We started the day with the quad bike half day experience, we each had our own quad bike (ATV) and after the safety talk (!) and how to ride it, we set off for the “test” ground to see how we got on.

That done, and no problems, Rob, our guide for the morning led us out into the back country and off we went. Lewis had some trouble with his at first, and kept veering to the right , but eventually got it sorted.

We saw some amazing sights out, once the cloud had lifted.  The waterfall we went to was spectacular and had a rainbow over it due to the increased flow of water down the Kicking Horse river at it rained last night, so lower down we got rain whilst up in the mountains there was a few centimetres of snow…..

Despite having big rubber tyres and rubber handle bar grips, Lewis survived the experience without falling off, locking any joints and not having any allergic reaction! What a Result!!!

We took some pictures along the route and when we got back to the site, Rob took some pictures of us together and some video footage of both of us racing around the test ground with more confidence than the initial outing!

We rose early today, grabbed a quick breakfast and were checked out of the Banff Inn by 8am! We set the sat-nav for Golden, BC and set off to the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort to visit the Grizzly Bear Refuge.

Along the route, we saw an abundance of various types of deer and managed to get video footage of most of them.

We made good time to Golden, and took the mountain road up to the resort. While parking, we saw yet another deer and we managed to get a photo of this one!

We purchased our tickets and learned that in order to get to the bear talk and enclosure, we had to take the ski chair up – Lewis really didn’t like this much at all!

We got to the top and joined the bear talk, given by a former british woman called Wendy who has lived in Golden for 6 years and is married to a Canadian.

We heard all about Boo the orphaned bear who is now 9 1/2 and he has his own 22 acre enclosure. He made an appearance, but it was made clear that he is not a pet or tame in any way and his habitat and food source where possible is like he would get in nature, as in he has 4 micro habitats, 2 of which are wooded and 2 are more open plain like where all sorts of grasses and berries grow.  The problem with this is that when you need to consume 40,000 calories a day, there just isn’t enough to ensure he’ll get through hibernation and so Boo’s food is supplemented with berries, nuts and sometimes a little meat.  None of this food is “given” to Boo and so he finds it in his enclosure and thinks he’s just got the find of the century!!!

We managed to get some photographs of him before hypothermia set in and were lucky enough to get a ride back down the mountain in a pick up truck with Wendy the Guide.  This was far more preferable than becoming ice cubes on the ski lift !!!!

We are staying tonight in Golden, back in the cabin in the mountains (Cedar Restaurant and Chalets) and tomorrow we are off for a half day on quad bikes (known as ATVs in Canada)  to carry our camera equipment  and to see some of the sights up in the back country !!!