It's been a while since I've updated this thing, which is ironic, because big things have actually happened since my last update (as opposed to nothing happening during updates.) Two weeks have passed and two weekends have been filled with the giant sized behemoth bodies of Earth known as the Rockies...and we had a run in with a bear.
So now that you know the ending, I'll run through the story in a linear fashion. The weekend before last, Nikki and I took off to a little town at the foot of the Rockies by the name of Canmore. We arrived on an overcast Friday evening, with clouds concealing the scenery, leaving us with no knowledge of what was encircling the town. After a couple of pints and dinner (which was BISON!) we found our way to the B&B we were staying at and slept. The clock struck nine and we opened the blinds to be absolutely blown away by the giant, snow-tipped mountain staring back at us. Turns out the entire town of Canmore is surrounded by the Rocky mountains (who woulda figured.) I've never been one for sight seeing, but those mountains were phenomenal...we'd be walking along a trail through the bush, through tiny waterfalls and squirrel ridden trees before finding a clearing and being gobsmacked by the mountains. They were unlike anything I've ever seen before. I want one in my room.
So other than eating lots of bison, drinking lots of beer, seeing lots of mountain, walking lots of trails and sleeping, not a lot eventful or narratable really happened...until the following weekend.
By all rights I shouldn't have been on this trip. It was a hike organised by Nikki's Biogeography lecturer (Geoff) which somehow, at the last minute, got an open invite to which I heartily took advantage of. This one was out in the Rockies again, a hike of 800metres elevation over 2km. Read: straight up. The mountain was called Mt Infatigueable. They lied. I was tired as all shit.
Several hours of moving north along the x-axis ensued before we stopped in our tracks where two deer were grazing on the side of a slope. We tiptoed past them in relative awe, watching their little flicky tails and being generally impressed and excited that we saw two deer in Canada. As if that was the Canadian experience. Cue 10 minutes as we stumble along to a clearing consisting of a dried up lake bed. The group saw some patches of snow and decided that we'd go play in it...we started walking and then were told by Geoff that the walk stops there.
I struggled a bit with that concept until I saw off in the distance this big lumbering silver-backed brown lump of a thing moving towards us. Easily the biggest thing I've ever seen in the wild...a big, fat, fuck-off Grizzly bear. (As a side note, and to talk up how big a deal this was, Geoff knew colleagues who'd worked on the Alberta Grizzly Bear Project for several years and had never seen one.) So the group action was to bundle up and walk up the side of a mountain away from vegetation where the bear wouldn't walk to. The bear (who I presume, like Yogi, was smarter than the average bear) thought little of that so continued to lumber directly towards us, following his nose which was probably attracted by Nikki's stanky dreads. The next response was to get the flip out of there and get up and out of his way, which we did successfully, only to watch him from afar walk right up to where we were sitting and start sniffing around for us.
So that was awesome...as in, one of the single most awesome things I've seen in my lifetime. It was so big. I watched it poo...its poo (which we stumbled upon on our way back around) wasn't as impressive as I hoped, but was still pretty cool I guess...you know...for bear shit.
Following that, the triumph of the mountain and the deathly descent back to base (as well as playing in the unmelted snow, dipping my head in the two degree Kananaskis River) we went to a lodge for beers, had some great chats about life, careers, music, etc where I was inducted as an honourary one day only geographer, accused of spousal abuse and told that we were a Summer of Love couple several decades too late.
...and then the bear came tearing through the lodge in a revenge attempt, kicking the door down with one swift swipe before narrowing his eyes and setting upon the group with gusto. Thankfully I was wearing my judo hat and kicked the shit out of it...and by kick, I mean carefully directed grapples in accordance with ancient judo stylings.
The end.
