Day Nine

This morning we left our hotel enthralled by the clouds rolling across the landscape, literally.  They were lower than the mountain peaks. Paul did the devotional and talked about how our salvation is performance based.  Not OUR performance, but that of Jesus and what He did on the cross.

Our first stop today was at Athabasca Falls.  Hidden back in the woods we could hear its roar before we could see it.  The short hike was more than worth the visual feast when it came into view. Then on to Sunwapta Falls which means turbulent waters.  It lived up to its name.  Again hidden in the woods, totally undiscovered by tourists were it not for the walking paths leading to it.

Our tour on the glaciers at Athabasca Mountain was next.  We were shuttled via bus to the Snow Coach terminal partway up the mountain.  I use the word terminal lightly.  It was a simple wooden platform with a roof over it.  The Snow Coach is a fifty-five person vehicle with six huge floatation tires.  At a cost of 1.5 million each there are only 23 in existence on the planet. We reached a top speed of about 10-20 miles per hour.  Our driver, Bruce, took us down what is, according to him, the second steepest roadway slope in North America.  He told us if we’re scared to do what he does and close our eyes.

We learned a lot of interesting facts from Bruce.  The glacier we were on, Andromeda, and the other glaciers surrounding us range in depth from 100 to 1000 feet in depth.  We were told about the dangers of crevices and millstreams.  He pointed out a millstream, which is a hole that develops with flowing water running in under the surface ice, digging ever deeper.  The one we saw could easily have sucked in a small child and it was five hundred feet deep. 

Mt. Snowdome, one of the closer mountains bordering the glacier, is the site of the world’s only triple Continental Divide.  From that point, depending on which water source you’re discussing, the water will run into one of three different oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Arctic.

We also learned more about rock flour.  It is as fine as talcum powder and remains suspended in the lakes and streams that are fed from melting glaciers, turning the water an aqua blue color.  We were allowed to drink the melt water on the glacier if we wished.  Several of the group did.  We are waiting to see if they survive.

We saw our first bears today!  Well, our first bears in the wild anyway.  A mama and two cubs.  Several of us even managed to get a good photo or two.  I videoed and even though the quality is jerky and poor, I was thrilled anyway.  Three miles down the road someone yelled, There’s another one!”  Well, I totally missed it but I’m told it was a big one.

Back at the main lodge we ate lunch and turned back toward Banff for an afternoon of shopping.  According to a tourist we met today, Banff stands for Buy Anything, Nothing For Free.  There are countless charming little shops full of everything from candy to clothes to jewelry.  Since I’m not much of a shopper I bought an extremely expensive Mocha Frappe and sat outside the coffee shop to read, hoping the double shots of espresso would do their job.  Paul combed the candy stores looking for his favorite candy bars, only available in Canada, the country of his birth.  He also loaded up on boxes of maple leaf cookies, a favorite of ours.

 

We arrived at our hotel early and everyone was on their own for supper.  We ended up at a restaurant that proclaimed itself a pizza place but was actually much more.  The menu boasted one hundred items and they weren’t kidding.  About ten others from the bus walked in right after we did so we had company.   

Walking back to our hotel, the weather perfect, the mountains rising on every side, our stomachs full, stimulating conversation with friends, watching Dave chase gophers down their holes along our route, well, life is good.