Splashes Of Color Thrown In!

We escaped reality today by hiking right into the middle of an artist's charcoal sketch! By no means was this intrusive nor were we uninvited. She was long gone so we hiked onto her easel and added our own splash of spice to the partially drawn sketch. Lake O'Hara and the surrounding area looked so different from my last visit. The Lake was not today's focus nor was anything in the far off distance. With low lying cloud and a sprinkling of snow flurries throughout the day, our focus turned to the beauty within reach, exposing the inner child, and always paying attention to our foot placement.

Another thing we had to pay attention to was the time. At this time of year, the yellow school bus runs on a limited time schedule along the 11km stretch of road from the parking lot to the trail head. There was one bus in at 10:00 am and one bus out at 4:00 pm. We allotted ourselves a time frame of 5 hours to complete the partially drawn sketch and that would get us back in time for the bus. We were not too keen on adding another 11km and 2 hours to our hike at the day's end.

But! Our watches were hidden, distractions were galore, the playground was gigantic and remember, we were lost in an escape from reality with lots of splashes of spice to add. The trail was marked with little blue boxes showing a yellow 11 in the center. Due to the snow accumulating on the rocks, at times we had to search for our sign. Could it possibly be under large boulders? We had to look! We needed to find our way!

The real scenery seemed so unreal! For the majority of the time it looked like an old fashion black and white movie. Out of the corner of my eye, a splash of color would grab my attention. From hints of different shades of green in the lakes, to the golden in the surrounding rock formations. The biggest, boldest, brightest splashes came from our colorful clothing.

It's just early autumn but it looked and felt like early winter! Some smaller lakes were partially frozen. We could still hear water running behind the icicles. The snow was accumulating on the vegetation and when you see the chains on the tires, that confirms what is just around the corner.

Was G-Force in his glory today? I think he was, but so were we! After this photo, we did our reality check! Checked the time! Made our plan and dashed off! With ground to cover and limited time, we quickly added our slashes of spice to complete the sketch and bolted for the bus.

We arrived at 3:50 with only 10 minutes to spare. Though we thought! The bus took a little longer finishing its own sketch (applying the chains) and arrived at 4:20. We topped our day off with dinner and drinks at the Lake Louise Hostel.

Today was one of the best times I experienced playing in the mountains. I didn't want it to end! I realized I am excited that the snowshoe season is just around the corner! I'm looking forward to snowshoeing into many partially finished sketches and adding our own touch because I know it will make me feel like I am "on top of the world!"