Confessions of a Moose Lover: GHABAHSHALALALA!!!

Since I've been in Calgary for almost two weeks now, I decided I was long overdue for a trip to the Rockies. Considering it's one of the main reasons I decided to come to Calgary (that and the fact that I have a job helps too), I think it's a wonder I hadn't been there already.

I was kind of angry that there was somewhat traffic on the road because I had to focus on not crashing and not on the Rockies. Urgh!!

Now, on a good clear day, you can see the Rockies from Calgary, depending on where you are in the city. However, since I've been here, it's been mostly smoggy so I hadn't seen the mountains much. Which means I was even more excited to be seeing them for the whole hour and a half the trip lasted.

OMG!! I see some mountains far, far away in the distance!!

Oh, they're looking bigger!

Getting closer...

Closer...

CLOSER...!!!

GAH!!! I'm at the foothill of the ROCKIES!!!! SO EXCITED!!!

And then I arrived in Banff National Park, where I bought an annual pass because you know I'll be going there, oh, every weekend...or more. I'm going to become a hiking machine!! Well, that is, if I can find some hiking buddies. Because you don't go hiking alone. Remember that kids. It's not safe. Even more so in bear country.

So in Banff National Park, you can find the town of Banff.

This wasn't my first time in Banff. Twelve years ago, my family and I left Fredericton, drove all the way to Victoria, BC, dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean and drove back home. Along the way, we had many stops, Banff being one of them. So this quaint little town is at the foot of Cascade Mountain, which you can see from pretty much anywhere in town. So we're talking a big mountain here. The kind that has little patched of snow on top all year long. But somehow, during our stay, my mom, my brother and I decided to nickname it our pebble. That's right. This big huge chunk of rock will forever be known to us as Our Pebble.

Cascade Mounain. Also known as The Pebble.

The nice thing about the Town of Banff is that it has a lot of shops. Little shops that seem random. Like a shop from this little company located on PEI. Which is kind of funny because PEI seems to be awfully protective of their company and only have a handful of shops located off the Island. One of which is somehow in Banff!

If you hadn't guessed it yet, I'm talking about Cow's!

For those who don't know, Cow's is known for 2 things:
1. Their ice cream, once voted the world's best ice cream
2. Their goofy shirts that make parodies of popular social things
e.g. Mootube, Finding Nemoo, MooMoo Lemon,...

Of course, Banff is all about the moose. I still haven't seen a real one.
Why does nature hate me?

I didn't actually try out this place. I just loved the name.

They even named a street. Seriously??

So first thing I did when I got to town was to go to the information centre to ask about hiking trails that are safe for solo people. He showed me a map and he said that there was this super popular trail that started near the town. So instead of driving to the trail, I decided to walk, because it seemed close. Turns out the start of the trail was located halfway up the mountain and there was on site parking. Too bad I only realized this once I got there. So I ended up walking an extra 2km to get to the trail. And it was an uphill 2k. I now had another uphill 2k to do if I wanted to get to the top of the hill. Me = feeling kinda dumb at this point.

I was relieved yet pissed to see this sign at the mouth of the trail.

I'm relatively in shape. I jog and I do kickboxing. I make sure I work my cardio and I also walk everywhere. Somehow, that didn't matter here. It took about 2 seconds and I was completely out of breath. And I stayed out of breath until reached the top of the mountain, about 45min later.