Kicking Horse

Kicking Horse
Image result for black and white mountain passFor years Jenny’s been hearing me talk about the Kicking Horse Pass.  I’d first driven the pass before we met and it was one of many pants filling experiences I had on my Alaska trip in 2002.  I described what it felt like to be barreling down a mountain in a Jeep with a ragtop in a rainstorm through construction with a semi truck nearly kissing your bumper.  It was one of the worst white knuckle rides of my life.  
When I started to tell that story to our eye doctor he told a tale that upstaged even mine.  Her told me and his wife faced the Kicking Horse under similar conditions and his wife was so horrified by the experience that she refused to get back in the car with him.  She got on a plane and flew home to Wisconsin.  So obviously when Jenny and I planned this trip I left the Kicking Horse out.  That meant we’d be leaving Yoho National Park out of the picture.  Even though it’s beautiful I decided it isn’t worth dying over.  
Flash forward.  One afternoon after we hiked in a place called Grotto Canyon we struck up a conversation with a New Zealander who’d been living in Canada for years.  He mentioned a few places that we may have left off our itinerary.  In particular he suggested a cafe in the mountain town of Field.  So the next day when we finished our Johnston Canyon hike Jenny and I decided to drive the twenty or so extra miles and have lunch.  I must have been day dreaming or just worn out from our morning hike because I didn’t even think about it when a split appeared in the road with an arrow  heading west for Field.  We were heading for Yoho National Park by way of the Kicking Horse Pass.  

This time the drive was nothing.  The weather was overcast but not stormy.  There was construction - again.  But there were also flag men keeping a check on traffic speed.   Finally, we were in a new Subaru instead of a ragtop Jeep.  What a difference.  When we parked and got out of the car in Field I was tempted to turn around and give the Kicking Horse the finger:  “Is that all you got!”  I thought to myself.  ButI didn’t.  We still had to make it back to Dead Man’s Flats and there is really only one way to do that . . .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fear the Squirrel

Image
Long before someone introduced Bango the Milwaukee Bucks mascot to steroids and we all learned to “fear the deer,” there was another equally ferocious character terrorizing the city’s north side.  Now I'm not saying I grew up in a sketchy part of town but apparently my grade school mascot was a mouse. Behold “The Mouse’s Roar,” my school newspaper from spring of 1976. A word of advice for parents:  if you’re looking into schools for junior you may want to inquire about the mascot.  If it’s a mouse, vole, rat, or any other potentially Black Plague/hantavirus spreading mammal just move on.  Your kids will thank you for it. My high school mascot wasn't much better.  I attended Custer High School (now Barack Obama Academy) home of the Custer Indians.  The school wasn't actually named after George Armstrong Custer of the infamous Little Big Horn massacre.  It was named for a different Custer. I'm not sure what the Indians did to him. Apparent...
Read more

Dead Man's Flats

Image
When I was trying to describe where we stayed in the Rockies I came up with two approaches.  I called them the “castle” and the “Titanic” analogies.  Banff is a beautiful town situated inside a Canadian national park. Because it’s inside the park there are restrictions limiting the lodgings options and driving up the price.  Banff can be VERY expensive.  It’s a place to see and be seen.  Banff is a little like staying in the king’s castle. Canmore is just a few miles away.  It too is surrounded by majestic mountains, but because Canmore is outside of the national park it has been able to capitalize on its proximity and cater to the needs of the masses who make the pilgrimage to the parks every year. Staying in Canmore is like staying in the village - still nice with great views of the castle -  just less expensive and less exclusive. We stayed just outside of a “hamlet” with the less than glamorous name of Dead Man’s Flats. Our little ham...
Read more

Hagenisms

Image
The following list of quotations was compiled in the PG era (pre Google). It's also pre-meme and pre-facebook. They're part of a collection I've been hoarding for years. These days you can't scroll through your social media feed without stumbling over someone trying to sell you on their meaning of life neatly encapsulated in a little hallmark card of profundity. Cat pic + Ben Franklin quip = Wisdom. Baby pic + MLK quote = I"m tolerant. Bald eagle swaddled with a flag flying + pledge of allegiance text = I'm more patriotic than you, wanna fight about it? It reminds me of words Kennedy spoke in 1962 at a dinner honoring a group of Nobel Prize winners, " I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas  Jefferson dined alone ." I hope you enjoy the collection but take your time.  Give each thought the re...
Read more