Okay, two brief stories:
1. At Lake Louise, we met the charming and garrulous Neil Cox. Neil plays the Alpenhorn, you know, that big long thing you see the guys in lederhosen wearing in videos of, oh, say, Austria. We had a nice long chat with Neil about where he got his horn (the first one, from Switzerland) about being married to a German-language speaker (his wife is German), about music, about Lake Louise, etc. etc. ad infinitum. This was the evening we’d arrived at Lake Louise. The next day before we headed out on our hike to the Six Glaciers Tea House, we stopped by again to say hello to our new friend Neil. “I’ll give you two about half an hour. You should be at the top of the lake by then. I’ll play Amazing Grace for you. It’s Sunday morning and you’re here in the world’s biggest cathedral.” Off we went and indeed, as we came towards where the trail leaves the edge of the lake, the sound of Amazing Grace on the Alpenhorn came to us across the still turquoise waters of Lake Louise.
Addendum:
Lake Louise is exactly as gorgeous as you think it is from the photos you’ve seen, but you hardly ever hear about how great the log cabin tea houses are. We hiked about 11k and I was pretty whupped by the time we got back to the car, but it was SO worth it.
2. Last night when after it had finally got dark (it stays light for-freakin-ever up here) something woke me up. There was this, well, chewing noise. Chew, tear, chew, tear, breathe, chew some more, tear some more… There’s a bear warning for this area and my heart was in my throat. Plus, the noise was coming from right about where my feet were. Chew. Tear. Chew. Tear. Breathe. I couldn’t see anything because the tent was zipped up and I was too scared to open it to look, plus, I didn’t want to scare the giant rascheltier (German for generic unidentified noisy animal) out there. I woke up J. “There’s a giant rascheltier out there,” I said. “It’s just an elk,” he said. “Go back to sleep.” “What if it’s a bear?!” “It’s not a bear, now go back to sleep.” I could not just go back to sleep, plus, by then the rascheltier was chewing and tearing and breathing right by my head. “I’m scared of rascheltiers,” I whispered. “Then you shouldn’t go camping,” he said.
I think I am not irrationally scared of giant critters chewing and tearing and breathing by my head. They – and I think there probably was more than one – finally wandered off and I could get out of the tent to look around. I didn’t see a thing. But on the way out of the campground, I talked to the guy at the ranger booth. “Oh, yeah, you’re out there by that big grassy area aren’t you? Yeah, it probably was an elk. They like to graze out there. I could see how it could be a little alarming having a giant ungulate (grass eating beast) right by your head.” “What about bears?” I asked. “Yeah, I saw two out there this morning, about 830. Just don’t have anything with any smell to it in your tent. A bear might not want to eat it, but it could get him interested.”
I wish I could post photos, but I don’t think we’ll get to that til we get home. Google some images for Lake Louise and Banff if you’re curious. They won’t do it justice, but you’ll get the idea.
Here’s hoping I get a better night’s sleep tonight.
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