The Moose Tour

Hiya,
Well, I'm on the Moose Tour - currently in Banff. It all started in Vancouver on May 11th. Our little mini-bus was driven by French-Canadian Philippe - very charismatic and enthusiastic about everything - mainly skiing. We drove up to Whistler stopping at various scenic view points along the way. Our hostel was on a stunning lake. The next day we went skiing on Blackcombe Mountain - still really great snow up the top. It was totally hard on my body, I think the ski boots were a little tight, had sore muscles and bruises!! Didn't fall over too much, super fun. I forgot how much I loved skiing :) We headed back to Vancouver that night, stayed in the Jerico Park Hostel - again, amazing location, right by the beach and very close to University of B.C. (Perry's old Uni). I went for a run early the next morning and came across a sign for a beach: 'Clothes Optional Beach'. Haha. There seems to be a lot of nude sun-bathing here!! We saw more nude sun-bathers in Whistler, on the 'Lost Lake'.
The next day we joined a new bus - with Shelly as the driver - great chick, works way too hard but is furiously passionate about her job, and her beautiful country. She's a great guide and has really added huge value to our experience. The first day we crossed through the Fraser Valley, we stopped in a beautiful rainforest - Bridal Falls - a stunning huge waterfall. Then we headed into desert country - Merrit - the Canadian Capital of Country Music. It was a really strange little place, it gets up to 40 degrees celcius in the day and they have to use sprinklers to make anything grow!! Felt very weird after seeing all the snowy peaks and having been skiing just the day before! We stayed on the shores of Shuswap Lake (about half way to Banff from Vancouver). They had these old broken bicycles for us to get down to the lake - no tyres, no breaks, some with broken handle bars, it was hilarious. We got the whole group into the whole 'jumping' for pictures thing. After dinner we sat in the hot-tub before an early night. The next day we had another long drive to Banff - we passed through 4 national parks on this day. We witnessed the destruction that the pine beetle is causing to the pine forests in Yoho National Park. Basically, the pine beetles lay their eggs in the trees and the trees die. The problem is that the extreme cold and snow used to keep the beetle population at bay, wiping them out every winter. With the warmer winters the beetles are taking over and dominating entire hillsides, killing all the trees. They say that the forest will take 100 years to regrow. In Banff National Park they have decided that to burn the forest is the lesser of two evils, as the regrowth period is only about 30 years.  Coming in to Banff we saw a black bear looking for grain on the railway tracks!
We arrived in Banff on Friday night, just in time for Caribbean Karaoke Night. It was a great party. Rebecca and I won prizes for best dressed :) Drank a fair amount, cheap drinks and karaoke, always a fun happy time :)
The next day I had a sore head! But we were back on the bus heading north to Jasper along the Ice-fields Parkway - a famous route through the centre of the rocky mountains. On the way up we stopped at lake Louise, a stunning lake with a huge Chateaux, still partially frozen. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields centre, where you could do a trip onto the Athabasca Glacier. There is a HUGE amount of snow and ice up on the Columbia Icefields. The trees in the area only grow branches off one side of the trunk because the glacial winds are so cold. In the visitor centre over the winter they recorded a temperate of -57 degrees celcius!!! So cold!!!!
We saw a black bear at the side of the road - the whole mini-bus had our camera jammed against the window, this big bear was just wandering along the side of the road, then he stood up to scratch himself on a tree ;) It was amazing!! Shelly told us that black bears have to eat something like 20,000 calories a day when preparing for hibernation!! Insane!
We stopped at numerous canyons and waterfalls along the way, all absolutely stunning. The snow-capped mountains looming up all around are unbelievable, I have a zillion photos of mountains at the moment...we had amazing weather, blue skies the whole way.
Our hostel in Jasper was an eco-hostel, with no running water. They did have a well outside, you had to pump up the water and use it for cooking etc. We weren't allowed any food in the dorm cabins for fear that the bears would come and eat us!
The next morning we jumped back on the bus and headed south along the icefields parkway towards Banff. We stopped at even more stunning locations along the way, spotted another bear, and lots of Bighorned sheep, climbed up more waterfalls, then our last stop of the day was at Lake Peyto. We hiked up through the snow to a high viewpoint - the snow was up to our waists....jeans and trainers were probably not the best snow hiking gear. We did see someone trying it in shorts....his legs were bleeding all over the snow! Gross!! Some of the group turned back, it was really hard going, but the view was amazing. We could hear avalanches on the opposite mountain!! This cute Aussie girl was so miserable, her feet were totally numb and she didn't notice that her shoe had come off in the snow!! We had to dig into all the footprints to try and find this shoe, she was so upset and was really worried about frostbite, but I think she's ok! It reminded me of the time Kirsty and I hiked up Gaustatoppen mountain in Norway - having to dig out your legs from the freezing snow - hands all numb!!
Anyway, after that we hurried back to Banff and jumped into the showers at our swanky hostel - which used to be a hotel :) Shepherd's Pie for dinner before the Sunday Night Pub Crawl...Everything was running super late so we actually only went to one bar before going to Club Arora - I think there are only 2 clubs in Banff - it's a very small place!
Today is the 'free day' in Banff. We were going to hike up another hill and get the Gondola back down, but our trainers are all still wet from yesterday's hike - we're all a bit knackered and just happy to be chilling out and walking around this cute little town, gazing up at the snowy mountains all around.
It's an amazing part of the world, so much nature. Looking forward to the rest of the trip - we go as far as Kalowna tomorrow, visiting more scenic spots and a winery. Then the last day we head back to Vancouver, then I fly back to Australia the night after that. It's been a really quick trip!! I am starting to think about my new Australian life again...putting my life back together, finding friends, finding a job, finding triathlon clubs, finding some new definite direction...!!!