Travelog for: sammino

Ciao ciao ciao!

smaug  was a bit busy recently so I didn’t have updates for while . Good news is that we have come with him to Toronto for a few days, wow  .
After spending a day resting at the hotel, today we had our first chance to quickly check out the city. First we walk down towards the CN Tower and took a photo there, oooh.



Close to the CN Tower is the Rogers Centre (that used to be called the SkyDome), the main stadium in Toronto for baseball, and Canadian football. There was a baseball game on today, with touts trying to sell tickets at every corner, even in front of the police (isn’t that illegal??  ). Anyway, smaug doesn’t really care about baseball so we just took another photo and moved on.



And here are again Rogers Centre and CN Tower from a bit further away.



Later on we had to get in the north of Toronto to see the tennis Canadian Open, oooh  . Here I am out of the Rexall Centre, just before reaching the main gate.



And here it's me again inside the stadium  .



Just while we were taking the photos it started pouring down and we had to run for cover. It kept raining for a good hour delaying the whole programme, but eventually the evening session started.  The only casualty of the downpour was the camera that refused to work again  , but the tennis was good  . I got shocked when I realised that that the system used by the players to challenge calls is called hawk-eye , so I decided to fly down to the umpire offering to upgrade that to my much more reliable eagle eye, but smaug didn’t let me go and forced me to stay on the stands with him and the other TVs  .He said that professional tennis is probably not ready for a TV supporting the chair umpire in his decisions.

Ciao ciao ciao,

Today the camera was working again...well, it was more or less working. It was actually working quite selectively as, for example we passed twice in front of the City Hall and twice it decided not to work so smaug told us that obviously it wasn’t our destiny to take a photo there, oooh  . But it worked at other locations  .
Here I am at Queen’s Park in front of the Ontario Legislature.



This man is supposed to be the first Canadian prime minister, but he didn’t even bother to turn around when we said hallo to him, how rude 



Wondering around the city we came across this leggy building that hosts a the Ontario college for art and design.



We then visited the shore of Lake Ontario and we stopped a bit looking at the boats sailing in the bay between Toronto and the Toronto Islands.



From there you can also see Toronto City Airport...if you squint you can see a plane taxiing on the runway behind me.



Then we visited the Music Gardens. The garden design interprets in nature Bach’s First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, with each dance movement within the suite corresponding to a different section in the garden  . Here we are in the Courante section of the gardens.



And then it was eventually time to go back to Calgary: bye bye Toronto 

Ciao ciao ciao,

today smaug had to work in Penticton, BC and he took all of us TVs with him  . Not that we had much time to explore around as we flew into Kelowna airport and drove quickly down to Penticton where we spent the whole day stuck in an office, and then back the same way  . Still, on the way back we managed to take a couple of pictures along Okanagan Lake  .




The lake valley is beautiful: full of vineyards and peach trees. Pity we couldn’t stop a bit longer and enjoy the sun on one of the beaches lining the lakeshore, oooh. Instead we took a couple of more photos at Kelowna airport: this is a view of the valley….yes, it is also a detailed view of the car park, we couldn’t really get it out of the photo without climbing on a tree  …



…and this is Kelowna airport main terminal.



It was a nice day, at least we could enjoy the view from the car without having to drive  .
Bye

Ciao ciao ciao,

today the weather was gorgeous, not a single cloud in the sky. So smaug took us out for a hike near Banff. We left the car at Mount Norquay car park…that was actually almost empty, oooh.



Mt Norquay is one of the three main ski resorts within Banff National Park but in summer everything is closed around here. This is the information map with all the slopes in the area. Most of them are labeled as black-diamond or double-black-diamond: that means they are only for experienced skiers  .



On our trail at one point we had to cross this thunderous stream and we were really excited at the idea of wading through it  …




…of course, smaug opted for a less wet way to cross  .



After a couple of hours we saw the first glimpse of our destination: the place is called Cascade Amphitheatre.  Cascade because it is just below Cascade Mountain and amphitheatre because the valley is closed by an amphitheatre of vertical rock walls.



As we got closer we could get some more photos of Cascade Mountain…




...while on the other side you can see other mountains in the distance.



And here I was almost below the vertical walls of the amphitheatre.



On the way back we stopped to play a bit with the chairlifts in Mt Norquay  .



And we also met these bighorn sheep who were kind enough to take a picture with us  .

Ciao ciao ciao!

Today we went hiking in the Sunshine Village area. Sunshine is one of the most popular ski resorts in Alberta. The valley leading to our destination was covered by a thick forest on all sides with just the road cutting through it.



Here we are at the car park. Behind me is the gondola that in winter takes the skiers up to Sunshine Village, in summer there is a shuttle bus carrying hikers there.



And here you can see some of the gondola cars left on the ground during summer.



We were actually heading to the opposite side of the valley, so we didn’t take the shuttle but followed a trail in the deep of the forest. Occasionally there was some clearance where we could see the surrounding valley.




At one point the trail was crossing many times this little stream. The water was so clear 



As we slowly got higher, the forest was giving way to alpine meadows.



And here we eventually reached our destination, Healy Pass. On this side of the pass we could see Egypt and Scarab Lake...



...and Pharaoh Creek valley and Pharaoh Peaks.



I am not sure about the reason for all this “Egyptian” references in the names around here  ...but apparently someone called the pyramid like mountains Pharaoh Peaks, and his followers decided to keep the same theme when naming the other local features  . The campground at Egypt lake is supposed to be the most popular backcountry campground in Banff National Park and Healy Pass is its most popular access route so we were expecting a busy trail...but we didn’t meet more than 20 people in the whole day  .
On the other side of the pass the view goes on forever  ...





While we were having some rest we convinced smaug to show us the canister that he always carries at his belt when hiking in remote areas. Wow, bear spray  , Snuttig wasn’t very pleased at the idea that there is spray made just to scare off bears away  , but smaug assured him that it is just a last resort should we meet a very aggressive bear, oooh.

Ciao ciao ciao!

What a boring week was last one  , smaug was busy and all we could do was sitting at home and chatting. But today the weather was gorgeous and smaug was free, so we decided to spend the day on one of the most spectacular day hike near Banff  .
The first part of the day was a steady steep uphill trail in the forest...of course, we TVs made that easier by continuously supporting smaug from the backpack during the steepest sections . At one point we got the first glimpse of our destination, Cory Pass.



While on the other side we could see the Bow Valley that we had just left below us



Once we reached Cory Pass the view over the valley was even better.



This is the shoulder of Mount Cory behind us



While this is a side of Mount Edith...



...and that thin line on the side of the mountain is actually the trail that we followed to get up here.



A bit of history now:  Cory Pass is a narrow gap between Mount Cory and Mount Edith. Mount Cory was named after a deputy minister of interior in the early 20th century, while Mount Edith was named after an assistant of the wife of Canada Prime Minister at the end of the 19th century. (smaug pointed out that there were so many features to name at that time that if I had been born a 100 years earlier there might even be a Mount sammino now  ).

The other side of Cory Pass looks very...mmm...rocky.



And that is exactly the way we took and we ended up in a narrow valley called Gargoyle Valley, oooh... .



Once we reached the bottom of this valley it was a gentle downhill trail in the forest all the way back to the car park, perfect for us TV to enjoy the view from the backpack and to start thinking of a well deserved dinner  .

Ciao ciao ciao,

today a new guest arrived here in Calgary. He’s name’s Ronnie and he is a Spanish elk who travelled from Scotland, oooh. We were expecting him to arrive soon so when smaug showed us the envelope we got very excited and gathered around it




He is really nice and even brought us some presents  , but he was also very tired from the trip, so we let him go to sleep. Plenty of time to chat tomorrow  .

Ciao ciao ciao,

Today smaug had to do some field work within Banff National Park and we TVs were allowed to go with him . The weather was really bad, it kept raining most of the time  , but we still managed to take some pictures, here I am on the road between Lake Louise and Kicking Horse Pass, very, very wet road, oooh






When we reached the pass the weather improved slightly. By the way, there is not really any horse kicking anyone at the pass  , apparently a member of one of the first exploration expeditions that came here was kicked by his horse while in this area and hence the name  .




The pass sits on the Continental Divide. That means that rain falling just east of it flows towards Hudson Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, while rain falling on West side ends up in the Pacific Ocean  . Actually near the pass there is a small creek called Divide Creek that forks at the pass and its waters flow part towards east and part west....I wonder if by chance any ends up North in the Yukon River too  . Here I am standing more or less on the divide:



We barely left Alberta, but were welcomed back anyway, how nice 



On the way back the weather improved even more and we found a nice spot for a picture in the Bow Valley.

Ciao ciao ciao!

Wow, today a new guest arrived  . His name’s Lysander and he’s a lobster from Scotland, oooh. As always we get very excited when smaug comes home with a parcel and we gathered around to give him the warmest welcome  .

Ciao ciao ciao!

How cool, today a new guest arrived, oooh: her name is Nathalie and she is a German duckling  . smaug didn’t really warn us that someone else was coming so we got extremely curious when we saw a typical TV envelope, and what a great surprise was seeing her coming out  ...guess we’ll spend the whole night chatting 

Ciao ciao ciao!

Wow, it was so hot here today, it went up to 34C  . It is kind of weird to have the hottest day of the year when we are officially already in autumn, but smaug told us not to get use to it: the forecast for next week said that morning temperature could go as low as -5C or less,  (well, his problem anyway, early in the morning we TVs will be nice and warm here a home  ...shh, hopefully he hasn't heard me  ). So, when he came back from work he told us that we should make the most of the nice weather and we went out for a walk along the river .
Here we took a picture from a bridge on the Bow River looking at downtown Calgary.



Then we went walking a bit in the river channel and took another couple of pictures.




It was getting a bit too dark to take more photos but we kept walking a bit longer before coming home. It was nice, pity it soon will be good to have the tuque ready  .

Ciao ciao ciao!

today was a lovely sunny day so smaug decided to have a final (for the season) high mountain hike.  Our destination was Mount Allan in the Kananaskis Provincial Park. We spent the first part of the day climbing up a thick forest (where we tried to take some photos without getting anything presentable in an update  ). When we eventually came out of the trees we were on a steep ridge overlooking Kananaskis Valley. From the ridge you could see the valley heading north…



…and south…



…this big mountain called Mt Kidd...



….and the top of the ridge, called Olympic Summit. Just next to it is the Nakiska ski area (that you can't see in the picture) where all the alpine ski races where held during the 1988 Winter Olympics, hence the name…or at least I guess so  .



Once we reached Olympic Summit we were not even half way to our destination  . We had to follow a long and very, very breezy ridge (so breezy, the rucksack was shaking  all the time, wow, I was almost going out to tell smaug that he could walk a bit more steadily…but knowing how touchy he is I didn’t ).  From the ridge we got some lovely views over Kananaskis Valley and the surrounding mountains  .




….and we could also see our destination, Mount Allan. Here you can see Mount Allan on the right and the much higher Mount Lougheed on the left.



Halfway through the ridge we came across these funny pinnacles formed by rock that somehow  wasn’t eroded like the rest of the mountain .



Eventually we reached the top at 2819m  and the view, of course, was great  : we could see the Bow River Valley in the north-west…



…Kananaskis Valley in the south-east…



…endless mountains in the north…



…and Mount Lougheed just in front of us, oooh.



On the way back smaug decided to enjoy a bit the sun by laying in the grass. So we took the chance to come out of the rucksack, have a bit of fun by ourselves and so we went climbing  . Well, the others went climbing. Eagles have wings so I didn’t really need to climb , but Nathalie and I had the task to find out  the best routes and holds from the air and direct and support the climbers .



Climbing must be hard work  !! Here I was supporting  Ronnie while he was resting on a ledge.



While here Nathalie and I were keeping a watchful eye when the others were going up an angled fissure.



How exciting!! And how great to sit all together watching the landscape, what an adventure we had today !

Ciao ciao ciao!

Today it was my friend Sully Monster’s birthday, so this morning we all gathered around to sing Happy Birthday for him  .



Since smaug was at work and didn’t leave anything special for us, I decided that we should raid the kitchen and find some proper party food. We started with the fridge without too much luck  (I noticed that the man didn’t come back home with any shopping bag for quite few days, so embarassing).



The first cupboard we checked wasn’t any better than the fridge, all canned food 



Now this is better, not healthy maybe, but tasty 



So we stuffed ourselves with nutella, cookies and crisps. After that we checked out the latest updates on toyvoyagers



Then, since it was a fairly cold day, we spent the afternoon wrapped in a fleece blanket chatting and watching TV on the sofa...keeping a few extra cookies nearby, just in case 

Ciao ciao ciao!

Today we said goodbye to my friend Snuttig, oooh. He is travelling to California...wow  ! He is actually moving with a very good timing as here, in the night, it started snowing  .



I gave him a big hug and wished him a safe trip  .

Ciao ciao ciao!

tonight I left all my guests at home and went to meet two new TVs: Hedgie and Mortimer. When smaug put them in his pocket to meet me they were shivering for the cold, so I decided to warm them up before going all the way home. First, I invited them for some drinks 



...and a good supper 



With a full belly we all felt like drinking a bit more...



...and when the pints were empty we upgraded to a jug 



Maybe we exaggerated a bit...



I don’t remember much else of the night, but eventually we ended up home where I introduced my new guests to all the other TVs. I thought that having been out drinking without the others  was very rude, so we had a few more rounds all together at home