Visiting Waterton Lakes National Park
I’m in Calgary attending the third annual Canadian Quantum Information Students’ Conference, which is an annual conference where all of the grad students in Canada that work on quantum computing get together for their own conference without any supervisors along. I gave my talk yesterday on Uncloneable Quantum Money, a research project I am working on with my supervisor; no paper yet, but we’re getting there.
Barbed-wire fence and foothills I arrived in Calgary on Friday and spent the weekend at Waterton Lakes National Park, which is on the border with Glacier National Park in Montana. On Saturday, Lana and I went on an 18km hike to Crypt Lake; the hike is described as one of the most scenic hikes in Canada, and we certainly had some 
Crypt Lake trail valley good views. To get to the hike, we had to take a boat ride across a lake near the townsite in the park; since everyone on the boat arrived at the trailhead at the same time, there were quite a few people along the hike, but that made us less likely to be eaten by bears. The hike actually took us right to the border of Montana and Alberta, with about the southern-most five feet of the lake (and the corresponding shoreline) being in Montana. Along the way, we managed to escape being attacked by kung-fu squirrels.
Mount Hawkins and moon On Sunday we did a shorter hike in the park. We were the only people on the trail, though we think the area had a bunch of bears in it. We found a few piles of bear droppings on the trail and at one point saw some rustling in the the bushes a hundred metres away, so we made a point of talking loudly through the rest of the hike. We ended up hiking to a valley surrounded by cliffs on three out of four sides, which is at the back of this picture. I tried taking a panorama of the valley and will post that when I get home if it turns out.
I’m in Calgary for the rest of the week and then am off to Ottawa on Friday evening, where I’ll visit friends and then meet up with my folks before heading to Toronto a week later.
Update 2007/03/18: A gallery of photos from Alberta is now posted.
Comment by kirk
Thanks for visiting Doug. It was good to have another Ontario visiter. It was especially nice that our condo had 30% more Stebila.
Comment by Patrick
Doug Liz and I can’t wait to see you on Friday!
Liz is hopefully contacting Bean Town to clear a time for us to go out and have a look.
Anyway hoping to have a good weekend with real sweetie!
Cheers,
P
Comment by Lori
I worked at the Prince of Wales Hotel and in the town site for several summers in the early 80s. Your adventure made me a little homesick. Crypt Lake was one of my favorite in 3 years of hiking in Waterton-Glacier!
Cheers
Lori in Freddy Beach!
Comment by Anne B.
Hey Doug,
Thanks for the greetings that I got through Sébastien! I was sorry to miss this year’s conference in Calgary.
I thought I would let your friend Patrick know that if he’s planning a wedding in Ottawa (and it looks like he is, since he’s visiting Bean Town), I have lots of tips to give him if he’s interested! Our wedding at Strathmere on August 12th was amazing! There is a link to our photographer’s pictures in the “site updates” section of our website: http://www.coucou.ca.
Take care,
Anne
