Travels with Murray: July 2025

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Banff

Banff and Lake Louise, Alberta

July 13 - 18

Banff is super famous and we found it, along with Lake Louise, to be another international tourist destination. Germans, French, Chinese, Dutch, Indians, etc. All main attractions were swarming with peeps. We had a lovely campsite with great views of the surrounding mountains and the gigantic sky. Our campground was around 15 km from Lake Louise and about 30 or so km to Banff. The site was a Canadian National Parks site and had no hookups so we were on solar and battery which never went below 80%! This was also the beginning of the Great Mosquito Attack on Sue. Denis gets bitten but doesn't react. By the end of this week Sue was a giant itchy welt.

The Chateau

The "uncrowded" side

The crowded side

Kamloops, Revelstoke

Kamloops & Revelstoke, British Columbia

July 3 - 13, 2025

We extended our stay in Vancouver by a few days so we could do DeCourcey but did not have plans after that. We had 10 unplanned days until our booking at Banff. We thought we would boondock for a few days so we found a free camping area in the Canadian equivalent of BLM land. It did not look too far off the main highway and the map showed a road so we decided to give it a shot. We pulled off the highway, detached the car and started up the "road" it quickly turned into a very rough and steep dirt road with lots of ruts. We got a mile up and decided this would not work. We had to turn around and head down. The car ant the entire back of Riginante was covered in dirt! We quickly made a reservation at a campground in Kamloops.

Not kidding when we said it was covered
in dust!

We spent three days in Kamloops. Not too much here - apparently it's Vancouver's "desert". We did short hike with the dogs around a lake and a trip to a local wildlife refuge. The refuge was not too bad. The environments were large and had plenty of hiding places for the animals. Their claim to fame was the only Kermode or "Spirit" Bear, a white variant of a black bear. We had a failed attempt at kayaking on the river. We made an appointment to rent kayaks at the riverfront park at 11:00 as the company said they opened then. We waited until about 11:30 before leaving as they never showed up to open - this is the only instance of Canadians being flaky in our entire travels!

This is a walk from our Kamloops campsite

Nice lake at Kamloops

After some research, we decided to spend the rest of the time before Banff at Revelstoke. We had never heard of it but it turned out to be a super cool and beautiful place. It is a ski area and home to Mount Revelstoke National Park. The town also had that quaint old timey ski town vibe with a small walkable downtown strip with lots of restaurants and shops.

We had a pretty site at Revelstoke.

A cool climbing rock in our
campground

Gondola ride was cool...

Because Revelstoke is a ski area, we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain for lunch featuring lovely views. But ... Denis had the bright idea to "walk" down so we did. Now, it was only 3 miles and it was downhill - what could go wrong? Welp it was almost all sharp large rocks going down. One mile took us 59 minutes (a typical hike mile is like, 17-24 depending on terrain). To add to the fun we did not have poles/water. It was simply awful. Lesson learned.

View from the top

Super steep and wearing dumb shoes

Little did we know how we would look
in 2.5 hours

Dining in Revelstoke was interesting especially as we chose a German/Indian restaurant! Again, what could go wrong? Sue was wise and ordered a German meal (pork schnitzel and red cabbage) Denis, however, tried the Butter Chicken Schnitzel. We will leave it at that.

Dogs at top of Revelstoke

We had a lovely space in Revelstoke and it was enhanced by Sue's bear sighting as she rode her bike to do laundry. Sweet little bear but she was too scared to take a pic. We drove up to the top of the mountain with the dogs to check it out.

View from top

Bike ride

Bear scat

All this wood smelled so good

So this is the part of the trip where Sue starts to lose it a bit. Remember that Denis works M-F so Sue is on her own all week. I began to assemble my teeny tiny jigsaw puzzle and, as usual I experimented with new recipes despite being in the tiniest kitchen on earth!

Typical dinner prep

This was actually a nice dish with
cherry tomatoes, butter and pasta
water making a good sauce

First focaccia in our dumb convection
oven - rosemary from our "garden"
on top

Downtown Revelstoke

This puzzle was 5" by 9" so each piece
was tiny

Denis at the site of Nels Nelson famous jump
in the 1920s!

Lazuli Bunting!

Revelstoke Lake

Another shot of site

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Vancouver/DeCourcy Island

Vancouver and DeCourcy Island, British Columbia

June 21 - July 3

Canadian Border entry

We had an eventful entry into Canada: basically our giant RV barely squeaked through the border lane. Literally the RV squeaked!

What can we say about Canada? This paragraph will contain many generalizations (so far all from B.C.) but they represent our impressions. All of the Canadians we have encountered have been incredibly polite, kind, friendly, and cheery. We have not encountered aggressive drivers, loud talkers or meanies. Sue even got a friendly smiley correction when blundering the wrong way on a one-way street! Canadians seem to take a great pride in their country - we see flags on bicycles, RVs, houses, boats, shirts and hats. Can any of our three readers remember what it was like to be proud of our flag and what it represented? I did not realize how much anxiety I carried about being in the U.S. until we arrived and settled in here. No giant trucks with Trump Flags, no gun bumper stickers, no awful homemade signs ("Joe and his Ho Have Got to Go" or Trump 2024 - Fuck Your Feelings" being prime examples).

Murray and Klaus, alarmed at the possibility of getting drafted, decided to join the counter culture and flee to Canada. Murray made sure to have his Pawsport in order and Klaus drove the freedom bus. This delayed our arrival into Canada as Klaus stopped at every store to buy treats and pee.

We were happy to have supported their efforts to protest the "war" but we were puzzled as they are both beyond draft age: Murray is 91 in dog years, and Klaus is 63...

So more about Canada - it's the second largest country by land mass, outdone only by Russia. The U.S. is #4. Again, we have seen only British Columbia but most of the terrain we have encountered is incredibly lush and green, and filled with lakes and rivers. Canada's homeless population can be measured in the tens of thousands versus the U.S. which measures ours in the hundreds of thousands. Bike helmets are mandatory regardless of age! Gun ownership in the U.S. is 42.8% of households versus Canada at 32.7%. I am actually surprised it's that high in Canada. We did see a fair amount of unhoused folks in Vancouver and most appeared to be the victims of Fentanyl abuse (all bent over) but it was restricted so one or two streets in the downtown area from what we observed.

The day we arrived we visited the Museum of Anthropology on the University of B.C. Campus, it houses a First People of the Northwest Coast art and craft collection. This museum featured so many artifacts and art that it was frankly overwhelming. Do you want to see First People's rendering of an owl? There are hundreds maybe even thousands.

Here you see about 1/1000th of the Owl
representations

The museum has stunning architecture

Following that we did a bike ride around the gorgeous Stanley Park which is adjacent to the harbor. Just ... wow.

That night I (Sue) picked Oliver up at the surprisingly small Vancouver International Airport. The dogs were very glad to see him as were Denis and I. Starting Monday we tackled Oliver's tourist list while Denis worked. First we visited the Capilano Suspended Bridge Part, which is another place I would not recommend to my fellow acrophobia sufferers. It's a pretty unique situation with several bridges in the sky among the treetops. The main bridge rises 240 feet above the Capilano River.

A hawk ambassador

Whale watching was on the menu for the next day. Denis, Oliver and I can now state with confidence that we have seen A LOT of orca fins (but that is pretty much it) and many Humpback Whale tails (that is pretty much it). But it was a fun trip.

A nice sunset

Fish Chowder which I later replicated

In terms of food, Oliver enjoyed a lot!

BBQ Pork in Vancouver Chinatown

Dogs had to get a bath before
going to De Courcey Island

Oliver's sleeping arrangement
- in the front end of RV
- just an air mattress.

Had to try Japadog - this one is an
all beef dog with sauce and
seaweed. it was good!

These guys ...

They have black squirrels here!

Dogs on the way back to
Nanaimo from DeCourcey

Mike enjoyed Klaus!

These cousins are so cute together. "Mikey" and "Denny Brah"

Fresh Coho. nothing better!

Captain Elaine taking us to the ferry

After Oliver left, Sue and Denis packed up the dogs and a few bags and took the ferry to Nanaimo to go stay with Denis' cousin Mike and his wife Elaine on their place on DeCourcey Island. It is a kinda off grid place... No sewers, outside electricity, mail or any services at all. It is only kinda offgrid because they have have batteries, solar and Starlink.

We got picked up and on the way back in the boat, a bald eagle flew almost directly overhead about 20 feet up! What a welcome!

There are only 20 or so full time inhabitants. Mike and Denis went out fishing and caught a couple of Coho Salmon. We got a few baskets of prawns as well. Elaine made handmade tortillas for our salmon tacos - yum. She also made pizza dough despite being gluten free and we enjoyed pizza in their fancy pizza oven. Their neighbors were gracious enough to host us at their hand-built log cabin which they built in the 70s - a remarkable feat. We cannot thank them enough for hosting not just us but our two dopey dogs.

The Gallery, birds live in many of the holes
on the face

On the last night there, Elaine piloted us on their RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) us to "The Gallery", a limestone cliff face with all sorts of bird nests, and interesting structures. We kind just floated along the face with the current. So Cool!