Canada has been quite the adventure. The rain stopped and the sun came out as we drove north. We first went to Lethbridge to work on our Casita battery issue. Lethbridge isn’t much to write about. We drove around the entire town looking for RV and auto places. We couldn’t use our phones as navigation because of the international charges so we just drove around- perhaps not our best move but it eventually worked. We stopped at two RV shops and while the service guys were friendly, they didn’t have the time to look at the Casita. It probably didn’t help that it was the day before Canada Day. They recommended a battery charger for a short term fix. We drove around some more, found an auto place and bought a battery charger. Time to move on from Lethbridge.
We didn’t have a detailed map of the area but found our way to camping at Old Man Dam. We wanted a different campground at the dam but drove through one that was just too pretty and peaceful to pass up. Plus, we weren’t sure how full the campgrounds would be with the holiday. Another plus was there was electricity- but no potable water on site. When we plugged in the battery charger, after reading the entire instructions and over-analyzing the safety considerations (we used sunglasses as goggles, just in case it exploded), the charger read the battery as 90% full. What?? Our battery tester said otherwise. Mike did some more sleuthing and realized that the fuse for the DC outlet where he plugged in the battery tester was half blown and was giving us bad results. This sucked because Mike had checked the fuses before our Lethbridge adventure but this fuse had tricked him because it was still allowing the outlet to work. Good news-nothing wrong with the battery and even better news that there was nothing wrong with the converter. After a not-great day dealing with the battery, we had a wonderful evening, eating spaghetti dinner outside in the sun. It was our first time we were able to eat outside. Everything tastes better when camping.
The days are long, and we go to bed when it’s still light outside and wake when it’s light. It’s kinda cool. On Canada Day, rather than slowly enjoying our coffee and reading one of the many tour books to figure out what next, we got on the move. We figured finding a camping spot in Banff was going to be tough. Because we didn’t have a detailed map, we took the wrong turn north, and may have taken a slightly longer route. But, it was a beautiful drive through Kananaskis Country. A couple times, there were mangy goats in the road that we had to drive around. In early afternoon, we were slightly nervous about finding a campsite because there were a lot of RVs on the road. We found ourselves randomly driving to camping at the Kananaskis Lakes. The first one we checked out had the most amazing views of the Opal Mountains. It’s like the campsite is ringed in mountains. We loved it and stayed. We are getting quite good at primitive camping.
It was a peaceful Canada Day, without any hoopla here. There are quite a few paved bike trails that lead to other campgrounds and parts of the lakes. We walked to the Visitor’s Center and then over an interpretative trail. The interpretative trails are not the same here as in the States. It wasn’t a 1/2 mile slow loop walk, but rather more aggressive with hills and surprisingly beautiful scenery. It was hot, and we were tired so we called it early that night after Mike took some photos.
Yesterday, after a quick visit to the Visitor Center for wifi, we went hiking at the Upper Lake for a few hours. An ice-cream treat and lunch revived us, and we did another couple hour hike around the Lower Lake. It’s a little unnerving to be in the middle of a hike and come to a temporary sign saying “Bear in Area”. Of course, we forgot our bear spray on that hike, mostly because we thought it would be easier and shorter than it actually was. No bear sitings but we did see a large rabbit that Iris was very interested in. We were pretty wiped last night.
