My four “Chile” friends from 43 years ago and I just had our second reunion in Minnesota and British Columbia, Canada. A year and a half ago we all met up together for the first time in Chile and Argentina. We got on well and had such great fun that we planned a US/Canada trip. They are friends that I taught and lived with in Santiago, Chile in the late 1960’s. Again we laughed a lot, and only on several occasions did we have vocabulary and pronunciation misunderstandings.
We all met in Minnesota for a week at my cabin, relaxing in the sun, laughing and talking, swimming and kayaking. We also visited Itasca State Park to wade across the Mississippi River, then home to St. Paul and a visit to the State Fair, definitely a cultural experience for foreigners. They also enjoyed a quick overview of the city.
We flew to Spokane, Washington, rented a car, and then began our over 2000-mile, three-week trip north and west into Canada. At first in the Rockies, we had rain and snow, overcast and cloudy weather, but then it cleared and we had bright clear blue skies and we were able to see the snow and glaciers on the mountains. The peaks are varied and one is more spectacular than the next. We did a lot of hiking in and near Banff, Lake Louise, Canmore and the Kananaskis Mountains south of Canmore. We hiked to waterfalls, deep turquoise lakes, aqua marine rivers and streams and through beautiful forests. There were impressive rock formations, pools of blue and green colors, wild flowers and berries, ferns, and patterned fungi. Fuchsia Fireweed and purple Asters were out in many places. Vegetation changed as the altitude changed. The Bunch Berry plants had bright red berries at the lower altitudes and white flowers higher up.
One especially spectacular hike was in Mt. Revelstoke National Park, Meadow in the Sky, where we started at the summit of over 6000 feet and hiked to meadows filled with wildflowers: red Indian Paintbrush, purple Sub-alpine Daisies, blue Artic Lupine, yellow daisy-like Mountain Arnica, pink Monkey Flowers, and white and pink Mountain Heather. The wildflowers were unusually late this year because of the very deep winter snow. I was introduced to Whiskey Jacks, tame grey jays, that eat right from your hands. We saw deer, a female moose, a black bear, a long-horned wild mountain sheep, and of course an endless number of squirrels, chipmunks and other ground furry-tailed animals.
One especially spectacular hike was in Mt. Revelstoke National Park, Meadow in the Sky, where we started at the summit of over 6000 feet and hiked to meadows filled with wildflowers: red Indian Paintbrush, purple Sub-alpine Daisies, blue Artic Lupine, yellow daisy-like Mountain Arnica, pink Monkey Flowers, and white and pink Mountain Heather. The wildflowers were unusually late this year because of the very deep winter snow. I was introduced to Whiskey Jacks, tame grey jays, that eat right from your hands. We saw deer, a female moose, a black bear, a long-horned wild mountain sheep, and of course an endless number of squirrels, chipmunks and other ground furry-tailed animals.
We stayed in hostels in bunk rooms which are the cheapest places to stay; in each hostel we chose our beds checking the hardness or softness of the mattresses, the ease of climbing up ladders, light available for reading etc. Most evenings we cooked in the communal kitchens, some places were better supplied with equipment than others. Most of the hostels were clean and pleasant. Our favorite was in Canmore which from very comfortable lounge chairs one had a splendid view of the valley and the nearby Three Sisters Mountains.
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