Sparrowhawk Tarns Hike

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Forecast was for 40% chance of sunshine (as Carol likes to view it). We drove the Spray Lakes Road south of Canmore for about 25 minutes from Grandview B&B. There was a chain saw noise up in the woods, which was rather odd. Turns out one of four crews were working on the TransCanada Trail build going on for the next two years, from Goat Creek to Elk Pass. Wow! What an ambitious project! I've read a little bit about it - they are actually taking on volunteers. See Tony Daffern's blog: http://kananaskisblog.com/high-rockies-trail/2015/

At any rate, we spent 6 hours hiking to the furthest tarn (a pond left behind by glacial work) and back, and would really rate this as an excellent adventure. Takes some route finding to stay on faint trails in the furthest reaches. We saw several marmots (see pics), ptarmigan, and unidentified little brown birds with reddish wings. Another great day in the Canadian Rockies!

Canmore Bike Fest

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Canmore held a 10 day Bike Fest in July this year, featuring bike park jams, hill climbs, mountain bike races, road stage races, etc. We went down to watch some of the criterium, which is a flat out road race around about 6 city blocks on flat ground, with lots of corners - for 30 laps!. It's not for the faint of heart! Below is a 30 second video taken with an iPhone that gives you an idea how fast they go!

Sentinel Pass hike

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Monday, June 6, we headed out to hike Sentinel Pass in the Lake Louise area. We dropped bikes off at Moraine Lake, and then left the car at the trailhead for Paradise Valley. Sentinel Pass is 11.7 km, with about 2300 vertical feet of gain - near the end being very steep and rocky. We passed by Lake Annette, which is a very nice subalpine vista. At this time, we weren't required to hike in groups of 4, which is the usual anti-grizzly rule.

We really didn't see that many people, and the weather was perfect. Once over the pass, we started encountering more hikers coming from the Moraine Lake side. Hard to beat the view of the Ten Peaks surrounding Moraine Lake! Gorgeous colour!

When we got to Moraine Lake, we jumped on our bikes and cranked out the 9 kms back to the car. Pretty fast last few kms! We chomped on beaucoup watermelon to re-hydrate - a nice summertime treat.

Doing the circuit this way avoids nutty parking situation at Moraine - on a Monday!