Priceless!

2010 Western States Lottery

If you've been sitting on the fence about putting your name in for this race, then you only have until midnight tomorrow
(15 October).
Go on, you know you want to do it!
http://ws100.com/home.html

HAPPY THANKSGIVING CANADA!

I've grown to love the ritual of celebrating Thanksgiving. Like all Banffites, I cram as much into the summer as possible and this year was an exceptional one - life just seems to keep on getting better every year! It was super busy with running, road trips and many fabulous adventures. But now that we're on the cusp of winter, it's all starting to slow down a little. We had our first BIG snow dump yesterday so it's all white and beautiful out there. Time to dust off the cross-country skis, put together a winter training program and take a little more time to rest and relax. Banff is quiet and it's lovely to be able to bump into friends as I make my way around town. Even though we love our tourists, I think most people in Banff breath a sigh of relief every Oct/Nov when we get to reclaim the town back for a few weeks inbetween seasons.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It's a great reminder of how lucky we are.

Pipestone to Skoki

With the larches turning yellow, it was time to run into Skoki. We decided to make a day of it and run via the Pipestone (48 km) which is the same region where Mike and myself had been running on our Molar Pass day.
There are always creek crossings involved when we run with Steve - guaranteed! I can't start to explain how freezing cold the water felt but luckily there were no more than a half dozen of them!
The Skoki valley
The larch trees were so yellow, they almost looked neon.


The colour of this lake was amazing - I love turquoise! Even the sound of the colour is exotic.
Looks like a storm is coming - I hope everyone brought their rain jackets?!!!!!

Crypt Lake, Waterton National Park

Crypt Lake is rated as one of the best hiking trails in Canada because it shouts of Adventure! 17.2 km of Adventure. First, you need to take a 15 minute boatride from Waterton over to the trailhead.
Then you run a beautiful, hot and dry trail (mainly uphill) to the Real Fun Bit - the ledge and the tunnel!
The trail to the ledge/tunnel.
Steve climbing the ladder up to the tunnelWatch your head!

When you come out of the tunnel, you have to scamper up another rocky section but there's a steel cable in place to help you up.Sure is a long way down!

Crypt Lake! What time did you say the last boat leaves?

I'm HOT!

CARTHEW SUMMIT/ALDERSON LAKE

Waterton has some beautiful trails to choose from and we decided to run Carthew/Alderson Trail, but instead of doing it as an out and back which seems to be the most popular for hikers, we planned do one big loop and run along the Boundary Trail inside the US and pop back out at Waterton Lake, a total of about 34 km. What a fantastic day! The trail up to Carthew Summit was beautiful; very rugged and mountainous. On the other side, the Boundary Trail looked like it hadn't been used for many months - very overgrown and rugged.

Waterton National Park

I can't believe that it's taken me so long to get down to visit Waterton. It's only 5 hours from Banff and if you take the #40 through Kanananskis, it's a beautiful scenic drive. You also get to travel through the ranching areas of Longview and Pincher Creek and it's a reminder that Alberta is Cowboy Country!

Waterton neighbours Glacier National Park in the US and together, they form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. How cool is that! 505 sq km in size, it's not a huge park but boy, it is choka-blok full of beautiful scenery and unique features. It has the oldest exposed sedimentary rock in the Canadian Rockies so looks very different from the mountains here in Banff and is surrounded by the prairies.