A brunette is walking along a track when an elk jumps out. Start of joke? Possibly. Both brunette and elk have minor aneurisms and severe palpitations? Yup. I think that the brunette was too busy looking at the icy track because she had ended up on her backside just minutes earlier, and didn't see that she was walking right up to an elk. With huge mofo antlers. He was huge. So he jumped, she jumped, and both backed away edgily from each other. They're certainly not small animals. Just wish I could have seen it!
I'm in Banff for a few days, Snuffy Pig will be joining me tomorrow night for the weekend, which will be nice. Didn't really do much at Nakiska before I left last night, though we did go out for a romantic candlelit dinner. Okay, so it was just candlelit. I've gotta take what I can get! We did share an awesome dessert called an avalanche - chocolate icecream, chocolate brownies, chocolate fudge, chocolate chip cookies and a chocolate lattice to top it off (insert drool here).
I've spent the entire day hiking in Banff National Park, which is just stunning. It's quite a wonderful feeling knowing that you are completely isolated in the wilderness, the snow squelching underneath, the sun streaming down between the brigade of snow-covered trees, the hawk catching and eating that other cute little bird, and crap! What was that noise? That guy was joking about cougars wasn't he? I can't see anything. Where am I anyway? This trail has criss-crossed so many times I don't think I could retrace my steps. It feels really cold. I can't see civilisation. I'm not going to say the L word. I'm not lo-what was that? Phew, just a squirrel.
I discovered that the trails aren't exactly clearly marked in winter, which although was quite fun to toboggan on my shoe/butt to begin with, kind of lost its appeal as the sun went behind the mountains and I realised I had NO idea how to get back. Thankfully, because I am ridiculously lucky intelligent, I found my way back to a road.
So this brunette is walking along a road and she hears this noise. She had had a run in with an elk earlier, and was a little hesitant to turn around. She turns around and sees nothing. As she goes to continue walking, her peripheral vision picks up something climbing onto the road from the cliff face below. A Kristen in fact. Kristen is from Denmark and likes trekking in the middle of BF nowhere. Jebus Christ she scared the hell out of me!!
I walked with Kristen for another couple of hours, sharing stories and trekking with her in the middle of BF nowhere, but she had a sense of direction so I didn't care. So, I returned home after trekking for about 6 hours, and I be tired! (Best hot shower - EVER. Except for the burning the crap out of my fingers which nearly dropped off).
For the info-maniacs out there (okay, me), I walked to the Banff Cave which houses hot springs and that wonderfully acrid smell of sulphur. I love the way it weaves up into your nostrils even if you have them blocked. I think we should take year 8s here. They would LOVE it. People swam in this hot spring until about 1914, when they moved to the upper springs. These lower springs are now home to the Banff Springs Snail, found in only these 5 hot spring and nowhere else in the world, the poor little bugger.
I then hiked up to Sundance Canyon, which was...not. Not a canyon, no sun-dancing, not even a view. Hurrumph. I then attempted to find the Hoodoo Trail, and as aforementioned, became completely lost. I am now eating chocolate and am going to turn the T.V. on I think. Why? Because I can biatches, because I can.
Hope you are all REALLY enjoying work.
Mwah!
