Lake O'Hara Hike 29th Aug '09

Yesterday the ThoughtWorks hike club set off for another adventure.... this time to Lake O'Hara, in British Columbia, Canada.

This was the most amazing hike I have been on so far. To steal JJ's phrase, "Maximum gain for minimum effort". This was certainly true. In a good way.

JJ and Sarah picked me up at 7am in the Kia Ronda partymobile. To my absolute delight I was greeted with a warm bacon sandwhich and a banana! Legend JJ. Went very well with my tea. Whoop.
The base of Lake O'Hara is just under 3 hours from Calgary, about 25 mins past Lake O'Hara. There we met fellow hikers Kim, Kunal and Mike. We all loaded up into a classic yellow school bus that was going to take us up to the lake. Lake O'Hara is in Yoho national park, and access is restricted to 40 or so people a day to preserve the park (see the national park site for more details). There is a private lodge up there and a campsite. Would be a lovely place for a relaxed long weekend.The bus takes you up the 15km to the Lake and drops you off in the area where the lodge and campsite are. Imediatly you are such a beautiful place. Lake O'Hara is a beautiful aqua marine colour and completly clear. We quite enjoyed throwing stones in and watching them go right to the bottom. The six of us trooped off along the edge of the lake and then took a right fork off the lake edge trail through a lovely forest up to Mary Lake. This lake was much greener in colour. The whole valley we were hiking we were surrounded by grey mountain sides and a view behind us out over the rest of Yoho National Park. Due to the restriction on the people allowed up the mountain we were blessed to hardly meet anyone on the trail. Felt very exclusive!

We then started climbing 200m or so up the side of the cliff onto to Opabin plateau. Amazing view on route of Mary Lake, Lake O'hara and the national park. This part was mainly scrambling up a rocky path. Wouldn't suggest going down that route, certainly not if you are scared of heights. Up is much better.
Once up onto the plateau you are greeted with a surreal world. Feels almost crater like, lush green and big boulders. There are a series of smaller lakes that lead up to Opabin lake at the top and the glacier that feeds them all.We were blessed with the most blue skies and lovely sunshine. Not too hot either. Meant that the lakes were super clear and reflecting the mountains in them. Absolutely beautiful. Feel almost spoilt to see that many lovely scenes in the one day!
To see more of the photos from the hike head to my Facebook page here.

While stopping for snacks in Lake Louise on the way home, I mentioned that I had actually been to Lake Louise or Moraine lake near by, so JJ and Sarah declared we were detouring to Lake Moraine and were going to take me there while we were so close. Moraine Lake is also just beautiful and an easy place to visit if you are in Banff. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but as were there in the evening most of the crowds had dispersed. The most striking thing about Moraine Lake is the colour. The photos don't do it justice. It looks as if it has been dyed.
The journey home of course contained the obligitory Anne and JJ roadshow. We sing out hearts out to some sort of cheesy song, accompanied by some awesome dance moves, amusing the hell out of whoever else is in the car. Sarah's tweet sums it up pretty well I feel

rerevisitedHighlight of the amazing hike to Lake O'Hara: couple of Brits singing their little Shania Twain hearts out. Thx @ateabutnoe & @annejsimmons!

The most amazing day had. Next weekend it's off to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia...

This week I have mostly been reading....

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Conclusion: Awesome - Read it!

Weddings, Banff and a night out at a "microclub"

Last weekend I had the pleasure of Tim in Calgary for a whole 5 days. Yay!

On Friday we went to I think my favourite sushi place in Calgary, Zen 8 - more pricey that the other sushi places but way nicer in my opinion. Had a nice bottle of sake too. nom nom.

Saturday saw us going to Milt and Judy's wedding. Tim used to go to university with Milt and so it was a pretty good reunion with a lot of his university friends. They got married in a church in Kensington, they are both Chinese and Milt's family is pretty large so they got an impressive turnout.

All glamed up Tim, I, Abe and Carol headed off for a bite to eat and stopped by Mountain Equipment Co-Op for them to get a backpack to put their son Bryce in. We certainly looked out of place in a camping shop dolled up in our wedding gear!
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, not to hot but warm enough. The evening 'do was in the stampede grounds. Huge reception of 300-400 people, beautiful set up and for that many people must of been run with military precision.

The next day we headed out to Banff for the day. Tim's sister Kim and her husband were randomly in Calgary picking up a friend from the UK from the airport. They live down in Nelson which is in inner British Columbia, in the Rockies. Tim and Kim haven't seen each other for a couple of years so it was pretty good luck that they both were passing through Calgary on the same weekend. We drove up to Banff town and met them at the Bison Restaurant & Lounge for brunch. The food there is divine..... definitely must go back. Banff is quite different in the summer, nice but almost like a different place. They were right when people told me it was busier in the summer than in the winter though. Feels weird going to the mountains when they're not covered in snow! Wrong somehow.
It was great to meet some more of Tim's family. Have to confess I was pretty nervous. Turns out there was no need to be though. Felt like we all got on immediately, Kim and Wes are lovely people, seem very kind and very in love. Look forward to getting to spend some more time with them at some stage.
After hanging out in Banff for a few hours we headed back to Calgary and went to Farm for dinner. I love that place. We consumed a bottle of champagne in celebration of Tim selling his condo here and ate a large pile of cheeses and local meats. Good weekend on the food front!

This week I have working away as usual. Our dev team on the project I'm working on has shrunk recently and I was quite worried about the dynamics. But actually it's turned out to be working quite well. Which is nice. I am having a super lazy weekend this weekend, which is awesome. Long lie in's, PJ's.... Got all my hair chopped off yesterday, now its just above my shoulders. Then JJ, Sarah, Amit and Michelle and I all headed out for a few drinks last night. We went to Meet, and then the Milk Tiger Lounge. Nice place, lots of petites Bouches, (small food on a stick to you and me). Again, YUM. Then we ventured to Habitat which is a wee Micro Club. It was pretty small.... Although we all showed our age and gave up a 1.20am. Nice night though.