Banff and beyond: fishing, foxes and moose (12 May)

The daylight of the following day (Sat 12 May) revealed a sight that was to blow my mind - the towers of snow and rock cut in amazing formations that surrounding Banff - the Rockies! Later that morning after a delightful breakfast with the young folk of the YWCA we decided to pack up and find a better place - which ended up being the Banff Alpine hostel which is on a hill overlooking Banff. Grabbing some useful tips from the info place plus fly fishing gear and a license we set out for a wander along the Bow River heading out of town.

Along the path James spotted clumps of miniature orchids nestled among the towering conifers. The path followed the river north and as we proceeded the numbers of people of the path thinned out and before long we fel like it was just us, the very cold river and the awesome majesty of the mountains. We found a good spot for fishing and put the six pack of beers in the fridge (the river) and set about teaching ourselves to fly fish which actually was not too hard. I just loved playing out the line and whipping it across the surface of the water and then bringing in the fly with almost Tai Chi like arm movements.


We were hopeful of a bear sighting but these are rare but with ze mountains and river beside us, we were rather content. We headed back towards the car and back to Banff. That night we had a warming pub meal before having some wine back at the hostel which involved incurring the wrath of the manager hell bent on ensuring no open bottles of alcohol in the hostel common area. Glad to be 16 again.