yoohoo, yoho

I never actually mentioned on the blog that I was going on this trip - last time I was online was before I went and I had full intentions of posting about how excited I was, but then I heard the news about the death cab concert and the last post came about instead!

So! Last week me and my friend Ryan went to the neighbouring national park, called Yoho (Lake Louise is in Banff national park), to a small town called Field. It's only twenty minutes up the highway, but it was so nice to be out of Lake Louise for two nights & two days! The town is even tinier than here (didn't quite believe that was possible, but clearly it is) - it doesn't even have any cell phone coverage! I didn't take my laptop either so it was actually a really nice aspect to be completely cut off from the world and without that type of technology. The reason we went is to go cross-country skiing, as Field has some really good trails. It was so much fun, but god I was knackered! Ryan's an advanced skiier and this trip was, what, my third time? The first day we did 26km, to a place called Emerald Lake. The trail was intermediate and I didn't do too badly, except near the beginning there was this massive hill that wouldn't've been out of place on the actual ski hill (honestly! kind of...) that I wasn't expecting. As I'm a snowboarder skiing feels really strange to me and I hadn't yet learned how to stop, so I was plummeting down this hill screaming my noggin off and panicked, mainly because I wasn't in control. With snowboarding, although I spend a lot of time terrified I'm confident that I know how to stop so I always still feel like I've got some control, whereas with this I was just a mess... I ended up going belly down at the bottom of the hill and burnt my arms as I wasn't wearing long sleeved. Didn't feel so bad though, as Ryan face-planted! Unfortunately I didn't get to see it as he went down before me, but on the way back he pointed out the hole where his face had landed, haha (: It's funny 'cause skiing can be so graceful, or so so terribly unattractive. I spent most of the time flailing around with pole and ski waving in the air, usually in opposite directions....

The conditions weren't the best, as you can see it was overcast both days, but it didn't bother me as if I'm being honest every day here is beautiful. When you're used to the gray days of Manchester hanging over miserable brick buildings, it can be a gray as it likes here but it just doesn't compare. The overcast-ness does however means my photos suck... I didn't take any of the actual Emerald Lake, which I wish I had! There had recently been an avalanche and all the debris was still on the lake, there was a couple of trees poking out of the snow which was amusing! 

The second day we did a shorter route as we were going home in the afternoon (and were exhausted from the previous day), I think it was only about 9km, to a place called Natural Bridge - given it's name as natural erosion from the river carved a bridge in the rock. I didn't get any photos of the actual thing, but the water photos and the bridge are from that place - my god, it was so beautiful! As I've already mentioned on the blog I'm fascinated by water and for some strange reason feel really at peace when I'm around it. It was only partially frozen so it was really good to sit on the bridge eating peanut butter & banana sandwiches contemplating life, the universe and everything. I'd like to see it in summer for sure!

The few indoor shots are from the hostel we stayed in - it was so nice I couldn't believe it! It wasn't a HI, just a large-ish house which meant for strange feelings on the first night... We had the hostel to ourselves (it was awesome!!!) on the first night but it felt like we were some randoms creeping out in someone elses house! The artwork is some of the stuff that was up, done by the owners sister-in-law... I really like the red one with the wolves. You can't really see it in these shots but it's actually painted on maps of field - reminds me of something my best friend did in GCSE art! And the food shelf masking tape label was fully unappreciated by me, as you can imagine.

Despite Field being smaller, I actually really enjoyed 'getting away'. One thing that Lake Louise is missing, because it's such a tourist trap, is just a chilled, eclectic cafe to hang out in. It was part of the grocery store actually but didn't feel like that at all, there was loads of ethnic style things everywhere + for sale, and wooden seats and benches etc. We ended up there on the last day, as we had difficulty getting home - we were supposed to be getting the Greyhound which is the most unreliable thing ever, so we went to the info centre at 3pm (bus was around 4) to find out what was going on and it turned out the road from Revelstoke to Golden was closed, meaning the Greyhound was gunna be two hours late, at least. The lady was like 'why don't you just hitchhike?' but we had our skis with us so it didn't seem like the best idea... So, we decided to go to this cafe and get drunk instead. A fully amusing experience, especially when walking to the highway involved crossing train tracks and snow banks. Of course I ended up on my arse thigh deep in snow, which resulted in a very kind Ryan helping me out a very horrible Ryan quickly pulling out his camera, the bastard. 

The 'bus stop' in Field doesn't actually exist - you just stand on the highway! It was so sketchy, and we didn't know if the bus was gunna turn up anyway... but that didn't matter, as we ended up unintentionally hitchhiking! We were just stood at the side of the road minding our own business when a truck pulled up (not like a lorry massive truck dodgey thing, like a car pick up er thing. yes) and was like get in! So we did, and got home safe (: Well, relatively. I was still drunk, and continued to get drunker. Oh dear, that's a story for another time...

It was a frickin awesome three days. I love skiing!!!!! Can't believe this is almost over. I'm trying not to think about it :Z