• AT HAND: Deuce Lee, The Big Dipper
• LOCATION: Near Banff, BC, Canada
• DATES: July 13-16, 2018
• STATS: 4 days/3 nights, 32 miles – 8,093 feet EG

America’s Hat has a bevy of opportunities for exploration. One could spend years just navigating from the brim to the crease to the crown before taking a much needed rest, laid back with your feet up and your head resting comfortably on the trim. In general, Canada (and the Canucks that populate it) is privy to a special kind of snow-covered, tree-heavy casual beauty that elicits awe in the non-resident, transplant or itinerant vagabond unfamiliar with the generous nature of nature in the Great White North. In Banff, they aren’t aware of the depressing gridded, girded cityscape existence that the average shmoe Wazes thru daily (incredulous local: “You came all the way from America for this??”). It’s a samizdat of sorts, a jaw-dropping, drool-inducing, ass-crayoning level of uns(p)oiled perfection that rearranges your neurons while also rearranging your priorities. Selfish indulgence seems reasonable, almost prescribed, possibly unavoidable; the weaponization of it all a trite inevitability unworthy of legitimate rumination. Membership in Les Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents is optional.

Of consequence: That special color of blue water that indicates you’re officially in Canada; unbelievable twilights; a hydra waterfall; sheer, jagged, specious walls of rock; morning stretching in the pre-dawn; taking a “practice” bear spray deployment to the face; hitchhiking back to the car; chunky dunking.