hiking with that day. He was from Germany and we ended up talking till 4am!! We chatted about Germany and England and I learned a lot about their way of life and education system. I taught him some new English words including 'lads'!!!

... were fine views to be had. It was quite tough though, and presumably the previous nights drinking didn't help, but it was good to be out in the fresh air, along with the incredibly tame squirrels/chipmunks that would eat out of your hand. I went to Moraine Lake on my own the next day, but I had to hitch hike to get there as the road is 13km long and I didn't fancy that in the searing heat, especially as a bear had attacked a jogger just a few ...

... It first looked like a painting with the misty clouds rising, and once the clouds had cleared the mountain tops looked spectacular. It'd be great to head up the hills on hikes during the summer, or maybe just up the gondola. Another cracking weekend playing in the snow and another set of aches although at least they're slightly more familar aches. I also managed to shatter my all time temperature record as on the Saturday it was -26 with the wind chill.

... its 500 plus suites and rooms it looks somewhat out of place in this setting but we got a room there !!!!!!! Now this is what you call real style. Sadly it was 5pm before we reached the lake and even in the overcast evening it was still a magnificent site. That's another dream fulfilled. We read the bear warnings and cautiously walked along the north side of the lake towards the infeed stream and saw squirrels feeding in the trees and running across the path ...

... backpackers for about 30 minutes then headed back to the village, grabbed a starbucks coffee (it took the lady 2 minutes to finally understand what i wanted, language barriers!) and waiting in line for the new Harry Potter 5 movie. I loved it, very accurate to the book for the time limit. awesome. Tomorrow Jenni and i hope to catch the 9.15am bus to Calgary, hopefully we are able to get on. Greyhound buses are awesome and easy to use ...