Cranbrook, British Columbia - our last stop in our Canadian Adventure

We've been traveling in Canada for almost six weeks, and it's with some sadness that we checked into our last stop--at the Mount Baker RV Park in Cranbrook, British Columbia. This little park is in the middle of the biggest town we've been to for the last month, so we have some shopping to do. We call it "urban hiking" when we stay in town to get exercise. But the area surrounding Cranbrook has some great places to get some non-urban exercise as well.

You can actually bike all the way from our campground to the next town some 28 kilometers away on the North Star Trail. But we decided to begin in the middle of the trail on this nicely paved rails-to-trails path. We love these old train beds that have been transformed into paths that promise to have an incline of no more than the railroad would allow--2%. We haven't been riding our bikes much since we have been in the mountains because Denisa is definitely a flat-land biker. Perhaps she should have brought her protractor along, as some of the grades certainly seemed steeper going up-hill than 2%.

Even though the paved trail was delightfully smooth, it was a little boring when it swung close to the highway. That's when Mark spotted a lesser-used trail through the grassland prairie and we turned that direction.

Much prettier than the highway, we even found a view down to the river with white hoodoos on the cliffs.

Mark snapped a picture as we cruised back through the grass trail head for the ride back to the car on pavement.

The North Star Trail could have taken us all the way to the town of Marysville, but we opted to drive the car there instead. Once at this little town, we took the hike to find Marysville Falls. It's hard to tell how big a waterfall is in a picture, but Denisa doesn't look very big standing to the left of the top of the falls in her bright pink blouse.

The water tumbling over the falls comes down Mark Creek. So we obviously had to take a picture of Mark on Mark Creek . . .

and Mark in front of the Mark Creek covered bridge. Marysville is a tiny little town, but it hosts some nice photo opportunities.

The winds were picking up during our bike ride, and they prevented us from getting the kayak out today. This is St. Mary's Lake, tucked away between several mountains. With fewer clouds and no white-caps on the water, this would be a great lake to kayak.

We had to wait until the next day for better weather. We started it off with a trip to the farmer's market in Cranbrook. It's just a three-block walk from our campground to the main park in town. We went there for music and dancing the first evening, and now back for the farmer's market and more entertainment. We loved seeing the Canmore Bugle Band perform. Made up of female bugle players that marched intricate routines while they played, this band has been a part of the local heritage for over 70 years.

Denisa had to use great restraint to not buy some of the lovely local produce at the farmer's market. But we'll be crossing the U.S. border tomorrow, and we can't take any fruits and vegetables with us. Denisa has been carefully planning menus to finish up our produce without adding any more today! So after the bugle band, we headed out to find the perfect mountain lake.

We drove 32 kilometers east of town to Norbury Lake Provencial Park and put the kayak on the park's name-sake lake. We were excited to see the Steeple Mountains from the water, but the clouds completely covered the tops of the steeples.

Norbury Lake is another perfectly clear teal green lake that is a joy to paddle around.

It was such a perfect weather day that one lake just didn't seem enough. So we balanced our inflated kayak on top of the car and drove a couple miles to the other lake in this provencial park. Peckham's Lake has the same mountain views, and the same clouds.

There's probably some meteorology term that explains the phenomenon that causes clouds to track right across the top of mountains. It was a clear blue sky day, except for these pesky clouds covering the peaks of the Steeple Mountains.

We hope the clouds will eventually lift, and we are patient and easily entertained. We can paddle around until we find a water flower that we have never seen before,

or we can take pictures of each other in the boat.

Or we can marvel at how blessed we are to be able to witness a mountain lake with water so calm that it reflects those blue skies and those darn clouds.

But our patience prevailed, and we finally got the picture we had been waiting for. Below we give you the Steeple Mountains--unmasked from the clouds with all their steeples showing.

We took the long way home, that included a road that went beside the river. Because this tree is down at the river level, and we are on an elevated road high above the river, we got to see this eagle at our eye level as we drove by.

This is a young bald eagle, still sporting his brown head.

But when we look close, we see that his beak is starting to turn yellow and his head feathers are beginning to turn white. It's also a good time to see a close-up of that sharp beak that can tear apart his prey.

We have enjoyed our stop at Cranbrook, British Columbia, as we wrap up our Canadian Adventure. We've biked and hiked and kayaked and saw wildlife here, but now it's time to finish up our fruits and vegetables before tomorrow's border crossing.