(07/17/12) A Ski Mountain’s Bear Lift and A Teahouse Hike

There are a number of gondolas in the Banff and Jasper National Park areas. We had heard that the one in Banff was not great for viewing bears, but that we would have better luck at the Lake Louise Gondola early in the day. So, being the early risers that we are, we made it up there about 10 AM…

The area’s male grizzly and black bear populations love the short grasses of the ski slopes that let the plants (and resulting berries) that they like to eat grow in abundance. The ski slope puts an electric fence around the main lodge building and lift at the bottom as well as the learning center, lookout and lift at the top. People can ride in relative safety on the chairlift and view the bears gorging below on the ski trails. We were lucky enough to see a young black bear. We spent more than an hour in the education center at the top of the mountain. There were a ton of things to read, view, watch and touch. George petted a lynx hide; he’s touched many other animal pelts, but never a lynx. He was surprised at the size of the feet relative to the body size, but lynx do need big feet to walk on top of the snow, like snowshoes. I got to hold a detached big horn sheep’s horn and it was quiet heavy, about eight pounds. Big horn sheep never lose their horns; they grow them over their whole life span. We got to see taxidermy examples of a wolverine, a marten and a fisher (two of which we’d never heard of before).

We examined the wolverine very closely because we were pretty sure we’d seen one from afar across a meadow while descending from Avalanche Peak in Yellowstone, but have not claimed it because we wanted to be sure. After seeing the wolverine in the learning center, we are even more sure that we did see one, but we want to use YouTube to compare movement style. The critter we saw did not run in a gallop, smooth like a fox. It did not skitter crawl like a marmot. We are doing well crossing possibilities off the list, so we’ll see where this goes.

The learning center offered different programs on the hour all day long. We hung around and got to learn all about bears, the myths surrounding them, their behavior, and the park’s management plan.  Much of the information was not new to us, but we did enjoy getting exposed to the parts of the talk about radio collaring, park populations and the specifics of this park’s bears’ diets. We had a lengthy discussion later in the afternoon about the ethics of using radio telemetry with wild animals because we are both reading books about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

The best thing that we got to see was a time lapse video (available on YouTube) taken from one camera placed in the park near the highway. The parks were having serious issues with wildlife being struck by cars and trains; a transcontinental railway runs through the park as well as major interstate highway. The Canadian government consented to fund the building of wildlife underpasses and overpasses as well as miles and miles of 6 foot high wire fence along the sides of the highway and train tracks.  The fence keeps the animals from the road and funnels them to the overpasses. These things are neat! They are planted well, are designed to muffle the noise of vehicles and there is some kind of edge that makes it hard for the animals to see vehicles. We were surprised by the frequency of use of one overpass by so many different types of animals. See for yourself – this is the clip we watched. Later in the afternoon, we were on the highway and both commented that there were not enough overpasses, but we assume this is a work in progress.

After lunch, we crossed back over the highway and headed out to see what Lake Louise looked like, it being the area’s namesake. As you can see from our pictures, it was stunning. But the Canadians again blew our minds by letting a company build a high rise hotel on the shores of the lake. The hotel has landscaped all over “their” property, right up to the edge of the lake, where they made stone steps down into the lake waters. Again, there was the conscripted boathouse for kayak and canoe rentals. We had to walk quite a ways down the path to get on the actual trail. We were in full hiking gear, CamelBaks, bear bells, bear spray, air horns, hats, pants, boots and poles and we were getting some looks from the hotel guests out for a stroll. We had a 6.3 km (about 3.75 mi) one way hike out to a teahouse. What a stunning hike! As exhausted as I was from a poor night’s sleep (and late-night digestive pyrotechnics caused by an evil burger cooked at Eddie’s in Banff!) I appreciated this hike. George and I are not hiking purists that want the trail to ourselves. We would be pleased to share our journey with others, as a larger group makes bear presence less likely. “We’d love for you to our group of two!” Seriously, this trail was crawling with people. We could not go more than a few minutes without crossing paths with another group. I cracked up laughing when halfway there, another couple passed us heading back. The guy was in hiking boots and happy. The gal was in dressy flats and carrying her PURSE clutched to her chest. That poor girl must have been dragged on the hike; she did not look happy. I do not know how she walked in those shoes.

A few great sections of trail, all with amazing views, we made at least 5 stream crossings. One section was on a rock ledge – fun fun! We finally got to the last part of the hike and found the trail filled in with naturally occurring flat paving stones that led the way to the teahouse. A very neat place with a full menu to boot! There was even a monk who had hiked up while we visited (you can see him in grey behind me in a picture)! All ingredients have to be packed in on the same trail we walked by the staff, who live there during the season. Good grief. Someone also has to haul the trash back out, so the paper products we used are used as fuel for the workers. Everything is cooked on gas camp stoves besides! We arrived late in the day, so the teahouse was on a limited menu of dessert and drinks. I had lemonade and a rice krispy treat. George dined on hot cocoa with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. It was all very good, but very expensive.

Our walk back down was peaceful, uneventful and we eventually caught up with a family hiking back as well. We finished the trek in a big group, chatting about hot springs (where we were headed next), geocaching (which they had not heard of) and where everyone was from. As the hotel came back into view, the sprinkling rain that had trailed us home finally abated and gave us a little rainbow.

We made great time getting back, for which I was grateful. I like to attend the evening Ranger programs that are held at National Park campgrounds. This program was to be about “Animal Stories”, the drama, the mystery and the romance. We barely made it on time. The Ranger seemed nice enough but asked us to share what animals we had seen in the park so far with the people sitting near us. Oh, heck no! Neither of us wanted to talk to strangers. The man and wife behind us, following directions, started talking about the elk they had seen. They were very impressed with our bear. They had gone on the Banff lift and did not see anything (I knew we had picked well). Already a little edgy, we flat out disengaged when the Ranger announced she would tell us a love story about two Harlequin ducks and started to read from a book. George was ready to leave. I gave her five more minutes, but when she invited two audience members up to the stage to play the parts of the ducks, we were outta there! You win some, you lose some, I guess.


George is still patiently slogging along through Wolf Wars. I finished Eldest and Hey, Ranger and have moved onto Shadow Mountain, a companion story to Wolf Wars. Off to sleep, busy day tomorrow!