September 1st, 2015... 4 days till I begin my biggest adventure yet.
Summer is coming to a close and time is running short, but I think I have made great use of this summer and these last couple days. Since I graduated in June I've made more memories than I ever imagined I would. From Alaska to Banff, to even just around my backyard, I've done lots and I'm kind of sad it's coming to a close.
The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind, I’ve been packing vigorously and trying to spend as much time with as many of my friends as possible. Lately I’ve spent nights by the fire with friends, watched drive in movies (yep a buddy of mine has a legit drive in theatre in his backyard), or even sprayed glowstick juice all over each other while paddleboarding at midnight. This last week has really been great, and I have so many people to thank for it.
Quickly I just wanted to share some of my top memories from this summer.
My Favorite part of this summer, even though it rained almost every day, was exploring Alaska with my Family. For a grad gift my parents let me pick any place that WestJet flew to and sent us all there for a camping trip. Seeing that I love glaciers Alaska was right on the top of my list, and it sure didn’t disappoint. Since WestJet didn’t fly directly to Alaska, we actually had to start our trip in Whitehorse, which turned out to be a really cool place itself. Our first night in Whitehorse we ended up camping at this super hippy like campground where it almost felt like you went back to the 70's. From Whitehorse started driving south to Alaska, Yes we went south, to Carcross and then on to Skagway. Now Skagway was something else, a tourist mecca that was designed to look just like an old gold rush city still booming. There were wooded boardwalks and even an old brothel hanging around still. We only stayed one night in Skagway because the other night we spent just below the Laughton Glacier. To get to the glacier we had to take the Whitehorse express several miles up into the middle of nowhere and get dropped off. From the drop off spot we had just 3 miles to hike to get to our own cabin that we rented, and only another short mile to get to the glacier. It was incredible seeing the Laughton glacier and being able to camp out in a cozy little cabin just below it.
From Skagway we took a ferry down to Juneau where we camped out next to the famous Mendenhall Glacier lagoon. This was just incredible, waking up every morning to the chilly air and seeing the giant ice heave just across the lagoon. One morning we rented Kayaks and got to paddle around with the icebergs and up near the glacier, but not too close in case the glacier decided to calve on us. Our last night in Juneau was a blast, it was the 3rd of July and since Juneau has light almost all night they celebrate the 4th of July early, 12:01am the morning of the 4th of July, the first city in America to shoot off their fireworks.
Haines was the next and last destination on this trip. This little town of maybe 500 people was the site where the U.S. and Canada almost went to war. The States for wanted this location badly so they quickly set up a fort and a garrison expecting Canada to retaliate, but nothing happened and now this Beautiful town sits, close to vacant.
Another one of my top moments of the summer was exploring as much of Banff in one day as possible. My brother Conner and I decided that one morning while we were in Calgary we were going to try hit as many famous locations in Banff as possible. So the next morning we woke up at 4am, picked up our adopted sister from Calgary and headed for the mountains. The trip didn’t start off smoothly as we had a few issues finding Vermillion lakes and Johnston Canyon, but after we bypassed those the trip was just on the up and up. We hit Moraine Lake, Bow Lake, Lake Louise, Peyto Lake, Bow Lake, and finally Vermillion Lakes on the way home. Stopping only once at Bow lake to let the rain pass and to have a much needed lunch. After spending a solid 12 busy hours in the park we were all exhausted and decided to make our way back to Calgary to rest up. Seeing all these famous locations in person really was a highlight, it's cool to see great photos, but to see how beautiful all the lakes really were was just perfect.
Lastly ill just add a few quick highlights from the last few week in Cold Lake, seeing I’ve already written way more than I thought I would.
My brother and I last year decided we would try to canoe around Cold Lake, and it turned out to be so much fun that we just had to do it again this year, but also complete the final leg that we had to skip last year. This year we made killer timing and without really trying made it all the way around the lake in 28 hours. Where last year it took us over 3 days and we still didn’t complete it... Oops.
Who doesn’t like a late night swim under the full moon? Well decked out in glowsticks and elwire a few of us went don’t to the lake with paddle boards and just tooled around in the freezing cold water and enjoy the calm night... Well calm besides all our yelling and terrible singing. What started out as just simple swim and paddle board soon turned into an all-out glowstick juice fight. Quickly we were all covered in glowing toxins and the water had an eerie glow to it, but it was certainly a night to remember.
I won’t add anything more to this post, and I’ll do my best to keep my future posts shorter. If you're interested in seeing pictures or hearing more about any of these let me know or check me out on Instagram and Facebook @BrandonBorn!
