Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 2 Comments

Last day in Calgary

So today we woke at a reasonable hour (10ish) had a shower and headed north towards the Rockies!!

Trent and Morgan had pre organised an “easy” hike for us to get a taste tester of the hiking season they enjoy during the summer here in Calgary. It was about an hour drive up to the foot of the Rockies and by following our maps Trent had taken us right to the bottom of one of the many mountains. We set off on this hike and it immediately became apparent that we’d been lied to and this wasn’t an “easy” rated hike. About 45min up this mountain I built up the courage to ask the real rating and Trent blessed us with an honest answer of “well it’s rated hard on the hiking map”. I don’t know about anyone else but for mine and Katy’s second hike ever, a hard rating is probably much harder than necessary.

The beginning had a few steep bits and some nice trails where conversation was flowing. Fast forward another 30min and conversation was completely halted by the absolute gradient of this slope. I’m no engineer but I’m guessing the gradient of this slope had to have been at least 50/60 degrees. It was excessively steep and an absolute workout on the calves,quadriceps and hamstrings. At this point the only thing keeping us going was the occasional dog going down that wanted pats. We would stop every dog possible, giving us the happiness required to continue and not throw Trent off the side for luring us into an easy hike that’s actually classed as difficult.

Bear spray firmly in hand, we confidently proceeded up this mountain with haste. Morgan assured us that the bears and deadly cougars know there’s lots of humans on this route so they tend to avoid it if possible. The “if possible” made me a little uneasy but we continued nonetheless. Eventually we made it to the top of this beast and were graced with a breathtaking view. It was a lot colder on the top and the clouds were obviously rolling in. We stopped for a few quick photos and a bite to eat of the sandwiches Trent had premade for us as a picnic on the summit.

After a few quick photos and munching down our picnic it started to snow! Yes, you heard me it started to snow. At my best guess it was probably about 5 degrees up the top which is strange considering 2 hours ago we were on the ground worried about sunburn. We decided we didn’t want to hang around too long while the snow picked up so we quickly started our descent of Prairie Mountain.

The descent, although very tough on the quads, took considerably less time. It involved quite a bit of skill to trek down a very steep mountain without rolling an ankle and we all managed to achieve the base without a hiccup. All in all it took about 3 hours, probably 2 hours up and 1 hour down.

Katy and I were stoked to have conquered our second mountain (after Ben Nevis; Scotland’s highest mountain. See https://bennevis.co.uk/ for more info on that great peak) and no matter how much we complain we will always enjoy the experience and reflect on how beautiful and peaceful the hike was. We drove back to Calgary and quickly had a shower and prepared for our last night in Calgary.

After a short intermission at home we headed to one of Toms friends house. Conner Christmas! The same dude that joined us for the Ocean Alley gig yesterday. He had invited us all to his place for an open fire pit bbq with burger buns and salad etc so of course we accepted. We absolutely destroyed a few burgers and a couple beers before heading off to see a part of the city called Ingleston. It’s on the other side of town from where Trent etc lived but seemed like quite a happening place.

We went to a dog friendly bar in Ingleston after Conner’s Bbq, which was obviously going to bode well with Katy and myself as we are both dog lovers. We had one quick beer here and it was time to go and see Conner’s comedy show. He was part of this new act that was started tonight called “ugly duckling comedy” in Ingleston. It’s basically a bunch of comedians getting some time to tell their jokes and start something brilliant. Honestly this show was funny! I like to think of myself as a comedy connoisseur and Katy and I went to improv comedy in Copenhagen a while back that was genuinely not funny. These few comedians were all funny. I had an absolute ball and laughed till my abdominal muscles were sorer than the legs that climbed me a mountain earlier. Conner’s set was hilarious and obviously so was the headliner. Many lols were had.

A link to his Instagram if you’re interested.

My particular fav of the stand up was when Conner talks about his name and how his full name is Conner Nicholas Christmas, his dads name is David Murray Christmas (Merry Christmas) and his mum is Dayna Christmas (Day Christmas). I later found out that that’s no word of a lie and his family are all genuinely named after the festive period 😂.

We went back to Kensington pub, which is the pub Morgan’s mum owns and the pub where we know everybody. We had a few drinks and said our final goodbyes as everyone knew we are heading off east on our flight tomorrow.

Everybody has been so lovely and they we’re so happy to have met us. We had such a great time in this place and our friends here have such a close knit family it’s been nice to be a part of. They’ve definitely looked after us as one of their own, can’t thank them enough. Calgary has been a great city and I honestly couldn’t think of a single fault other than downtown wasn’t as busy as your usual city, it was weirdly quiet. I think probably getting the locals tour for the week has been the best way to see everything so we have our friends to thank for that.

Off toToronto tomorrow where we pick up our car (and Kirsten) and drive through to Ottawa, Ontario which is 4 hours drive.

Check back soon

M 🙂

Posted on by Mitch&Katy · 1 Comment

Walking tour of downtown Calgary

Today was Monday which meant that all our friends had to be shipped off to their employment with sullen faces and a slouch in their step. Thankfully, Katy and I are officially unemployed which meant we got to go and explore the city as we hadn’t seen downtown yet in all its glory with sunshine and greenery.

We took advantage of a much needed sleep in, had some breakfast and planned on our maps where we needed to walk to see everything. We knew it was a long way but didn’t mind because we like walking, it’s the best way to see a new city plus it’s good exercise and means we can taste all the good foods without feeling guilty. We later leaned that by the end of the day our trusty Nike trainers had taken us approx 16km!!

We started off down towards the river and followed that towards downtown whose direction was obvious thanks to the skyline in the distance. The water in the river was beautiful and the weather bought out all the joggers, cyclists, ducks, geese and tourists.

With twin pineapples (Katy) beside me we walked all the way into the city and around to a neighbourhood called “Eau Claire” which Keiran had previously told us was great to visit for parks and various sunny sitting/eating spots. We passed the “peace bridge” which was an attraction and sat by the river in the sun, dog watching and enjoying the vitamin D being soaked into our pores.

From what we could see the council were working on things for the upcoming summer. The winter snow has only just finished melting so we walked passed many places planting colourful flowers or garden beds and even 2 separate places cleaning an empty public pool and refilling it again.

Downtown Calgary is quite a city; filled with towering skyscrapers and many a businessmen hustling passed you fuelled by their 6th coffee for the day. Having said that, from our view it wasn’t a busy city, at least not at lunchtime on a Monday. It’s very clean and as always with the Canadians; everybody is very polite and friendly. We may have spoiled ourselves a little by starting with Vancouver because we kept finding ourselves saying we preferred Van over Calgary. That’s not to say we don’t like Calgary there just seemed to be a lot more happening in Vancouver.

We walked quite literally, everywhere. Saw where the Calgary Stampede is famously held every July and both its main shopping and restaurant districts. We stopped in the food court of a shopping center for food. The shopping center has a complete glass roof and made it very open and inviting.

On the top floor they had gardens you could sit with once you bought your lunch. Katy and I decided we needed a healthy green lunch so we picked up the most delicious salad from an independent food chain called “culture”. 100% healthy fast food, it was delicious! We sat by the garden/carp pond and enjoyed our lunch as we watched those same bustling business people rush to get their lunch in before they had to hurry back to work.

To fill in the rest of our day we ventured through the city and took photos of all the quirks we saw along the way. I can tell this city loves summer just by the way they’re setting up in preparation for the sunshine. I wonder if they love their -30C winters just as much?

By 6pm we had seen everything we wanted to and thought it too early to eat dinner. So we went and got some food from Safeway and walked back to the house. All our mates were home from work and happily enjoying their dinner so we joined them around the kitchen bench. After dinner we played a drawing game on our phones that was all linked up to the tv which was an absolute laugh and went to bed. Hopefully this sunshine continues into our week here.

I absolutely love unemployment!!

-Mitchel T

Until next time

M 🙂