After managing to come out of the forest between Lake Louise and
the village without being attacked by a grizzly in pitch dark, we appreciate
being at the inn much more than I could have imagined the night of our
arrival when I thought it was too commercial a building. Basic safety is the
most important provision in life, and wherever we are protected from the outside dangers, especially in the wild, it looks pretty good:
This reminds me of the constant question I ask for the children I treat, do
they have basic safety and trust in their lives? Are they going to be able to thrive
despite all odds because of at least one strong safe haven through an unconditionally supportive
relationship? So many of “my children” lack that one simple fortune that may
turn their life trajectory around and some, unfortunately, break…
Moraine Lake is a must see in Banff National Park
Jeannie and her I-pad documenting our entire trip
Moraine Lake with its serenity early in the morning
Tourists have crowded Moraine Lake at 8:30 am
Huge group of hikers retreating after grizzly sighting
We are confused along with others who caught up with us and
debating communally, whether we should continue or return. Then comes down a
group of three men from the direction we are heading. We learn that they are
the men who dealt with the grizzlies! Here is how the story goes: As they were
hiking up, an hour up from where we are, they noticed a grizzly bear feeding off of berry bushes 10 feet away
from the trail. As the bear sensed their presence, it started moving into the
depths of the woods away from the trail. The father and his two adult sons interpreted
this as “the danger is gone, we may move on”. I wonder what I would have done.
The father and sons and the infamous bear spray can
But just as they turned around the corner, a second grizzly jumped galloping onto the trail and charged at them, rising on its two rear legs with a must-be frightening growl. By the way, they were still pretty shaken up when we met them. I don’t blame them, having been there and done that. Luckily, the party had found a half used bear spray canister in their rental car and the older son emptied the canister onto the trail. This must have "blinded" the grizzly, who then returned into the forest. They are so full of the adrenalin surge of the experience, vicariously we are all pulled into the excitement and flight mood surrounding the story.
Gillian and Elaine from Vancouver, who "tricked" me into "let's take the risk" mood...
Moraine Lake a turquoise gift of nature at the foot of ten peaks
Canoers on Moraine Lake
The ten peaks are spectacular from the moraine at the north end of the lake
Next stop is the top of the moraine that gives the lake its name.
It is about a 300 ft elevation, which brings the entire ring of ten peaks into
perspective. We take several pictures to cover the peaks and their panorama. We
are very happy to be back together again. Instead of pushing it for yet another
trail that goes around the other side of the lake, we decide to rent a canoe
together. We need some serenity after the tensions of the lake before rain
comes down on us again. We paddle toward the south end of the lake in our
canoe, sometimes we find ourselves almost circling around our axis, which
leads to the laughter of last night as we were hiking through the forest in the
dark.
From the top of the moraine
Overall though, we are heading toward the secluded end of the lake. We know what we are looking for; the hidden waterfall that we were able to see from the trail in the morning. Sure enough, as we approach the last bit of the lake, the waterfall comes to life again, this time with its grand roar! We let the canoe drift for a while and listen to the waterfall. From this end, the moraine and the pine trees on top of it create a totally different delicacy about the lake.
As close as we could get to the waterfall between two of the ten peaks
We prepared our breakfast and lunch boxes before going to bed
knowing that we want to get on our way as soon as we can. We were told that
some of the best hikes are around Lake Moraine and if we want to be able to
park at the parking lot, we’d better get there before 8:30. This makes me think
of the ranger with a warm smile, who gave me this information yesterday. As I
was asking for information on what trails were available, with every trail I
picked as moderate to strenuous, he was telling me “Well it has an elevation
gain of 600 ft…, 950 ft…, 1200 ft…”. Every time my answer was “That’s OK”, but
I knew my white hair was in the way of him hearing me.
Although, there is 7 years age difference between my blond friend and I, I get the senior treatment wherever we go!
Eventually, when we came to the last trail to discuss, before he was able to tell me anything, I told him with a smile “Imagine my hair was brown…” He got the message with a shy blush on his face, a sweet smile on his lips and told me to do Lake Moraine, it would be the best hike the park. And we took his advice. We get up at 7, good thing we took our shower before bed. After a few last minute things to take care of, we are on our way to Lake Moraine.
This is the trail we are planning to take today
We are constantly climbing up and finally reach the infamous parking lot that is already more than half full at 8 o’clock. We want to kill time until 8:30 to have breakfast at the lodge restaurant. A visit to the gift house; Jeannie buys a book of three bears for her three young grandchildren that she often hosts at her house. We walk around the lake, take pictures of this turquoise wonder from every direction including pictures of us together with Jeannie practicing to use her selfie stick! Finally, it is 8:30 and I go downstairs to get a table for us. Alas, breakfast is only for lodgers, any other option? The next door cafe will open at nine. We have to wait to at least get a cup of tea for me and espresso for Jeannie.
Although, there is 7 years age difference between my blond friend and I, I get the senior treatment wherever we go!
Eventually, when we came to the last trail to discuss, before he was able to tell me anything, I told him with a smile “Imagine my hair was brown…” He got the message with a shy blush on his face, a sweet smile on his lips and told me to do Lake Moraine, it would be the best hike the park. And we took his advice. We get up at 7, good thing we took our shower before bed. After a few last minute things to take care of, we are on our way to Lake Moraine.
This is the trail we are planning to take today
We are constantly climbing up and finally reach the infamous parking lot that is already more than half full at 8 o’clock. We want to kill time until 8:30 to have breakfast at the lodge restaurant. A visit to the gift house; Jeannie buys a book of three bears for her three young grandchildren that she often hosts at her house. We walk around the lake, take pictures of this turquoise wonder from every direction including pictures of us together with Jeannie practicing to use her selfie stick! Finally, it is 8:30 and I go downstairs to get a table for us. Alas, breakfast is only for lodgers, any other option? The next door cafe will open at nine. We have to wait to at least get a cup of tea for me and espresso for Jeannie.
We have a fabulous breakfast sitting over one of the huge logs by
the lake, each in our own style, Jeannie has her muffin and a banana. I have a
slice of gluten free bread, some cheese, olives and tomatoes, Mediterranean
breakfast at Lake Moraine! Finally, we are all ready to head up, except that I
don't have my walking sticks! First check the car, not there, then the logs at
the beach, not there, finally I go to the gift shop and Jeannie to the café.
She finds them at the café where we paid for our drinks. At last we can embark
on our journey.
As soon as we find our trailhead, the path winding up before our
eyes is quite telling, we know what is lying ahead of us. I like climbing up
much better than coming down, Jeannie not quite so, but she is all for it. Just
like she leading the way in town on her bike, and I always following her. This
brings to mind one bike ride we had done, close to 30 miles on a weekend, when
I just couldn’t complete the ride in the last 2-3 miles and my dear friend had
come with her car and picked me up. When we hike our roles are reversed, although
I never had to carry Jeannie! I love the fact that we are both prepared and quite comfortable with
accommodating each other when it is needed with no judgment.
Half an hour goes by, we have a set pace, not too slow, not too
fast. Young, athletic campers, male and female pass by us loaded with enormous
backpacks, that is fine, I was able to do that in my 30s, too, not any more. All of a sudden
a big group of guided people come down from the opposite direction, we are
surprised and amazed, how they could have completed a 5-6 hours hike at this
early hour since they are clearly day hikers. The story is deeper though; they are
talking about grizzly bears been seen on the trail. Wow, with such a crowd, it
is hard to understand why they didn’t push forward. We learn that it is the
protocol they have to follow: No guide is allowed to continue the hike with a
group if a grizzly is sighted.
But just as they turned around the corner, a second grizzly jumped galloping onto the trail and charged at them, rising on its two rear legs with a must-be frightening growl. By the way, they were still pretty shaken up when we met them. I don’t blame them, having been there and done that. Luckily, the party had found a half used bear spray canister in their rental car and the older son emptied the canister onto the trail. This must have "blinded" the grizzly, who then returned into the forest. They are so full of the adrenalin surge of the experience, vicariously we are all pulled into the excitement and flight mood surrounding the story.
Finally as the Bostonian group leaves heading down, we are left alone
with our decision making, whether to push forward or to turn around. The decision is
complicated with the fact that others, who have not heard this story first-hand
come up from the lake, listen to us tell them the story, but still want
to move on. Jeannie is adamant about going back. I am torn in-between. Then catch up
with us two women, who look like our age range, might be retired. They listen
to the story, too, and shrug their shoulders. It's been about an hour and a half now since the grizzlies have been sighted near the trail. They are most likely right that the grizzlies have moved on, we are OK to hike up.
As we climb up toward Larch Valley, the glacier reveals itself to us
They have such a calm and Zen attitude, I turn to Jeannie one more time. She still wants to go back, how can I convince her there probably is no risk, simply because I cannot know that beyond reasonable doubt as the prosecutors would ask me in court when I testify. I ask Jeannie if she would be OK if I joined Gillian and Elaine, whose names we don't know, yet. My initial inclination is to hike up about an hour not complete the hike, still feeling a bit guilty... Jeannie heads down to hike around the lake, which is quite sizeable. As I join Gillian and Elaine I hope she feels safe and comfortable and has fun around the lake.
They have such a calm and Zen attitude, I turn to Jeannie one more time. She still wants to go back, how can I convince her there probably is no risk, simply because I cannot know that beyond reasonable doubt as the prosecutors would ask me in court when I testify. I ask Jeannie if she would be OK if I joined Gillian and Elaine, whose names we don't know, yet. My initial inclination is to hike up about an hour not complete the hike, still feeling a bit guilty... Jeannie heads down to hike around the lake, which is quite sizeable. As I join Gillian and Elaine I hope she feels safe and comfortable and has fun around the lake.
As we start hiking up, we hear constant stream of gossip about
the grizzly sight, yeah we know it. At a crossroads where the trail for Eiffel
Lake splits off from Larch Valley trail, we meet some hikers who tell us that
the grizzly is reported to have gone down toward Eiffel Lake. That is enough
for us to change our minds regarding which trail to take: Larch valley. I
wonder how long it has been since I left Jeannie. I know I will regret heading further up, but despite the rain, the mist, the chill, the wind, pretty much anything
that the sky has to offer short of snow, I can’t help but pushing forward up
and up trusting she will find fun things to do and nice people to chat with.
Glacier is now above the tree line as we climb higher
As we get to higher elevations, the small slivers of Moraine Lake become larger and larger as if a huge turquoise plate has been pasted into the fault between the Rockies surrounding it on both sides. Breathtaking…
Glacier is now above the tree line as we climb higher
As we get to higher elevations, the small slivers of Moraine Lake become larger and larger as if a huge turquoise plate has been pasted into the fault between the Rockies surrounding it on both sides. Breathtaking…
As we rise though, we are emptying our backpacks and putting on our
raincoats, vests, jackets, gloves, and scarves... My companions are Gillian and
Elaine, both retired from social services in Vancouver. Throughout our hike, we
have deep conversations about the differences of the US and Canada in how they approach
social services and welfare issues, much better funding in Canada. I guess their rich care about their poor more than ours do down south.
Gillian, Elaine and I against the ten peaks around Moraine Lake
They love their current prime minister and Elaine tells me "with his election we all feel a heavy cloud was lifted off of all of us." They are as worried about the possibility that Trump may be elected in the US as I am. We are all worried that whether he is elected or not, the fact that there are 40 million people in America consider voting for Trump is a scary reality. Perhaps this heated conversation was one of the reasons why I couldn’t break off from them and go down earlier to meet my dear Jeannie. Finally, we get to Larch Lake: I am a bit disappointed, since it is nothing like either Lake Louise or Moraine Lake.
Lake Larch is but a tiny pond, nothing like its peers in the vicinity
Much smaller, tucked in a depression down below the trail, light brown/green colored. As I finish my quick lunch, I realize with a shameful feeling of guilt that I have been away from Jeannie for 2.5 hours already! I can’t stay any longer, I have to go back. My trail companions understand me, we exchange contact information and I head back as fast as I can. People, I meet on the way back are still talking about the grizzly sighting. When I get down, it is 2:30 pm, I am frantically looking for Jeannie, she is not in the café, not in the gift shop, nobody with her name and posture rented any of the canoes. She might have taken the car and gone some place else, which would be totally understandably. But the car is there. Finally on my who knows how many’th trip to the car, we bump into each other in the parking lot, of course she is not happy with my being away for so long. Who can blame her, all I can wish now is to have dragged her with me. She tells me she wishes the same.
They love their current prime minister and Elaine tells me "with his election we all feel a heavy cloud was lifted off of all of us." They are as worried about the possibility that Trump may be elected in the US as I am. We are all worried that whether he is elected or not, the fact that there are 40 million people in America consider voting for Trump is a scary reality. Perhaps this heated conversation was one of the reasons why I couldn’t break off from them and go down earlier to meet my dear Jeannie. Finally, we get to Larch Lake: I am a bit disappointed, since it is nothing like either Lake Louise or Moraine Lake.
Much smaller, tucked in a depression down below the trail, light brown/green colored. As I finish my quick lunch, I realize with a shameful feeling of guilt that I have been away from Jeannie for 2.5 hours already! I can’t stay any longer, I have to go back. My trail companions understand me, we exchange contact information and I head back as fast as I can. People, I meet on the way back are still talking about the grizzly sighting. When I get down, it is 2:30 pm, I am frantically looking for Jeannie, she is not in the café, not in the gift shop, nobody with her name and posture rented any of the canoes. She might have taken the car and gone some place else, which would be totally understandably. But the car is there. Finally on my who knows how many’th trip to the car, we bump into each other in the parking lot, of course she is not happy with my being away for so long. Who can blame her, all I can wish now is to have dragged her with me. She tells me she wishes the same.
I learn that the trail around the lake was just barely a mile
long limited to only one of the four sides, and she had almost memorized it with her multiple laps: I feel even worse
upon discovering that she was just killing time here. A moment, I want to disappear
into the depths of the earth… I apologize up to the sky, and she is so sweet,
she forgives me. I will never do this again, we will be in it all or none, I promise.
The guilt didn’t let me enjoy much anyway… Seeing the smile come back to her
face again sooths me just a bit. We first walk along the lake, and surprise,
there is a group having a wedding party along the water.
What a wonderful place to get married!
That brings back the sweet memory of Dilara, my “adopted” niece, who had her wedding ceremony and party at a state park across from San Francisco Bay under the shade of beautiful redwood trees. I remember how Zeynep, my daughter, Dilara’s peer, had taken over herself the job of taking pictures and documenting the entire event. With her artistic skills, she had done such a beautiful job of immortalizing Dilara in her wedding dress as beautiful and elegant as a white lilly. That had sealed our families’ friendship and we had all become one big family, we still are. Jeannie and I watch the bride and the groom and their party from a distance for a bit then move on with adoring smiles on our faces.
What a wonderful place to get married!
That brings back the sweet memory of Dilara, my “adopted” niece, who had her wedding ceremony and party at a state park across from San Francisco Bay under the shade of beautiful redwood trees. I remember how Zeynep, my daughter, Dilara’s peer, had taken over herself the job of taking pictures and documenting the entire event. With her artistic skills, she had done such a beautiful job of immortalizing Dilara in her wedding dress as beautiful and elegant as a white lilly. That had sealed our families’ friendship and we had all become one big family, we still are. Jeannie and I watch the bride and the groom and their party from a distance for a bit then move on with adoring smiles on our faces.
Overall though, we are heading toward the secluded end of the lake. We know what we are looking for; the hidden waterfall that we were able to see from the trail in the morning. Sure enough, as we approach the last bit of the lake, the waterfall comes to life again, this time with its grand roar! We let the canoe drift for a while and listen to the waterfall. From this end, the moraine and the pine trees on top of it create a totally different delicacy about the lake.
When we get back to our inn, we are both looking forward to
jumping in the hot tub and the adjacent pool. Traveling with Jeannie has quite
a few benefits in addition to her being the most fun friend I ever traveled
with among many other qualities. As I learned from her she is a “mint-on-the-pillow”
type of a “girl” ! That means, if possible, every national park we visit
together, she will do her best to get us accommodation with a hot tub or pool,
which I have just started to learn may be welcome luxury after long hiking
days, thank you my dear friend. As I alternate between the hot tub and the pool,
every time I come back to the hot tub, I feel as if all my muscles are
dissolving with the warmth surrounding my body, and almost go to a different land,
semi-asleep, semi-lifted up to the sky, in full meditation. Voices almost disappear,
all that exists is warm, soft, smooth, light, soothing, and peaceful.
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| Moraine Lake is a must-see and experience for everybody who visits Banff National Park |
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