Picture Canada. What do you see? I see big mountains and massive lakes. Surely, this is only a part of Canada, but it’s the part I’ve been dreaming of. The ultimate Canadian picture is of a red canoe out on the lake. My canoe wasn’t red, but the fact that I keep saying sorry makes up for that lack of Canadianness. I hadn’t been canoeing in a while, so it was about time. Banff has got a small house renting canoes right at the Bow river. Together with two hostel mates I ventured out onto the water in search of Vermilion lake. We followed the river, but made twice the distance as we were bumping from side to side, constantly steering too much to one side and then the other. I got stuck in tree branches several times and then we suddenly hit a spot where the rocks were so high we felt we couldn’t get through. Without having been at the lake we turned around. In the end it turned out we just should have scraped over the rocks to access the lake. I have to work on my paddling skills and team building a bit more, but luckily I’ve got all summer left. It was fun to see Banff from a different angle!
