January 8th, 2008
2007 WHAT A YEAR!
Many thanks go to all our wonderful guests throughout the year for their stories and memorable experiences. What a great way to find out what’s going on in other corners of our world. At times it seemed as though we were closer neighbours that what we thought, when musing about politics, economies and the younger generation!
Many of our guests enjoyed the “Great Outdoors”. Sharon and Graham came all the way from Kalbarri to ski here, and George came from Katowice and hiked to the top of Mount Rundle after spending a few days on conference at the Banff Centre, (not your average hike)!
Sometimes people would go out of their way to get up at 5 AM to go out before breakfast in hopes to see some wildlife. Some would have great success and some try as they may, didn’t have much luck other than seeing the odd red squirrel. And sometimes without expecting it a sighting would fall onto their path. One such event happened to the Bolte’s and Simpson’s. After both parties had a marathon day touring the Icefields Parkway, they planned on a 5pm round of golf at the Banff Springs Hotel course. Neither group had any success at seeing wildlife until the tee off on the 3rd hole, when a large grizzly bear sauntered across the green! Do you take an extra stroke penalty in a case like this? They had pictures to corroborate their story.
James and I had a similar experience when we volunteered for this years’ Christmas Bird Count. We started out on the Tunnel Mountain Bench, from the Hoodoos to the southeast. It was only 15 minutes into our tour in the early morning hours when two Timber Wolves darted thru my binoculars. I shouted to James to look down onto the river flats beneath us when James also spotted several others. In total there were six wolves resting, frolicking and one was displaying his/her dominance as the younger ones acted submissively. As we raised our spotter’s scopes, one could see the grand Banff Springs Hotel in the background, and just on the other side of Tunnel Mountain was the sleepy town of Banff this winter morning. That evening at the Birders Banquet we spoke to a naturalist who had told us that the wolves hadn’t been seen in this area for some time and as it was a grazing ground for elk the Wardens were very keen to encourage the Fairholm pack to visit this area. In order to encourage them, they had dragged carcasses thru the animal underpasses to entice them. I presumed that the carcasses were from road kill. Their plan was working!
At Christmas we had the good fortune to meet Scott and Nikki and their families. They married during the holiday season while also enjoying a skiing honeymoon. Scott sent these pictures as proof that they didn’t have any issues with the commute to and from the ski hills….
