Andrew Pearson

Up early on the second day of our journey! Ollie likes to punch me over and over again until I let him roam the house. For most of us, the trials of flying across the country had not eroded our enthusiasm for adventure. Toby still wanted to go home. After a glorious breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and oven baked bacon, our intrepid family said good bye and thank you to the gracious McCulloch's. We bid farewell to the giant lawn hares (as big as German Shepards) and the intemperate magpies of Calgary. We turned up the rock music and found the Trans Canada stretching out in front of us under the splendid azure. Our ever widening eyes drank deep of the view before us. Puffy, white clouds, like islands in the sea, drifted casually over the craggy and haggard bald faced mountains. As we passed Kananaskis country, Dead Man's Flat and Canmore, the mountains loomed ever larger. First stop, Johnson's Lake, where the mountain breeze whispered it's ancient secrets through the limbs and leaves. For our part, we padded our way, willy nilly, and eavesdropped on the restless brook and the quiver of dragonfly wings! Two bear Cubs up a tree, across the lake, were learning their local vernacular while their mother sauntered nearby. We rolled some chicken into wraps to get us moving again towards Banff. There's not much to say about Banff. I don't know what I expected to find there 24 years after living at the corner of Moose and Beaver. Nature has been buried under parking lots and high fashion.Read more