Leaving Glacier National Park, I drove into B.C. and spent a day with my friend Ed, with whom I had reconnected last August in Colorado after almost 60 years. He's the one who found the movie we made with Coronet Films, Getting Ready For School. Here it is again in case you missed it in the post “LARPING and Being With Family.”
While I'm sharing old movies, here's the other one, Your Wonderful Body; How it Grows. I found this one on eBay and had the tape digitized, but edited out titles and the science stuff. These are the only videos I have of me as a kid, and definitely the only video of me playing ball with my dad!
Heading north, the mountains became increasingly dramatic. I stayed at Kootenay National Park, and kept up the hiking regimen, but also dug deeper into slowing down. The hike to Stanley Glacier was technical enough that I decided I'm done with loose scree on steep trails. Coming down, I had to go “ekee ekee”; my term for gingerly placing your foot while balancing yourself with poles. One slip and it could be a sprained ankle or worse. Younger folks do a kind of controlled fall, not an option for me.
The next morning I left Kootenay, drove through Banff and went up the Sulphur Mountain Gondola and afterwards hit the hot springs next door.
I did not linger in town. This is the high season on the Trans-Canada Highway between Banff and Jasper. Tourists were everywhere, of which I was one. It felt like being at Disneyworld, but the attractions were the mountains. I was here with Sharon before we were married, and I did want to see Lake Moraine and Louise again. They're so popular you have to buy a shuttle ticket. I have to admit, this New Yorker couldn't handle the crowds! It was worth it for the money shots, but I'm pairing them with the reality shots:
The next day I stopped at Columbia Ice Fields and Skywalk, continuing my full tourist experience. It was cold and rainy. We were taken across the road in a bus, then driven up to the glacier in an Ice Explorer, of which there are only 20 in the world. They weigh 30 tons. I'm snobbish because Sharon, Eva and I once spent a whole day cavorting (with a guide) on the Fox Glacier in New Zealand, so standing on the ice in the rain on the glacier wasn't that exciting. The Skywalk was fun, and then I was on my way to Jasper.
That evening I had decided to cap off my tourist days with another gondola ride and a three course dinner at the top. I'm acclimated to eating alone, and I can absolutely enjoy myself, but yeah, this would've been nice to share.
Further north, I turned in to the Jasper-Hinton Zipline, because, why not? They got me right into a harness, and up we went to the launch site. I got all kinds of instructions how to steer, leap, etc. but when you take a running leap off a roof the brain just doesn't cooperate.
In a few days I'll rendeszvous with Christy in Dawson Creek, the official start of the Alaskan Highway. We were neighbors at the Xscapers RV gathering in Lake Havasu last January. She's done this trip before and I'm excited to have some company and make a little caravan.
I made a YouTube short with a few more pics: