Who needs a workout, when all you need to do is hike a mountain or two

August 26, 2012

Day 10

 

Last night I wore Solly’s chest waders to bed to keep me warm and they definitely did the trick.  I was sweating so much, I was cold from my sweat.  Guess the idea backfired :P.   We made breakfast, which consisted of eggs and ham on flat bread.  I cooked sausages for the hike over the fire (I partially made a fire because I needed to warm up).

We headed to Banff to grab our morning coffee and Solly needed to purchase a piece for his camera as well before went to Lake Louise.  We drove straight to the lake and took a few photos at a waterfall along the road.

Lake Louise

We took a few photos of and in front of Lake Louise and its magnificent colour scheme.    Then we walked over to the Fairmont Hotel so Solly could get another coffee and we browsed the inside shops of the hotel.

Solly enjoying Lake Louise

We took the trail towards Mirror Lake, which would lead us to Little Beehive Mountain and Big Beehive Mountain.  We were tired and sore from yesterdays hike so we approached this hike a little slower than yesterday.  I could definitely feel the tightness in my TFL and IT bands.  Who needs a gym workout when you have got these insanely steep trails that get your heart pounding just as hard as a cardio workout, sometimes harder depending on what you are doing.

Mirror Lake

 

When we arrived at Mirror Lake we walked around it towards the waterfalls so Solly could take some photos.  There we met a crazy chipmunk, who could smell the food on me and kept coming closer and closer.  I will admit I was extremely scared this creature was going to attack me for food.  I took the granola wrapper, which I believed was what he smelt and put it in Solly’s pocket!  Then the chipmunk left me alone LOL.  I have to tell you the chipmunks up in these mountains are fat.  They are not the average ones we see in the city, probably because they feed on dropping from the humans.

My crazy friend – I thought he was going to jump on me

After Mirror lake, we headed towards Little beehive Mountain.  When nearing the top, we ran out of water so we decided to head to the tea house on the mountain first and get a water refill.  They couldn’t refill our bottles because they have to boil the water first, but he said we were okay to drink from Lake Agnes, which the tea house is situated beside.  We had a quick bite to eat, filled our water bottles in the waterfall, then headed up Little Beehive Mountain.

In front of the falls that lead into Mirror Lake

 

 

The view at the top is magnificent and has totally made driving across Canada worth the wait to get to Banff.  As we are relaxing at the top, I mention to Solly we better get going because we still have Big Beehive to do.  Our digital camera’s batteries died so we have no more photos from this point until our film from our other camera is developed.

Lake Agnes Tea House

 He wasn’t so keen at first, but I also messed up and said that we weren’t climbing to the top, we were just walking between Big Beehive and the Devil’s Thumb.  The climb up Big Beehive is a lot steeper.  We attacked each leg of the switchbacks at a good pace, then rested before the next one.  At the top of Big Beehive, there is a look out tower.  We trekked out to the edge of Big Beehive, then made our way down the Mountain and back to Lake Louise.  This hike took us approximately 7 hours to do.  We were quite tired, on the way down the mountain my legs were shaking from the fatigue of our last couple of days.

Big Beehive Mountain

 

When we arrived back at the parking lot, we sat with relief and ate our lunch that we had packed, but was left in the car.  We didn’t realize the trail would take us that long (we didn’t finish it, there is part that goes out to the glaciers).

On the way back from Lake Louise, we grabbed dinner at the grocery store in Banff, which was steak and mixed veggies (corn, green beans and sweet potatoes).  We relaxed around the campfire and now we are ready for bed after such a long day.