It is unusual for me to be looking up names of things I see on the side of the trail. However we have with us Ben Gadd’s Handbook of the Canadian Rockies which puts a person into the botanics. With the help of Ben’s light hand I’ve even been reading about geology. A subject that has, until now, left me cold.

Kinney Lake under Mt. Robson.

On the way to Kinney lake, Mt. Robson.

Faunus anglewing. There were tiny blue butterflies fluttering about too.

Conifer false morel (we think). Potentially lethal!

Did I wash my hands after taking this picture?

Maxi Birch bracket fungus, (unplatable).

Mini Birch Bracket fungus

Being in the Canadian Rockies, reading about how this all got to be here has given me a new appreciation of our small place in measured existence on planet earth. The message is, as always, to get on with life, here and now. And remember:

Thus should ye think of all this fleeting world,

a bubble in a stream

a childs laugh

a phantasm

a dream.

Tomorrow we drive along the Icefields Parkway from Jasper towards Banff, then East and North for Edmonton.