Tea House Trek

We're in Banff for the Mountain Book and Film festival. We had the day free Wednesday so we went to Lake Louise and hiked the 12 km roundtrip up to the Plain of Six Glaciers Tea House. It was a beautiful day - clear blue skies and fantastic views of the mountains. It was a little icy down by the lake where it had been melting and up at the tea house there was 4 or 5 inches of snow, but overall the trail was in good shape.

It was nice to actually get outside in the mountains. It's always frustrating, and more than a little ironic, to go to the mountains and then sit indoors hearing about the wonders of the outdoors! Especially when the weather is beautiful.

We probably would have walked right by but luckily another hiker pointed out a mother and a young mountain goat just beside the trail. I think I got some good photos of them. (I'll post some photos when I get a chance.) For a change they were close and there was plenty of light. Impressive creatures.

A few minutes later we ran into another couple and we told them to watch for the mountain goats. They asked if they had been "aggressive". The question puzzled me at first but then I remembered there had been a recent freak incident where someone had been killed by a mountain goat. A new thing for people to get freaked out about, despite the fact they're far more likely to get killed or hurt driving than hiking.

We passed a woman on the trail who had just arrived on the bus from Bellingham Washington that morning. She'd had a few days left on her bus pass and decided to take advantage of it. She told us her husband had passed away earlier in the year and since then she had been traveling by bus and train all over the United States. You can imagine either her husband hadn't liked travel or else his death had made her realize that if you put things off too long you may never do them. Good for her! There are many ways to have your own adventures, it doesn't have to be the big name National Geographic style adventures that we hear about at the festival.