Banff, Canada - Travel with Theresa and Kyle of the Mountain Town Ramblers

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In this episode, Carol and Kristen talk with Theresa and Kyle hosts of the Mountain Town Ramblers Podcast. They live in Edmonton, Alberta and have a passion for mountain towns, hikes, craft breweries and local restaurants, most especially those in the Canadian Rockies. They frequently visit Banff and the adjacent National Park, which they feel is one of the most beautiful mountain towns in Canada, if not the world. We talk about the reasons for it's popularity among tourists, and the diverse activities available there, such as rock climbing, ice climbing, and enjoying the scenic beauty of mountains, waterfalls, and lakes.

 We also talk about how the podcast has become a motivating factor for them to travel regularly and engage with others, creating a fun and more fulfilling way of living. We discuss how their podcasting journey, learning about technology, sharing stories, and becoming more intentional with their travels has helped them grow and evolve. So, please join us for this rambling conversation about outdoor adventures and their experiences in various mountain destinations.

 If you'd like to get in touch, Theresa and Kyle can also be found at mountaintownramblers.com.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mountain_town_ramblers/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087674772905
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mountaintownramblers/featured

Map of Banff

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, welcome to our podcast.
We're Next Travel with Kristenand Carol.
I am Kristen and I am Carol,and we're two long-term friends
with a passion for travel andadventure.
Each episode, we interviewpeople around the globe to help
us decide where to go next.
In this episode, we're meetingwith Teresa and Kyle from the

(00:36):
Mountain Town Ramblers podcast.
We will learn about Banff thatis B-A-N-F-F, which is one of
the most beautiful towns in theCanadian Rockies.
If you enjoy our podcast, canyou please follow us and give us
a review?
It's a super easy, quick taskthat really helps the show.
Enjoy the episode.

(00:57):
Thanks, truce and Carl, forjoining us today from Mountain
Town Ramblers in Banff, which Iknow nothing about, so I'm super
excited to learn about it.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Perfect Thanks for having us.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
We're so excited to teach you everything we know
about Banff.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Great.
And so now, how long?
How did this whole thing start?
How long have you been going,and do you do you just do Banff,
or do you do other places aswell?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
That's a really good question.
Well, we have been doing thispodcast for just over a year.
We released our first podcastlast March.
We have just released yeah,it's really exciting we just
released our 25th episode, andthe idea at the time was just to
talk about and share stories ofbeautiful mountain towns that
we go to, and so there's reallyno limit of the towns that we go

(01:45):
to.
Banff just happens to be veryconveniently close to us and, we
think, one of the mostbeautiful mountain towns in
Canada, if maybe not, if not theworld.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I don't know, I don't know.
We'll have to go to the malland see what I know.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I know we get the luxury of being able to go to
Banff quite frequently, but wedo.
We have gone into Idaho.
We're going to be releasingsome episodes on Ireland in the
next coming weeks.
So we go.
We don't live it ourselves, welike to go everywhere.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
And where do you live ?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh well, we live in Edmonton, alberta, which is
probably about a three hourdrive from the mountains.
It's about four hours from bath.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
So Okay, gotcha, I see I just hear Edmonton, I
think hockey, I'm wearing myhockey hat.
So how did this whole thingstart with you wanting to do and
launch a podcast?
And in the mountains I'm a hugemountain and even more so lakes
and mountains kind of person,so you know you're going to like

(02:44):
that a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
For sure I've been there.
I actually have.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Nice Junior high.
It was a long time ago, but Ido remember Lake Louise the
hotel.
I can't remember what the hotelis.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, that Springs or Chateau, Lake Louise, which one
you're looking at?
Yeah, Beautiful.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Tell us how we started it.
Yeah, they're beautiful.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Tell us how we started.
It was your idea.
Yeah, basically it just startedwith an idea to I don't know.
Just document and tell somestories.
I think originally I was goingto do it on my own and then I
thought, well, why would I notinvite my new significant other
to help out?
And so we've only been datingslightly longer than I think

(03:25):
this podcast is actually in ageand so, yeah, early on we I said
you know what, this is gonna bea lot more fun and with you
involved, and we're doing allthese things together anyway.
So we just sort of changed theidea, broadened it out a little
bit, and now we just it's ajournal of our travels, it's
advice, it's, I think it's theidea that we are not really
experts when it comes tomountains although we're

(03:48):
starting to feel that way nowbut we are on this journey of
trying to learn and how to dothese things and then make it
accessible for other people,cause a lot of people are are a
little bit intimidated by goingfor hikes in the wilderness.
I know I was three or four yearsago for sure, and now I can't
imagine not doing it on a prettyregular basis.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
And I think something that accidentally happened was
the continual involvement of ourpodcast.
We're really on this learningjourney for everything the
technology, how to do a podcastand share our stories and how to
get the word out there butwe're also on a journey to
figure out how to be moreintentional with our travels and
learn more about where we'regoing, and that I think the

(04:30):
process of this podcast has beena really cool blessing in
disguise that we did not reallyanticipate happening.
We've learned so so much aboutthe history of the places that
we go.
We've had this intention tomeet people and talk to people
when we go to these towns, whichhas been an unexpected positive
of this podcast yeah, andlearning the history and knowing

(04:52):
, you know, the people that, uh,are there now and the people
that were there before.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
That it is very interesting.
And because we sort of have aschedule, we're kind of forcing
ourselves to have to travelevery few weeks.
It's too bad, whereas, you know, maybe we might be like, oh,
I'm too tired to go to themountains this weekend.
You want to do it or skip it,but now we're kind of forced to
do those things and it's, it'sfun.
And then we're forced tointeract with people because we
talk and we meet people and it'sbeen a lot of fun and we've.

(05:18):
You know, it's a good way tolive life and I think that's
what we're starting to learnfrom this oh my gosh, that's
such a great question story.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
So do you guys work, are you retired or uh, you know
how are you setting?
We're all pretty still done forretirement but do you work and
then you just plan trips becauseyou've done you said 25 of them
so far- yeah, so I'm.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
I'm a teacher and so I have my you know full-time
teaching job, and Teresa worksfor the Alberta government and
that's a full time it's.
I don't know, I keep talkingover you maybe, but I think, for
me at least, I need thesethings because the job search
quite stressful and, although itmakes us very, very busy all
the time, I find myself far lessstressed than I think I used to

(06:02):
be a year ago when, you know,we weren't out and doing the
things.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well, you know what I've just noticed in the last
couple of months I find myselfgetting if it's been more than
three or four weeks since we'vedone one of these getaways and
excursions into the wilderness,I find myself getting really
anxious and not as clear in mythinking.
So I have become dependent onthat reprieve and the time in

(06:28):
nature to be able to groundmyself.
I've really appreciated that.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, that's a good addition for sure.
And do you guys go just car anddrive and hike around?
Do you backpack at all, or howdo you?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
set it up.
It varies.
Sometimes we explore provincialparks that are an hour away
from our house.
If we don't have a lot of time,we just have one day, but we
still want to get outside andlearn about a new space.
If we plan, we usually plan forone weekend a month at least,
and usually that's driving.
Well, no, it's been driving.

(07:01):
Every time it's been driving.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
You just flew to Ireland.
I did, I did.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
No, it's been driving every time it's been driving.
You just flew to Ireland, I did, I did, you didn't come with me
.
No, so usually we drive, we'llstay at a hotel or we'll camp.
We have done multi-day backcountry hike.
Last summer was our first one.
That was an adventure in and ofitself.
It was hilarious and alsotorturous.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
No, that's not the right word.
It was fun, it was a lot of fun, and that's kind of what our
journey has been too.
We, we're not campers, we'renot back country hikers like
this is we're sitting, we're new, right, and so yeah you know,
covid sort of brought that outlike where can we go when we're
not allowed to go anywhere?

(07:46):
And the mountains are only a fewhours away?
We had been to them before.
We've all been to the towns,but we stay in the towns, we eat
at the restaurants, we look atthe mountains, we go home, right
, and this has been somethingdifferent.
So we have, you know, a wholeepisode in there about our
adventures in the backcountry ofJasper National Park and, like

(08:06):
we're not always doing the rightthing at all, we're learning to
do that.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
We make a lot of mistakes in many areas.
Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
That's such a silver lining for the COVID pandemic.
You know you made some mistakes.
How have you prepared for someof your trips?
Just going online and then,good, there's really not good
content, or then you just end upmaking new content, or well,
well, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
I know that's like the content is good and we
sometimes know what to do, but,um, sometimes it's the execution
.
Yeah, maybe we're lacking in soyou're forgetting the bear
sprays in the car, havingsandwiches in our pockets when
we probably should.
I know like it's justforgetting water going on a 20k
hike and realizing 3k and wedidn't bring any water.

(08:55):
It's things that you know, weknow.
Now we have boxes in the backof the car that you know we have
stuff in and you look at thebox and make sure the you know
we have the stuff we need and Idon't know.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
It's just goofy and we we do silly things and we
don't take ourselves tooseriously no, my motto
throughout this whole year hasbeen we're failing forward, so
we'll make a mistake and we'lllearn from it, and that's it's
just been this really coolgrowing opportunity.
But I have learned a lot abouthiking and gear and adventuring

(09:27):
through social media, which heis not on.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
He does not go on social media but I join our, our
social media, but I'm not onthere.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
I don't do very much either.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
I do Facebook, but that's pretty much yeah, it's
been a minor there's so manyexperts out there that have
these great accounts, that sharetheir, their learnings and
their lists and their gearrecommendations, and I've really
learned a lot from that andalso realized that, holy smokes,
there's so many places that Iwant to go to in the world.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yes, that's what we're learning.
I thought I had like Portugal,but now I'm like oh my gosh, oh
my gosh.
Portugal, the Philippines,thailand, vietnam, like Ecuador,
you're going to have Banff,carol.
Yes, banff is pretty amazing.
Well, I was going to say your25 destinations.

(10:16):
Have they aside from it?
Looks like I don't know ifIreland's still there, but are
they all in Canada?
Or have you gone to the US, orwhat's that look?

Speaker 2 (10:21):
like We've gone to the US, so we did one on Japan.
So we do have an episode onJapan.
So that's, teresa had livedthere for a year and so we felt
like, even though we hadn't beenthere in the last few years, we
could do an episode on it,because she had lived there for
a year.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
I did an episode on Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in
France, which in France, whichis sort of the starting point of
the Camino de Santiago, andthat's something I have done
four times and so I felt like Icould do that and it's a nice
mountain town with, and I feltlike I could remember enough,
but I haven't been there inthree years.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
What was the town called?

Speaker (10:55):
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port , so it's just on the border
between France and Spain, andit's a, it's really that
historical or that traditionalstarting part for the, the
Camino de Santiago.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, we did an episode.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Oh, you did yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Did you do the trek four times or just been to the
town four times?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
No, I've done the trek four times.
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's one ofmy favorites and yeah, it was
brilliant.
So we did an episode there, andthen we have four episodes in
Idaho, and then we've done someother things in Washington and
Oregon, but we didn't do anypodcasts on it.
We we went there this summer,we did the West coast trail and
did some things there, but wewanted that to be a vacation.

(11:35):
We didn't want to work and weregret that now.
Why didn't we do that?
All over sort of you know northpacific, northwest and then
western eye, and then you knowsome international destinations
and someone is planning a weekfor us this summer, but I don't
know it.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
He's keeping the destination a surprise, so it
could be the states.
He won't give in.
He won't give me any clues.
No, well, if it's.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Colorado or Yosemite.
You have to call one of us okay, and that's.
That's the area you're in yeah,I'm in California and she's in
Colorado okay, yeah, coloradowas on our very high on our list
of places.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
We were considering going this summer for sure, so I
was just there.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I just came back yesterday and Carol and I were
hiking in the Flatirons andMount Sanitas and Bedrock
Amphitheater.
Had some fun little trips andthings, but yeah and actually I
do, I backpack and I hike andI'm pretty outdoorsy.
But I have a trip I'm planningJune 1st through the 4th with
women who are interested inbackpacking.
So I'm doing Yosemite in acouple of weeks or next month I

(12:45):
guess.
So yeah, with the snow, I'mtrying to figure out all the.
You know what we have to do.
Actually, I found out we haveto hike from the valley floor up
to Glacier Point, which isgreat.
Well, I'll switch backs to you.
But yeah, it's going to.
It'll be fun though.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Nice, that's exciting .

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Well, let's dive into Banff.
So I'm so excited to hear allabout it.
Yeah, learn, learn more,because it has been over 20
years for me.
Yeah, so it looks like Banff isa town and a national park.
So do you have you explored all?

Speaker 2 (13:18):
of it.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
I get to to miss anything, so here I go.
So Banff National Park isCanada's first national park.
It was created in the late1800s.
Did I get it Okay?

Speaker 2 (13:31):
I'm not going to say 1880 something.

Speaker 3 (13:34):
Okay, we won't get the years.
But there is, the town of Banffis the main town or residential
area within that national parkit is located.
So it's in the Canadian Rockies.
So the Canadian Rockies spanfrom north to south, the border
of BC and Alberta, and so if youfly into Calgary it's an hour

(13:58):
and 20 minute drive from thecity of Calgary to Banff, so
convenient to get to forinternational travelers and for
anybody in Alberta.
Most Albertans, I would say,have gone to the Canadian
Rockies and Banff.
So there's two national parksin the Canadian Rockies on the
Alberta side Jasper NationalPark and Banff National Park.
Banff is by far the mostpopular tourist destination.

(14:19):
There are about 4 milliontourists come and visit Banff
every year, and it's a tinylittle town.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
There's what?

Speaker 3 (14:28):
five or six thousand people it's a small town, um,
but it is definitely a resorttown.
It was built and established toaccommodate the tourism
industry and um visitors, soit's very quaint and beautiful
and convenient for people to getto and travel around.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I was wondering too, because I remember being there.
I remember seeing rock climbersand getting a tank top that I
wore for like 20 years it was along time and it was like it was
a tie dye and it had a pictureof a rock climber and it said
Banff on it, but weren't there.
I'm remembering correctly,right, Because I think I was
watching rock climbers.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
And it was definitely rock climbers, for sure.
Ice climbers as well in thewinter.
Yeah, all sorts of things.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
The town of Bath is nestled within this beautiful
Bow Valley and there are some ofthe most stunning rocky
mountains surrounding the townCascade Mountains, one of the
most famous ones but there areso many beautiful mountains and
cliffs and heights and rockclimbers it's waterfalls lakes,
yeah, it's the lakes kristinyeah, so beautiful lake louise

(15:36):
lake louise is lake louise isthe most popular lake for
tourists.
There's also moraine lake, whichis the one of those beautiful
glacial color lakes that'ssituated at the base of the
valley of the 10 peaks, it'scalled so there's 10 beautiful
mountain peaks in the background.
It's on money dollars to donuts.
You will have seen a picture ofthat lake.
You will be like, oh, that's it.

(15:57):
I've seen that before Becauseit's so beautiful, it's
everywhere.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
And I see Lake Minnewanka looks very long.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
So beautiful.
That's the longest lake inBanff.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, it's also the deepest, I think too, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, and that lake has a cool story.
There was a dam that was builtin the 30s after the recession
and that lake rose.
Was it 30 feet Over 30 feet andit completely submerged a
resort town that was just on thebase of that lake.
So right now at the bottom ofthis lake, because it's so

(16:29):
frozen as a completely intactlittle resort town and there's
people that come scuba dive togo and travel through this
little town in the bottom ofthis lake.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
It's so cool, oh my goodness, yeah, that's very
unusual.
Oh, my goodness, that sounds so.
It's still.
The town is still underwater tothis day.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Completely preserved because of the temperature of
the water.
What is it called?
Oh, I don't remember the nameof it.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, it wasn't so much.
Was it a town or a resort thathad some, I think, town, where I
mean it might be overstatingtown?
A half dozen buildings Village,yeah resort yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
No, not Hamlet.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, but it was near Nake Minnewanka.
Near Minnewanka.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, when theybuilt the dam, they, you know,
they knew that that was going toget covered up to to make way
for the electrical stuff thatthey're doing there, right.
So, but, yeah, resorts, I don'tknow.
I haven't seen any pictures ofit, but and we haven't been down
there, but we see the scubadivers going going down.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
It's way too cold.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Oh, that's how high is the water?
Like over the town?
Is it like you're just swimming?

Speaker 2 (17:36):
next, oh it's pretty, oh no no, it's deep, it's very,
very deep, yeah, yeah, you'renot going to be swimming in
there, and just like there's thetown, like you've got a scuba
dive to get there for sure yeah,but I wondered if it's like I
don't know, but I just know feet, I don't even I want to say it
was at its deepest, like how?
no, we wrote this in the travelguide, so we're trying to

(17:57):
remember.
But, like I want to say 60meters, so that's going to be
like 120 feet or 130 feet.
But I could be, I could betotally making that up was that
is going to fact check.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
That I'm going to fact check.
Was that an intentional segueto the travel guide?
I liked how you slipped that inthere, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah Well, it's a travel guide.
Where did you find that?
On the mountain ramblerswebsite?
Yeah, so we're.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
We're the authors of the travel guide, but we're not
the actual owners of it.
Our friends that live in Utahactually they're.
They're called we're in theRockies.
So if you go to we're in theRockiescom, I think, right,
that's the website.
Yeah, you'll find the travelguide that we wrote for Beth and
Jasper, but it's actually theirguide and they sell it there.
But we highly recommend itbecause we wrote them.
So it's one that we like and wedid a lot of research on that.

(18:43):
But how did you find how deepit was?

Speaker 3 (18:45):
No.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, we'll see if we can get back to you on that one
, yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
It's funny, when I see we're in the Rockies, I
think Colorado, but you'resaying the Canadian Rockies,
right, because that's what youalso called it.
Well, we're in the.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Rockies is the name of the owner of the guide, so
they're actually a couple.
In Utah.
We call them our Americancounterparts.
Yes, they're our doppelgangers.
So they explore Zion, oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yellowstone.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Yellowstone.
Yellowstone, red Rock, anythingin Utah, for sure they have a
YouTube channel and they shareinformation on history and hikes
and things to do in thoseplaces too.
So they reached out to us andsaid hey, we want to do a guide
on Bath.
You're the experts on Bath,Quote unquote Help us out.
So we did, we did, yeah nice.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Oh, that's great, which was very exciting for us,
because we got to learn a lot ofthat history that we didn't
really know.
We go, we travel, we know wherethe hikes are and things like
that.
Well, 142 meters is the depthof that lake, by the way, so 450
.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Wow so no one's going down to see the hotel, then
right.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, whatever, no, well, no, they use scuba dive
down there.
Yeah, so you put on the fullgear, the scuba gear, and people
go to see it?
Apparently, we have not.
Yeah, how far?

Speaker 1 (20:09):
do you scuba dive down A couple hundred feet?
That's a lot, I know.
Yeah, as you can see, that isdefinitely something I haven't
done, but not too many people,absolutely.
So in Banff, what do yourecommend in terms of staying,
getting there, being there?

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Yeah, well, I mean getting there.
If you're cominginternationally, if you're not
coming from driving distance,you're flying into Calgary.
You're probably renting a caror taking a shuttle from Calgary
to Banff, which they do exist.
There are buses that go Onceyou're in Banff.
They have an excellent transitsystem that takes you around the
park.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
Rome transit yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
So you don't you actually don't have to have a
car.
They have bus stops in themiddle of nowhere, right Like
it's like at Trailheads there'llbe a bus stop, because that's
one of the things.
Now, it does not go everysingle place, so we would
recommend getting a car if youreally want to get out there,
but there's certainly ways youcould do it without.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
And how far of a drive is it from Calgary to
Banff town?

Speaker 2 (21:11):
One hour 20 minutes.
One hour 30 minutes.
So you'll 20 minutes.
One hour 30 minutes, you'lldrive through what's called.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
It's like Denver to Estes Park, almost like Rockman
Mountain National Park.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
But it's a beautiful drive because you'll drive
through Kananaskis ProvincialPark, you'll drive through
Canmore, which is actuallyprobably the more reasonable
place to stay as opposed toBanff, and then you'll enter the
National Park into Banff, butyou'll be in mountains.
Almost within 20 minutes or 30minutes of leaving Calgary,
you'll be in the mountains.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Oh, okay, yeah, oh nice.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
When we went, we went to stay with family in
Vancouver and then we drove toVancouver.
You have 12 hours of mountainsall the way to Calgary.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Then, yes, yeah, we, we cut it.
We stayed in a hotel that had awater slide.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Oh yes, we were all happy.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
I think there was like a mcdonald there or
something like that.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, so, places to recommend, like I know that was
their question.
Um, I don't think you go to thepark without going to lake
louise, for sure.
Yeah, uh, when you're at lakelouise you definitely want to
tour around the chateau, lakelouise and, and that's the also
sort of the sister hotel to thebamf springs hotel and bamf and
these also sort of the sisterhotel to the Banff Springs Hotel
in Banff and these were builtfrom the railway back in the
1880s I want to say 1883 if Iremember correctly but these

(22:23):
were built as touristattractions to help fund and
encourage, you know, tourists tocome and use the train.
So the hotels were built beforethe towns were there and
they've got really good andinteresting history.
So checking out the twoFairmont hotels that were built
well over 100 years ago now isdefinitely worth doing.

(22:44):
Lake Louise is gorgeous andthere are many, many hikes.
There are some tea houses up inthe wilderness where you can
hike to.
Oh, that's interesting and some, you know, beautiful things.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
I saw an avalanche from the tea house last summer,
two summers ago, so scary, yeahthere's a gondola too in the
summer behind lake louise thatthere's a gondola you can take
up.
Uh, lots of people see bears onthe journey up.
It's bear country there, forsure.
But so in the in the winterit's a really popular, um
world-renowned ski resort.
Yes, for lake louise so, but inthe summer they use that

(23:20):
gondola for dining up at the topof the mountain.
You have beautiful views of thelake up above and you can see
the wildlife in that area.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
It's really pretty so lake louise, is it actually a
lake?

Speaker 3 (23:31):
you haven't tried oh yes it's gorgeous, yeah it's a
lake and there's a village therecalled the village of Lake
Louise, and then there's a skiresort behind the lake.
Oh, it's so pretty.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Okay, so I see Lake Louise.
Oh, there, it is Okay.
Just too far out there, okay.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, so you should see the Chateau Lake Louise
right on the shore of LakeLouise.
Yes, Wow.
And I think that has been onour money somewhere along the
line too, hasn't it?
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot ofthe mountains on our money A lot
of mountains on our money.
That's a good place to be.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
And then I remember doing like kayaking and things
on.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, was it Lake Louise that I did it on, I'm
assuming, or was there, I feellike maybe it was another lake
next to it, Cause it didn't feellike and like so tiny, oh tiny
lake, Maybe not.
So Moraine Lake and Lake Louiseare pretty big.
Oh well, Lake Louise Is that,they're not too too big.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
They're several kilometers across on Lake Louise
, but you they do have the boatrentals, kayak and canoe rentals
right in the the shack, but sodoes moraine lake as well like
minnewanka and lake minnewankaas well.
Yeah, so lake minnewanka mightfeel small because it's small at
the front, but then it goes andwraps around the mountain.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
I don't know but there's a little loop it's
called lake minnewanka scenicdrive, and along this little
loop there are tons of places togo and stop.
Lake Minnewanka is the big drawon the scenic drive.
There's a ghost town therecalled Bankhead, and then
there's another couple ofsmaller lakes that are maybe a
little bit more amenable topaddling and kayaking.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Johnson Lake.
Johnson Lake, two Jack Lake.
Johnson Lake, two Jack Lake.
Yeah, so I mean there isn't ashortage of lakes and there
isn't a shortage of canoe rentalplaces and kayak rental places
there.
So it's hard to say which oneyou might have been on, but you
can certainly do that at LakeLouise for sure.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, yeah, and how far is Lake Louise from the
other lake you mentioned?
Is it like?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
a you take a shuttle between them.
20 minutes, yeah, somethinglike that.
Depending on traffic, it couldbe an hour, but I think it's 15
to 20 minutes, something likethat.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
They're not far from each other the, the national
park just removed the ability ofprivate cars to go into and
drive to moraine lake this year.
So it's a big thing fortourists who are wanting to go
and do sunset hikes up tomoraine lake they year.
So it's a big thing fortourists who are wanting to go
and do sunset hikes up tomoraine lake.
They can no longer take theircar, so the shuttles are the
only way they can get there andsome of them don't operate.

(26:03):
That time it's a bigcontroversy on on instagram.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
There's no more shuttle to moraine lake the
problem is there's so much of aparking problem in july and
august in bam that they'rereally trying to encourage
people to use the shuttleswhenever possible.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, yeah, which leads me to the question of how,
when is the best time to go andwhat's the weather, like you
know, because I figured snow,because it's Canada and anyway,
yeah, yeah, do you want this one?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
okay, so that's a good assumption that there's
snow.
Winter can be very long andcold in canada, but that makes
bath a very good destination forskiers.
There's three major ski resorts, so if you're a big ski buff or
you like like cross-countryskiing or skating, winter's a
great time to go snowshoeing.
Yeah, we love winter hiking.

(26:52):
There's no hiking season for usthe whole year's hiking season
so winter is a good time to goif you like skiing and there's
no hiking season for us thewhole year's hiking season.
So winter is a good time to goif you like skiing and there's
also less crowds in the winter.
It's also cheaper.
It's also cheaper, okay, um,summer is beautiful in terms of
the weather that you get.
You get really long days.
Our daylight hours are up to 18hours of daylight in the

(27:14):
summertime.
It's beautiful and it's niceand warm, without being too
uncomfortably hot what's thetime like?

Speaker 1 (27:21):
when does it get dark , or when does it get light and
when does it get dark?

Speaker 2 (27:25):
oh, you mean you'll see light it.
I mean it never truly getsblack in the summer, like you've
always got that light gray hazethat you can see.
But you get sunrise at about 4,24, 30 am and then sunsets
about 10, 50, probably in Banff10, 45, but again you still have

(27:45):
light till 11, 11, 05 probably,something like that.
Yeah, it's way past our bedtime.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
You can also see the northern lights in Banff.
Yes, they're beautiful and theyare going off like crazy.
This this past month I've seenso many pictures of northern
lights in Banff.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah yeah, and in the winter time it is spectacular
because, I mean, these arereflections off yeah you know
snow and ice caps and thingslike that yeah, it's, it's
pretty amazing.
So that you know, if you getinto these dark sky preserves,
which we have a lot of in theparks there, those, those
northern lights are.
They're hard to describe likethey're amazing wow when is

(28:21):
there a?

Speaker 3 (28:21):
season of northern lights no, they can happen all
throughout the year.
I think that there's.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
They come and go in ebbs and flows winter would be
best, just because you have morenight nighttime right, so you
just have more ability becauseit's dark, right, but yeah, I
would.
I mean, winter is your best time, probably, I would say for sure
.
But I you said like last monthit was just for this month.
It's crazy, yeah, we, we have alittle tracker that we we look
for them and see when they'recoming and they just show up and

(28:49):
we like, oh, but they show upat like 2 or 3 am and we're well
past 9.30.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
They can predict that .

Speaker 1 (28:58):
They're like, the weatherman can predict it.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah, it's a site called Aurora Chasers in Alberta
.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Oh my goodness, because they're so prominent.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
they can tell there's some magnetic resonance that
they're tracking in theatmosphere.
They can predict the likelihoodof them being northern lights
yeah not perfect, but no.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
That is so interesting Wow.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
But back to that question which?

Speaker 2 (29:23):
we avoided yes.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
We went around a circle.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
We do that, we ramble .
It was good.
Good, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
I understand why we named ourselves that no, but I,
you understand why we namedourselves that no, but I
actually I'm going to say myfavorite time to go is in the
fall.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
We're not going to agree.

Speaker 3 (29:39):
I don't think, no, maybe but so for me it's the
fall, it's October, so beautiful.
The colors of fall are myfavorite.
You have beautiful large treesthat turn a golden color.
They're really, really pretty.
The sky's really blue, it'snice temperature out still, but
there is a fraction of thetourists on the street and the

(29:59):
prices are lower because it's inbetween summer and winter.
So that's my favorite.
What's your answer?

Speaker 2 (30:04):
You know I might agree with you on this one.
July and August is amazing, butyou will be absolutely
inundated with people.
Like it is busy, especially inthe town site.
Yeah uh, the hikes get crowded.
So if you're looking forsolitude, it's not.
You're not going to find it onthe, the biggest attractions,
but there is a lot of space tomove around in the park.

(30:25):
So there there are literallyhundreds of hikes.
So you can still find it in thesummertime for sure.
But it is very expensive If youare not booking your hotels for
five months out.
I mean, you're paying 400 and upa night for hotels Like Banff
Springs could run you $1,200 or$1,500 in the summer if you're

(30:46):
trying to book it a week out,and even if you try to book it
six months out, it's still 500,600 bucks.
I went actually I was at theBanff Springs this last weekend
for a conference and people werepaying $ a night at bounce
springs in april.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
so is that pretty fancy, the bounce springs, or is
that oh?

Speaker 2 (31:02):
that's the fanciest, yeah, okay gotcha.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
It's named the, the castle in the in the mountains,
or something is its nickname ifyou look up a picture of the
springs hotel seen it oh I wentand we had a food there then.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
I remember eating there.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Right, they have a restaurant oh, they have, many,
they have so many restaurants,yeah and it's actually even if
you're not a guest.
They encourage you to hang out,go do the things.
They have bowling alleys, manyrestaurants, the food is amazing
yeah a little.
I mean it's a little bit moreexpensive than the typical food
in Bath, but not terribly moreexpensive.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
This is typically my hidden gem.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Yeah, this looks like a fancy hotel down in Colorado
Springs.
It's just like old, kind oflike very European, very, very
fancy.
It's kind of like very I don'tknow European, very, very fancy.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
And Canada is full of these hotels along the railway
that the Canadian PacificRailway built to encourage
tourism and get people on therails as passengers.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Yeah, all the way from.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Quebec to all the way to Victoria.
So off-season how much wouldthis Banff Springs be?
You might get lucky to get itfor three to $400 if you're
really lucky yeah.
Okay, January maybe yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
But the workaround is this you don't have to stay in
a hotel room to benefit from thebeauty of this hotel.
We go there a lot and we wanderabout.
There's some really cool ghoststories in some hallways's tours
there but, we found this reallycool place, kind of hidden,
tucked away in the corner.
It's called the living room yes, and it's underneath this

(32:43):
ramsey bar and it's you go downthe stairs and it's this
extremely beautiful space withwall, a florida ceiling, stone
fireplaces and like like ahundred foot ceilings, like
beautiful, massive yeah, butit's free.
There's pool tables, board games.
We hung out there for a fewhours for free and enjoyed this

(33:05):
beautiful space, and we ordereda drink yeah, yeah, it was great
.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
And uh, the tours.
You have to be a guest to getthe tours.
Yeah, there's nothing to stopyou from just walking and
following the tour behind youand listening to.
We would it's all in publicspaces it is a beautiful hotel
and it's worth staying, or atleast visiting, if you can't
stay there for sure yeah, andthere's lots of things around

(33:31):
there yeah, I was curious alsoabout the hikes that, like any,
that you would recommend, andalso how.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
What would you guys categorize yourself in terms of
beginner and immediate advanced?
What kind of type of hikes doyou like to do?
Short, long it sounds likeyou've done several.
What would you recommend?

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Well, I think we are.
We are doing things harder thanwe probably should be doing.
I don't know.
We're working our way to it.
So we do shorts, we do medium,we did that.
We did the Tonkin Valley injust short Under 10K.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Okay, I was going to ask what's up.
So that's like five miles.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Oh yeah, like the 10K would be about seven, six, a
bit else, something in thatrange.
Yeah, it's like 5.67 something,something like that.
It's a little over, it's notit's under six miles, but it's

(34:26):
somewhere around there.
Yeah, yeah, so that'd be oureasy heights.
We have 15, 18 kilometers, soprobably pushing 10, 11 miles is
kind of moderate to heavy forus.
But then we did the 42k, soroughly what 30 miles yeah uh
and the back what time period?
Three nights, but through somepretty beautiful but tough
terrain right um, so we've sortof done it all.
Uh, we've done lots of hikesthat are sort of straight up and

(34:47):
we've done lots of really basicones.
But your favorite map, I think,was what the question was like
if you had to pick.
All right, do you want to eatlike a moderate, that that most
people could do Like?

Speaker 1 (34:57):
yeah, or do a beginning intermediate advanced.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Sure, what's your favorite beginner I?

Speaker 3 (35:02):
must do.
Beginner hike under five KJohnson Canyon, johnson Canyon,
johnson Johnson With a Johnston.
Okay, it takes you through oneof the most beautiful caverns.
Oh, it's beautiful, and there'swaterfalls.
That's a busy one, so better toprobably go a little bit early.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
That's a popular one or or late in the summer, like
if you went at nine o'clock atnight.
You're so good summer, you'regonna be golden.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
It'll be awesome yeah are the falls still going then
in late summer?
They are.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, oh yes oh yeah, and in the wintertime, which is
when we actually love to goprefer, they're frozen.
The ice climbers are out thereclimbing because they're quite
large falls and it's, it'sbeautiful so pretty.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
What's your favorite easy hike in Banff?
It's a very serious questionyou have, I know yeah I love it.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
Yeah I, you know what I'm going to.
For easy, I I can't believe youdidn't say johnson lake johnson
lake I thought you were goingto say johnson, because I was
going to say johnson.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
Okay, that's a good one too okay.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
So on the minnewanka scenic drive, yeah, there is a
about a four or five k hike.
It just goes around the lake.
It's very peaceful, it's wooded, you get the lake, you get the
mountain views.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Johnson lake, it's gorgeous yeah, what's the
altitude of bamf that, like thetown you're?

Speaker 2 (36:25):
asking questions.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Okay, hold on what's the altitude of calgary is
calgary.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Oh, I guess calgary is well over a thousand.
I I know that.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
Okay, lake Louise sits at elevation of 1600 meters
, so 5,200 feet.
There you go.
It's from it's, from yourwebsite.
Oh no, no, no, I'm sorry, it'sno, it's not.
It's not it's.
I just typed in Lake Louise, Ithought it was.
But yeah, it says, making itCanada's highest.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
And that won't be terribly different.
It might be a hundred metersdifference.
What's her favorite?
One, they're both in valleys,so they're kind of just in a
nice nestled valley.
What's your moderate one?

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Well, my moderate one's not in Banff.
My favorite one is inKananaskis, but we're not
talking about that.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
It's maybe a 45 minute drive outside of Banff,
though, but yeah, can we gooutside the park just like by 20
minutes?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, if it'sa recommendation from you.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Let's do it for sure.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
As long as it's called the Green Monster Icefall
Trail.
It's along Evan Thomas Creek inKananaskis country, just
outside of Bath National Park,so maybe 30, 40 minutes outside
of Bath.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, but that's a winter hike.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
It's a winter hike.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
That's my favorite, though 15 kilometers.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, you have to go to our website to see the
pictures from that one.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
it's uh in kananaskis , but our instagram or instagram
account yeah, the pictures arefrom uh what's the instagram
handle?

Speaker 1 (38:05):
mountain town ramblers okay now, what kind of
shoes do you wear you when youwinter hike?

Speaker 2 (38:14):
uh, no no, because these are still quite busy, so
they usually the trail isgroomed, yeah, or at least
trampled that down.
So the first person is niceenough to sort of put footprints
and the next person will putfootprints or the snowshoes will
get out there.
But by the time we get therethey're pretty groomed, like
people have packed them down wewear the same hiking boots all

(38:34):
year round, so I have all seasonhiking boots.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
They're waterproof.
Uh, I find if they're winterhiking boots my feet get too hot
.
But the the difference is inthe socks that we wear between
summer and winter.
So winter we double up, butwear merino wool socks over our
first layer and make sure thatour boots are are waterproof and
then, like kyle was saying, wemake sure we have our cleats or

(39:00):
crampons yeah, because, yeah, Ithink it's very icy and you
don't want to be trying to eveneven slight elevations without
the spikes or are difficult ordangerous.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
She does, I don't I don't like them.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
Yeah, she likes them.
I like my pole.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
I'm protecting my joints.
So you went yeah, moderateheight for me, and Can I steal
yours?
I have the hard one.
I know the hard one for sure.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Oh, I know your hard one, can I?

Speaker 2 (39:32):
skip to the hard one.
I'll come back to moderate Forsure and Teresa hasn't done this
, but I'm gonna make her do itbut there is a peak that you can
do.
There's lots of peaks you cando, but this one is called
cirque peak c-i-r-q-u-e, and Ibelieve it gives you the best
view of the canadian rockiesthat you will ever, ever, ever

(39:54):
find.
You get a view of Bow Lake,which is gorgeous, but you are
standing on top of a mountain.
It's about a I don't know eightor nine hour trek.
It's not easy at all.
I think it's maybe 13K eachdirection, but the elevation is
quite difficult and there's alot of scree and a little bit of
scrambling to do at the end,but well worth it.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Is making me do it this summer?
Yeah, are we doing it thissummer?
Making me like you have toforce me?

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Yeah, so that one.
If you can get up there, and Imean I think it's doable,
there's nothing majortechnically that you have to do,
it's just hard.
Yeah, you don't need a toolbelt.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
No.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
Or a helmet, but you have to be okay, taking a step
forward in the scree and thensliding back down half of the
distance that you just steppedup and then continue to do that
for three kilometers.
It it was kind of grueling.
But then you see young peoplejust fly up there and it's no
big deal.
So I don't know.
Yeah, young people with likeloose gravel yeah, like it's
that, it's that, uh like scree,it's um, just it's sharp rocks

(41:02):
right so it's all just uh yeah,it's not.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Are you like mountaineering up the mountain
instead of like trails really,or is it trails?

Speaker 2 (41:11):
no, like there's no trails, because it's just this,
like just scree you, just youcan walk anywhere you want
because it's open.
It's like when you get to thatpoint, you're above the tree
line and it's just grinding.
There's no mountaineering,though it's, it's just walking,
but it's.
It's an adventure for sure um Iknow all trails calls it a hard
for sure.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
So yeah, yeah, a good one.
I know what's your good one.
Okay, I have a medium one, okaywhat's your medium one?

Speaker 2 (41:37):
take my.
I don't have a I don't.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
I don't have a hard one yet I haven't graduated to
that level yet my medium one.
I don't know if it's medium ornot.
It might be easy, it's.
It's on the border, but I feellike anyone who goes to bamf
should do this one.
It's tunnel, mountain, ohtunnel mountain.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
That's a nice medium one.
Yeah, I should have taken thatone.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
It's actually a summit.
It's this little mountain rightin the town, so you don't need
to travel outside of the town toget to it.
It takes about 45 minutes to anhour.
There's some switchbacks, butalong the switchbacks, no matter
what way you're going, you havebeautiful views and when you
get to the top, you have, on oneside of the mountain, you have
views of the valley which is getto the top.

(42:17):
You have on one side of themountain.
You have views of the valley,which is it made me cry.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
And then on the other side, you have views of the
town below, which also made mecry and then also the vermilion
tissues I know well yeah so, andI think tunnel mountain with
anyone that has at least areasonable range of mobility can
get up there at least in anylike you know it might take you
a little longer, like it's up,yeah, but it's not treacherous

(42:42):
and it's not particularly long,so you take your time.
Bring some water.
We forgot our water on that one, oops yeah, an hour, we can
handle it yeah well, we went.
We were at the craft brewerybefore that, which was maybe the
problem I see.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
So what's the what?
The temperature in the thesummer, in the winter, um, you
know, because, like I come fromminnesota, pretty brutal winters
, like you know.
But I know the farther west yougo it's not you know, it might
be a little bit more I will.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
You know what I'd say ?
It's comparable to minnesota,our winters for sure.
So average winter temperatureoff the top of my head minus 15,
yeah we have to convert that tofahrenheit uh yeah, so it'd be
like probably average is minus15, so that's gonna be about
zero fahrenheit, I think.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Zero and negative 17 again.
Yeah, that's probably theaverage daytime high and you can
hike in that minus 17 celsiusis zero fahrenheit, if I know my
conversions.
But okay um, but you can get tolike the minus 30s and 40s
fahrenheit very easily.
You probably get a handful ofdays like that in the evening.
You wouldn't want to hike inthat kind of thing, but uh yeah

(43:53):
well, what about in the more youknow the moderate times?

Speaker 1 (43:55):
because, like up in the mountains here, like the
weather that it gets to be, likeyou know, in fahrenheit, 80
degrees, but then the nights getreally chilly, it could be 40
degrees.
All went all summer long is itthe same here?

Speaker 3 (44:08):
it's the same here, yep.
So, for an example, when we didour backcountry hike, it was 30
oh good grief, 31 degreescelsius which is going to be
close to 90, if I know, in theday and at night we we will 86
good sorry, go ahead I answeredgood job, good math, but in the
morning it was, we could see ourbreath yeah it was minus one

(44:31):
yeah so big fluctuations intemperature and that's in august
, yeah, when we went.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
So we're starting to cool a bit, but um, bring our,
bring your layers layers, yeah,especially like, once you get in
the mountains, you can neverpredict right, like I know.
Even when I did that peak, itwas um, it's significantly
higher elevation where you startoff, where we are.
I think it was about 17 degreescelsius when we started, at 10

(44:57):
in the morning and you could seeyour breath at the top of the
mountain, and it was probablythree in the afternoon or four
in the afternoon.
We got there and it was july.
Yeah, like it's just, you'reway up there on top of the
mountain, it's cold yeah, sosounds beautiful but yeah, in
the summertime, like it'sprobably 70, 70 degrees is your
probably average summer, maybe75.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
If anyone's a rock climber, do you have any rock
climbing suggestions?

Speaker 3 (45:24):
I am not a rock climber.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
I like rocks, but I'm not a rock climber, and you'll
climb, but you don't rock climb.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
But I have a friend and colleague who is an avid
rock climber.
She actually just relocated toCalgary so that she could do
rock climbing every weekend inkananaskis country can warren
bath she just goes wherever it'slike 45 minutes an hour away.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
I'm jealous, so does she have a recommendation?
Oh, I don't know.
Oh yeah, we're not into themountaineering yet I I don't
know if I see us getting there.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Here's my thing, I don't want to have to use my
hands, my knees or scooch on mybum.
Those are my rules.
Get your poles and your clamps.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
You don't want clamps and axes In addition to being
outside.
Is there a lot ofmicrobreweries?
Is there a lot of littlemuseums?

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Anything else going on in Vance for to do that
aren't like quite as adventurousyou take this one for you
you're gonna take the.
You take the breweries, I'lltake the museums so I think when
you're in banff you really haveto look at banff and canmore,
as you know, as one, right, sothey're about a 20 minute drive
between.
Canmore is nice because it'sgot about 15 000 people, so it's

(46:39):
substantially a larger town andit's about a kilometer outside
or two kilometers outside of thenational park, so you could
have economic development inthat town and do a lot more
things in canmore than you cannecessarily do in banff.
Right, because banff has a lotof strict rules in terms of
development.
You just really can't do itwithout special permission.

(47:00):
So I mean, there's a number ofbreweries in Banff and Jasper, I
think there's four, three inCanmore, one in Banff, two in
Banff now.
Yeah, so they've got the threebears and they got the Banff Ab
Brewing.
Yeah, so you can have twobreweries right in Banff, I
think there's three in Canmorethere's's.
I mean the restaurants in Banffare Plenty full.
Yeah, probably a hundred ormore, and they're very high

(47:23):
quality restaurants.
You're not going to findanything that you won't find
Lots of cheap or like casualmeals as well in Banff.
Lots of chain restaurants thatyou might expect to see in the
cities, but lots of beautifullocal owned places as well.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
Hidden gem for beer.
I'm surprised you didn't saythis yet.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
High Rollers, oh the bowling alley.

Speaker 3 (47:46):
But they have over 40 beers on tap.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, I think they have, yeah, 40 like Alberta
craft or Alberta and BC craftbeers on tap and it's actually
the pizza there is fantastic too.
There we go there's a lot oflittle.
Uh, you, you talk about themuseums and the historic.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
What was that called?

Speaker 2 (48:04):
again it's high bowl I rollers I rollers okay hi, hi,
h, I g h oh, hi, well, okay, itis yeah like a bowling alley.
I don't know what you're tryingto get there.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
High rollers, high rollers.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yeah, I got it and it's right in the main road into
it.
You can't really miss it.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
It's really cute and if you're a history buff,
there's a lot of things to do inBanff too.
There's the Cave and BasinNational Historic Site.
It's an interpretive centerthere.
They have programs, educationalinterpretive programs that are
there.
It's actually the foundation ofthe town and the park itself.
Somebody found hot springssulfur hot springs there, so

(48:44):
they built this beautifulhistoric site to commemorate the
founding location of the park.
And from that place too there'ssome beautiful boardwalk marsh
loop hikes that's my medium hike.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
What's that one called again?
Um, I don't from cave and basinto the canyon oh sundance
sundance canyon.
That's about nine kilometerssorry I interrupted.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
That's okay, you got excited.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
I like it yeah, that one, but the indigenous uh
history history and artifactsand uh displays there the Caving
Basin are really fantastic.
You'll get some good history ofthe First Peoples for sure.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
So that would be the number one must-see.
And then the next one isthere's the White Museum of the
Canadian Rockies.
The building itself is actuallya historical building and
considered a historical site aswell.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
The white one or the other one.
The white's the private one.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Buffalo Nations Museum.
No, the other one, the white's,the private one, or the other
one, the white's, the privateone, buffalo nations museum.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
No, the other one, the white's, the private one
with the art oh, the, the, the,the bath, the bath museum.
I think it's just called bathmuseum, but that's the one that
has the building.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Oh, bath park museum, yeah, so that's the one that
has it doesn't happen very oftenwe have this recorded on record
.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Reframe an audio clip .
Can you edit that out?
That park museum was the firstoriginal ranger station is that
right?
Yeah, sorry, go ahead you'regood.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
It's beautiful.
The building itself isbeautiful and the town is so
walkable like.
You can spend an entire daywalking up and down the streets,
going through all the shops andboutiques, and you'll come
across a bridge with a museum onyour right and then you have
Tunnel Mountain on your like.
It's so convenient to walkaround and just spend an entire
day or two exploring the town.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
I don't want to shortchange that Bath Park
Museum, though it has somethinglike 700 or 800 taxonomy
artifacts and really really whatthat place was.
It was sort of the beginning ofthe conservation movement of
baff national park, right?
And so you're going to learn alot about how they're trying to
conserve and and make this placemore, you know, environmentally

(50:49):
sustainable for tourism, thingslike that, but also trying to
protect all the wildlife,because that really is the main
draw for for baff is being ableto protect all the wildlife,
because that really is the maindraw for for BAMF is being able
to see wildlife, the wildlifepretty much everywhere that you
want to see them, right?

Speaker 3 (51:02):
so good, segue.
Segue, because I know whatthey're thinking.
How do you see the wildlife?
Where do you see the wildlifein BAMF?
Do you want some tips?

Speaker 2 (51:10):
yes, yes, please who's asking the questions here?
We've taken over this thing.
I know one's going to invite usback anymore.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
We'll just kind of relax, it's so bossy Tell people
where the wildlife are.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
One of the best places to view wildlife is in
Vermilion Lake.
So you have the town of Banffand just on the outskirts as you
exit Banff, there's a littleroad called Vermilion Lakes.
There's three lakes, but atnighttime, at dawn and dusk,
those are the best times to seewildlife, notoriously throughout
the park.
But at dawn or dusk, if youdrive down this little road

(51:45):
along this lake, you are almostguaranteed to at least see deer,
but maybe moose, maybe bearyeah and don't see a cougar yeah
, yeah, cougars are are tough,but um, yeah, it's, it's a.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
It's a floodplain and those are very rare in the
mountains because water tends toflow away from mountains.
But this is this sort of mossy.
It's a very rare ecosystem inthe mountains and sort of
attracts lots of birds lots ofwildlife and it really is
walkable from bath if you wantedto go for a 20 minute walk walk
or a 30-minute walk, and it isgorgeous and a great place to
watch the sunset too.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
And you can see Mount Rundle as well.
That's right which is yourfavorite, isn't?

Speaker 3 (52:23):
it, that's my favorite?

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah, cascade Mountain, cascade Mountain.
Okay, right burning questionsyou still need answered.
What's your top two favoriterestaurant?
Oh, okay, I'm gonna say I likeeden at the rim.
Rock is my favorite and I'mgonna say maple leaf the maple
leaf right on the main streetbeautiful maple leaf.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Yeah, they do, maple leaf okay canadian uh fusion
with other things.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
It's beautiful.
Lots of canadian ingredientsthere.
The vermilion the vermilionroom in the bath springs hotel.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
You feel like you're in the shining the movie.
It is so cool.
The yeah, that's how I felt.
But the food was phenomenalbest chocolate cake I've had in
my life and get a beaver tail.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
That's the best thing to get.
If you're looking for dessert,yeah for dessert it's not an
actual beaver tail then?
No, no, no, no, we don't eatbeans, no.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Glad to hear.
That's great.
What are some of the likefavorite meals in Canada?

Speaker 3 (53:22):
Oh, go ahead.
Best thing I've oh Brusselssprouts.
Okay, weird answer.
You were not expecting this.
Brussels sprouts from theVermilion restaurant, I kid you
not.
Like those things were littlegreen jewels.
They were so good.
How?

Speaker 1 (53:39):
did, they do that.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
I don't know why I don't like vegetables.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
They roasted, or they were deep fried actually.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
There you go.
Yeah yeah, like Little HiddenGems For sure.
The pizza at High Rollers Ithink you like and it's very
good Get it on half price day.
Like the fish, any of the fishmeals or the steak meals at the
maple leaf were unbelievable.
They do really high-end foodfor like mid mid-end price

(54:05):
what's mid-end?
Like it's about 50 canadian foran entree, but I would probably
pay 70 for it if they asked meto, but they didn't, so I didn't
look at that, yeah't Look atthat.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Yeah, Beautiful fish salmon, atlantic cod.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
There were some pretty amazing food items there,
so I don't think you can gowrong there.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
I was trying to see what the Canadian dollar is
compared to the US.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
You get about $1.35 US for a Canadian.
I think it's in about thatrange right now.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Oh, okay, okay, yeah, I Okay Okay.
I'm looking at that right now.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I take a third off of all our prices.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Yep $1.36.
It's up right now, yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Right again and I will oh, my goodness, that's
twice, I will say, because,having been to the United States
quite a few times lately, itused to be that Canadians would
go down to the US and findreally stellar deals there, even
with the bad conversion rate.
It is a very unusual situationwhere the prices in Canada right

(55:04):
now are actually significantlycheaper, but you also get the
conversion on top of that.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
So it's a good deal to come to Canada.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
I think you're going to find things that are about
half the price is what you wouldexpect to pay in the US right
now on many things, because Iwas shocked to see the prices in
the US when I was there.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Yeah, I wonder what Banff compares to.
Maybe it's like a, you know,like a nice mountain town here,
breckenridge or Vail, I meanlike $400, denver area, but
making the more exclusivemountain towns for sure yeah and
that was pretty, pretty fancy Ithought of one last question

(55:41):
too is uh, skiing?
I knew whistler, I didn't knowbamf as well, just um, what was
that?
What's the top place?
You said there's three resorts.
Are they all great, or is thereone in particular?

Speaker 2 (55:50):
and there's more than three, but in the park there's
just three.
But you can get just outsidethe park and get more because
there's nakiska, which is wherethey held the uh calgary
olympics yeah okay, there's lakelouise, which is a ski resort.
There is a sunshine village,which is a big ski resort, but
within an hour drive of bath Imean there are there must be a

(56:13):
dozen ski hills, or an hour anda half that are absolutely, you
know, world class, right?
I'm sure denver must be thesame ski hills, or an hour and a
half that are absolutely, youknow, world-class, right?
I'm sure Denver must be thesame way, and you know it
doesn't take that long to get toski resorts.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
What's the rate card for a lift ticket?
Roughly.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
You just went to Marmot basin and Jasper, I think
I want to say it was 70Canadian for for the day for a
lift ticket, so probably 50 us.
Wow, that is a great deal.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Yeah, now it's a great deal.
Yeah, it's like 150 a day.
You know the local discount.
We can get it for like 120 fora buddy pass.
It's ridiculous, so you gottaget that like the annual pass is
how you have to do it for it tomake sense yeah, I think here,
yeah, it's cheaper.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, I don't know where that.
Oh, that's big, okay, yeah,yeah, and yeah, there's also the
passenger.
But like 100 bucks, I'll getyou on the hill.
I'm probably okay to get youthe rentals, but that's canadian
, right?
So right, oh yeah, that's nice.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Okay, yeah, awesome, we want to go through your rapid
fire question.
Sure, yeah, some of them.
Um, I'm gonna just just skipthat out.
The surf lines, right, so yeah,so we're kind of related to
food.
What is a typical breakfastthat you would have?

Speaker 3 (57:24):
Well, I eat eggs Benedict every time, but you eat
the same boring thing every dayBacon and eggs.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Oh, that's so funny.
I don't think we've had anyoneever answer bacon or eggs in the
whole world.
It's always oatmeal or yogurtand granola.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Oh, super healthy I like ham bacon yeah, we're going
for 20 kilometer hikes.
I feel like we earned thatbreakfast right.
You got fuel up um muffins.
Actually there's a lot of goodbreakfast places in Bath really
specialty omelets.
Tallulah's in Bath actually hasa Cajun-Canadian fusion thing.

(58:01):
It's sort of a knock or not aknockout, but a nod to the
Acadian culture, like the Frenchpeople coming down and going to
Louisiana.
There's some shared historythere but they have a lot of
Creole, cajun, canadian fusion,which is weird, but you get like
salmon and jump a lie Omelets.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Oh my gosh, no, it's so good.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
So it's.
It can be a lot of fun.
So we actually for breakfast toLulu's.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
We missed that one, but yeah, is that throughout
Edmonton that there's thisinfluence, or just like in one
little neighborhood?

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Oh no, I think that's just one dude.
Oh, just one dude.
Okay, no, the?
Oh, the acadians, oh no, theacadians.
Uh, these are sort of, um, this, this is really not an edmonton
thing, this is a an east coastthing.
So the acadians are sort ofthese french immigrants coming
from france in canada's earlyhistory, because we used to be a
french colony before an englishone, and they were expelled out
of Canada and most of them wentto Louisiana, which would have
a French, you know, high therefrom your history, right.

(59:06):
So there is this shared Frenchhistory between these people.
So now we have this influence,this influence here that this
restaurant is the first timeI've ever seen a Canadian, asian
, acadian thing, so it's verygood.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
All right, and then what about any popular holiday
traditions in that area?

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Well, christmas in Bath is pretty amazing.
Like I know, I've been toBoulder, which I'm sure you guys
.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Yeah, that's right, actually, yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
I would say that they're the same thing.
Christmas is crazy in boththese places.
It's done up it's, and Ihaven't been there in 20 years,
but I remember 20 years ago atChristmas was, you know
everything, carolers and thewhole works Right.
So Christmas in Bath is prettyamazing.
Canada Day might be a thingthere.
I've never been there, but.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
For Canada Day.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah, fireworks, fireworks and I don't know how
much.
They set up fireworks, I don'tknow.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
Is Canada day, the day after Christmas.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
No it's July 1st, so it's our version of 4th of July,
so we're not independent, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
July 1st Okay, and Boxing Day.
That's a big thing in Canada,right?

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Is that the day after Christmas?

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Okay, Is that pretty common, that people like
celebrate or do we have to go towork?

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
sometimes, so there's no celebration.
I would say the it's.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Black.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Friday, it's our Black Friday.
So what happens?
We give kids money forChristmas and they take that
money and buy everything on salethe next day after Christmas
and go shopping.
Yeah, it works out well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Works for the older kids?
Yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
I remember growing up and I'd get gift cards and
that's what I would do yeah, goshopping with it but no, nothing
, nothing too particularlyunusual, I don't think uh, there
you know what actually might beinteresting for for
international the nationalindigenous day, which would be
now july or june 20th, sorry.
Uh, a lot of these big areasare starting to make a bigger

(01:00:59):
deal of that holiday andcelebrate, uh, our first peoples
and things like that, so that'sbecoming that's, I guess, a
tourist job june 20th.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Yeah, that's funny because we just got juneteenth,
like last year was the firstyear.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Some, some companies I remember it's like five days
before they're like okay, thisis now a holiday and like
everyone off, it's, it's for, um, you know, freedom of slavery
yeah, right, yeah, so this comesa similar, similar, it's the
same weekend right same yeahokay, yeah, but nothing, nothing
too too drastic, I don't thinkvery good and we know what the

(01:01:34):
money is called, so the canadiandollar but you need to know
loonie and toonie, if you don'tknow those so loonie is the one
dollar coin and a toonie is thetwo dollar coin.
And nobody says one dollar, it'sjust loonie or toonie oh,
that's so fun there's a loon onthe on the one dollar coin, so
they just call it the loonie thebird.

(01:01:55):
We just were very creative withthe $2 one, so we just called
it that.
But there's actually a bear onthat one.
That's cute.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
So you guys actually have $2 coins, huh.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Yeah, and they were going to make $5 coins, but
people rioted.
I think my purse would be waytoo heavy, nice.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
All right, well, thank you so much, and, um, how
do people find you?
And we mentioned it a few times, so people can find us on our
website,wwwmountaintownramblerscom.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
we have everything located on that site.
Our instagram account.
We have a youtube channel wejust started.
We have a link to the we're inthe rockies vamp guideF guide
that we've created.
There's a new one in Jaspercoming out soon.
Oh, emailmountaintownrandbrothers at
gmailcom.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Yeah, Thank you guys so much.
That was such a treat to learnmore about BAMF.
I love what you guys are doing.
Thanks.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Take care See, ya Thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Bye-bye, bye.
Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed the podcast, canyou please take a second and do
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We're at where next podcast.

(01:03:13):
Thanks again.