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David Flowers Alberta Trip Photos
and Trip Report

© David Flowers 08/15/01
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David Flowers' Alberta Trip Report

Here's a brief report from our Alberta trip. Bob Bollinger and I traveled along the Alberta/British Columbia border from August 16 thru August 26.

It was a fantastic trip. Bob and I had a great time. We spent 5 days dayhiking and traveling along Hwy 1 through Canmore, Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper. We also drove down the British Columbia side from Field down to Radium Hot Springs.

We then backpacked in the Kananaskis for 3 days on route that crossed two passes and took us from Alberta to BC and back.

I had new boots, the Asolo Fusion95 GTX. They worked out great. Good traction, NO BLISTERS! even when thoroughly soaked.

I also had my MSR Whisperlite almost start a new forest fire. Apparently the fuel tube gasket had cracked and allowed fuel to escape along the feeder tube. This caught fire around the pump assembly but I was able douse the whole thing with water and we escaped major catastrophe. This was Bob's first experience with someone using a Whisperlite. I don't think he got a good first impression. Bob brought his Sierra Zip stove. It worked great, even with damp wood.

I also tried a new coffee maker. A "Backcountry Bistro". It's a big insulated mug with a french-press style top. You dump your coffee grounds in, pour in hot water and let it sit for a while. Then you push the plunger down and supposedly you get coffee. I really didn't work very well and make a pretty big mess to deal with the wet grounds. So I'm back to square one finding a way to get good coffee on the trail.

Some of my highlights from the trip were:

Spending time on the Athabasca Glacier and a smaller glacier called the Angel Glacier. We pretty much had Angel Glacier to ourselves. Explored a small snow cave and found an old stuff sack with a can of Budweiser in it.

We spent some time at Takakkaw Falls. The day before we got there, a Cessna 180 Bonanza float plane had crash landed on the riverbed right near the falls. The pilot escaped injury. It was pretty surreal to see these majestic falls with a crashed plane in the forefront.

I really enjoyed the town of Canmore much more than Banff. I thought the setting was better and less tourist-infested.

I think we did some hiking in almost all of the major parks in that area. Kananaskis, Peter Loughheed, Banff, Jasper, Yoho.

© David Flowers 08/15/01

 


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