Canada/Alaska - Lake Louise
Enough of Banff (`tis a silly place’) lets go to Lake Louise. We had a couple of chances leaving Banff on our way to Lake Louise to stop off and point at places we’d been, where we were and where we were going. (isn’t that a Burt Bacharrach song?) It’s amazing to look at the mountains and landscape and imagine in your mind how everything was formed. How God pulled some earwax our of his listening hole. Rolled it about on his fingers for a bit before flicking it at the treasured blue marble he’d just created, made some mountains on it and then spat at it to make some lakes. Yes, he’s quite a grotty deity. Or if you believe that silly scientific nonsense and it was all created by huge plates of rock and earth deep in the ground being forced against each other and pushing the colliding pieces up out of the ground to make enormous mountains and valleys - pfffft! Well some people will believe anything.
We stopped off at one place along the way to walk along a long path to view a fairly interesting waterfall. And it was good, don’t get me wrong. But the walk was better than the waterfall in my opinion because there were chipmunks along the way! I’ve never seen one in real life before (I don’t count the reoccurring dreams). They’re very cute and fast. Rather like a cute blur of fur. (giggles to self for several seconds) What interested me most was the roadside Diner/Kiosk/Holiday Cabins that were at the entrance to the walk. We stopped in for a bite on the way back and it seemed to me like some mythical place run entirely by a family of pretty young women. No men. Just a lot of girls who looked like sisters shuffling about the place serving and cleaning.
We travelled for a bit along the highway until we stopped - inertia’s a bitch sometimes. The bus had broken down just meters away from a mysterious wood cabin with a light on in the second story window. Several of our group volunteered to go to the cabin and ask for help. But within the hour, less even. Another Bus was there to transfer everyone and their luggage onto it and on to Lake Louise and we never spoke of those that went to the cabin again except to divide their luggage up between us later that night. The APT people it should be said were awesome in their service and took a reasonable cut. No one on our trip could fault them. Those that did were beaten and publicly humiliated - Sigh
The weird thing about Lake Louise is how much it looks so much like it does in the photos you see of it (go figure!). It’s almost too pretty to be real. But then that may have been the medication I got in my cut of `those we don’t speak of’s’ luggage. Once again we stayed at another luxurious Fairmont Resort that seemed to want to loom over the landscape as much as the landscape loomed over you. If that makes any sense.
