Just like on the Camino, I find my mind going soft and easy. No phone (all these photos are thanks to my buddies), no news, no songs, sometimes easy chats and sometimes easy silence. The day just flows along at the pace of step after step that tends to add up to 5km per hour but never feels like more than one step at a time.

Even now I struggle to piece together a narrative. I do remember that glorious morning swim in Lake Ptarmagin; the afternoon we coudn't find the trail straight up to the glacier and instead discovered a glacier-fed waterfall pouring through a natural bridge; the full moon lighting up the sharp mountains looming over our campsite at Baker Lake; the herd of mule-deer (?) far below our lunch spot; barefoot bushwhacking to an almost-swimmable lake then solo bushwhacking back down along the creek to rejoin the main trail.

But mostly I feel the trip - the thin frosty morning air, the abundance of time, the freedom to embrace Being over Thinking, the primordial power of earth's millenial history creating this natural playground and the power of my body to dive into it.

Thank you, Jonathan, for being a big ball of love willing to draw us into your glowing orbit. Thank you Bo for being a guide and mentor as well as friend, standing downstream quiet and strong to allay my river-crossing fears. Thank you Michael for the courage to join into an old group with new energy and mule-deer strength.

And thank you to Banff - and yes, to Parks Canada - for providing access to a pure touch-the-heavens lose-yourself playscape.