Evening paddle on the Bow River - Banff to Canmore

Our friend Vicki had never paddled the Bow River from Banff to Canmore. We put in just below the falls and took out at the bridge in Canmore. If we'd left an hour earlier, we'd have enjoyed more direct sun on the river. Trip time 2.5 hours.

Columbia river photos

River Foam

Natural or man made? This was the debate that I had with my sweetie as we floated down the Columbia River. You can see that foam floated everywhere--often in sizable hunks (see paddle blade for scale). Was it man made, laden with nutrient waste and phosphates, or a natural result of fast moving water flowing over fallen trees and debris? I haven't yet found an answer.

Canoeing Columbia River

At 1:30pm of the long weekend, we just had to get outta town. I picked a river I hadn't paddled before, scanned where the weather would be best, and drove in the opposite direction:) Good thing too--kind of a pump-fake to the cold front which headed East while we went West to the Columbia River. Put in at Radium, planned a bicycle shuttle from Briscoe, and caught a ride at the General Store instead. On the river by 6pm with 35 km ahead of us, we settled in for a nice paddle. An hour later we found the most idyllic campsite--a beautiful sand bar--likely not even there in higher water.

After dinner we went for a stroll around the island and heard the slap of the beavers. Clearly we weren't alone!



We followed beaver trails through the willows, and snuck up on 3 beavers splashing about on the river. The third photo is of a beaver mid-slap!

After a lovely fire, a brief shower sent us to bed. We awakened early then skipped breakfast to catch beaver activity. This was successful as we found beavers every 50 metres down the river, fortifying their dams and slapping their tails.

We ate breakfast as we floated. Once sun came up, we found a grassy knoll to make coffee and tea for the morning. It afforded a perfect view of the river. 

We explored a logging trail and high ridge further down river to stretch legs and smell the spruce and fir. 

Later in the day we spied a massive eagle nest with 2 adult bald eagles very wary of us.

They hovered over us as we floated by. We also heard many songbirds, king fishers and waterfowl.

These cute goslings rustled out of the swamp grass as we paddled into a shallow cove.  Our ended our leisurely paddle about 4:30pm and were lucky enough to get a ride from a nice couple the 2 km to the van.

Stewart canyon walk

We've been dog sitting Rosie for 2 weeks. Today's the day her family comes home so we took her for one last glorious walk up Stewart Canyon. It was warm despite the surprise snowfall earlier in the week. The snow kept people away so we had the place to ourselves. We discovered Parks Canada's new interpretive info box which "talks" when you crank a handle. Too much noise for too little gain! Reading a sign would have been far more enjoyable and less intrusive on others' peaceful, outdoor getaway.

May Snowfall

If April showers bring May flowers, what do May snows bring? All of our budding flowers were buried in 70 cm of snow!

Here's Lucy the Chesapeake Bay retriever tunneling through to break trail for us. We hiked across the benches of Canmore marvelling at how much fun it was. If you are going to get snowfall, it would be fun to have this amount every time. Too bad it's not in January. Yes, there's still skiing at Sunshine!

Muskrat Tracks

Just to compare, the muskrats are a lot smaller than the beaver. Check out these tracks with the skinny tail mark.

Bow River between Canmore and Exshaw

Awoke to bird song at 6:00am Sunday. Jumped outta bed, grabbed my girlfriend, our dog and Rosie (we're dog sitting). Headed East of Canmore to a spot we'd seen beavers at 2 nights before. The Bow River is really low right now and has left a sandy bank: perfect for spotting tracks!

We saw something swimming in the river, which turned out to be a muskrat. No beavers this morning, I guess that they were sleeping in.

On Friday, the beavers were really bold. The female swam across the river straight to us. Met by Lucy our Chesapeake Bay retriever, she was undeterred.

The beaver hoisted herself onto the sand bank and almost kissed our dog. This beaver was huge--the size of a laborador retriever with stubby legs. Given its size and the sharpness of her teeth, we called Lucy off. The beaver happily swam back across the river and got back to packing mud to repair her home. The big boy beaver was waiting for a little Friday night action, but she threw him off and into the river!

This photo was all we found of the beavers this morning. They must have been sleeping in. Notice the tail mark dragging on the sand.