Day 14, 31st August 2011. Golden - Lake Louise - Banff, Canada

When we woke up this morning it was the first 'cold' morning that we had and it was horrible. Taking down the tents when everything is cold and wet is the least fun thing ever. Art made us pancakes for breakfast though so that made the moring better. We started driving and it took us about an hour to reach Lake Louise. We first went to the visitor center to pick up maps and then went to the actual lake. It was really cold there and foggy too, but it was really pretty, the lake was so blue.

We decided to do a hike to Lake Agnes because it wasnt too much of a strenuous hike. Gary and I walked with Daniel and Aaron, but we saw some of the other group on the way. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the top, and when we got up there we went into the tea house and had some hot chocolate.

We saw a horse going up the mountain

While we were in the tea house we noticed Gary was growing a horn

While we were up there it started snowing! In August! It was really funny because Aaron was wearing shorts, a shirt and flip flops (or thongs, as our Austrailian friends called them) while everyone else was wearing really warm clothes. We then started our walk back down which didn't take long at all.

The tea house

By the time we got dow 45 minutes later it was so freezing, we were so cold. It was about 1pm and we wasn't being picked up until 5. There was a really nice hotel nearby so we decided that was the only place we could go to pass the time and keep warm.



We had 4 hours to kill and it really was boring. We sat in a bar and the boys played pool and I had a wander around looking in the shops. The bar served food and me and Gary got a burger for lunch, but there really was nothing else to do there. Within the next hour or so almost everyone on the trip was waiting in there because it was too cold to go outside.

I was so glad when we finally got picked up to go to camp. We were staying in Banff for the next 3 nights so it was nice to put our tent up and be able to relax and sort our stuff out knowing we wouldn't have to pack it all up again in the morning. The downside was it was so cold I was not happy about camping somewhere so cold for 3 nights, it was so difficult to put the tent up because my hands were so frozen.

To cheer me up Gary pretended to be a witch

Then we all had showers and got ready to go out. I wanted to stay in the shower all day because it was the only place that was warm. We also had a little gazebo thing that had a heater in so we could stand in there to try and warm up too.

Everyone gathered around the heater to keep warm

We went into town and had dinner at a place called Wild Bill's that had line dancing going on which was cool, and the food was really nice too, I had a burger and Gary had a steak.

After dinner, we went to a bar that had a live band playing country music, it was so much fun. Both groups were all there and everyone was drinking and dancing, it was our first proper night out and we had the best time. It was actually one of the best nights of the entire trip, it was so good. The band were excellent, and even though I and most other people hardly knew any of the songs, it was still so much fun.

I think we got back to our tent at about 1am. I can't remember exactly but I think we got a taxi. I had the worst night ever, it was absolutley freezing. I had so many layers but I was still so cold that I couldn't sleep, so it was a really bad end to a really good night.