As The World Turns

Last friday, which was yesterday, overnight,which was thursday night, it dropped about 2 and half inches of snow!!!

In the morning, I had to go to Banff to take my theory test for the motorcycle licencing (my pet hobby) and discovered the car was under all that snow!

So I spend about 5 mins using a cloth (then I had regretted not buying the snow brush that other day....damn......sigh) scraping all that snow off the car if not how to see and drive?? .....damn cold doing it, i was freezing must have been like minus 5 deg or something.......

Some other thoughts too..

The tv stations here had around the clock coverage of hurricane katrina and now rita...

Previously living in Singapore, u dont realise the significance of weather related stuff, cos the place is so small, you are so insulated, even the Tsunami wasnt even felt..

Here its so big a place, i once saw the actual weather front of a low pressure system going thru the area, it stretched from horizon to horizon like a curving grey band, one side of it was clear the other side was hazy, can see cos the prairies are soooo flat.......

Here u get the full impact of weather, I really get a kick out of watching the weather channel everyday to see what is coming up

But its so sad to really understand WHAT all that talk about global warming is about, cos in Singapore its already damn hot so what warming???

But here, seeing glaciers retreating because of global warming, knowing what its like for the people who go have to survive a hurricane because the weather here can be just as nasty....

I have driven up and down the Malaysian highway and not once paid attention to the wind socks on the highway there, here alamak the car rocks when you are driving and a gust comes along..

Interesting, I'm waiting to see what a 2 foot high snow fall is REALLT like... i can hardly wait..NOT!

So I finally did the Plain of Six Glaciers hike, was really cold up at the lookout point, that being about 7,000feet. The hike itself wasnt that ardous, but a good workout nontheless, I kept shedding all my outer layers on the way up! naturally the tee and pants stayed on ....:P

on the way up, a noisy bird call got my attention and there it was, it looked like a Bald Eagle circling above next to the mountain sides, I think its a Bad Eagle cos it got a white head.... nice! and it was a big bird.

But the view at the lookout was nothing short of amazing, worth the 2 hr climb up, I got my first look at a real life glacier, lower Mt Victoria glacier, although from a distance it didnt look like one cos it was all covered in dirt and rubble. Upon reaching it, I was standing over and almost next to it, I could see the crevices all over it, opening up to show the ice underneath... wow....

To see the whole glacier being draped over the gulley from the top of the mountain down was really incredible, its big, I estimate it to be at least 300m wide, it was also neat to see the stone shelter built in the 1920's at the top of the Abbot pass, you wonder how on earth those guys got up there....

Then after awhile it starting to hail....it's supposed to be rain, but it was so cold, the raindrops froze by the time it got to the earth. More ... Brrrr

There were lots of small waterfalls all over the place, run offs from the melting snow, to see ice and waterfalls together....

Then on the way back, at the end of the lake, I saw a bunch of people looking at the opposite side of the shore, at the mountain side ....and someone mentioned Bear! Finally after 3 months here i might get to see one!!

Dang...... the bear was tiny, it was so far away it was the size of an Ant!
But luckily I brought my binoculars..hah! had a whale of a time observing it sauntering around, eating berries. Hmmmm... now I know why there are teddy bears, they look really like a cuddly overgrown pet....but of course we know better, dang paws is probably bigger than my head.. spend almost an hour watching it. Wish I had my vid cam with me....

Now for my next yet to be seen sighting.. a Moose. havent seen one yet.

Oh yeah, one more curio, about 2 weeks ago while driving through a steel girdle bridge, I saw a brown eagle nesting right on top of the bridge! It couldnt care less about the cars going underneath it...hah...

hmmmm this place is becoming addictive.... wish my rabbit was here tho...