Day 12 & Day 13 - it has not been a bed of roses - a flipping disaster!
- marymoscrop1
- Jul 4, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 23, 2022
What3words: horoscope.liquidity.illness
OK - this is going to be a longer read, so either grab a brew and read it, or if you just want to know about the effing disaster, skip two thirds through.
Day 12 was the first day that we had not pre planned what we wanted to do. We had booked accommodation, so at least we knew where we were going to sleep, and our final destination - or did we? Read on to find out….
We left the quirky Sunwapta Falls Lodge after a leisurely breakfast and pack-up. We knew there was about a five hour journey ahead of us, so we agreed that we would just stop each time we saw something that looked interesting.
First stop was Howse Viewpoint of the Saskatchewan Crossing - it was pretty enough, but to be fair, we only stopped because my brother-in-law is from Saskatchewan and he says you can watch a dog run away for 3 days…..
We made another stop at Bow Lake. This lake has only been ice free for about two weeks, needless to say we did not dip our toes in, but it looked glorious. We bought a sausage roll and coffee each from the little cafe and sat in Adirondack chairs in the sun and just watched the world go by, and the birds and the chipmunks (what3words: clipper.pretender.ideal).
Coming down the Icefields Parkway is a completely different drive to going up. It is only natural that your eyes focus on what is directly in front of you, so this time we were seeing the opposite view, which is actually even more spectacular than it was going up. Either way, it is a beautiful drive.
The chap I met at the Moraine Lake sunset, who recommended the Waterfowl Lakes, also said we had missed out by not going to Johnston Canyon. As our onward journey would take us quite close to Banff we thought we would rectify that and swung by for a visit.
We thought we would only be looking into another crevice, but no - this was a full-on hilke up the trail to two waterfalls, and it was sooooo busy.
The path was wide enough for one person traveling in each direction so it felt a little like a forced march, at least to the first waterfall - if you stopped to catch your breath, you held up the 20 or so people behind you. Where there was no room for a pathway, they had built a path and 'hung' it from the side of the mountain.
When we got to the lower falls we had to join a line-up to take our photos!
(what3words: somebody.breakfasts.staircases)
To be fair, if you just wanted a shot of the falls you could step forward and take one, but at the side of the waterfall was what looked like a cave entrance and people were queueing up to go inside. Everyone was being patient about it, and giving each other time to take their pics, but we had to wait about 25 minutes to get to the front of the queue. That’s when we found that the ‘cave’ was actually a tunnel that came out really close to the water - it was a great experience, but we also got drenched :)
We set off up the extra couple of K up the path to the upper falls, but half way up I was done, so Emily went on alone and I sat on a peaceful bench and began feeding the wildlife. By that I mean the national bird of Canada which is the mosquito. My legs were covered in bites before I had caught my breath enough to realise :(
By the time we had made it back to the car we were both done in, but we still had about two and a half hours to go before we reached our bed for the night……. And that is when it all went pear shaped.
The main highway - Highway 1 (lol) - was closed so we were rerouted a LOOOONNNGGG way round. Things may look close together on the map, but when there is a mountain between where you are and where you need to be, it can take you 3 hours to relocate an inch! It is even more disconcerting to see the sign ‘105km no cell service’.....
By the time we reached Golden, it was 7.30pm and check in at our accommodation was until 8pm, so I messaged them to say we were on our way and we stopped off at Tim Hortons to get something to eat (there were NO service stations, or open eateries along the diversion route). The drive through was closed due to lack of staff, so Emily went in to order. The place was rammed and it took Emily about 15 minutes to get to the order station: this was the exchange…..
Emily; can I have two solancho lime chicken bowls, please?
TH Server: We don’t have any quinoa
Emily: (thinking, what is quinoa) Ok, can I have 2 habanero chicken bowls then
TH Server:We don’t have quinoa
Emily: Can I have a solancho lime chicken wrap
TH Server:We don't have quinoa
They looked at each other - the restaurant was heaving, and no-one was speaking….
Emily: Ok, can I have a chicken wrap
TH Server:No
Her manager over her shoulder looks baffled: yes of course you can have a chicken wrap
Emily: Ok I will take two
TH Server:No, we don’t have enough chicken
Manager - yeah, you can have 2 chicken wraps - we have enough chicken…..
We take the wraps on the road with us up to the Copper Horse Lodge at Kicking Horse (what3words: preload.cooked.unfair). The reason we had booked this was because the pictures were gorgeous, as was the description on Booking.com. It is the middle of our trip and we just wanted a couple of days to chill out, read a book and recharge. Best laid plans…..
We were not late, but I had emailed them, texted them and called them to let them know we would be close to the wire, with no response from them. Their answering machins actually said they were closed and would be opening June 25th, so we assumed they had not updated their message.
The instructions for late check-in were to go to the neighbouring lodge and pick up keys there, which I did, but no-one was there. There were lights on, but it was deserted. There were envelopes with what I took to be keys on the desk, but none for us. We crossed over to our lodge and I tried the doors - all locked, and the building looked tired, and unloved.
I went back to the sister lodge and I found a french woman who was chopping tomatoes at a table - I asked her for help in locating staff and she wished me ‘good luck’ finding a person, as all they had was a piece of paper with an emergency telephone number on it that was left for them when they checked in. She fetched it and I took down the details. I called the number and spoke to a chap called Travis who told me that I could not possibly have a reservation for Copper Horse lodge as it has not been open for two years! Thanks a bunch Booking.Com!
Nothing to be done but head into ‘town’ and start calling other hotels - honestly, I was sure I could hear banjos dueling in the background. What a weird place it is - from the Tim Hortons experience to the hotel that had been closed for two years I had a really bad feeling.
By this point we had decided that we would have to sleep in the car. We were too tired to drive any further, and were almost out of fuel. We found a layby on the long gravel road that we thought may be a little more private than being on the main road, but then we looked to the left and saw a bloody black bear! NOPE - exit stage right!
Everywhere was full. I did find a place on Booking.com's website that had availability, but I did not want to book with them again, so we decided to take a drive to the property and book directly with the owner. Well…..
The directions took us up a long and winding gravel road, with home made ‘private’ signs everywhere. I pulled in and we tried to call the place rather than drive to it, but of course there was no signal so we had to keep going. When we reached it, there were rusty cars in the yard and it just looked so…… not us (our standards are not that high, but this did not even meet them) I took one look and did not even stop the car, just did a handbrake turn and legged it.
I was freaked right out - to the point of silence, and Emily was laughing hysterically, replaying the recording she had made of one person on reservations saying ‘there is something wrong with your phone, it is really bad static - sounds a bit creepy actually’ then they hung up!
While I filled the tank, Emily called the very last hotel, a truck stop kind of place, and they agreed to sell us their last room that had 0 air con and 0 WIFI. By the time we got there, Ray, on Reception felt really sorry for us and gave us his personal fan to cool us down. Bless him for an act of kindness!
We did not sleep so well - the bites on my legs had me itching all night and imagining bed bugs (there were none!) and Emily kept thinking a bear was going to come and get us.
Day 13.
We were leaving Golden. We should have had two nights here then move on to Revelstoke, but we decided to make the move now and just got in our car and left. Still no response from Booking.com so I called them again and this time got through - I was not getting anywhere with the Customer Service person, so I am waiting for a Manager to call me back…… it has been 12 hours so far!
We have booked into a Wyndham hotel in Revelstoke, It has a pool, a hot tub and comfy beds. We will have a great sleep and reframe tomorrow.
It is not all a bed of roses, but we will dine out on that bear in the layby story for a while….
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