Canada - May you said, oh yeah!- May 31st Beavering Away!

[parisdisneyfan]

We had noticed that the fire risk signs had moved up and when we looked out this morning it did seem smoky hazy but did clear a bit later on. We had picked up some fruit and cruffins for breakfast last night at Safeway so were fed and out by 9ish.

Last summer we had tried to visit Sunshine Meadows but due to having to get down to Calgary we couldn't wait for the bus up, no self drive allowed and likewise didn't have time to hike. We had seen pictures since and were expecting more snow still as it had only closed for winter sports about a week earlier. However this meant that they were obviously having a well earned break before opening for the summer season as it was like a ghost town all shut up

I had joined a fb group about the area and there had been a post that there was a beaver colony at Vermillion Lakes. These are some huge fenland lakes on the outskirts of Banff. Not much walking around as they are squeezed beside the TC highway. We had a short walk at the end but were stopped by the gates where you cross the TC highway if you are doing a long hike or cycle.

I had quite fancied getting a photo of me/us on the Banff sign on the way into Banff, bit cliched but hey you got to do it We pulled into a bit called Fenland where there were picnic benches and trails into the woods with the plan of walking down to the sign, but we also thought the river and woodland looked like beaver territory so were about to have a wander when a lady came out of the woods on her phone and told us she was just reporting a black bear just into the woods, it had walked in front of her! We decided it would be just plain stupid to go into the woods after that. We also didn't go to the sign after all as we had a picnic in the car and didn't know how the car hire company would feel about bear claws or worse on its paintwork

We thought we would picnic up at Two Jack Lake and maybe go for a short walk. It is a lovely drive and who knows we might see the bear family again! No luck though

On the way back we carried on through Canmore and went up to the Nordic Centre where we enjoyed the views up to Ha Ling Peak, apparently a good hike but very hard, while eating ice cream. We had thought about doing the Grassi Lake hike but the rain put us off. Headed back to the apartment and started on our packing up.

Around teatime as the evening looked brighter and we were still disappointed at not seeing anything beaver related, we decided to get an A&W burger and head back to Fenland. If there were bear signs or nobody around then we wouldn’t get out but if there were lots of people we would. Well, lots of people seemed to be enjoying the evening with picnics by the river. There were no bear warning signs either so we attached the bear bells to my back pack headed off along the trail my bell tinkling. Maybe 200-300 metres in we spotted what we thought was a lodge or dam. I saw a ripple and it was a beaver. He climbed over his dam and swam upstream coming on to the opposite bank to eat before swimming off again. We watched him all the way almost to the car park, he slapped his tail once and sat looking right at us.

Lots of other walkers joined us watching him. Anyway after about 1/2 hour he turned back downstream and we decided to leave him be, not that we appeared to have been bothering him and had stayed well away on the other side of the bank.

As it was a nice evening we decided to do a loop through Banff and then around Lake MW again and possibly saw another bears bottom on Hwy 1 as well! Home just before 10, checked in for our flight tomorrow, supper of leftover cake and bed!

[WileyCoyote]

Hurrah for the beaver ! Fab pic. He looks majestic !
So sad it’s at the end of the holiday. It’s over too quick.