Following a suggestion from his old school friend Bill Mullaney, Dave had contacted Micky, a walking friend Bill had met in Spain who lived in Banff and a walk was planned for Monday on the Bourgeau Lake Trail. We actually walked beyond Bourgeau Lake to Harvey Pass some of the way to the summit of Mt Bourgeau. This was about 20km, with a climb of approaching 1000m - quite a hike! The day started with coffee at Micky's house where we met brothers Luke and Gent, the adult sons of friends of Micky's and Gent's wife Lindsay who joined us for the walk: or at least as far as the lake. They were keen to make the summit and whilst our pace to the lake wasn't slow they could easily continue faster than we could. The walk to the lake was through the sort of woodland we'd become accustomed to, where encounters with bears were a real possibility. Micky carried bear spray but we guess also as a group of six we were making enough noise to give a bear plenty of warning that we were on the trail: in any event we didn't see a bear, who knows if one saw us!

The trail opened out as it crossed a waterfall which allowed a glimpse of the great views there would be from the pass and summit if we went further on than the lake. Crossing the waterfall was via gabien stepping stones which are used as they can withstand the damage that can be caused by the massive flow of water and rocks that can occur when there is a rapid snow melt and/or heavy rainfall as happened in early June this year. The stream was littered with tree trunks and other debris but the damage to the path was much less than we were to meet on other trails. The lake was a lovely lunch spot dominated by the high cliff face of Mount Bourgeau. We perched on a large rock and admired the views whilst fending off chipmunks who proved to be more daring than seagulls at trying to steal food! But also photographing them too! From the trail we also saw an animal that could have been a marmot and by the lunch rock a largish rat-like creature with a furry tail that we don't have an identification for. It could have been a Pika but we think too big for that.

Leaving the lake we agreed that the younger folk would press on ahead and that the rest of us would see how much further we wanted to walk. The clouds had been threatening all morning and as we set off up the trail to the pass it started to rain hard enough for waterproofs, a further disincentive to walking very much further. The path also got quite steep in places. However, it was clear that walking a bit further would be rewarded with better views of the surrounding mountains so we agreed to walk as far as Harvey Pass. At that point Dave and Micky were itching to see what was over the next horizon so they walked on to the next ridge whilst Jill sheltered from the rain in a small copse of fir trees that judging from the huge amount of fir cone debris was clearly home to a large family of squirrels. We were lucky that the rain was only a short shower and that the sun peeped out for the long walk back down to the car: the only slightly disappointing aspects of the majority of the walking here is the lack of opportunity for circular walks.

On the way back into Banff Micky was keen to show us some of the town's landmarks so we had a quick stop at the Bow River Falls and drove passed the Banff Springs Hotel which looks like something out of a fairy tale. But nothing to detain us long from a well earned beer at Micky's house! And as one beer turned to another we decided to go out to eat with Micky. Dave got to try wings, a North American food he'd been intrigued to try - turns out they are tasty!