Go west, young (wo)man

In less than 48 hours I shall be in Banff National Park, snuggled up in a super comfortable down sleeping bag (courtesy of Jasper) on a self-inflating mattress (courtesy of Mountain Equipment Co-op...although come to think of it, they didn't exactly give it away to me).

My buddies Alex and John are probably somewhere in Sasketchewan right this very minute, driving on the TransCanada to get to Calgary on time to pick me up Sunday morning from the airport. I hope they don't forget.

At the moment, I am at Tim's place in Ottawa. The poor guy has to finish putting together a Flash video for his friends' wedding banquet tomorrow night (yes, that would wedding #3) which is in Toronto, for which we are leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning.

Packing for this trip was, well, interesting. Trying to pack for a wedding and a backpacking trip and squeezing everything into one carry-on and one duffel bag proved to be quite the task, but I managed. Shopping for this trip also proved to be detrimental to my bank account. Here's what I had to buy: hiking boots, the aforementioned sleeping pad, trekking poles, a digital camera (ok well I didn't have to buy one, but when you are planning to visit one of the world's most scenic spots, it's nice to be able to capture it on, uh, a memory stick), a rainjacket, a tarp, and countless other small items. Good thing I was able to borrow a number of other items, or VISA would raise my limit yet again.

So stay tuned...I plan to chronicle our (mis)adventures everyday. Stories and pictures to come!