CR2012: Arrival

Our 2012 trip to the Canadian Rockies began, as usual, with flying to Calgary. A moose waited for us in the arrivals hall.

We walked over to the rental car building and got in line for Hertz, with whom we had a reservation of many months standing. There was only one person ahead of us in line, which we thought was good, but things were moving slowly. When we reached the counter, there weren't any cars available in our reserved category (full-size). It all depends on when people bring their cars in, we were told; apparently, Hertz expects the drop-offs to happen sooner than the pick-ups, and when they inevitably don't, you wait. We emphasized to the guys at the counter that we wanted a vehicle with a trunk, to keep our luggage secure, which is why we reserved a 'full-size' vehicle oh-so-many months ago. And then we waited. For a bit over an hour, at which time they offered us ... an SUV. Trunkless. Without even a privacy screen to pull over the cargo area. We expressed our displeasure, only to learn that Hertz expects most customers to request an "upgrade" to an SUV. We didn't. We were told that there was no telling how long it would take for a full-size car with a trunk to be available. We said we'd wait, and our frame of mind was not the best. Something always goes awry with the rental car companies at the Calgary airport -- we've tried at least three over the years. We learned to avoid the queueing hell of the Calgary Stampede, or the Labor Day weekend. We had arrived by 11:30am. But nothing helps. An hour and a half into this visit we were fuming at the futility and gullibility of making a vehicle choice when reserving a car. Ten minutes later Gary (praise to him) ran in with the keys to a real car, a Dodge Avenger who we promptly named Mr. Steed. We left and headed south for Okotoks.

At Okotoks we headed west on Highway 7, to reach the Okotoks Erratic, a glacial erratic:

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From the ground, you can appreciate how out of place the rocks are.

And closer up, you see how massive these boulders are.

These quartzite pieces are hundreds of miles out of place, having fallen atop a glacier near Jasper during the last Ice Age. They were slowly carried by the glacier to this point, by which time the glacier had stopped growing and then melted. There are several informative signs along the trail.

Then we drove further down Highway 7 to the small town of Black Diamond, and Marv's Classic Soda Shop. We had stopped here last year, and by this time desperately needed another chocolate malted with chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup. We've received recommendations for Marv's carbonated ice cream, but it's impossible for us to pass up the chocolate malted.

We then turned north, headed towards the Trans-Canada Highway by a route we'd never taken before. We arrived at the Canadian Artisans Bed and Breakfast in Canmore, our choice for the last three years, and were greeted by our hosts Bob and Val. Canadian Artisans, besides being comfortable and offering astonishingly good breakfasts, has an ideal location within walking distance of both the downtown area and riverside trails. Our pigs (Dr. Maybe, Babelet, and Ruth) got along very well with the host bear in our room.

We ambled down to the Valhalla Pure store to pick up bear spray (not for the cuddly one above), had dinner at the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company, an excellent place for an informal dinner, and then crashed. It had been a long day, and tomorrow was our first hike.