Day 33 Banff and Calgary and heading south toward the US border

A young caribou sauntered down the street early this morning, oblivious to any humans in the area. Parks Canada employees were already trying to lure the animal toward the wooded river walk area. . After a delay finding my wallet and having to dog through everything in the passenger seat (I found a bag of wilted salad mix I had wondered what happened to it three weeks ago!) I headed up to the Sulphur Mountain trail.  The trail was once a road to the weather station and then cosmic ray exploration center.  Both are now gone and a gondola and restaurant are now on top, with a half-mile boardwalk to the old weather station.  This 7.1-mile hike was my destination this morning.  A one-way gondola ride is $31 CND but hiking the trail is free.

The trailhead is shared with the hotsprings  visitor parking area.  It was still cool when I started, with a cool morning breeze.  Sadie started out slow as we meandered up the north side of the mountain, with views of Banff opening up to the top.  I had no one around me going up the mountain and the dogs enjoyed being offleash.  Once at the gondola station, it was all onleash and we caused quite a sensation.  I was the first hiker of the day and got quite a few shocked looks.  A restaurant and coffee shop are colocated with the gondolas, but dogs are not permitted inside the building or in the gondolas.

"You hiked up here? How long did it take?"
"One hour and 27 minutes" I answered.  Zeke was quite loving all the attention he got.  Both dogs did quite well on the half-mile boardwalk to the peak, where we rested a bit.  Sadie looked tired.  The views all around were impressive.

I'm glad I did this touristy hike.  It was only three miles to the trailhead from downtown Banff, so I didn't waste driving time to get up here.  The 7.1-mile hike took me 3:40 hours.  I'm glad I did it early, as it was quite hot by the time we got back to the van and a full parking lot.  Temperature read 84F from my van.  The desolate town streets at 6am were now congested with tourists. I returned to the library parking area where the dogs rested in some shade while I went down the main street to look at the Swedish clothing store Fjall Raven.  The hiking pants sold for anywhere between $150 and $225!!! "Designed in Sweden" but made in China.

I also tried some gelato.  My favorite flavor is always hazelnut, which was quite good.  This meal turned out to be my lunch.  Tired from the hike with nothing else planned in town, I left town two hours later, getting on the TransCanada highway and heading east toward Calgary. I would have stayed longer but the heat was getting to me and I couldn't keep the dogs in a hot van while I walked around town. I wanted to get to Calgary after 6pm so that I wouldn't have to deal with parking fees and still had daylight to play with.

I stopped at the former Olympic Village, located on the west side of town in an upscale neighborhood. the former village is now property of Winsport and this company provides camps for kids for both winter and summer sports.  A mountain bike camp is currently in progress.  I was able to walk around the luge area.  The slalom, downhill skiing is all closed off to the public now.  Bikers were storming down the mountain via various ability tracks for mountain bikers.  I'm glad to see the old Olympic village is getting some use!

I made it to Calgary's Core by 6:20pm.  It was still 91F out. I had missed the Calgary Stampede parade earlier.  Lots of people were walking around wearing Stetsons.  Street musicians were still out playing but the parade was long over.  Trash was everywhere. I couldn't find a cheap place to eat and stopped at an A&W Rootbeer place, where I overheard the store manager yelling at a transient for locking himself in the man's bathroom for 90 minutes.  Apparently he didn't want to get out and the manager threatened to call the cops.  The man came out, looking worn-out from wear.  "I'm so sorry, I have my problems, I'm so sorry" he kept on saying, but no further force was needed.  The man looked like he shot himself up with a calming drug as he didn't want to fight.

The waning sun was providing some nice colors to the higher buildings, but the heat never relented. I'm glad I got to see parts of town, although really getting a good feel for the city would have required several days.  I did notice a lot of homeless sleeping in recessed doorways or on benches.

The landscape south of Calgary flattens out into the Plains.  The Rockies are still visible along the western horizon, but I'm in farming country now.  Fields of wheat and flaxseed dot the highway. The median between the north and southbound lanes of Alberta 2 had rolled hay waiting for pick-up.  I saw the near fullmoon rise over a layer of clouds as I entered the town of Claresholm and stopped there for the night.  The highway goes right through town and I saw two RCMP cars pull speeders over.  They didn't heed the 50kph sign.

Looks like I'll be back in Montana by tomorrow.  I drove 197 miles today and walked 11 miles.  No wonder I was exhausted!