Day 7 - Lake Louise

You know, I was athletic at one time. I mean, not terribly athletic -- I was never going to set world records, Jackie Joyner-Kersee never sent me hate mail, no one ever stopped me on the street and wanted to race me. But I went to the Apple Fitness Center 5 or 6 times a week (it was open on weekends) and I was very disciplined.

Then I fell in love. Yes, I'm blaming Darin for my downfall.

Actually, a couple of things happened: my exercise partner Eric got laid off; then I got married and I quit my job, which meant I couldn't go to the Fitness Center right around the corner anymore; I joined Gold's Gym, which was over in Mountain View and so it was easy to blow off; and then, worst of all, I got the chicken pox.

Getting chicken pox as an adult must rank as one of the most horrible experiences known to man, short of death and tax audits.

I could barely move for two weeks and I moved very slowly after that. I never quite got back into exercising regularly -- or, in the case of the last year, at all. Which explains the larger pants size and all.

This vacation, however, is trying to convince me differently. We're doing quite a bit of exercising, and I'm not even doing the swimming part so many other people in our trip party are doing.

Today I think I've damn near killed myself.

Actually, I'm kind of hoping that I'll be so happy with this renewal of the exercise thing that I'll get back into it. But we'll see, I guess, once I get back to LA.

After breakfast this morning, everyone except Steve was going to go on the canoes on Lake Louise. It was raining during breakfast though, and it didn't look like it was going to clear up. Lauren decided she didn't want to go canoeing; she went back to the room.

It did clear up. On the way to the canoe rental place, it started drizzling again. Carole decided that she wasn't having any of this, and she decided not to go.

The rain stopped before we even got in the canoes (Mitch and me in one, Darin and Scott in the other). We paddled around the lake in the hour provided no problem. If you're at Lake Louise, you have to do the lake canoes.

When Mitch and I got to the other side of the lake, we drifted towards shore.

   Diane puts her paddle across her lap and raises her hand.
   
            DIANE
        I proclaim this land for me.

Then we backpaddled and joined up with Darin and Scott.

All during the first days of this vacation, Darin had been telling us about a hike he did the last time he went to Lake Louise and how while it was a hard hike, it was a great hike and we had to do it.

After canoeing, Scott decided to rest a bit, so Darin, Mitch, and I went on Darin's hike. No problem, I thought; hadn't we hiked up the side of a snow-covered hill not a day ago?

This was 3.2 km straight up. Not exactly straight up; paved switchbacks had been cut into the hillside, but only headed one direction: up. Even though we'd agreed to go slowly, we kept getting winded. Well, everyone except Mitch "I play Ultimate" Adler. We drank a lot of water and kept going.

Then, three-fourths of the way up, it began to rain. Really rain, not this drizzle stuff. Mitch put on his Gore-tex, Darin put on Mitch's hat and the sweater he'd put in the backpack, and I put on and zipped up my leather jacket. We could continue upwards towards the Teahouse, or we could go down. Couldn't be that much farther, right?

We got to a fork in the path at Mirror Lake: the shorter way to the left, the longer way to the right. It was raining, so the shorter way sounded good.

It's shorter 'cause it's straight up, over slippery rocks and a barely defined trail.

By the time we got to the Teahouse we decided we were making camp. We bought a pot of tea, a couple of hot chocolates, and a a couple of cookies, which we enjoyed in addition to the Fudgee-Os we had in the backpack. We took off our outer clothes to let them dry, which is when Darin discovered his sweater was cotton and therefore not prone to dry in time. Oy.

When the rain seemed to slow down a bit, we decided to set off down the hill. We took the longer route down, and discovered the longer route was also part of the horsetrail, which may give you some idea of the condition of the road going down.

We made it down pretty quickly, as Darin and Mitch discussed strategic and tactical games for the computer. I raced down the hill thinking of only one thing: clearly I'd drunk too much water, tea, and hot chocolate.

We got back to the hotel and once I'd finally removed my hiking boots, I realized that I ached. A lot. I asked Darin if he'd come down to the whirlpool with me. He did, and we soaked (along with Mitch, who alternated the whirlpool with doing pool laps, and Carole, who just wanted to soak) for a while. Then Darin and I went upstairs and relaxed for a hour before dinner.

Dinner: we pigged out. The Swiss restaurant called Walliser Stube -- we had fondue. It was okay; cooking the meat and fish was way, way too much work.

I ache. I ache like I haven't ached in a while.

I can tell that I want to be active again. I want to be able to run 3 miles, like I was 4 or 5 times a week at one time. Heck, at one point I could run 5 miles, no problem.

But I'm not doing it. I'm not getting out there. I miss wearing tinier clothes and I miss being in better shape, but for some reason inertia has taken over. I can't make myself get dressed in the clothes, get out, do the jogging. Maybe because I'm embarrassed at how slowly I go. Maybe it's because I have something against sweat. I like being active, it just seems so difficult.