Saturday was a lazy day spent shopping, walk planning and blog writing. We were to be in Canmore for over a week so it was off to the supermarket first. We were surprised to find the biggest supermarket was Safeway! As ever on the trip, prices seemed significantly higher than at home.

Ruth's condo was very central and turned out to be a comfortable base with a spacious open plan kitchen, dining and lounge area. The only down side we discovered that evening - cooking invariably set off the smoke alarm in the lounge area, even if we had the cooker fan on full blast and the kitchen window open. So cooking in Canmore proved to be the most stressful event of the trip to date.

That evening we decided to stretch our legs and take a stroll along the Bow River which was only five minutes walk from the condo. Getting outside just brought home the fact that we were surrounded by the most amazing mountains, boding well for the walks we'd started to plan. The short walk across two river bridges took us passed the local hydro-electricity plant and gave us good views of the Three Sisters (see photo) and Ha Ling mountains which are local landmarks.

We later learnt that the unusually named Ha Ling peak was named after a Chinese cook who worked in a local hotel. He made a bet that he could get up and down the steep and seemingly unclimbable mountain in less than ten hours. We suspect that he at least knew there was a less steep accent around the back. He set off at dawn and when he returned by lunch time no one believed he'd actually made the summit. He had planted a small flag but it could not be seen from the valley below. So the very next day up he went again, this time with a bigger flag and observers. The observers found his original flag and now no-one could deny his achievement. The locals were so impressed and a little ashamed to have doubted his word that the mountain was named after him. Not a bad claim to fame!