My hockey team, the Renegades, signed up to play a hockey tournament in Banff. I went to one a few years back, and it was fun, so I signed up again. Margarit decided to join me, so we made a weekend of it. We left Edmonton on Friday April 28th and arrived in Banff that afternoon. We checked into our hotel room in the afternoon, and I made ready to play the first game of the tournament on Friday evening.
I was a little disappointed with the way that the tournament was organized. A company called Canadian Hockey Enterprises, based out of Canmore, operates the tournaments. They have them in Banff, as well as at about a dozen other locations throughout North America.
Only one of our games was actually in Banff, at the beautiful Fenland Arena. The other two were 20 minutes away over in Canmore. The games were really short, and it seemed the organizer was being cheap with the ice time. We had a 10 minute first period, and then 12 minute second and third periods. Most beer league hockey games are either 15 minute periods of stop time, or 20 minutes of run time. The free beer that we were supposed to get after the game was only available at the Banff Arena, not in Canmore... and the only beer to chose from was a low calorie light beer. To make matters worse, the organizers did a poor job of setting the divisions and we matched up against three vastly superior teams. Needless to say we lost all three games. We kept the score respectable in the first two, but by the last game on Saturday afternoon my teammates had got into the beer and were three sheets to the wind. We got blown out of that one. It was still a lot of fun, and I don't regret taking part.
Our second game was a morning game at 10:15 on Saturday in Canmore. After that one we had a break of a few hours before our afternoon game at 4:30. Margarit and I used the break to take a drive down to the Vermillion Lakes and we had a nice two mile walk before heading back to Canmore to play the second game of the day. That evening, after all the games there was a bar night with a buffet dinner and a live band back in Banff. Margarit and I passed on that one, as we didn't really fit in with the younger crowd. The other players on my team are all around 25 to 30 years old, with just a couple others in their 40's, and then me that just turned 60. Margarit and I found a nice quiet lounge and had dinner together and watched the Oilers game on TV.
The weather had been beautiful all weekend... sunny and calm with daytime highs around +22C. After breakfast on Sunday we checked out and then took a drive up the Bow Valley Parkway. We stopped in a couple of places and wandered around enjoying the day before eventually hitting the road back home to Edmonton.
Banff sure has changed from when I was young. Although it has always been really busy, it used to be much more of a family destination. Now it has become kind of a party town, with lots of young singles hanging around and hitting all the bars and clubs. Even the natural parts of the National Park are becoming overrun and you now have to book campsites on line, well in advance, and use a shuttle service to get to places like Lake Louise and Morraine Lake. Obviously I'm just getting old..... but it sure makes me grateful for our private mountain retreat out at Nordegg...!
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