Tracy's Action-Packed Week in the Rockies

We were delighted to have a visitor for a week in July, when our friend Tracy flew up from Seattle.

We knew this might be her last chance to visit, because she had recently accepted a job in Rotterdam. We decided to make the most of the week, and show her around the area, doing some of the fun things that we'd discovered over the past few years.

Bowmont Park

First up was a mountain bike ride through Bowmont Natural Area, with what's become the traditional local photo when we have visitors: Bowness railway bridge, the river, and distant mountains. Check.

We went to the Stampede Art Show launch, where our friend Karen shows her amazing wildlife photography every year, then on into town. This was a bit unusual; it's a self-fulfilling prophecy that nobody goes into town for the evening or weekend in Calgary! Lou had found a small restaurant in a park that turned out to be really good. The whole experience was rather un-Calgarian. There were hipsters in the park, and everything. Even a man on a horse, like the one back in Wolverhampton, but this one was probably not a Prince - and I'm sure he'd not seen a fraction of the excitement that occurs in Queen's Square...

Crossing the Spray River.

View from the second bridge on a lovely day

The next day we headed into the mountains, and Lou kindly dropped us at the head of the Goat Creek Trail above Canmore, before parking in the town and riding the Legacy Trail (a 20 km paved route with almost no hills, and a lot of scenery) to Banff. Meanwhile, on the other side of Mount Rundle from her, we rolled joyously down the trail, crossing and then following the Spray River. Tracy had never ridden a mountain bike until the Bowmont trip, so this was a great experience. We reunited in Banff for a late lunch, with Pizza and real ale, sorry, "craft beer", and then wobbled our way back together on the Legacy Trail. I was pleased to see that Canmore has now finished the trail, and laid on a handy parking lot for cyclists, just on the edge of town.

The next trip was also from Banff, but this time we were on the lowest point in the landscape, canoeing from Bow Falls to Canmore. If you're going to visit Calgary in the summer, then you have to include at least one canoe trip!

There was still something missing though. We'd paddled, cycled on- and off-road, eaten great food, drunk some excellent beer,
and even been downtown at the weekend (I still can't remember why!) - so the final mini-adventure had to involve climbing - rather than merely walking up - a mountain.

Approaching the first scramble (of Tracy's lifetime)

Sizing up the step. It's easier than it looks.

Yes, we're going up there!

Nihahi Ridge was identified as the perfect first scramble for Tracy, in a week of new things. It starts off as a pretty little walk, wending through meadows, towards an impossibly distant, soaring red ridge. Then before you know it, with a quick double-switchback, it throws you up above the valley, and pins you against the wall, with only one way up.

Looking back towards the first scramble step, from close to the second

Fortunately, Tracy took the whole thing in her stride, and before long we were tripping along the knife-edge ridge that's the reward for the earlier effort. Great job! I don't think they'll have anything like this in Holland...