ANOTHER DAY IN BANFF

The French word of the day is “loosers endoloris”, which translates to “sore looser” in French. As in “Lance Armstrong won his seventh straight Tour De France today. Unfortunately, some French hack journalists will make up bogus allegations that he was using performance-enhancing drugs, because they are loosers endoloris.”

We didn’t do much on Saturday. We were beginning our first backpacking trip on Sunday, so Saturday was a rest day. We had some blueberry pancakes, and headed into Banff. We didn’t really want to go back there, but we had errands to run.

First we did laundry, which is a necessary evil when you’re on a month-long trip. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and grabbed some groceries. We also picked up two freeze-dried dinners, which cost $13 each (Canadian). Yes, that’s $13 for a bag of rice and unidentifiable lumps. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing with an outrageous price. Most of the groceries were expensive. Our favorite was a small bag of shredded cheese, for $5. And then there’s the beer. Moosehead is a Canadian beer, and has always been one of my favorites. At home, a 12-pack costs $10. In Banff, a 6-pack was $12. And it’s a Canadian beer! Apparently, the Canadian government taxes all of the fun things, like beer and cigarettes and gasoline, very heavily.

We finished our errands and headed back towards camp. It had rained the night before, and it was still cloudy and chilly. The sun was out a little though, and we decided to go for a short walk to stretch our legs. You didn’t really think I’d go a whole day without hiking, did you?

We drove to Castle Junction, and hiked the short trail to Silverton Falls. The falls were nice, though not exactly spectacular. The best part of the hike was spending a full hour in the woods without seeing more than a few other people.

We returned to camp, where we organized our gear for backpacking. That evening, the rain returned. After a week of mostly good weather, I was afraid the pattern was changing just in time for our backpacking trip. We went to sleep that night, worried that we’d be starting our trip in the rain.

Continue reading about our adventures in Canada, as we embark on a week-long backpacking trip along the continental divide from Vermillion Pass to Mount Assiniboine.

Back to the Canadian Rockies

Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports

Home

Please remember to Leave No Trace!