CR2014: Not the Day We Planned

On July 31st Joan and I drove from Delta Lodge Kananaskis to tackle the Wasootch Ridge hike. But we hadn't even reached the highway when the TPMS (Tire Management System) went off again, just like yesterday morning.

This meant that we didn't have a very slow leak that had taken two weeks, since renting the car, to trigger the TPMS. We had a new leak that took fewer than 24 hours to raise the alarm. Joan and I were heading for a day-long hike whose trailhead might very well have no cell service. We turned around. The receptionist at the Delta Lodge was helpful and gave us a pass for the underground parking garage, where there was an air hose. On arrival we saw that the hose had no pressure gauge. A maintenance guy showed me how to use the hose (not necessary) but had no idea where there might be a pressure gauge (usually necessary). I gave the tire a shot and Joan and I returned to our room to sort things out.

Joan began by using her Verizon prepaid cellphone to call Hertz, the rental agency. Or, she tried to. When she turned it on she received two text messages welcoming her to Telus, a Canadian wireless carrier, but she couldn't place a call out. She could call customer service, but that connected her to Telus, not Verizon. All other calls yielded a fast busy signal. I could call her from my T-Mobile prepaid phone, roaming with Rogers Wireless, but she couldn't call. This blow shattered our already shaky relationship with Verizon, which will be the subject of another post.

The Hertz help line, reached via the T-Mobile phone, wasn't helpful at first. She told us that if we had an auto club membership we could have them come out and change the tire for the "doughnut" spare, at our expense. Or she could have Hertz come do it, again at our expense. Such a shame we hadn't paid for 24 road service, she said. Argh. We weren't going to ride a doughnut spare on the mountain roads and all the way back to Calgary.

The closest Hertz agency was in Banff, the agent reported, but it was in a hotel and therefore must be very small and probably couldn't help us. Well, give us the number, please. And what is the hotel? The Fairmont Banff Springs, a high-end resort hotel with hundreds of rooms, boutique shopping, and a huge conference center. We smiled. The odds were good.

We called, and Kane answered. He had a car in the same category as ours that was to be turned in at 2:00, and we said we'd be over asap to turn in the damaged-windshield and leaking-tire car.

The first structure of the Fairmont hotel sits on one side of a large traffic circle,

opposite the conference center.

The entrance to the Hertz agency is just beyond the circle. Kane was very helpful with the paperwork for the current rental car, and then it was time to wait for the 2:00 return car. Joan and I explored the shops in the hotel, and then walked a while down the Spray River Loop trail. There we saw glimpses of an elk,

and noshed on the snacks we'd brought with us. We returned to Kane at the appointed time.

The 2:00 car hadn't been returned yet. We waited a few minutes while Kane worked with a customer that wanted to rent a car one-way to Toronto, a very expensive proposition. Then our turn arrived, and Kane gave us a low-mileage Toyota Camry. That car came with an annoying Hertz NeverLost GPS that would loudly announce "updating" at random intervals, but we were happy for a solid car.

Joan and I can't say enough about Kane's helpfulness, friendliness, and energy level. We aren't alone in our opinion; see what happens if you google him. I was confident that he was a caffeine addict, but no, he said, he didn't touch the stuff. When the Hertz office closed at 4:00 he had some time off before starting his second job as a night accountant at the Fairmont!

The drive back to Delta Lodge Kananaskis in the Camry was pleasant and uneventful (except for the NeverLost). At dinner that evening we reflected on the day and realized that perhaps having a non-hiking day (it's hard to call it a rest day) was a good thing, for tomorrow we would tackle the Centennial Ridge Trail, the highest maintained trail in the Canadian Rockies.

Tonight there was a prerequisite for the Centennial Ridge attempt: food. The Delta Lodge Kananaskis restaurant and deli schedules do not cater to hikers who wish to make an early start, or grab a trail lunch the night before, so we had to stock up on snacks from the deli before it closed and stash them in the pocket refrigerator in our room.

Tomorrow would be the renowned relentless climb towards Mount Allen. The round trip is rated at 10 hours, so we'll see how far we can go before reaching a turnaround time, as with our earlier hike on the Windtower.

CR2013: Sulphur Mountain, Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, and Home

Today, September 10th, Joan and I continued to substitute other activities for hiking, to ease the stress on her injured foot. We spent most of the day in Banff, starting with the gondola ride to the top of Sulphur Mountain.

In this photo we're watching gondolas arrive at the top of the mountain, having already gone up ourselves. It's good to arrive at the lower station to buy tickets no later than 10:30, as the tour buses begin to arrive then.

These gondolas hold four adults.

This photo covers the wide view from the gondola complex, starting with the old weather station on the prominence at the extreme left. Far below is the Banff townsite, on both sides of the Bow River, which winds around the prominent Tunnel Mountain. In the distance, at the foot of the far mountains right of center, is Lake Minnewonka.

Zooming in on the center of Banff.

On this side of the Bow sits the famous Fairmont Banff Springs resort.

There is a boardwalk to the old weather observatory, so it's easy to stroll over.

This sign describes how the tough Norman Sanson climbed this mountain for 43 years to collect weather information, starting in 1903. Click to enlarge.

A cosmic ray station was also based here between 1956 and 1978. It's gone now.

Looking back, Joan and I see that the gondola station has a UFO-like appearance. That's understandable, given that it was constructed in 1958-1959. It also underwent renovation in 1997-1998.

A view from the boardwalk down the Sundance Range.

Eventually Joan and I decided it was time to ride back down the mountain.

We then drove to the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum. This museum is dedicated to the peoples and history of the First Nations tribes of western North America whose lives depended on the buffalo. Photography of the exhibits was not allowed, but I took this picture of the main sign. We enjoyed the museum, but don't need to make a return visit soon.

Afterwards Joan and I had a snack in downtown Banff and then visited the always-fascinating Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. It's easy to invest an hour or two there. We wrapped up our visit to Banff by checking out the Canada House Gallery, which always has lovely paintings, sculpture, and sometimes fabric work. Handsome stuff. Expensive stuff, deservedly so.

Then we drove back to Kananaskis Country and the Delta Lodge, for our final dinner and evening there. In the morning we finished packing and drove towards Canmore, stopping at the pullover on Highway 40 for O'Shaughnessy Falls. The falls are named after John O'Shaughnessy, who was the chief engineer for the construction of Highway 40, which began in 1973.

The creek begins at a spring high up on the mountain, and this 'forever-flowing' spring was a sacred spring for the Stoney Indians. It was said that neither sickness or disease would afflict those who used its waters.

O'Shaughnessy had the waterfall constructed to control the stream, and then landscaped around the waterfall and built a wishing well. Good work, John! Not every engineer would do that.

We deferred the walk to the top of the waterfall for a later year, and drove on to Canmore. There we visited the historic section of the cemetery. Here are laid to rest many immigrant miners and their families; a study is underway to plan a renovation of this section. We also visited several of the downtown galleries, which is especially fun because they all strive to distinguish themselves from each other. Another downtown stop was our second visit this trip to the Café Bookstore, which offers wonderful browsing.

The most important part of our visit, however, was to Le Chocolatier. Joan and I have stopped here every year since our discovery of this chocolate-lover's paradise. We bought truffles and bonbons for ourselves and our neighbors, which was a challenge in that Le Chocolatier offers about two dozen flavors to choose from between those categories. We also enjoy some of their specialty items, such as the hedgehogs. For meals on the road or on the trail, however, you can't beat their bars. We gave a boost to Canmore's retail sector here! On our way out of Canmore we stopped at a roadside park and each had a bar for lunch.

Then we ran through the routine of driving to Calgary, filling the rental car with gas, and checking into the Delta hotel at the airport, just next to the rental car return. The rooms are quiet but not huge, the dining room is surprisingly good for an airport hotel, and the airport departure level is just across the drop-off traffic lanes.

After Joan and I returned to Ohio we soon discovered that Joan indeed had a stress fracture in a metatarsal bone, as we suspected. Fun fact: stress fractures typically do not show up in X-ray images until the healing process is well begun, and are diagnosed by symptoms instead. The podiatrist remarked on how slim Joan's metatarsals were -- which is not an advantage! We concluded that the combination of a short training period (after our Arctic cruise), an aggressive hiking schedule, and cross-country rock-hopping was to blame, and we'll take more care in the future.

But, as always, our visit to the Canadian Rockies was a great trip, and we'll be back in the summer of 2014.