CODY SHIMIZU

A look into my life, a journal to look back on, a blog for others to see.

Schools out, it’s the time of semester again where the excitement of classes ending mixed with the gut wrenching dread of final exams coming up. With my good friends Sidney and Marc in town it was the perfect excuse for me to escape to the mountains for a day. Although a part of me wants to just drop my classes, find a job and move out there. I knew if I was going to have any hope of passing my final I’d need the rest of the week to study.

At 5:45Am I woke to the sounds of my phone going wild, it was finally time. I quickly threw everything into my car and picked up Sidney and Mark. With the short days we wanted to spend as much daylight in the mountains as possible. The First stop for us was Wasootch peak. Going through one of my favorite parts of the front countries of Canadian Rockies making the turn off from highway 40 we weaved through mountains and lakes as the winding roads lead us to the trail head for Wasootch peak.

It was an absolutely beautiful day with the sun shining and the temperature hovering around 0 degree Celsius, large clouds blowing over us animating the sky around us. From early on we were treated with little teasers of the views through the trees. As we popped up just above the treeline we were treated with amazing views of the valley, with Mount Kidd staring over us from across the valley and the empty runs of the Nakiska Ski Resort.

Near the top and we still barely had any snow, it was just a constant steep grade with loose gravel near the top. As we slowly slipped and fell our way to the top, it wasn’t much change in elevation but by the time we reached the summit the cold arctic wind was blowing us almost off of the mountain. The cold wind chilled us right to our bones. After taking in the view on the other side, looking over the vast flatness of the rest of our province. We made a quick escape from the elements to hide from the wind just below the treeline to refuel for a bit. Then we made fairly quick work of the descent and made it back down to the car.

We rolled into the town of Canmore for a quick lunch stop, at my favorite spot The Bagel Co in Canmore, after indulging in some overpriced but absolutely delicious bagel sandwich we started making our way over to Two Jack Lake in Banff to go skating. After years of playing hockey I’ve never managed to go skating in the mountains. As we rolled into the parking lot we could barely find ourselves a parking spot. I can only imagine how busy it is during the weekends.

We tied up our skates and started skating. It was absolutely beautiful with the sun shining an orange glow over the mountains as the sun was setting. The ice was completely clear where we could see the bottom of the lake even in the middle of the lake. After gliding around for close to 2 hours we decided it was time to finally leave. After a quick stop in Calgary for some ramen to warm back up we headed home.