One Year Away

Joseph

Sightseeing in the area around Banff had gone like this for us so far:  Pull up to lake/river/mountain, park car, get out to walk around and enjoy the views, be surrounded by other tourists.  Since the national park here receives millions of annual visitors I don’t know why I was expecting it to be any different.  For me though the experience of looking at a majestic mountain with a beautiful alpine lake is lessened when I’m doing it surrounded by loads of other people. 

Despite the crowds the scenery here is amazing and I can put up with most tourists.  There’s only one kind that really drives me crazy.  Before I go any further let me say I respect and enjoy the company of Japanese people; most anyways.  However, the group of teenage girls who seems to be following us around the Rockies in a tour bus is another matter.  They show up at peaceful sites and spend most of their time in a kind of loud group giggling competition.  It makes enjoying the grandeur of the scene very difficult.

So, Penny and I decided to get really off the beaten path and go on a three day horseback ride out into the back country.  Would giggling Japanese girls follow us?  I wasn’t sure, they seemed to show up everywhere.

On the second day of the ride we took the horses up into the mountains along steep rocky paths.  After 3 or 4 hours of steady climbing our small group got off the horses and hiked the rest of the way to Mystic Lake where we would stop for lunch.   As we cleared the last of the pine trees and the lake came into view I scanned the area quickly.  I noticed something unfamiliar…no giggling!  We had the beautiful alpine lake to ourselves.