Day 32, September 13

Day 32, September 13 — A real stinger!

Locations: Bow Lake; Kootenay NP

Miles driven: 231

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I started my trip a month ago today. Hard to believe! And I'm still not done! Man, this is kind of long! I set the alarm for 5:40 and snoozed it a couple of times. It was overcast, so I slept in until 9:00. Clouds were starting to break up at 9:24. This is kind of the same weather pattern as is has been, but based on this, it was on pace to clear earlier and I had hoped it would by at least noon. I could see a little light hitting some of the peaks.

I went down the road a short ways to Bow Lake where I shot a few along the shore until the light faded shortly thereafter. I headed back up the road into the lot where I had camped. I wanted to shoot the Crowfoot Glacier just to record it even though the light was flat, but I didn't want to be shoulder to shoulder with the bus loads of people at the main viewpoint. So, as I was setting up my tripod at 11:05 in the trees, I began to feel a little burn on my right thigh. “YEEEOOOOOOWWWWWWW!” I looked down and saw a black and gold thing. “GET OFF!” I slapped it once and it was still there! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't tell at quick glance if it was a bee or a spider. I really didn't want it to be a spider as I really didn't know what I would be getting into if that were the case. Plus, I'm terrified of those little devils and I scream like a little girl around them! I thought that if it were a bee that it would've flown off, but I quickly slapped it again, unfortunately not killing it, but this time it flew off. But wouldn't you know it, the sucker went right back to the same spot of attack! I swiped at it again and it left. Meanwhile, this burn is getting even stronger and was starting to swell up just a bit. “WHOA! OUCH!” I had never been stung by a bee before! I can tell you that I don't want it to happen again, either! Not at all! After I shot a few of the glacier, I saw a few bees were about a foot or two from my right tripod leg. I hit the tree where they were at and there were 15-20 that swarmed. Well, now it all makes sense! Guess they didn't want me too close to their house. Man, if only I had a couple cans of Raid for some payback! It would be game on! Dirty suckers!

My voice recorder I had been using to take journal notes and picture data was all filled up to this point. It holds 8 hours worth. I didn't figure I had used that much, but I wasn't sure. Shoot, now I have to listen to my mundane voice for a long time at home for this trip report! From this point on, I used my point-and-shoot to record my audio notes. It's more of a pain only in the sense that it can only record on a given image for a minute, which goes by in a hurry, but it will have to do (and still worked out very well).

It's now 11:50 and I was leaving the Crowfoot Glacier area and headed towards Kootenay one more time to see if I could get any forest or stream shots.

A little before 1:00 as I was driving down the road in Kootenay, I saw some brilliantly turquoise colored water in the river below in spots through the trees. I turned around and parked and found a spot. Now this was eye candy! All through the trip, and even before it, I wanted a number of river shots with this sweet color, and while the Athabasca and other rivers certainly have the turquoise, none of them matched the hue and saturation of the Vermilion River right here! Man, I just wanted to drink it! I shot here for a quite a bit. This spot is 1.5 miles north of Vermilion Crossing. I parked at the southern end of the concrete barrier wall (pictured) and walked down to the river from there.

After shooting here, I went to the bridge at the Kootenay Park Lodge/Vermilion Crossing/Verdant Creek (all signed) and took some pictures of the river from here. I drove the southern half of the park and on into Radium Hot Springs for the first time and fueled up and got a couple bags of ice. I also filled up my water thermoses. I left here at 5:10 and figured I’d head to Banff for sunset at Vermilion Lakes. It remained overcast and wasn't looking promising for sunset, though.

I opted to bypass Banff and went north instead stopping in at the Lake Louise parking lot to check it out for reference for when I do come here for sunrise, but didn't even take the short walk to the lake. I had yet to see the lake on this trip. I arrived at Bow Lake at 7:20 where it was still overcast with a couple areas of blue above the fog layer, but I would wait here in case there was some color that found its way through. I figured I'd try for Lake Louise in the morning since I haven't been there yet and I've already shot Moraine. After hanging out at Bow Lake for a bit, I headed back to camp at 8:20 where I was last night across from the Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint. I cooked a bag of tortellini and prepared for more of the same weather tomorrow.

9:34 AM — Crowfoot Mountain above Bow Lake