The evenings have been more like the middle of May lately than that of March!  It has been quite beautiful and a great time to get out on my fat bike for riding around the river and soaking up the sun.

I saw the return of the Barred Owls this week on our street here in Banff.  See more of my week here.

What a way to bring in the first day of spring!  The Northern Lights over Cascade Mountain last night were beautiful!

This past week I had the opportunity to meet two incredibly wonderful people and spend a great day hiking and exploring Banff with them.  Eiry and Alex planned an amazing trip starting in Vancouver and coming all the way to Banff before exploring their way back to their home town.  I had known Eiry through the cycling world on Instagram but had never met either one of them in person, in fact this is the first time I have ever met anyone in person through social media.  I am a fairly shy person and do most activities such as cycling and hiking solo and I was very intrigued but also slightly shy in nature to show two people that I only knew through Instagram around a place that I have settled in fully and love to no end.  I could not have been any happier to have met Eiry and Alex.  They were seriously the best people to meet no doubt.  I was frankly blown away by their sense of wonderment, imagination, and playfulness that they brought to places that I have been to over and over again.  I was seeing a world that inspires me daily through the eyes of someone else and it was a really beautiful thing, totally magnificent.  They both carry such a sense of calm about them while staying playful and laughing all along in the sun.  A crazy beautiful day indeed.  It’s easy for me to become a bit of a hermit in these mountains and Eiry and Alex helped show Kirstie and myself just how wonderful it is to share the beauty of our home with others.  I absolutely loved it and could not have been any luckier that it was Eiry and Alex that we had the opportunity to meet.  My time spent with them showed me my Banff all with new eyes and with an even greater love for my home.  Thanks for that Eiry and Alex, it is much appreciated and Kirstie and I had a wonderful time spending the day with you two!

I just recently put up a story that got published over at Steller.  You can have a look at it here as well as see one of Kirstie’s amazing stories as well.  Check out her story here.

I was recently asked a few questions about cycling by the awesome website Middle Of Nowhere.  The interview along with a few photos was put up today.  You can have a look at it here.

It’s been pretty cold lately up until today and the Bow has frozen up nicely providing yet another amazing place to ride my fat bike.  I’ve been riding up to Sundance Lodge as well and of course stopping at the igloo to finish up my rides.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year so far!

I have been riding a lot so far this winter and Kirstie has been out on the trail with me a few times now and took some photos of where I ride.  I recently put up a post about my experience fat biking in Banff over on Canoe Wedding.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the winter season!

See more photos here.

Kirstie and I have both been enjoying a new app that allows us to put our photos together into a story format.  It’s a new social media but one that we feel much more comfortable with and has a lot of potential on the creative side of things.  It seems to be less about a popularity contest and more geared towards creating creative content and storytelling.  We really enjoy being able to put all of our photographs into a story format.  When we go out and take photos we are telling a story of our day, our hike, or whatever adventure or assignment we may be on.  This is a great app to put all the photos together to really tell the story of the day.  Please have a look at Kirstie’s recent stories in the last few days.  I feel like she has been putting together some really amazing photo stories and great archives for ourselves.  You can find her here: https://steller.co/orangegirl  She just did a wonderful story on our two amazing pups Leroy and Mabel as well as many more.  I will be updating and creating more stories in the time being as well and will do a post about that in the near future, but if you get a moment to wander through some of my wife’s beautiful stories, please do, I promise that it’s a million times better than sitting and watching TV.

Thanks so much and I hope that you enjoy.

You can see Kirstie’s amazing stories here:  https://steller.co/orangegirl

Thank you and all the best to everyone on this fine upcoming October Weekend!

Cheers,

KT

Moraine Lake is a very popular place for tourists and locals alike to flock to in the late spring, summer, and early fall months.  It is very easy to see why so many people travel to the lake daily, hundreds of people can be there all at once.  The wilderness is raw all around the lake but when the tour buses are rumbling about and the rock pile is full of people it can be a little hard to fully take in the serenity of this place without noticing the spectacle of people, at least for me anyways.  Today I had an entirely different experience with Moraine Lake.  An experience I will no doubt ever forget in my lifetime.  The road is closed now for the season and has been since Thanksgiving.  It was 15 degrees out there today and I took to my bicycle.  Sometimes snow is already piling up on the road right as they close it, but not this year.  The road provided for a perfect ride and I was literally the only person out there.  Just me and Moraine Lake!  It was a little hard to fathom it to be honest.  What a transformation and I’m sure a welcome break for the ecosystem of this area.  I took a few photos along the way.