I woke up on Thursday morning to beautiful mountain views. I planned to see Lake Louise and had booked the Banff Gondola for that day, but I wasn’t feeling great. I was exhausted. So after breakfast, I took a nap and felt better after that. I took a bus to Lake Louise, since parking there is limited and expensive, and I walked along the shore. The lake is mostly frozen, but it’s still beautiful.

After my walk, I took the bus back to downtown Banff. I had a few hours before my gondola reservation in the evening, so I walked around the town and to Bow Falls. The waterfall was very underwhelming, given all the amazing waterfalls I’ve seen on this trip, but the walk was still nice.

In the evening, I took a bus to the gondola. By that point, I was regretting reserving the gondola that late (7:30 pm) because I was still exhausted. The views from the top were worth it, though.

On Friday morning, I took a boat ride on Lake Minnewanka. The views were great and learning the history of the lake was very interesting. My plan was to hike around the lake after that, but I was exhausted, all my muscles were sore, and I had blisters on multiple toes.

As you may have noticed, exhaustion is going to come up often in this post. This exhaustion made me very happy. As some of you know, I haven’t been able to exercise for about 2 years. If I did anything more than walk, I would be extremely fatigued for a few weeks. This was partly because I had an Epstein-Barr Virus reactivation and I assume my burnout contributed to it as well. The exhaustion I feel now is completely different than the fatigue I used to feel. This is an exhaustion that will go away if I rest for a day or two, an exhaustion I can push through if necessary, an exhaustion that means that I’m getting stronger. It’s an exhaustion that feels really good and that I’ve missed feeling.

Even though I was happy to be exhausted, I recognized it as my body telling me that driving 1,700 miles and visiting 4 national parks in 10 days requires some resting in between. I think that’s fair, so instead of hiking, I drove part of the Icefields Parkway, which connects Banff and Jasper National Park. I didn’t make it all the way to Jasper because that would have taken too long, but the views made me really thankful that I chose to skip the hike. Though I did end up doing two short hikes to get to Mistaya Canyon and Peyto Lake from the parkway.

To get to Peyto Lake, I had to walk 0.8 mi uphill on snow that had compacted and become slippery from so many people walking on it. I had hiking boots, microspikes for my boots, and trekking poles in my car, but for some reason, I decided to hike up in my sneakers. In my defense, I didn’t know how slippery it would be until I was in the middle of it, but I definitely regretted not bringing all my gear on the hike, especially on the way back down.

On Saturday, I drove to Calgary to have brunch with my friend Karan, who I worked with at Runkeeper, and his wife, Simar. They invited me to their house to eat Indian food, since they are both from India. The drive to Calgary was a little scary because it was snowing and the highway was slippery in places, but I made it safely there. Karan and Simar fed me 3 Indian snacks: veggie pakora, paneer pakora, and gol gappe. The pakoras are made by coating veggies or paneer cheese in batter and deep frying them. The gol gappe, also known as water balls, is a shell that you hollow out to fill with different fillings and flavored waters. And then for lunch, Simar made quesadillas and pav bhaji, a veggie curry served with bread rolls. They had barfi, a chickpea flour sweet, for dessert. Everything was delicious!

After lunch, they showed me around Calgary. We walked around a few parks, lakes, and rivers. When they found out I was on my own in Banff, they invited me to spend the night at their place. In the morning, we had breakfast, which included delicious chai, and then I headed back to Banff. I love chai and Karan shared the recipe with me, so now I can make it the right way. I had never met Karan in person, though I always enjoyed our one on ones while we were at Runkeeper. Meeting both him and Simar in person was wonderful! They are the nicest people and the best hosts.

It was still snowing on and off in Banff on Sunday, so I decided to give my body the rest it was craving and not do much once I got back. I did laundry, packed, and went to Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rockies. The church has windows so you can see all the mountains behind it.

On Monday morning, I left Banff. It was beautiful, but I need to come back in the summer, when all the snow and ice have melted and the lakes are blue. Unfortunately, that also means that there will be crowds, but I can’t have everything.