My family and
I moved to Banff in 1982. Since then, I have had the privilege of
many exciting, and occasionally harrowing, adventures within the Rocky
Mountains. Being that I have survived these ordeals in the mountains,
thus far, the environment had the time to grow and take route in my mind
as a place of enjoyment, peace, and personal excitement. It has become
a fundamental part of my life, and a place that I must touch base with
on a regular basis as a means of maintaining a respectable level of personal
mental health.
Because I grew
up in Banff, and only got my licence to drive when I was sixteen, I became
most familiar with the immediate local surroundings of the town site, and
more specifically, the area bordering my neighbourhood. However,
the knowledge and information of the excursions I went on as a kid are
perhaps of little interest to the general public, and could in all probability
not be found in any of the hiker guides, or information books created for
the Rockies. My outings consisted of trying to catch suckerfish in
a stagnant pond behind my house with my bare hands, rubber boots, and my
swimming trunks, or playing on freight trains that stopped in Banff for
whatever reason, or playing pirates on poorly constructed (mostly submerged)
rafts in the “vast seas” created by the workings of the local beaver population,
or one of my favourites, just taking our family dog and going off into
the woods to explore. As I grew older, the frequency or purpose of
these outings changed little, however, their magnitude grew. I began
to search and explore further and in new, and more encompassing areas.
I began to look up to the mountains and in to the valleys. My questions
and curiosities broadened. I began to ask myself, “I wonder what
it would be like to stand on the top of that mountain?” or “I wonder what’s
in that valley?”. When I did get my drivers licence, the size of the world
that I had access to, shot out in all directions; I was free to explore
the Rockies at my leisure…. Pretty much, at that exact point in time, my
leisure became an extremely finite resource. I had to work to keep
my truck running (which was far from an energy optimizing machine), school
became more taxing on my spare time (and on my brain), and my hormones
shot through the roof (creating utter chaos where there was once order).
Although these situations have changed through time, my leisure never returned
to what it once was. However, my exploring of the Rockies continues,
and my appreciation for these mountains, and the wilderness they harbour,
increases with every new adventure I have. |
