Trek to Mount Assiniboine

I told you to stay tuned for more Tales of the Traveling Thermos!

The Traveling Thermos reports it did a trek to Mt. Assiniboine. Um, a trek to Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park that is. O.K., a trek to close proximity of Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park to be exact. Ahh, well actually, a trek to a place where there was a view of Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park a way off in the distance.

This tall tale teller teases me when I tell the truth!

Here we go! The Starbucks Thermos accompanied us on a recent snowshoe trek. As you can tell from the photo, it got up close and cozy with a set of snowshoes, nestled right in there in the middle. They became quite attached and it was difficult and disheartening when it came time to pry them apart. Before you know it, we will find the Thermos throwing a temper tantrum desiring to be strapped to the snowshoe instead of sitting in the tote pocket. I’m sensing the Thermos needs a friend so I will have to see what I can do about that! Maybe I can find it a mate on line!!! This will be a task to tackle for the next trek!

Fork in the Road

What did you do Saturday? Oh....we snowshoed all the way to Banff, had lunch there and went for a Starbucks coffee then snowshoed all the way back!

The plan wasn’t to end up where we did, our destination was Karst Springs. Our quest was unconquered because when we came to the fork in the road, we choose the high road instead of the low road. Our destination remains undetermined because of the lack of any kind of signage that would tell us how far we went and where we exactly ended up. We made guesstimates!

O.K.! O.K.! I embellished a tad on snowshoeing all the way to Banff, having Starbucks coffee and lunch. The high road took us down a path (certainly not a garden path) that crossed the border from Spray Valley Provincial Park into Banff National Park. This path was full of rolling hills, dips, inclines and one big long decline, no word of a lie, was a kilometer itself. A couple of clicks after crossing the border, we set up lunch camp in a sheltered, open, flat area with a view of Mount Smuts directly in front of us at the end of a snow covered alpine meadow. We did have lunch and our coffee was better than Starbucks coffee but was from a Starbucks thermos.

Once the overcast lifted and the winds died down, we were afforded an absolutely beautiful view to feast our eyes upon. And to think, there are some that have no idea this even exists! What a shame! The high road was the road less traveled. Sometimes when you go where others have not, the experience can be ten fold. It was for us! Our mistake was our gain!

Icing on the Cake

It was everything "ice" today!

"ice" falls, "icy" cross country trails, "ice" cleats, "icicles", "iced" over creeks

Our escape! Our day away! The whole day away!

For the majority of our adventure we experienced the sights, sounds, smells of a treasure filled place to be. Donned in hikers, "ice" cleats, poles, backpacks, sunglasses we carried on to our destination and beyond. The initial destination of frozen "ice" falls was all we thought it may be! Postcard Picture Perfect! A detour then brought us to a path that was narrow, curvy, leading up, "icy" in spots, tree lined, filled with sunny shadows, it was drawing us along and we followed. It was quiet and peaceful and quite beautiful.......then all of a sudden we came to an end with an opening there in front us were a few thousand people, hundreds of cars, flags blowing in the breeze, tunes blaring over a speaker system and a gigantic sign that read NAKISKA! We happened upon the Day Lodge at the Nakiska Ski Hill. Interruption!

Our treasure was interrupted for about thirty minutes to dine in the sunshine and then we ventured back to our treasured space. We did not want this day to end. Once our plan of attack to attack "ice" was attacked, it was still early enough, nice enough, sunny enough, warm enough to tack on another plan of attack which turned out to be a little more than we could chew. But what do you do! We’re ladies of substance and fortitude and when the going gets tough, we have what it takes to get tough, soooo we got tough!

......and the "ice" cold beer at the end to celebrate was the "icing on the cake"!