Jump Start your morning in Banff

Posted on by Thor

Every morning while staying in Banff, Terry and I would start our day at Jump Start Coffee (206 Buffalo St, Banff, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada). This is a small coffee shop that is frequented by locals who order a cup of coffee and read the morning paper. Terry and I would order an egg sandwich or muffin and then some extra food to take out for lunch later in the day. The proprietress was pleasant so it made sense to, keep returning. The food was simple but good.

The view out the front window was of the town park and the history museum as well as the huge mountains. Some locals returned every morning and the coffee shop became a place to gossip[ and find out what was going on in town. It felt like a welcome relief from the endless tourist stores that tend to line the main street. The place felt much like the local places I return to often in Orlando whe I find some spare time between sketch opportunities.

The Fairmont Hotel in Banff Makes a luxurious home base in the Canadian Rockies.

Posted on by Thor

Terry and I stayed at the well appointed Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel (405 Spray Ave, Banff, AB T1L 1J4, Canada). As soon as we drove up, valet’s helped us with our luggage and got us checked in. Our room was high up in one of the turrets making it feel like we were staying in a Scottish castle.

William Cornelius Van Horne, the general manager of Canadian
Pacific Railway (CPR) has been credited with recognizing the tourism
potential of the Canadian west. Van Horne maintained tourism was an
intricate ingredient in getting people to ride CPR and was conscious of
the financial possibilities attached to the western mountain scenery.
His philosophy reflected this awareness, ‘Since we can’t export the
scenery,’ he said, ‘ we’ll have to import the tourists.’ To enhance
traffic on the CPR, Van Horne envisioned a succession of lavish resort
hotels along the railway line through the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains. Van Horne hired Bruce Price of New York, one of the leading architects of the time to design and build the Fairmont Hotel. Construction of the Hotel
began in the spring of 1887 and the hotel publicly opened on June 1,
1888.

I sketched Terry as she looked at a guide book planning our next day’s adventure. From this back patio you could hear the distant Bow River waterfall. We hiked down to the waterfall and discovered that this was the launching place for daily river rafting trips. We decided to take the rafting trip which went down river for many miles. The passenger next to me lost his paper day planner in the water. Luckily it floated along side the raft. My reach was just long enough to touch it with my finger tips. It sank at my touch and I cursed. It rose to the surface again and then I grasped it. Everyone on the raft cheered. Had he used a digital device it would be at the bottom of the river.

Hoodoo you think your fooling?

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Hoodoos are rocky sandstone spires that appear after eons of erosion. These hoodoos were located a short drive from the second hotel we stayed at in Banff. These magical spires are carved
by wind and water protected by a hard cap of rock at the peak.

A sign at the roadside parking lot warned about bears. I was more concerned about the gloomy grey clouds that moved through the Bow river valley. A well maintained trail lead to this spot that overlooked the hoodoos. I sketched from the opposite side of the fence which protects tourist from falling into the valley as they stare into their digital devices.

There was a steep sloped trail that lead right to the base of the Hoodoos and Terry decided to hike down while I sketched. She sang while she walked to warn any bears of her approach. The clouds let off a light mist of rain. It wasn’t raining hard enough to send me running for cover, but it certainly made it hard to put watercolor washes on the sketch. Any time a drop hit the page it would explode and remove pigment from the sketch.

I saw Terry’s photos from the base of the hoodoos and they are impressive up close. I wanted to include the human element however and I could always catch a tourist taking a photo from the trial’s corral.

The Baniff Marathon Fills the Quiet Mountain Town

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Terry and I used Banff, Alberta Canada as our home base for quite a few days. The town park near the river was the starting line and finish line for a marathon. We were hiking into town from our hotel and came across the marathon just outside of town. I decided to sketch runners as they ran the final few yards to the finish line. The building in the sketch is the Banff Park Museum. We never did go inside. Terry shopped in the many stores along the mains street while I did this sketch.

Banff is in the Banff National Park in the Alberta Canadian Rockies. Banff is a resort town and one of Canada’s most popular tourist destinations, known for its mountainous surroundings and hot springs. It is a destination for outdoor sports and features extensive hiking, biking, and skiing areas within the area.

By the time I started to sketch, the lead runners had already finished. The spectators cheered just as loud for the people who were struggling just to finish the race. Finishing a marathon is an achievement in itself. Some runners had slowed down to a walk, but thanks to she cheers and knowing the finish line was in sight, they often started to run again.

When I was in high school, I trained extensively for the cross country team. I wasn’t very fast but I always finished any race I ran. I started training for a marathon to be held in Atlantic City. I ran further than the marathon distance on some days. I was obsessed. However on race day, I missed the bus to the starting line. So I have never officially run a marathon, so that is something that is still on by bucket list.

Shopping with the Locals at the Banff Farmers Market

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Banff‘s park near the Bow River was the site of a Farmer’s Market on the weekend. Terry and I stayed in the town long enough to start discovering the spots where locals tend to hang out. A farmer’s Market is the perfect spot to meet locals as they shop for locally grown produce.  Locally hunted meat was packaged as sausages and they was an amazing variety of fruits and vegetables.A photographer had a tent set up and he took some interest in what I was doing. He is a wildlife photographer and there is no shortage of subjects in the Canadian Rockies.

One day Terry and I stopped at a lakeside resort to stretch our legs. It had been raining all day but it had finally cleared up a bit. We found a spot on a small wooden bridge that offered a clear view across the lake. We noticed a couple hiking along the far shore. Then above them in a clearing maybe 5o yards up the hillside, we saw a grizzly bear. The bear was foraging for food. Just as the couple entered the clearing, the bear disappeared form view back into the woods. Someone standing next to us said, “They better have bear mace.” The couple kept walking around the lake towards us. When they were close, we walked up to them to let them know how close they cad come to a grizzly bear. They hadn’t noticed the bear and didn’t have any protection. Most hikers were small bells that make noise constantly warning any bears that they are approaching.

At a highway rest stop, a bear walked right through the parking lot. Terry drove up to the crowd of tourists taking pictures and got out to get a shot herself. Tourists stood within 10 yards of the bear taking selfies. The bear then walked towards the crowd and they scattered. He walked right past my passenger door so by staying in the car, I got extremely close to the bear. All this took place in a very short time span. I didn’t even think to sketch. I just watched in amazement. Some roads right outside of Banff were closed down because several grizzly bears were competing for territory. Driving down the parkway there were many “Bear Jams” which are crowds of cars pulled of the road so tourists could take photos of bears seen from the road. We stopped at every bear jam. I however didn’t sketch because bear jams can be momentary and break up the second a bear wanders away.