Happy Holidays!

  • August 27, 2007
  • Kids

Well, that was good.  

It’s been ages since I’ve been out camping.  Probably the last, best camping I’ve done lately was the Zarquil Zonar’s Wonderful Weekend in the Woods series of camps.  

The basic premise was you grab a bunch of buddies, you grab a flat of beer each, and you go out somewhere, build a fire, and spend a weekend not thinking about the opposite sex (Rule 4), keeping the fire alive by bringing a log when you (ahem) leave a log (Rule 11, I think) and - most importantly - keeping SGR in the dark about everything (Rule 7).  

Well, this was a lot more simple premise.  Grab the kids, go out to the mountains for a week and show them some of my favourite places.

I decided a while back to head up to Mosquito Creek to camp.  I had easy access to a series of great hikes we could do in the daytime that weren’t going to be too hard on the kids - while giving me choice for a few more difficult hikes that were a little more rewarding.  After that, we could head down near Banff to relax.  

It almost worked.  

Our first day out we went up to Bow Glacier for an easy hike to see just how well the kids would do.  The kids brought along their hiking boots and I figured we were safe as can be for a simple hike.

We rounded the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge just fine as we passed the bend of Bow Lake.  “How are your socks, kids?  How are your shoes, kids?  How are you feeling kids?”

Invariably the answer was “Good.“  Well, that is until I heard, “Daaaaad, I’ve got something in my boot.”

One massive blister left us with only short, easy hikes the rest of the trip.

That was okay.  We went up to Moraine Lake which remains my favourite place on earth.  We dawdled through the mountains a little more than I initially planned, but we got up to the more “Touristy” spots around Lake Louise and Banff.

Thursday was the highlight for the kids as we went to the Banff Hot Springs.  We spent a lot of time at the Cave and Basin, especially looking at the Banff Springs Snails.  Then two hours soaking in the upper springs.  Aaahh..  goodness.

Great time.  I’m looking forward to it next year.

Photos are posted, you must be a registered user to view them.  Have fun - we sure did.