Bear with me

It's clear and cold here in Lake Louise, our latest stop on the journey. Since we like LL and have hiked in the area many times we've decided to spend two days here. Of course with all the snow the hiking is basically out of the question, but the spectacular vistas of snow-covered mountains in all directions makes up for that. So it's been short walks on crunchy snow with a detour first to Laagens - a bakery / coffee stop - and then after checking out a portion of the actual Lake Louise shoreline a stop at Bill Peyto's - - a restaurant in the hostel here. Good food, good prices and a confortable lounge around area upstairs..from where this is being written.

The day started with some reservations about road conditions between Kalispell and LL. Despite some bad info on the internet, the road (BC Rt. 93) thru Kootenay National Park was clear and dry with plenty of Wildlife Warning signs. And there were plenty of deer, mountain goat and young elk (with what appeared to be beards) along the route. Fortunately none decided to try their luck crossing the road in front of us. Significant Other took pics while I drove.
Lake Louise also has a ski area with the top runs starting at 8,200'. We know this because a couple of years ago we hiked to the top and the sign notating the elevation after asking a worker at the end of the visitor tram ride if it was possible. He was very helpful and even drew us a map. And maybe had a good laugh after we set off. The area is pretty wide open so it was easy to get off track and we ended up crossing a rockfall on our way to the top...which was after seeing a rather large area of torn up ground/ vegitation like an animal would do when searching for food. We did a thorough scan of the area for any large bear-sized brown shapes.
From the top, we followed the map out a spine which looked down into the valleys on each side and led to a dead end with fantastic views but the only way down was a steep slope of loose shale-like rock (scree) which sort of slid with every step we took. Once off the slope there was still a long hike ahead, but these are only fun if you aren't scanning the woods and open meadows while looking for the quickest way down. The area has since been posted as a Grizzly Habitat ... and probably was when we were trying hard to see if there were any around.
For those of you who enjoy camping - - and we do - - the LL campground is surrounded by electric fence, cattle guards and special gates in case the carnivore population gets nosey.
This was probably the best day so far as the weather, roads, scenery, room reservations abd Significant Other all worked together to provide as little stress as possible.