Climbing and Falling

OK, so I may have the odd grey hair, and my eyesight may be failing, but I wasn't overly impressed when the lady on the comfy chair in the information centre looked me up and down and declared "I can't recommend the walk up Sulphur Mountain. You'll probably find it too hard. Why don't you try Tunnel Mountain instead? It's easier". I felt like telling her that I'd managed Everest quite nicely last year, and that Sulphur Mountain didn't actually rate with the difficult mountains of the world, but in a rare attack of politeness, I took the proffered map, and thanked her for her advice.

So Tunnel Mountain it was. Listed as 2 hours return, and 'moderate'. What a waste of our carb loading! Walked from the centre of town, up the roads to the car park where the oldies drive to, then we started up the trail. It's the most popular trail around the town, and we were passed by lots of joggers, so difficult it certainly wasn't. Encountered a few chipmunks on the way up, and at the top, who pretty much ignored you while they feasted on the leaves and seeds.

A lovely view of the town from the top when we arrived, and you could see both sides of the glacier carved valley - one towards the town and the road to Jasper, and the other towards the golf course and the road to Calgary. After eating our lunch, we wandered off down the hill, and found a coffee shop to toast the fact that a couple of oldies managed to survive.

Late afternoon we went on another walk down the Bow River to the Bow Falls, conveniently located in from of the Fairmont Hotel. Our host has just taken a job with one of the rafting companies that operate over the falls, in return for free rides, so we looked at it with different eyes. I'm not sure what the grading would be, but I'm sure that it would be a blast. Pictures at the Falls showed a much lower river level and far more rocks, so I guess that it's currently a good time of the year for tackling them.

It's been an interesting experience with this B&B. Whilst others have gone out of their way to make your stay a special one (room preparation, facilities, maps, advice, chocolates, space in the fridge and bathroom), this one is very much the "this is me, this is where I live, feel free to stay for a few days" vibe. Our host is a girl from Sydney who is working four jobs itinerantly in the town, and is lovely. However, we waited hours to be let in, we had to find some room in the fridge, she comes and goes at all hours, the unit is never locked, her friends let themselves in and out even when she's not there (somebody even let themselves in at 1am yesterday and knocked on her bedroom door to ask her something), and we may not see her again before we leave tomorrow due to work shifts. Kind of feels like gatecrashing on your kids.

Banff is a lovely town. As a tourist I can hardly complain, but the only time it loses its charm is when the big tour buses disgorge their load on a 2 hour mission to see the town. It's like waves crashing down the footpath, and making instant queues in any food store or coffee shop. Then the horn blows, and you know that 5 minutes later there will be 50 Koreans (or Chinese or Americans) taking selfies at the Falls. And so it goes all day. They say that there are 4500 people who live in the town and over 5000 visitors a day which, as always, is both a blessing and a curse.