Edmonton Trip and Banff - C Level Cirque Hike

Here's a quick Synopsis of our first week in August:

• Drove to Edmonton last Wednesday
• While Jim slaved away, I toured the city on Thursday (University of Alberta, Legislature Building, Art Gallery of Alberta, La Ronde)
• Drove back to Calgary late Friday but stopped in Red Deer to play golf at River Bend GC.
• Saturday was errand and laundry day
• Sunday, played golf at a links course called the Canal at Delacour (I know, I know, twice in one week!)
• Monday was Heritage Day, a provincial holiday, so we hiked the C Level Cirque trail outside of Banff

Okay, where to begin?  Our trip to Edmonton was pretty uneventful.  The city is nice, but not as nice as Calgary.  Canadians make the comparison between Edmonton and Calgary like Texans do between Dallas and Houston.  Supposedly, Edmonton, the provincial capital of Alberta, is like Houston, blue collar and industrial.  Edmonton is a major staging point for large scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta, and there are lots of "mod yards" that Jim solicits.  There are also quite a few refineries just like in Houston.  Calgary is supposed to be more like Dallas with corporate and white collar workers.  I like them both just fine.  Don't want to raise anybody's ire on either side!  

The golf this past week was awesome.  Red Deer is a smallish town half way between Calgary and Alberta.  It kind of reminded Jim of Tucumcari!  Imagine that!  :)  The River Bend GC was one of the nicest municipal courses I have ever played (in my humble opinion and long golf life).  The links course we played on Sunday, with our friend John, was just east of Calgary.  It was very different from all of the courses I have played, lots of tall grass and reeds just off the fairway.  You'd better hit that little ball straight, or you ain't gonna find it!  There are no trees on the course either, so it gets hot (for Calgary).   

The first Monday in August is a civic holiday known as Heritage Day in Alberta.  It's known by a variety of names in other provinces, such as British Columbia Day in British Columbia, New Brunswick Day in New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan Day in Saskatchewan.  Sounds like somebody could've used a little help when they were trying to come up with a catchy name.  

We decided that a nice hike was in order for the holiday, but different than our past Kananaskis treks!    Sooo….we packed our peanut butter and jelly sammys, filled the water bottles and headed out to Banff National Park in search of the C-Cirque Trail.  We had no idea what the name of the trail meant but the description sounded interesting.  The uphill climb is steady and steep.  I'd like to tell you it was no big deal, but I can't lie.  It was a tough, relentless slog uphill, and we had to stop to rest... a lot.   The trail climbs past artifacts of the long-defunct Bankhead coal mining operation.  Old mine shafts and buildings along the trail were a part of the “C Level” operation—the highest coal seams worked within the eastern slope of Cascade Mountain.  The trail starts a steep climb right away and doesn’t let up until you are above the tree line, where you find the cirque, about an hour into the hike.  “Cirque” is a French word you're not going find in your English dictionary.  It’s a term used by geologists to describe a semicircular, bowl-shaped depression created by an alpine glacier.  Supposedly you can hear an echo in the amphitheatre created by the cirque, but we were just too darned tired to do any yodeling.  An hour above the cirque is where the magic happens.  Our long slow haul was rewarded with a sweeping view of Lake Minnewanka (pronounced “mini wonka”) and the valley back to Canmore.

After our hike, we made our way over to beautiful Lake Minnewanka and soaked our poor tired dogs in the cool blue glacier water.  What a treat!   

Our friends Peter and Bronwyn, from Houston, will be in town this week, and we plan to join them for “High Tea” at the Fairmont Palliser.  Stay tuned for pictures of Jim’s pinkie.

Down town Edmonton

C-Cirque Trail....STEEP!

Found the "Cirque"

A short rest at the cirque, then onto the top of the tree line....top right!

Worth the long hike.....Lake Minnewanka!

We deserved NEEDED a rest!

Tranquil shores of Lake Minnewanka

View of Mt Rundle from north side of Banff