Theleakyfaucet’s Weblog

We left very early today (July 8th) and drove north towards the border. We stayed the night in Kalispell again last night and, as noted previously, got almost no sleep. Look, the campground was nice, about 8 million children, and there was a short drive into Whitefish, but for over 30 bucks a night to camp in a friggen tent, the WiFi should really be much better. Anyhow, we left and headed north. I was in a bad mood so there wasn’t much conversation…some grunting and occasionally tears…right. You know, when I say stuff like that I’m kidding…just in case there was any question. I’m much to manly and have much too little free time to be crying all the time. Wow. Moving on. So, I was driving, not listening to music, just driving. We finally got up to Eureka and there was still no cell phone service. I was counting on cell service. This angered me a bit, but whatever. Anyhow we crossed into Canada and up here all these Canucks have to have all their signs in two languages:

And it is very distracting. What happens is that you start to read the English and because the signs are usually very short (because they have to be in two languages) they don’t make much sense so, naturally, you attempt to read on and find yourself very aggravated because everything is in French. It’s about this time that you realize that you took your eyes off the road 30 seconds ago, there’s a stopped semi in front of you and you crash into a fiery ball of metal and broken dreams. It’s for all of these reasons that I’ve determined the multi-lingual signs are a road hazard and should be abolished. The tyranny and the bull crap has gone on too long. No one likes Quebec anyhow and French is only a cool language because chicks dig it, yes? Right, I thought so. Time to take down the signs, put up plain-English signs that actually explain something useful like: Turn right at Rt124 to get to Lake Louise – or – Watch for Moose Crossing the Road. All good signs. Carrying on…

One more thing about signs-Stay gold Pony Boy:

On the way up the western side of the Rockies we were in British Columbia about 15 miles from the Pacific Time Zone. Anyhow, we follow the Columbia River a little bit and then we hit the Columbia Lake which is the source for the Columbia River. A big part of me wanted to just get in the River and flow south. Anyhow, here’s a shot:

Oh and here’s me by the Columbia Lake, photo Courtesy of the Quantaray T500i, thanks buddy:

We got to the campground shortly after the hitch hikers and we waited in a line of about 15 cars for an hour. They could apparently only move one car every 5 minutes or so. Anyhow, by the time we got up to the front of the line we were a little frustrated, called the kids at the ticket counter a Canuk and were immediately escorted to the finest site in the campground…Apparently Canuk is not a derogatory term… We’d hoped that it was. Anyhow, we set up camp and took off to see Lake Louise. Here’s a shot of the River that comes off Lake Louise:

We finally arrived at the ULTIMATE destination, Lake Louise. I need you to understand that this was huge for me. I have been thinking about seeing this place for nearly 11 months. I looked it up constantly at work and imagined I was there while being pooped on by small children. This place has been slightly built up in my mind…that’s the real point. Here is a first shot of the lake:

I’m going to reserve comment. Ok, I’m not. It’s beautiful, yes, but I was a little underwhelmed and here is why: There are about 3,158 tourists standing next to me while I took this picture. There is nearly 100% cloud cover. The lake is not tourquoise blue but rather swimming pool green. And the list goes on. Now, I was not really disappointed at all…it is still a breathtaking place, just would have been even better if half the people there hadn’t gotten up this morning. Moving on. After leaving Lake Louise we went up to Moraine Lake:

I know, right? This is what I came to see. It was raining, as we learned it often does up here, but the clouds cleared a bit and I decided to shoot in the rain anyhow. This place is thebombDOTcom. Lake Moraine wins the award. It’s 11 km from Lake Louise. No, I don’t know the conversion, and it’s twice as beautiful and secluded. Here is an HDRized version from tonight:

After this we went back to the camp site and I uploaded these photos and worked on this here blog which leads me to now. I think that it’s time I get myself ready and go to bed. I hear the old man snoring behind me. Looks like a long night. Oh, but wait, I have a brand spanking new Mummy sleeping bag that is 0 degree rated. I’m going to be so cozy. Ok, now I’m excited and I can’t sleep.

Until next time.