Alberta BC Adventures

10 / 3 / 175 / 2 / 19

September was epic! Our Albert BC Adventures through the mountains started mid-September and ended right before the end of the month.

Here is a recap of the hikes we planned, attempted and accomplished!

Day 1: Grotto Canyon Trail & Grassi Lakes Trail

Grotto was a quick and easy 3.6km round trip that took us around 50 mins to hike, including a picnic near the waterfall (which was barely there due to the dry summer).

Wore: Solomon SpeedCross

Grassi Lakes was a fun 3.7km round trip. We took the “easy” way up and the “more difficult” way down for a total hiking trip of around 45 mins with lots of stops for photos. These two hikes were a perfect way to get our bodies moving before tackling a mountain summit. If we hadn’t taken the “more difficult” way down we would’ve missed the waterfall!

Day 2: We attempted Lady Mac on our second day. Needless to say, we only reached the false summit but it was still an epic hike. We were on our feet for a total of 5.5 hours but I didn’t take a look at the kms on my app. I used AllTrails to plan out our hikes this year!

We met a woman on the trail who had a golden retriever which Mike immediately went to cuddle. We hiked and chatted with her the rest of the way. Once we got to the false summit, hung around a bit for a snack I wanted to attempt the scramble (it would be my first). She said she’d keep climbing with us. While she was sure of foot, she was only wearing runners and when we got to the scramble she got a little freaked out and voiced her freak out, this in turn didn’t help with my fear. Mike did not want to deal with 2 scared women on the mountain so he made the decision to turn back. I’m still a little bummed we didn’t summit but that just gives me a reason to go back!

Wore: Scarpa Hiking Boots

Day 3: It rained so we spent the day in Calgary at the Science Centre and indoor climbing. This also allowed us to recover a bit from the day before which was a bit of a sludge on our bodies. I kept using the term sludge to describe a hard long hike and Mike kept making fun of me. It’s not a great word choice but it’ll do.

Day 4: We packed up our things and headed out to Canmore for lunch with one of my high school friends who lives out in Banff, then headed out on the epic hike with Annicia, her boyfriend Patryck & Burt the Pitbull! That hike has already been documented on the blog complete with a proposal from Mike but here are some shots I took before and after 🙂 It was awesome to do a sunset hike and pretty easy to descend in the dark with headlamps but just a tad scary, thinking of what animals could’ve been out there.

Wore: Scarpa Hiking Boots

Day 5 (6 & 7): We headed out to the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary before spending the weekend at Camp Chief Hector for Camp Yoga AB. Mike has been following the Sanctuary on Facebook for a while now so we were really excited to do the Interactive Tour. For this tour you get taken into 2 pens, one with dogs with high content (more wolf) and one with dogs with low content (less wolf). I was surprised to learn that the high content wolfdogs are very fearful of humans. In the photo below you can see they barely come close to us. With a few treats they came a little closer but due to nature they are fearful of humans (their biggest predator).

The low content pen was really fun. These guys act like big dogs! With a few treats, and even a few commands, they were willingly handing us paws. All 3 dogs in this pen came right up to me for some love including the female who is usually a bit more aloof than the guys.

Just look at that face!

This was our second year at Camp Yoga AB. Being back on the camp grounds was lovely and amazing! This time I was manning my doTERRA vendor booth, teaching workshops and chatting oils so I didn’t get to partake in any yoga classes but it was so amazing to see old friends, make new friends and to honestly take a rest before more mountains were attempted 🙂

Day 8: We attempted to do Tent Ridge right after Camp Yoga ended on Sunday but didn’t account for the 1.5-hour drive down into the provincial park. After starting out on the trail and realizing how late in the day it was we simply didn’t want to hustle so we ran down the 2.5 km we had hiked up so far and decided to start again on Monday. Tent Ridge was amazing. It was a really cool horseshoe loop which we started on the left trailhead. It was my first ridge walk and while at times I was a bit fearful just from doing something for the first time it was super cool and the views were spectacular.

Wore: Solomon Speedcross

Day 9 & 10: 11 years ago Mike spent some time up at Bow Hut so we re-enacted the trip and booked a reservation at the hut for one night. We parked at Num-ti-jah Lodge, carried our big packs with us (containing: sleeping bags, 1 set of dry clothes, dinner, breakfast & maybe some wine!) The hut is simply glamping on the top of a mountain. There are 2 rooms (one for cooking & hanging out) and one for sleeping. Both can be heated with a woodstove. The sleeping room is basically 2 massive bunk beds. The mattresses were super comfy and it was great to pass out the first night. There were a group of cadets up at the hut and then we were joined by 2 couples and another gent who were great to chat with and play cards with into the evening! The next day the weather wasn’t the greatest (we’re talking snow) so we headed back down to drive into Golden for our last AirBnB stay. We really wanted to do the Onion hike from the hut but it was white out conditions so we wouldn’t have been able to see anything.

Wore: Scarpa Hiking Boots

Day 11: After a great relaxing night at our AirBnB in Golden we opted to finish up our mountain portion of the trip with an easy hike to Wapta Falls. This hike is relatively flat and easy to do with families. There are tons of different views of the Falls which make it even more cooler.

Wore: Solomon SpeedCross

Day 12: It was a perfect trip out in the Rockies! We finished up day 12 by a really exciting 8 hour travel day driving all the way down into BC, dropping our rental car off in Vancouver and high tailing it to the Ferry to get to Victoria. I was really excited to introduce Mike to my best friend Kyla and spend 3 days in Tofino!

Day 13 – 15:

The theme of our beach walks was Kyla and Mike handstanding and Corey (Kyla’s man) and I attempting to keep up.

We just don’t have the skills 🙂

It was an amazing trip! A long time away from home and the puppies, but necessary for us to get away from some stresses. I feel at home in the mountains. Definitely a west coast girl at heart 🙂

Summit Pop

9 / 18 / 175 / 3 / 19

Mike and I returned to Alberta for another year of adventures. This year I got a summit pop on Ha Ling way above and beyond the Ginger Cider, I had in my day pack.

In 2016, Mike and I met Annicia & Cassandra at Camp Yoga AB. We ended up talking for hours after dinner last year, ended up sharing bottles of red wine and hanging out by the campfire. We stayed in touch through social media and I couldn’t wait to see them this year. We had planned to do a late afternoon/evening summit hike up Ha Ling. Unfortunately, Cassandra couldn’t leave work early but she was there in spirit (I’ll explain more).

We met Annicia, her boyfriend Patryk and his pup Burt at their condo and headed out to the trailhead. Ok so why do we have such professional photos from a simple summit hike??

Look at your man and laugh like one of them told a really great joke!

So Mike proposed on September 14, 2017, at the top of Ha Ling and completely surprised me.

Ok so here’s the backstory before more photos.

In 2016, we traveled out to Alberta for the first time. One of my friends had mentioned to me before the trip, “wouldn’t it be amazing if Mike proposed at the top of a mountain?” and when I came back “I thought Mike was going to propose to you while out there” – Friendly PSA: never do this to your friends it causes unhealthy expectations 🙂

Mike and I had even joked about the Mazda mountain proposal commercial that it was a really cool idea. At the top of our Fairview Mountain summit last year, there was this random guy already at the top when we got there and I swear he was a hired photographer and I kept waiting for Mike to drop to one knee.

Which didn’t happen.

So let’s talk about expectations vs. reality. Expectations suck. Expectations suck the life out of our thoughts. We spend allll the time thinking about what we want and not focusing on what we have. In all honesty, I wasn’t ready to get engaged last year. I still had some emotional healing to do around insecurity and my journey over the past year was so needed before Mike popped a question. I needed to be entirely secure in how I view love and our love without a ring.

Fast forward to 2017, our first big hike of the trip was up Lady Mac last Tuesday. We met another woman along the trail and she stuck with us for the hike, so I for sure thought she was a hired photographer. See I have this secret engagement Pinterest board that Mike has seen and there was really only 2 things on it. Hire a photographer to capture the moment and 2 pictures of a ring style I really liked. So I swore in my head she was the hired photographer. When she wasn’t I actually told myself in my head “oh for heaven’s sakes quit it” and that is why on Thursday I was completely surprised by what happened because I had honestly told myself to stop thinking about it and really enjoy this trip no matter what happens.

As we’re hiking up the mountain Annicia, starts telling me about meeting this really cool photographer (Rob) on a hike 2 weeks ago. She also starts telling me a story about all the crazy hikes he’s done. Once, we cleared the tree line, Patryk decides to get off the well-worn trail (please note I complained about this and was ignored) and take us up the side of the mountain which became a scramble. This was done because the whole crew was scared about the weather and missing daylight. While I was focusing on not tumbling to my death near the top I hear Annicia yell “Rob! What are you doing here!?” “Oh I’m just here shooting some photos for Travel Alberta. Do you guys mind being in some, I need people in the shots?”. Once I make it to the top I look around and we all exclaim how lucky we are as it was supposed to rain and snow all day and we were blessed with the most amazing blue sky, the sun and golden hour (as they call it in the mountains).

Since we all know I’m a social media fiend I let the photographer know, “no problem! I’d love to be in some shots!” Now, let me look off into the distance while you take nonchalant pics of us. Which is why I actually was looking off Ha Ling over Canmore and didn’t notice Mike taking the ring box out of his pocket. I had also exclaimed out loud “This is incredible!” to which I think Mike said:

Mike: “Do you want to do this every day?”

Robyn: “Yes!”

Mike: “Do you want to do this with me for the rest of my life?”

Robyn: to which I turned around to see the box (which Mike made!) and I’m pretty sure I said, “no you shut up…” a ton of tears sprang from my eyes, I covered my mouth with my hands, I could barely breathe…

Mike: “Will you marry me?”

To which there was a ton of drunk toddler blubbering which I think included “omg I thought you were going to do it on Lady Mac not Ha Ling” and then in my head “oh shit I haven’t said yes yet” before screaming “YES!” and then “YOU ACTUALLY DID IT ON A MOUNTAIN!”

So Annicia, hiked up the mountain with 2 key ingredients for this momentous occasion.

Champagne & Pinterest worthy items for pictures 🙂 This is where Cassandra comes in. She and Annicia met for coffee, dreamed up all these items and asked Mike if they thought I’d love them, to which he exclaimed: “she’ll eat that stuff up!” The banners, the scrabble pieces, and letters in our initials were hauled up Ha Ling for the photoshoot 🙂

My little girl dreams of being completely and utterly surprised came true.

The tears of joy and happiness just burst out of me because I am so truly happy in my relationship with this amazing man. We have been building an amazing life together from the moment he let me know he wanted to spend his life with me one month after we met, to the day I decided to uproot my life from Toronto and move to Ottawa (only 3 short months after our first kiss), to getting a 2nd dog (Rogue) one month after moving in, to several times this year facing moments that might tear a couple apart but only showing us how well we communicate, stay loyal to each other and build the right kind of trust that will last a lifetime.

I can’t wait to plan our big party to celebrate with family and friends. I can’t wait to take my time with it and know exactly what is important to us and what not to spend money on because at the end of the day us on a mountain utterly happy is way more important.

The End of a Happy Mountain Proposal Story 🙂

The photos are c/o Robert Lememeyer. The only photographer (out of 17 businesses that Mike contacted) who would actually hike up the mountain to take the shots! Thank you Annicia for meeting random amazing photographers while hiking who would capture this moment so perfectly! 🙂

Alberta Adventures

10 / 4 / 165 / 2 / 19

I’m surprised we ever came back to Ontario after an epic, epic (because one epic couldn’t do this place justice) week in Alberta exploring in and around Banff.

From the infamous Lake Louise, pictured above, to the summiting a mountain for the first time. I was filled with wonder, awe and got amazing exercise in daily.

After Mike and I left Camp Yoga near Canmore Alberta we headed west for the Rockies. We stopped in Canmore for some healthy lunch supplies for the week and then arrived in Banff after purchasing a week National Park pass at the gates. We found our accommodations at Banff Aspen Lodge and got settled before walking around the town. Our hotel was less than spectacular and highly overpriced for the size of the room we were given so nothing really to write home about but served as a great home base for adventures for the week.

Monday morning we decided to tackle Saddleback Pass & Fairview Mountain. It was one of my favourite hikes of the week. We started out early in the morning from the Lake Louise parking lot. We were able to snap an epic picture of the lake before it was surround by fog most other days that week and escape the piles of tourists flying out of tour buses up the path. For the first part of the hike there was several low clouds covering the mountain ranges opposite our hike. It made for some epic photos and I was fascinated to see the Larch trees for the first time. Apparently the only needle tree to actually change colour in the fall and we luckily were there during the change.