Cardston

Sun 18th Sept. One last adventure today in Waterton Lakes National Park on our way out, and so please we did it. Just before the entrance of the park there is a multi-user single track down the east side of the lakes (opposite side to the village), We unloaded the bikes and had a pleasant flattish ride through grasslands and low scrubs and trees for 6.73 km until reaching the start of the Vimy Peak trailhead. Then it was on foot, with a fairly good gradient up the valley to the sub-alpine area. Then it got a bit steeper, and then the dreaded scree came, which is always an effort to get up. But it was certainly worth the effort, don't know if it's because we haven't had decent views lately because of the haze, but the 360° views at the top were spectacular. From the mountains, and the lakes with the village tucked in, out towards the prairies on the east, up the neighboring valley to Crypt Lake where we were yesterday, it was amazing whichever direction you looked in - I couldn't stop taking photos. Eventually headed back down, picked up the bikes and rode out. Hike stats for up only: (forgot to start watch on way down) 6.36km, 2hrs 01, elevation gain 1077 m, highest altitude 2370m. It was then back on the road heading towards Cardston, on the way to the USA border, driving through the prairies and beef farming land. Stopped at Cardston, and after eventually finding the supermarket went in to do a major restock only to be told when we entered we had 12 minutes before it closed at 6 pm. So got a few items, and decided to stay in the carpark overnight and continue with the shopping in the morning. Steps V 24418.
Mon 19th. RIP Queen Elizabeth II. Today was a grocery restocking and laundry morning at Cardston, and then a drive to the USA border, which went smoothly except for Doug losing his 5 eggs. We then drove into "Many Glaciers" area of Glacier National Park, to find the campground had closed up half of the sites today for the season so it was all full, so we are attempting to stay in the carpark next door to it and hopefully get a site in the morning. And I'm not sure about this American weather - it was light rain and about 10°C when we arrived this afternoon and it continued to drop so at 7pm it was 5.7°C - at least it's stopped raining. Time to pull out the winter clothes. Steps: luckily we have excess banked up because today's is V 3002.Read more