Mother Nature Always Wins ~ Lake O'Hara

Lake O'Hara

"It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth," people say, and they are not exaggerating. We finally made our first trip to Lake O'Hara! When we arrived, the weather was perfect! Blue sky with only the occassional fluffy white cloud, temperature around 25. It felt like a dream as we walked around the Lake to get our bearings. What a fantastic hour long trail: the almost impossibly high back of Mount Victoria standing guard, the otherworldly glacial green-blue water, black Old Man's Beard hanging off the trees, cool forests, pounding waterfalls, peachy-purple rock beds, tiny yellow, pink and white flowers dotting the path, all encased by distinctive mountains, some with trees others with glaciers hanging off them.

Contented with having played inside an artist's canvas all day, we snuggled down to bed. That's when Mother Nature decided we should get a glimpse of all she was capable of. Splooshy raindrops plopped on the tent, the wind picked up, then a flash of violet and the thunder boomed and pinballed off the surrounding mountains reverberating down the valley. What at first started out sounding like a kid softly tinkling a zylophone over our tent quickly changed to a raging ocean pouring down on us. And then it got cold - real cold.

None of us got more than about 3 hours of sleep that night.

All hail Mother Nature!

Bear Aware

Saw my first Grizzly Bear today! Thankfully it was from the safety of being just outside of the car. Kevin, Grace and I met up with some friends to go climbing (I was in charge of entertaining the kids while they climbed) yesterday and before we got going we heard a rustling on the other side of the road. A bear! It was about 100 meters away - and we were right beside our vehicles so we weren't all that worried - just jazzed that there was a bear. Unfortunately, I missed it as it stood up on its back feet to get a better look at us (not in a threatening way, more of in a curious way) because I was scrounging around for the camera. Soon, I gave up on the camera because I just wanted to get a peek. The bear moved closer to the cars, at one point she was just across the road - that's when I got a glimpse of her silky humpback shoulder and shaggy cinnamon back as she strode further into the trees. Amazing! I say "she" because our friend has a friend who works for Parks who told him there is a Grizzly mother and her 3 cubs roaming around that area. Also, this bear wasn't that big - but she sure was beautiful! So - regretably there isn't a good photo - you'll just have to take my word for it!