Where’s the Bears ?

How’s this for a view from my bedroom…??So, a good day was in prospect, as everyone arose, and we breakfasted, made lunch and were on our way to meet Kathleen and Stewart at their Hotel in Banff and then we were all off to Lake Minnewanka  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Minnewanka for a days walking . We parked up in the early morning sunshine, although it was still chilly and set off on our expedition, soon to be joined by two girls from the International Hostel who wanted to walk also- but because of the ‘Bear restrictions’ could only do so with a group of 4+- and off we all trotted, along the clearly defined paths looking up at the mountains above..

We walked along the lake shore initially, then went left along the side of Stewart Canyon http://www.albertaeh.ca/banff-national-park/stewart-canyon.html and up to the end of the path, at the Riverside, where we stopped for some food, and Thomas’ ‘pitstop’ ! 

Returning back along the trail, we headed further into ‘Bear Country’, and along the Lakeside,  although up in the woods, getting very hot, the sun by now high above us, passing a large ‘warning sign’ threatening C$25,000 fines if we didn’t carry bear spray (one of the girls had some !), so we kept our eyes peeled looking for the Grizzly’s..as did Thomas – but didn’t find any – Stewart thought it was a fallacy !

Continuing high along the shoreline, looking down onto the Lake we could see pleasure boats chugging along,and across the other side of the Lake the mountains loomed straight up out of the Lake into the crumbling Heavens

Eventually we decided we’d walked far enough, had another break and food, and turned around to re-trace our steps back along the Lake shore, and to the warning sign… still not been eaten by the Bears, and happily wandering along, although I had subjected them all to some singing (to keep the bears away !)

Then back to the car park, with some ice cream on the way, and back home

We were joined later by Kath and Stu for a nice BBQ, and said our farewells to them as they were returning to Calgary the following day…and so, to bed, Goodnight !