Kananaskis Cruise 2005

Rockie Mountains, AB

recalled by James Gosteli
pictures courtesy - James Gosteli, Funkybuddha (MSPROTEGE.COM), and King Air (MSPROTEGE.COM)

Well we picked an excellent day for a road trip. The purpose behind this trip was to locate a new spot in the Rockies to hold the Annual Mazda in the Mountians event. Previously MITM was always held at the Canmore Nordic Center but due to renovations and the fact that use of their facility is quite costly, we chose to move it elsewhere.

Groups from MX-West, RX-7, Protege, and Mazda3 communities organized a pre-MITM trip to Kananaskis to scout out a new location. We chose Canada Olympic Park as the departure meet location. I was among the first to arrive along with one RX-7. I started smelling gas fumes as I was following him into the lot and was begining to worry. It turned out that it was the RX-7 leaking a fair amount of fuel so I helped him patch that up. Shortly after, the others arrived.

RX-7 #1	RX-7 #2	James' MX-3 - the only one to arrive	Some sweet looking Proteges showed up
FunkyBuddha's MP5	Protege5, Mazdaspeed Protege, and Mazda3	The whole convoy	Preparing to leave

I felt a bit out of place, being the only MX-3 in the group but then again there was only one Mazda3. After a bit of car talk and showing off engines we finally hit the road.

an RX-7 about to whip past at 180km/h	MS Protege and M3 in pursuit	King_Air's MS Protege	FunkyBuddha's MP5
Those RX7s occasionally liked to blast by at high speed.	These wheels looked cool in motion	Closing in on Canmore we could tell that something nasty was brewing in the clouds	These guys sure like to travel fast

The highways were clear and traffic was fairly light. Occasionally the RX7s would whip past us at some crazy speed. What a way to make someone feel puny. There was the odd sprinkle of rain along the way but nothing heavy. Looking at the clouds you'd think it would have been worse. As we arrived in Canmore it began to snow and rain a little. It was time to get some food and we were very hungry.

Canmore is always known for sudden weather changes. Part snowing, part raining, and mainly sunny.	Stopping for lunch in Canmore	Great scenery here	Our group patiently waiting for food
Finally stuffed and ready for a nap.	Cruisin near Banff	Not having a passing lane makes things a little slower	Closing in on Lake Louise

The food took a little while to arrive. We were about ready to start chewing our arms off when finally it came. After a nice filling meal we all chose to make our way to Lake Louise to scout out a location.

The exhaust sounds emminate nicely in these short tunnels\animal overpasses	Parked out front of the Lake Louise Deer Lodge	The luxurious Chateau Lake Louis in the distance	Time to head out on foot
Believe it or not, this is a road that is blocked off by a large snow drift	What we thought was 5 inches of snow, we were walking on, turned out to be 5 feet of snow	Every odd step would send you falling through	More and more people were dropping through the snow surface

Once we arrived in Lake Louise, we found a nice area not far from the Chateau. The road was blocked off by a large drift of snow so we had to go on foot. The snow didn't seem very deep but it was a bit of a hike to get up the hill. There were some spots on the road where people started falling through the snow. After some snowball fights and falling through the snow we decided that this would be a good location. We thought we would try cutting across to a nearby parking lot as a short cut. What a great idea that was. We all started falling through the snow and pretty much had to crawl our way out. Oh well, it was good fun.

We took a short cut to get back to the cars, but that proved to be more treacherous.

We had to swim our way out

This is how to get to the spot we chose but we'll have to get better pictures once the snow melts. (Note the large drift in front of the "Do not Enter" sign)

Once ashore we headed back to the cars for some "feet heat". It was soon time to go and we all took off. The MazdaSpeed Protege and I got stuck behind a lot of traffic, when leaving Lake Louise. I did my best to try to catch up to everyone else but every time I got up to speed a slow vehicle would pull out in front of me. The whole trip back to Calgary I did not catch up the rest of the group. I later found out that they were travelling around 200km/h so it would have taken too much effort to catch up to them. I later found out that the rest of the crew accidently took a wrong turn back at Lake Louise, so I was actually ahead of them.

So now that a location for MITM3 is chosen, we will carry on with the planning. A special thanks goes out the Nick and Glenn of the Protege forums for coordinating this trip.