Ontario

We stepped off the plane in Toronto and were greeted by my aunt Cathy and shortly after we met up with my uncle Paul who was also flying into Toronto at the same time. Once everyone was there we made our way into the car and back to their house. We spent the next 3 nights relaxing in Toronto and other than enjoying some delicious meals with uncle Al and great aunt Mary we didn't get up to very much. We did spend one afternoon hanging out with Tom and Alex two of our friends from university, but the rest of the time in Toronto was spent adjusting to a new time zone and just relaxing now that our amazing trip had come to an end.

From Toronto we made our way down to London, Ontario where we spent a couple of days relaxing with Wendy and Lisa, Lianne's mom and sister. Again in London we didn't get up to anything super exciting but we really enjoyed our time there and felt quite relaxed afterwards.

Continuing on we made our way to Michigan, just outside of Detroit where we spent a few days with Ron and Nancy, Lianne's dad and step-mom. Again the time was nice and relaxing and a great way to end our world trip.

After a few days there I left Lianne, Ron and Nancy and returned to Toronto where I spent one more day with Cathy and Paul before getting on a plane for Calgary and home. I eventually returned home just under 13 months after leaving it for my absolutely trip. I hope you enjoyed hearing some of my stories and I'll try to update this blog whenever I go traveling again but until that point there won't be many entries, if any. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Gone Hiking

Over July 25-27 Lianne and I went backpacking into Egypt Lake. The day started off with stopping at the Banff info center to pick up our permit and to ask about bear activity in the area. After being assured that there haven't been any bears spotted we headed off.
The day was beautiful and it looked like we couldn't have picked a better weekend for our expedition. The hike in was 13km and all was seeming great until we decided to have lunch. We then found where all of the mosquitoes in Alberta have been hiding: Egypt Lake. However once at our campground we were able to borrow bug spray from our neighbours (having convieniently forgotten our own) and with a short walk to the lake we found out why it is so beautiful. We also met the local warden and the first thing she informed us was that contrary to what we were told there have been 4 grizzlies sighted in the area over the past week. Egypt Lake
Day 2 found us taking a short day hike up to Scarab and Mummy Lakes before packing up the tent and heading for our next campsite: Pharoh Creek. The morning started out just as nice but by mid-day the weather started to change. With thunder being heard in the distance we decided to hurry up so we could beat the rain to our next campground. We failed by 15 mins.
The last day was not very nice either. Not only did we have a long hike ahead of us (17km) but it was overcast and threatening to rain all day too. Overall we got pretty lucky on the hike out with only 5 mins of heavy rain while we could hear thunder all day long.
Overall the trip was excellent as we saw beautiful landscape, didn't get too wet, and the only trace of bears we saw was some scat on the hike out.
Relaxing by Scarab Lake

Creek by Campsite