Last Week In Canada

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

I cannot believe how fast the last four weeks have gone.  Wow.  It felt like one week.  Thanks again to everyone I saw and spent time with.  You are all great ones!  The highlights of last week include: Lake Louise, hiking in some woods near Bragg Creek with Alf and some other great ones, who are a little, cough, cough, hack, hack, younger than myself; and a lovely get together at Alf and Helga's with family and friends.  All in all it was once again a very good week.  Now I am back in Hong Kong, jet lagged, but happy knowing I have a few places in the World I can go to and be right at home.  I also continue to marvel at the prairies, mountains,  forests, and lakes of Alberta and BC.  God's creation is simply amazing!

God bless you all,

Love adios and peng on!

Dirk

Seen on the highway by Radium.

 Amazing Lake Louise.

 The not quite over the hill gang.

 80 years old and still kicking!  Alf the happy wanderer.

 Cow Parsnip.

 Hunkering down for lunch.  Note the chairs are made of rock slabs.  Just like the Flintstones.

 World class photographer Alf Budwill in action!

 A small rest before taking another 1000 pictures in 5 minutes.

Flowers from Alf and Helga's garden.

Al and Valerie with little Andrew.

Johnny made us laugh with stories of his youth.

The Mahs hanging out.

Another Excellent Week.

Hello my Dear Wonderful Ones,

The week started off with a ride on the Cowboy trail with a stop at Lundbrek to enjoy some real Cowboy food (hamburger.)  Then it was on to Lethbridge with a quick stop to look at the windmills.  After enjoying a lovely Chinese meal of wontons and springrolls at Brent and Xinje's we went to the bridge (train trestle) that makes Lethbridge famous.  Very interesting.

The next day, Tuesday, Brent and his son Del and I headed to Waterton for the most incredible hike ever.  Crypt Lake.  As Brent said a few times it was voted Canada's best hike in 1981.  It still must be in the top ten.  To get to the trail head we had to take a boat across Waterton Lake.  From there we climbed several switchbacks, walked through a valley that was incredible and then climbed several more switchbacks to a goat trail through shale.  It offered a great view, but it was kind of scary looking down.  We then had to climb a ladder to the entrance of a hobbit size tunnel carved through the mountain.  Once we squirreld through that we still had to rely on a cable drilled into the side of the wall to get to a level surface.  Once we alighted on that the walk to  amazing  Crypt lake surrounded by cathedral like mountains on each side was splendid.  The hike took all day and my legs were rather sore several hours later.  The next day I still managed to check out Red Rock Canyon and have high tea in the Prince of Wales hotel.  I even saw a lovely brown bear near the hotel.  From Waterton I drove on to the Pass for a nice visit with Tim and Sheila Juhlin.  The next day I moved on to Sparwood,  then got an ice cream cone at my favourite fast food joint ever (at the intersection of highway 3 and 93, and then ended up in Wasa Lake for a lovely swim.  Later I met up with my soccer buddies, explored Kimberley and then played 3 games on Saturday.  Legs are rather sore, but its all good.  Great fun!

Love Adios and peng on!

Dirk

Ps sorry pictures a little out of order.

 Sweet Wasa

 At the pool by my campground.

 Soccer!  With one of my teammates.

 Eyes on the ball.

Beautiful Alberta.

Xing je, Brent and Del

By the bridge in Lethbridge.  Train trestle actually.

The boat to Crypt Lake trailhead.

Del, Brent, Me

Great views.

The goat trail.

The hobbit tunnel.  There is light at the end of the tunnel.  Crazy going through that.

Crypt Lake

On the way back

Bear grass.

Waterton.

Prince of Wales hotel.

Me and Tim.

Sparwood.

Wasa