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 · 3 Comments

Vancouver

We have had a very big day and I am currently writing this with the tops of my eyelids trying so desperately to rendezvous with their counterpart so please accept my apologies in advance for errors.

We both woke about 5:30am this morning with obvious jet lag so decided to make the most of it. We first of all went for a leisurely walk to get our bearings and “stumbled across” one of the many Tim Hortons franchises that’s happens to be on every corner of the city. Katy’s favourite, so we grabbed a coffee and headed back to lift some iron in the gym of our BnB. By the time we had been on our massive walk, busted out big upper body gym session and a devoured a healthy breaky in our apartment it was… 9am :/

Next plan was to a) find a good deal for SIM cards on our phone as we wandered through the shopping district and b) make our way towards Stanley Park where we planned on hiring a bicycle.

Fast forward a few hours and we’re on our bicycles, pedalling through/around a magnificent thick pine forest with a purpose built bike track around what they called the “sea wall”. We stopped at various tourist attractions such as the Totem Poles and took many many photos. Exhibit A

The weather couldn’t have been better, 22 degrees and fairly still. Perfect! We spent the next 4 hours cycling while stopping for a chill in the sun and even managed to make it to one of the beaches and grab some lunch. All the cycling we did was either on Stanley Island (all bike tracks) or along the coast so we didn’t have to set foot/tyre on any roads at all. This was an added bonus to Katy who was visibly apprehensive at the rental place of her own skills.

Sun kissed, sore and struggling to make sense of the bicycle paths we managed to navigate our dual wheeled chariots back to our rental in the allotted time and sit down for an ice cold beer (conveniently it was happy hour). Afterwards, we were feeling a bit sunburnt so thought we would check out another popular shopping street on the way back to our flat.

It was at this moment I finally caved to peer pressure (sorry mum). Katy has been bugging me to buy LuluLemon clothing for a long time with all the usual shopaholic excuses (ThEY laST a LoNG TImE) I had been looking for singlets and I found one I liked so I ignored the £42 ($80) price tag and listened to my girlfriend. However, it is lovely and is apparently a collaboration from the Marc Jacobs designer so its worth it right?

In other news, our swimming pool at our accommodation is freezing so I swam alone and Katy watched (surprising). By the time I’d showered and eaten some food in our apt for dinner it was time to write this blog. Time flies when your having fun on your bicycle on day 2 of your trip with burning legs and burning skin and a burning wallet doesn’t it!?!?

Side note: this city is absolutely lovely. It has everything; lots of greenery and pine trees everywhere, beaches, marinas, cbd, transport etc we’ve definitely started this trip in a wonderful city. The people of Canada are so FRIENDLY. I thought the Irish were friendly but the Canadians have them beat. I find myself chuckling at the extent of their friendship with even the most minor of interactions, I’ll no doubt touch more on this subject in future posts.

Might be Katy’s turn to write tomorrow so you can tell us who’s literacy is more entertaining. If Mr Wynn’s year 11 English class is anything to go by, my bets on Katy!

Time for a well earned sleep

ZZZZ

M 🙂