Summit Journal Chat

Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

LMAO! PBOB is taking us to school with his bloggin' skills.

Thanks!

We didn't step on those blue suede shoes, but we did follow them to some very special places. One of which was the Storm Mountain Lodge, where we stopped for an exquisite lunch on our way back to Calgary. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, the Lodge is made from fire burned pine, which is naturally cured to resist rot and insects. The logs in the buildings shown here are well over 100 years old and still going strong. It was evening by the time we got back to Calgary on Tuesday and we had an early flight back, so Pizza seemed a good bet for dinner. We did our goodbyes the night before, so Jill and I could take ourselves to the airport and just drop the vehicle in a lot, where Terry and Ginnu could pick it up later.

Hey magoo - we even paid a visit to your neck of the woods, since American Airlines routed us from Calgary to Dallas-Fort Worth, before finally taking us home to Wisconsin. Maybe the next reunion should be in Texas, eh?

The bottom three photos in the string below represent a bit of the scenery we encountered following our night at Radium Hot Springs. The truck in the uppermost photo gave us a chill (look closely and read the inscription on the glass) and reminds one of the book titled "This Game of Ghosts". You will recall Byron Smith, a.k.a. "TCCD" or the climbing car dealer. Back in '99 Bruce and I caught up with him on Rundle. Did I mention that Bruce climbs really fast? And did I mention that I foolishly kept pace with Bruce on that day? Oh, and did I mention that, as a result, I was a virtual cripple for the remainder of that trip? Anyway, there are pictures, somewhere in a box in the bottom of the basement that attest to that rendezvous of sorts - a brush with greatness perhaps, or maybe not.


Ginnu has a very special pair of trekking shoes that she found indispensible throughout the trip. I hesitate to show them here due to their rarity and extreme value, but hey...how often does a scoop like this come along. I should also mention that she has numerous matching accessories. This should dispel, once and for all, the notion that style has no place in the mountains.

While touring the hotel lobby at Lake Louise, Jill and I happened across a kindly guide who was tucked into a mythic trapper's cabin sort of office, just off the main hall. When we asked for directions to Moraine Lake, he looked puzzled and asked why would we ever want to take on all that congestion this late in the day. Instead, he suggested heading west - that great American montra... and pointed us toward the town of Golden in British Columbia. Yahoo . . . CSTerry and Ginnu, perhaps wisely, chose to make their way toward our evening accommodations at Radium Hot Springs via the more sensible route - back along a portion of the road we had already traveled. I should mention that we were a truck caravan of sorts, necessitated by the fact that there were four of us, but with no single vehicle capable of holding us all. So, quite generously I might add, Terry and Ginny volunteered to take two vehicles to the ramparts. Though we arrived last to the hotel, we had no regrets. The route was fabulous, though the smoke from fires to the south did give the vistas a bit of an Appalachian feel, if you can imagine. Dinner that evening was an outside affair with no frills, but a super hot grill. Ice cream cones followed, of course.

Ironically, we never did make the hot springs while in Radium, but Jill and I did manage to spend some time in the pool and spa at the hotel the next morning. Hey, the water was wet, hot and bubbly. We had the place to ourselves and we were in Radium. Close enough, eh?

At the crack of dawn and oh so quietly, Jill and PBob set out for Sulfur Mountain. "Why?" you ask? Because it... oh, never mind. We wanted some exercise and heard the view was fantastic. The earlier photos demonstrate that I think. It took us the better part of two hours to trek up, but only eight minutes to descend. Technology - yagottaloveit. Besides, it helped us make our 11:00 AM checkout time and our departure for Lake Louise.

Aren't captions supposed to go on the bottom??? Oh well, from top left and clockwise you have Mount Rundle, (which was challenged by Mark, Carrie, Bruce, Alex and PBob in '99) the town of Banff, the Sulfur Mountain gondola and parking lot, Jill and Rundle and, finally...Banff Avenue with Cascade Mountain lurking.

Ah yes, Banff... There must be some law that determines that travel time to mountains seems shorter than it actually is, since I've been told that it takes approximately 90 minutes to get to Banff from Calgary. That the time seemed much shorter can only be explained by the fact that mountains stick up, thereby creating the illusion that one has arrived at said mountains when, in fact, they have not. In any case, my child side has wonderful capacity to anticipate grandeur on such a scale and I didn't mind a bit the opportunity to savour from afar. Once we finally arrived, we quickly stowed our gear in the local hotel and hit the street, err...avenue, as in Banff Avenue. The leisurely stroll was appropriately interrupted by several zigs and zags that lead us through some of the finer stores that Banff has to offer. Dessert before dinner seemed in order, so ice cream at Cows became the mission. Such is the abandon that one must take to an expedition at altitude. Dinner did eventually follow. The setting was a logged affair from the 19th century, probably left over from the rummagings of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Dinner was adequate, with only a few revisions (Ginnu knows what I mean. I'd steak my life on it.) The night cap of the evening entailed the traditional trip to the Banff Hot Springs. Wrinkled and drousy, we crawled in around 10:30 - sleep was immediate.

Timing is everything and as I stumble around trying to add a photo here and there, who should appear but CSTerry. CST - your reference to the stooges is uncanny, as you can see from my lead, which was written before your post, though you beat me to the publish button. Great mines are found in northern Minnesota...and obviously, Calgary.

...now where was I?

No, the caption to the above is NOT..."Moe - Larry - Curly". Amazingly, after seven years, we were all able to recognize each other. From left to right, the true identity of the couched potatoes would be PBob, CSTerry and Bruce. But I'm getting ahead of the story.

Jill and PBob arrived in Calgary Tuesday morning, August 8th. The weather was uncharacteristically hot, by Calgary standards... but that was soon to change. Cool and rainy quickly became the norm, though it was not a problem since our plan was to lay low in camp (Terry and Ginnu's house) until Saturday, when a gala affair was planned. But I'm getting ahead of the story. The time between our arrival and the party was filled with mini tours of greater Calgary, a trip to COP (Calgary's Olympic Park), the "Taste of Calgary" function, which offered a wide sampling of culinary delights for a nominal fare, going to the movies, dinner with friends and generally loafing about while enjoying each others company. (To the right is a really tall structure connected with Olympic Ski Jumping)



Saturday, Bruce, Tanya, Annie and Robson...along with a host of other friends and relatives, converged at Terry and Ginnu's house for a fabulous meal of baked ham and turkey - with all the trimmings. And yes, Canadians do know how to brew great beer!!! As the evening wound down, Terry realized that there really hadn't been sufficient time for the SJC contingent to do a proper visit, and so... suggested that we might get together for brunch the next day at Bruce and Tanya's place. This would serve several functions, not the least of which would be the necessary motivation to motivate towards Banff and those wonderful mountains. Bruce and Tanya just happened to live on our exit route from Calgary and the rest is, shall we say...history. The brunch matched the calibre of the previous evening's fare and we managed a nice additional visit before hitting the road to Banff around 1:30 PM. Bruce was kind enough to lend a cooler, water bottle and walking stick to the endeavor. To my knowledge, none of these items were ever to be seen again...

PBob and Jill were the persons making the trip, so I'll let PBob do the TR. The caption for the pictures is " The Three Stooges do Calgary ". PBob is in red, the guy with the smirk in orange is Bruce and the rolly polly guy in the middle with the sun-bleached mustache and goatee is CST.

CSTerry and PBob,

Looking forward to someone's TR.

Not much time for vacationing. I'm at a time in my life where the old folks are in their sunsets, in their time of need. My wants are forgone, but it's okay. For now.

See ya