An adventurous August

What a month! We've been making the most of the weather because it changed a week ago and you can tell that Summer is coming to an end. The days are getting a bit shorter, a bit cooler.. Eeeekk - are we ready?



Our new home!
It's been so nice having a home again. Our apartment is just near the main street and is lovely!! This is us having a celebratory champagne out the front on our first night and Josh cooking one of our first home cooked meals in a while :)




Hike to the summit of Temple Mountain
Seriously one of the hardest but most rewarding hikes I've done. We had a perfect, clear day so when we got to the top (almost 5 hrs later and at 35oom high) we could see peaks as far as the eye could see. It was so cold at the top - my mouth went numb and it felt like I was getting frost bite on my nose. The group we hiked with were really fit so I had to work really, really hard to keep up! Had trouble with the stairs for the next couple of days :)
You may notice Josh missing in these hiking photos - unfortunately due to his day job he can't always come on the adventures..








Hike to Taylor Lake
We were the only ones there, surrounded by sunshine and wildflowers... bliss. We tried swimming - GASP! That glacier fed water is very, very cold.



Hike to Helen and Katherine Lake
This was the most gorgeous hike. We traversed three valleys and got a different vision each time. The best part was - it was pouring rain the whole time we drove to the start of the hike, the rain stopped when we started hiking and didn't start again until we were 5 minutes from the car - nice timing!





Road bike ride to Castle Mountain junction and Johnstone Canyon Falls



Josh, Fi and I hired some road bikes, donned the Trolls jersey and headed out on the open road. It was great to be on road bikes and riding through some lovely scenes. Highlights included riding straight past a massive elk and flying down this great downhill (think Mt Nebo)...




We were fortunate not to have a pile up on one of the decents as while josh was filming and riding a squirrel darted across the road in front of him and then back between his wheels as it scurried for the cover of the concrete barrier.




Johnstone Canyon was beautiful, if a bit crowded. Looking forward to seeing it in the winter frozen over!




Josh and Fi finished with an acent up the road to the Mt Norquay carpark. This road has a number of switchbacks and a lookout with views back over Banff.



White water rafting the Kicking Horse
It was hilarious - such a fun day. The rapids weren't as scary as we thought as the water levels have dropped recently. It was still so much fun. Most of you won't be surprised to hear the only two people that fell out of our boat were myself and Josh :)






Mountain bike ride to Canmore
We did this ride to Canmore - the neighbouring town. It was really fun, single track track and fire trail through the forest. On the way back we had to climb this huge mountain out of there (365m climb in 7.25km, think Mt Cootha times 10) that was gravelly, corrugated, hot and every time a car drove past we got covered in dust. That photo is us at the top completely smashed!! You can see the town in the valley in the background - yes we climbed that far. (Note that Fiona was wearing the yellow Maybe it should have been polka dots as she left both kelly and i far behind on the climb)