It has been a while since I updated the blog. In the meantime quite a bit happened. I fulfilled a long-time dream and went to visit Banff and Jasper National Park in Canada. On the way to the Arctic I made a stopover there for 3 weeks and went tramping with my friend Linda. Going there in late May early June is very early in the season, especially since they had an unusually late snowfall. So many of the lakes were still frozen, tracks closed due to avalanche danger and some tracks were difficult to walk due to thigh deep soft snow. On the other hand it meant that not many other people were around and that we had campgrounds and tracks to ourselves.

Linda and I started our trip in Canmore and then worked our way to Banff, Lake Loiuse and Jasper. From there a 3 day trip took us to Berg Lake in the shadow of Mt Robson. This was winter wonderland and hardly anybody else was around. Other highlights of our trip were the ascent of Parker Ridge (2550m), Wilcox Pass (2705m), and Paget Lookout (2135m). We soaked in Miette Hotsprings when the weather was bad and hired mountain bikes to ride the Overlander Trail to Beauvert Lake from Jasper.

Encounters with the wildlife there were exciting. At Jasper tramway car park with saw a Grizzly mother with her cub and on the Overland Trail we had to backtrack and throw ourselves in the bushes because a black bear was using the bridge we just intended to cross.

Mornings and evenings were spent chasing sunrise and sunset light. Laker Herbert proved to be a gem for that, easy accessible and nice reflections of the mountains in the calm water.