Travel Delicious food Blazing flames in the lodge’s fieldstone fireplace greeted us when we arrived. Smoked salmon, guacamole and nachos quelled our hunger until dinner. After showers, some hikers relaxed with massages, while others gathered around the bar to sip drinks and exchange stories. When staff rang a Swiss cowbell, lodge guests and guides gathered at long tables for a family-style dinner. Conversation bubbled about the day’s highlights, as we dined on salad, sea bass with mango salsa, fresh vegetables, lodge-baked bread and chocolate torte. After dinner, we considered playing board games, ping-pong, pool and the vintage pinball machine in the games room, but decided instead to relax in the outdoor hot tub under an ebony sky studded with stars. The clanging brass cowbell woke guests the next morning. (Rooms have no phones, cell service, radios or keys, but the lodges have free Wi-Fi and computers for internet browsing.) Slipping out from under our cozy down duvet, we opened the curtains and viewed a candy cane-striped helicopter landing on the helipad below balsamfir-coveredmountains. Large pitchers of orange juice, urns of strong coffee, fresh fruit, yogurt, cheeses, coldmeats, eggs, bacon, hot and cold cereals, freshly baked scones, muffins and breads enticed us to the breakfast buffet. After eating, hikers received cloth lunch bags to fill with fresh and dried fruits, cream cheese, avocado and sun-dried tomato sandwiches, bacon, lettuce and tomato on focaccia bread, celery and carrot sticks, granola bars, oatmeal cookies, Swiss chocolate bars and juices. No need to worry about calories with a day of exercise ahead of us! Exciting discoveries Each morning, the helicopter conveyed us to new areas, including Roller Coaster and Hume Lake. Camaraderie grew as we zigzagged up steep hills and hopscotched over stepping stones in trickling streams from melting glaciers. When we stopped to examine flowers, our guide Ally identified fuchsia-coloured fireweed, fluffy white western anemones, red Indian paintbrush and yellow, orchid-like monkey blossoms. “A carpet of wildflowers, even in August!” said one hiker. “And look, wild berries!” noted another, popping the tasty fruits into her mouth. The vegetation gave way to boulders. “They’re bigger than cars,” said one hiker. We rested on stool-sized rocks, embedded with gemstonelike pink and purple quartzite. “Look up, an eagle!” exclaimed Ally. “And over there, do you see the white mountain goats skirting the narrow trail across the valley?They were here earlier,” she added, showing us the hoof prints. One hiker dangled a telltale cluster of cream fluff that she had retrieved from a nearby bush. Ally identified it as mountain goat hair, probably from a goat that was moulting in the spring. “I’m bringing it to school!” saidMichelle, one of the children in our group. “My teacher said that if we go anywhere special this summer, we should tell our classmates about it, especially if it’s a place that most people haven’t visited.” Breakfast buffet at CMH Bobbie Burns Lodge Hiker finds mountain goat hair Hiking Roller Coaster CSANews | SPRING 2020 | 19
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