Canada: Whales, Bears and Mounties: Tuesday 23rd August: If You Go Down To The Woods Today.........

You're Sure of a Big Surprise........and we certainly did get one !!!
All of the advice of "bear awareness" says stay back 100 metres from a bear, umm good advice if you don't suddenly realise you are only 20 yards away. The other advice is to talk loudly, well my boy bent this chaps ear for so long he cleared off !!!!

We were walking up this steep hill on what we had planned to be a gentle stroll around a lake when we suddenly realised this chap is having a picnic ! All was well, he was rather camera shy, he went on his way and we went on ours !

At last we come to the lake. The trail is shared with horses, they do lots of horse riding adventures here, and it had rained heavily the night before so trail rather messy !! No problem we are wearing our walking shoes. This is Patricia Lake and is a very quiet and peaceful spot. We only passed one couple walking the other way on the trail and then one coupe here at the lake !

Another shot of the lake. We needed a bit of peace and quiet as it had a been a busy morning. We are at Lobstick Lodge, Jasper and the room we were allocated was very gloomy/dark. The kitchen/lounge area has no windows and is as well as dark very stuffy. No a/c so fans going flat out. The rooms are very badly planned. Anyway we asked to be moved as we had spoken with a cleaner and looked at a room on the other side of the corridor which although same layout have bigger bedroom windows and face the lighter side. So we move all of our things, and not just suitcases remember but a fridge full of things etc. to a new room which is one large room and is so much lighter and much better. Ho hum the phone rings and the receptionist says she has made a mistake and we can't have this room but we can have another one so we move again !!! Better and more light but like the original room very noisy at night and some other issues which I won't bore you with.
From here we go to Hertz to sort out the windshield and they are really helpful. They suggest leaving it until we get to Vancouver as we are likely to get hit again and then sort it with the Vancouver office. Their local price for replacement is $350 and they feel Vancouver should be similiar lets hope so....

Patricia Lake. Our short stroll from here actually takes us over very undulating trails and some steep bits but good exercise and ends up being total round trip of 6km