Saturday, October 07, 2006
The bow valley beer can and the real view, car of Andy Richard
I left of with us having a few brews with Andy and his compatriots. This Bow Valley beer was cheap and for a cheap beer it was surprisingly good...do I see sales for this on the east coast? OH YAH, YOU BETCHA! I do warn you though, this beer provides you with stinky farts the following morning.
We (myself, Brian, Andy, Andy’s friends Kim, Ally, Jody and 9 Stitches Niki) headed to downtown Banff. This girl has the nickname of 9-Stiches Niki because she cut her leg while back and got 9 stitches, so she srecieved the nick name of 9 stitches niki. I don’t really know the names of the pubs we went too but there were two of them. On the way home I was all pumped hoping to see some more "big game" but no dice...there was nothing out.
We were in bed by 3am and then up again by 730am. At 830 we (Brian, Andy, 9 Stitches and myself) were heading up the Banff gondola (http://www.banffgondola.com/) for some breaky. These bacon and eggs were damn good. Following this breakfast break we took a walk along a boardwalk type feature to the summit of Sulphur Mountain. I think I should have brought my oygen pack for this little hike. The view of the valley and town of banff was amazing. At the summit we were at an elevation of 7486 feet above sea level. Following the trip back down the gondola we said farewell to Andy and the banff bonanza was concluded. I would like to thank Andy for his hospitality and letting us crash at his place, we hope to see you out in Kelowna and Big White within the next few months.
Brian, Rob and Andy - Mnt. Sulphur
Banff from Mnt. Sulphur
Rob & Brian atop Mnt. Sulphur
We were on the road by 1030 local time and this would be our final day of driving to Vancouver. The road down the mountains was 2 lanes for the most part thus speeds were not as fast as we had been used to during our previous travels. There were a few sections of road where the red hawk was really lacking its usuall bevy of power. Even on flat sections trying to pass trucks it would not get up past 80km/hr. I thought I was in trouble, but I put this down to heavy load and the thin air from being up in the mountains.
Views as we went from Banff to Vancouver
At one point we came around a bend in the road and there were all these cars just abandoned in the ditch or side of the road, there were people running all over the place with their cameras - I was confused. However it was people stopping to see the pacific salmon heading up the river to their spawning location. We decided to take advantage of these people pulling off and contiuned with a clean stretch of road. The next stop we wanted to make was at Craigellachie. It was at this location that the last spike was driven for the CP railroad. It now meant that there was a rail road connecting the east and west coasts of canada. The date was Nobemer 7th, 1885 - this railroad is still active today.
We stopped for supper at Kamloops, filled up with gasoline and then were onto the home stretch towards vancouver. After driving a distance of 5559km spanning 7 provinces we are now situated within the Comfort Inn on Capitalano Road, North Vancouver. It was an interesting trip in which I saw some amazing scenery. I think when the time calls for it the trip back to the east coast shall be made via the states.
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