9 AM?-5 PM
Thank you, Lord, list:
Exhilarating mountain climb
Walking on snow
Breath-taking canyon views
Cool spray of mist from a waterfall
Another beautiful picnic spot
Red wine with bison meat loaf and crispy salad greens
Did I mention that today would be spectacular? It will be hard to describe. I took 117 photos and that was just with the camera. I also did a few panoramas and videos on my phone. According to Mayo Clinic, I walked 19,531 steps today (7.88 miles) and climbed the equivalent of 91 floors!
We didn't rush out. I had a quiet cup of tea with my devotions. Ate breakfast sitting down rather than in the car as some days. Since the weather was nice we decided to start with the Jasper Tram, which is really a cable car.
Mom and Steve hung around the top for a while.
I walked farther--80+ of those 91 stories I climbed today--including crossing this ice field to the top.
Well worth it for the views.
It was so windy coming down that I thought I would blow right off the mountain. In fact, it was so windy that they closed the tram for an hour, and I had to wait for it to re-open. Too bad Steve and Mom had already gone down (last tram before they closed) or we could have lunched in their top-of-the-world restaurant. Instead we had another delightful picnic spot on Edith Lake.
In the afternoon we continued to Maligne Canyon, so named by the Catholic missionary who had a hard time crossing the river on his horse although if he had crossed at the canyon, he probably could have jumped across--only 10 feet wide in places. Mom napped in the car while Steve and I checked out the incredible drop to a stream you could hardly see at the bottom.
There are four bridges across the canyon and two more at the bottom across the river. Steve graciously agreed to wait for me at the bottom so I could hike down. That's where a lot of those photos came from. Awesome! We met at the sixth bridge. Note: the fifth bridge would have been a mile closer to meet up and by then the river was "only" a rushing mountain cascade with "ordinary" mountain views like this one. Ordinary. Yeah, right.
There was way more water at the bottom than the top because a nearby lake is "a leaky bathtub" with a network of tunnels pouring water into the river from the sides of the canyon.
Next stop: Athabasca Falls.
Another incredible canyon of falling water.
And so we returned "home" to our hotel, weary and well-satisfied. Patio dinner. Mom and I split a plate of bison meatloaf with spaghetti squash, red cabbage, greens and new potatoes (including the purple kind)--easily enough for three. She started with a bowl of salmon chowder. I started with a salad--real greens with blue cheese, apple slices and candied pecans--and that was the house salad.
My feet hurt. I think I'll head over to the hot tub.
Tomorrow with be "The Ice Field Highway." It's only a three-hour drive to Banff, but we expect to take a lot longer.
Afghan update: Are you kidding? On a day like this?
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