Lake Louise

Bitter bitter disappointment awaited me upon arrival to Lake Louise because all the tea houses were still closed or had closed down. Apparently there's a nice lake but I only really cared about the cream teas.
After almost leaving immediately, I decided to at least go to the hostel in the hope of more information and dry place to put my pack down. The hostel lifted my spirits and the reception staff let me store my bag in the locker room until check in and have use of the kitchen, where upon I ate my breakfast of a grapefruit. I'd found the cheapest breakfast is a grapefruit costing $1, I don't eat much in the mornings so for me it was perfect.

The situation wasn't as bleak as first feared, although there was no chance of a cream tea I could at least get a free bus to the gondola and get the 'ride and dine' ticket which includes a buffet lunch plus I had a $3 off voucher the hostel had given me. The closet thing to cream were the half and half pots for putting in your coffee or tea, up the top of gondola there was a wildlife info center about big bitey creatures like bears, cougars, wolverines, whilst in the center it started to snow.
Later I took the shuttle to Lake Louise and walked around it's edge to the end of the lake to a big rock wall. The lake was still thawing out and looked beautiful, it had long slithers of snow and ice that were gently melting away, the waters a turquoise colour and looks so pure, although it would be far too cold for swimming anytime of the year. Next to the lake and visible from the gondola is another massive Fairmount hotel, this ones actually quite ugly in my view, just a massive uninspiring concrete mansion, inside it's much better, except they charge silly prices for a cream tea.

I booked a tour to see the Columbia ice fields and combined this with a way of getting to Jasper, Greyhound doesn't run the ice field parkway as it's called between Lake Louise and Japser but Brewster's did.

The next day in the kitchen before departing for my ice field trip I bumped into Mark again who'd given me a lift from Squamish to Whistler and who I'd camped with in Whistler, it turns out he'd sold the Jeep he bought in Squamish and sent all his camping stuff on to his finally destination in Canada and was now traveling light, he said buying the car was a mistake and he'd decided to make his trip much shorter. "It all has to be figured out eventually" he said. Very true. It was good to see a familiar face though.

Notes:

• The HI Lake Louise Alpine Center hostel is very nice, its also quite expensive, most the places in the Rockies are, but mostly it's really nice.
• Otherwise you can stay at the Fairmont Hotel on the lake's edge for $279 a night.