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Dive into all things family van travel in this Q & A style episode. I go over balancing work + adventure while traveling, tips for navigating weather in the van, how to plan adventures out of the van, must-see places in the BANFF area, and must-see places in the Glacier NP area.
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What is Fit for Hiking?
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female. Wellness, trail talk and adventure hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the Fit for Hiking podcast. 2s Hello and welcome back to the Fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host Brady, and today we are going to be almost doing kind of like A-Q-A style on our recent trip to Canada and Montana. So if you don't follow along with me on Instagram, I was sharing over the course of most of June and into early July, our family trip. My husband and my one year old daughter and our dog and I took a long van trip in our converted Sprinter and we did kind of all of our bucket list places in British Columbia and Alberta and northern Montana, including Glacier National Park. And this was a trip that we had honestly wanted to do a couple years prior when we were actually living in our van full time. However, we ended up getting pregnant and we wanted to go to Canada for an entire summer the following summer. And that didn't end up happening because we had our daughter that summer. So when we moved into our house and kind of transitioned into more of a parent phase of life, we kind of thought, okay, well, that's probably just not going to happen. 1s Should probably let that dream go. However, we ended up making it work to keep our van, just do shorter duration trips in it, rent it out to make some extra income, because vans are expensive, you all. And we were able to keep it and add a third seat for our daughter. And we've done a couple of really cool trips with her so far. And I think that this was kind of our maiden voyage, as we probably will be outgrowing it and needing to sell it soon. But it was an absolutely amazing trip. It wasn't as long as what we were wanting to do if we were still living in the van full time, but we still got to do a full month up north and see so many beautiful places continue to work along the way. Since my husband and I both work remotely make it work with our daughter and our dog, and it was a lot to balance. So you guys had a lot of questions on Instagram about how did we make this work from work to having a baby and favorite parts just navigating all of the different dynamics of a trip like this. So I wanted to do kind of a personal episode today to talk about that. So if you know a big dream to go to Canada and do some adventure stuff or northern Montana, I hope this episode will be helpful. Or if you travel with little kids or you try to do the whole work from the road thing, I mean, there's so many different areas that this episode touches on, so stick around, have a listen, and I hope that it will be enlightening in some way. I also want to say that this trip was not without its hiccups. We definitely had a lot of things go wrong, which I will get into. So I think if you're following along with someone on social media and they're posting photos from a vacation or a trip or whatever, it might be van life, you're only seeing usually the really beautiful moments, the photo ops. You're not seeing things going wrong with the vehicle breakdowns, weather issues, sickness, all of these different things that can definitely affect how your trip goes. So I will share some of the very real sides. I always like to keep it real with you guys because travel, especially with a one year old, especially if you're trying to work, is never black and white. It's never super easy. So let's get into it. So the first question that I got was how to stick with a work schedule while traveling like this. So, like I said, my husband and I were working most of the trip. We took off a couple of days here and there when we were meeting up with different family or friends. But for the most part, I would say for about three weeks out of the four, we were still working our jobs and making that work from the road. So a couple of things that we do to set ourselves up for success. One is we have Starlink, which is basically. 3s It's basically like portable Wi Fi that you can bring with you. It's satellite WiFi. It's a newer development, and it's something that actually wasn't even available yet for RV or van life people. A couple of years ago when we were in the van full time and having WiFi was our chronic struggle, we were always having to seek out where we were going to park based on cell towers. It's very complicated, especially if you want to be in more room, remote areas, which is usually why you're doing a trip like this. Then always having to go to towns and find a place to park and deal with the hotter temperatures is definitely really tough. There were so many times when we were in the van full time that we'd end up literally at like McDonald's parking lot trying to get on their Wi Fi or just completely rerouting our plans based on where we could find cell towers. And that's kind of a bummer to have to let that dictate so much of your agenda and your time and your energy and always worrying about Wi Fi dropping or going to a coffee shop trying to get Wi Fi and then, oh, their Wi Fi doesn't know. There's just so many things that go into this. So we invested in Starlink last summer just for some of our longer trips. And the way that it works is that you pay like a flat fee, a couple hundred bucks for the equipment. It's basically like a satellite that has a plug in cord, and we plug it into our van and then you can bring it with you anywhere. You can mount it to your vehicle. However, we don't because we know that we need to kind of like move it around based on trees and things like that to get best possible service. You also want to check the Starlink map because there's still areas where you're not going to get as good of service because they don't have a lot of satellites in that particular area. Usually if it's more like wilderness based, you're going to get better service than if you're closer to a city. So we bring that with us now on our trip, you pay a monthly fee on top of getting the equipment. However, it's like 130 per month and you can turn it off or on based on if you're actually using it, which we find so helpful because we aren't in the van full time. When we're at home, we're not using it. So that's definitely a really nice perk if you don't think you're going to be using that as your primary source of WiFi, which most people can't because they live in residential city areas where you don't get good service with it. So that's kind of the nitty gritty of how it works, which was another question I'd gotten, is just all things Starlink. 2s So we found really great success with this. Even at campgrounds and areas where we had literally no service, there was only one certain camp spot where it didn't work for us because there were too many trees. It was super shaded and we just could not get service there. So on that specific instance, we did have to go to town. And of course, it was like a 90 deg day day. So being able to use Starlink really allows you to stay in the cooler areas where you might not have service closer to the activities that you're wanting to do further away from town. And it is clutch. So that's something that you're going to have to consider if you're wanting to travel and work at the same time. If you have a remote job, number one is how are you going to get WiFi looking into the areas that you're going, seeing if you're going to have service? Because obviously if you have service and you could set up a hotspot, that's a great option too. But most of these places in Canada, we had no service. So we really were relying on our Starlink for most of the trip. 1s So the other component is just scheduling it out. We would work our normal workday from the van. So my husband works for a company, so he has very normal work hours, usually about seven to four ish. And then I run my own business, but I have client calls and check in calls, all these different things a lot of the time. So I definitely need to be available and being able to complete my zoom calls pretty much all day, every day. So we really were working pretty much our normal hours. The biggest consideration for us was the fact that we didn't have any help with Juniper and she was about 13 months when we went on the trip. So not napping as much. We were having to balance our schedules a little bit better, so I blocked my calendar off a little bit more, had specific times that I could take calls, and I would coordinate that with her nap times and when my husband wasn't on calls. So we just had to be kind of strategic about how we were setting up our schedule. And then the nice thing is, come 04:00, we were able to go hit the trails. We would usually plan our hikes in advance, so we'd know exactly where we were going right after we were off of work. So, yes, you're not getting to enjoy the trip like a typical vacation. I think that's definitely something that people don't fully understand about this type of travel, is you're not just frolicking around all day. You still have to pay the bills, you're still working. You just are fitting in this stuff in the evenings. And it can be pretty tiring, but it's totally worth it if you have an area that you want to see and you want to take your time instead of just going for a week and taking vacation. We wanted to be able to spend a couple of weeks specifically in Canada over the summer. So this was a priority to us, and we knew that we needed to make it work. Like, you know, the final thing is you probably need to have a remote job. When we were first initially wanting to move into a van full time, we knew that we needed to pursue remote jobs, both of us, because we were both going into work full time. So we both started making efforts to try to figure out, what does that look like? Do we need new jobs? Do we need just totally new income sources? And that was step one because we knew that there was no point in trying to pursue this if we were still needing to commute to our jobs all the time. So remote work is definitely helpful if you are just taking vacations and doing this stuff, you're going to get, I would say a bit more of a vacation feel, which something that we don't get as much anymore. And I kind of miss that where you're like, okay. Woohoo. I'm like off work and. 1s Not worrying about anything except enjoying this trip, but we find that it works well for us to be able to spread out the amount of time that we're there and just get a little bit more out of it. Okay, so next up is top three camp miss spots in the British Columbia, alberta and northern Montana area specifically. So for us and for me, my favorite parts were emerald lake in Yoho national park. So Yoho is like a smaller national park, really close to Banff, but it's not nearly as well known. We were blown away. It's technically on the British Columbia side. Absolutely loved it. It's not nearly as crowded, but it's beautiful. Awesome campsites, tons of epic waterfalls. And Emerald lake specifically is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. So that was definitely a must see if you're heading that direction. If you're going to say Banff or Jasper, which are definitely better known, don't sleep on Yoho national park. It is so worth it. Definitely check it out, even if it's just for a day or two. 1s Next is Icefields Parkway. So this is coined as one of the most beautiful drives in the world because it is absolutely stunning. You're driving between Banff and Jasper, which are very, like I said, popular national parks in this area. But you just have basically a three hour drive of nonstop beauty, like massive glaciers, waterfalls just right off the side of the highway, tons of wildlife, amazing mountain views of the Canadian Rockies, so many different hikes that you could pull off and do. I mean, it just is stunning. So planning like a full day just to do Icefields Parkway is definitely recommended because you're not going to want to just zoom through. You're going to want to take your time, pull off, take pictures, stop and do some activities. It's definitely one of the most beautiful drives, if not the most beautiful drive that I have ever done. So Icefields Parkway is definitely up there for me. And then finally, Lake Louise. Definitely a classic. I mean, if you've heard of Banff, you've probably heard of Lake Louise. It's very touristy, but for good reason because it's amazing. So if you're heading to Banff, you definitely need to plan at least one day to go to Lake Louise because there are so many different amazing hikes off of the lake. So I think a lot of people just think, oh, you go, you look at the lake, maybe rent canoes or whatever, but there's so much more to it. Some of my very favorite hikes in Banff are off of Lake Louise. The trailheads start somewhere around the lake, so it's definitely worth checking out trails there so that you can go get your money's worth of park paying to park, and you can really enjoy the full day of views at the lake and then above the lake as you hike up. I definitely recommend the tea house hikes. There's two really cool tea house hikes that you can do from Lake Louise, and those are just really unique experiences because I haven't been anywhere else where you can hike to a tea house and get hot chocolate, tea, snacks, things like that. Mid hikes pretty cool. 1s All right, so another question I got was best things to do with your baby in Canada. So, honestly, I feel like Juniper is still kind of at an age where she doesn't necessarily want to do her own activities. Like, I tried to take her to a splash pad. She can't fully walk yet, so she kind of just didn't know what to do, right. So really we just brought her along with everything that we were doing, and she seemed to love it. She is a trooper on did, you know, only baby friendly hikes because we had to bring her with us and a lot of sightseeing. And the cool thing about Canada specifically is that it's very accessible. Even if you aren't a big hiker, you can see some of the most beautiful places in the world without even hardly having to hike. A lot of the trails are paved for strollers or wheelchairs and things like that, so you can really do a lot without having to go on these super strenuous, intense hikes. Obviously, there's a lot of that as well because it's the Canadian Rockies. So if you want to do really crazy peaks, you can do that. I've done it on previous trips and it's awesome, but we still found that we were able to enjoy and really get an amazing full trip, even with having a 13 month old with us. So that's definitely one really nice part about the Banff and Jasper area. I definitely will do a post, probably a blog post on the best baby friendly hikes and activities that we did while we were there. The next question is, did you see any running groups? Is running safe? So the funny thing is, I actually went to Bamp and decided to plan this trip because I was running the Banff Half marathon. So, yes, there's a lot of running that happens there. I saw a lot of runners was participating in the half marathon, so that was definitely a pretty big event in Banff. So much fun. Ten out of ten recommended. It was an amazing event. Great views for a half marathon, and I definitely feel like running is pretty safe as long as you are doing it. Um, you know, during the day in populated areas. And if you're not going to be kind of on the beaten path, I would bring bear spray because the grizzlies are very abundant there. I would say black bears and grizzlies, but it's grizzlies that you need to worry about more. So from a safety standpoint, it's definitely the grizzlies that would bring up a red flag. I tried to only run. I did some practice runs leading up to the race while I was there by myself. And I was running on roads and through town and on designated trails that I felt safe on and I didn't feel like I was a target for wildlife. So definitely something to consider though, if you are going and hiking or running by yourself. Okay, next is Best meals of the trip. So I really, really loved our experience at Emerald Lake Lodge. This is just this really stunning rustic lodge right on Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park. And the food not only was amazing, but the views are just next level. So, so cool. It's pretty similar to the Fairmont is very popular in Lake Louise. I actually haven't dined there because I heard it's outrageously expensive. But it does overlook the lake. So if you like that type of vibe and you want a really nice meal and are willing to fork up some cash for it, that's a great option too. The next is Park Distillery. This is in downtown Banff and it's just a really great spot if you like. They specifically distill gin. I think it is there. I'm not really big into gin, but my husband thought it was really cool. And the food is so good, really fun. Ambiance just right in the heart of Banff. The next is up in Jasper, the Kumama bistro. This was kind of off the beaten path. We ended up there with some friends that we were meeting because it was right where they were staying and it's not somewhere that I probably would have ever found otherwise because it's not in the town of Jasper. But when I tell you this was one of the best meals I've ever had. It was unreal. It's kind of tapas style Asian flair. Really good food and drinks and all of that good stuff. And then lastly, the Latitude 48 bistro. This one is in the Whitefish area. So when we went to Glacier National Park on our way home, going through northern Montana, we stayed in Whitefish, which I'll talk a little bit more about. And that was our favorite restaurant there. Really awesome and food. Loved the ambiance. All in all, it was just such a good experience. 2s Okay, next question is, is it worth staying in Banff or is Canmore cool also? So just for some context, canmore is a small mountain town kind of near the entrance, one of the entrances of Banff. We did actually spend a couple days camping near there and we loved it. It is such a cool town. And you will find many amazing hikes that are not as popular as what you're going to find in Banff. So if you're looking for kind of more off the beaten path, less crowded in general than what you're going to find in a very popular national park, then Canmore is a really great option. I would say it largely depends on what you're wanting to do. So really doing some research on what are the main hikes that you're wanting to do possibly in Banff, and how far are those from Canmore, because, for instance, Lake Louise and Canmore are going to be a good hour and a half plus apart versus downtown Banff is not super far from Canmore, maybe about 30, 40 minutes. So it's just important to kind of look at those things, I think. Sometimes we think, you know, it's in, you know, it's not going to be that far from downtown Banff or this location, when in reality these things can be hours apart because these parks are massive. So definitely take a look on the geography side of what you're wanting to do, what hikes are like number one on your bucket list in slash the sightseeing that you want to do. And then looking at some hikes in Canmore, and if you're more content to maybe just do one or two days in Banff and you don't mind doing some driving and you want to do more of the stuff towards Canmore, then I think it's a great option for staying near there. You're going to need to find some campgrounds that are close Ish to town. And we found that those were pretty well booked up by the time that we were there. So definitely just look into all of these different things. Booking in advance for a popular area like Banff and Canmore is going to be very crucial as far as campgrounds, hotel, large and things like that. 1s Okay, next question. How much time to spend in Jasper National Park? So my opinion on Jasper is I find it to be I might get some hate for this, but I think it's a little bit overhyped. I've been there a couple of times now, and here's my opinion. If you want to do backcountry camping and hiking and you get the necessary permits the year before, it's one of the most beautiful places that you could possibly backpack. My favorite backpacking trip of all time is just outside of Jasper National Park. But as far as the actual hikes within the national park that are just day hikes, I think it leaves a bit to be desired, especially if you've just come from areas like Banff and Yoho. It's a bit underwhelming, in my opinion. 1s And that's not to say it's horrible, but I just mean in comparison to some of these other national parks for the day hikes and the general sightseeing, I don't think it's as stunning or jaw dropping. I definitely think it's worth going and checking it out. If you're doing Icefields Parkway, you're going to go that way anyway. Downtown jasper is a cute little downtown, but if possible, opt for the multi day backpacking backcountry trail. Tonkin Valley is the one that I did, and it was absolutely. 2s Best backpacking experience of my life. It snowed in August and I still loved it. Berg Lake is also one that's at the top of my list. And again, these are not necessarily inside the park, but they are surrounding really close to Jasper. So I just think that the backcountry hiking there is a bit better than the day hikes. So if you're just going to go and do lake day hikes, we just went for one day this past trip because we kind of found, all right, it's pretty crowded and it's honestly not quite as stunning as some of the other places that we had just been. So we moved on pretty quickly and headed back down towards Canmore. So I would say one or two days if you're just doing some generic day hikes, if you're wanting to go and backpack, then I would give yourself some more time. But again, that's going to take some planning because you have to get permits for these areas the year before. So definitely start planning ahead on those. Watch some YouTube videos, do some research on the backcountry trails in the Jasper area that you'd be most interested in. There are some really great ones. Another thing to note is I think something that affected my experience was that a lot of the common trails there were closed because of ice and snow, still creating some hazards on the trails. This was late June, so just something to think about with the time of year that you go. I think that we would have had probably a better experience if some of those more common trails were open. Next up we have what order would you recommend on the trip? So it definitely can be a bit daunting when you're looking at an area like this where almost everywhere you turn there's like other beautiful sites that you feel like you need to see. There's so many national parks. So this is a really good question and I'm definitely not an expert. It's not somewhere where I live or go frequently. I've been up there a couple of times now. But this is just my personal opinion based on what we've done. So I definitely would recommend starting with going to 2s like if you're driving up from the States. 1s Then you're going to hit Canmore first, or even if you're going through Calgary, like if you fly into Calgary, which is the closest airport, so Canmore and then to Banff. If you're not doing Canmore, then just heading straight into Banff. Definitely plan, I would say the bulk of your time for Banff. There's so much to see. It's hyped up for a reason. There's endless beautiful hikes and sights to see. So definitely going to want to have at least a few days in Banff and I will go over Must sees next. Then I would recommend driving Icefields Parkway, heading to Jasper for potentially a few days. Like I said, kind of depending on what you're doing. If you're just doing the national park and some day hikes, then probably only need a few days, then I would go to Yoho National Park on the back end. Yoho is, like I said, pretty close to Lake Louise area. So if you're heading back down Icefield Parkway then it's not going to be too hard to just hop over to Yoho. So definitely make sure you see that. We also went to Kootenai and my opinion on Kootenai National Park is that it's quite a bit hotter and there's not as much to see unless you are again doing like backcountry or really long hikes. This wasn't an option for us this time with our daughter and with working and things like that. So it wasn't a place where I was like, wow, this was amazing. The same way that I felt about Banff and Yoho because there's just so many more day hike and easy exploration opportunities with a one year old. So that's just my two cent. As far as favorite parts and absolute must sees, here were mine. My favorite part was the Banff half marathon. It was just such a cool experience to do that with a bunch of my girlfriends. If you are into running at all, I definitely recommend doing national parks for races because it's so motivating you're in beautiful scenery. I won't even call myself like a big runner, but I loved competing in this race. 1s Bow Lake is another must see. This is along Icebilts Parkway in Banff. Absolutely amazing. Really great hiking. Johnston Canyon is another great area in Banff, especially for a rainy day. Great waterfalls, really gorgeous canyon. Lake Louise like I mentioned, is an absolute must see as well as Moraine Lake. If you are going to Banff, these are two lakes you don't want to miss. I will say Moraine Lake is a bit more tricky now with their reservation system. I did a post on this on Instagram so you could always check that out. If you are considering going, just know that you do need to plan that a little bit in advance. Next is Yoho and Emerald Lake. Like I mentioned, absolutely underrated. Blew me away. Wapda Falls. This is in National Park. Really, really cool waterfall. Icefield Parkway as I mentioned. Whitefish now we're kind of getting into the Montana wrecks. So Whitefish, Montana is such a cool little mountain town. If you're planning on going and want to stay at like an airbnb or something close to the park, this is a really great option as you're only about 45 minutes to an hour from going to the Sun Road, which is definitely a popular destination if you're visiting Glacier National Park. So going to the Sun Road is another must see and then many Glacier area. Iceberg Lake and Grinnell Lake, glacier specifically are two really epic hikes in Glacier National Park. There are hoops you have to jump through for the reservations, so that's just something to be aware of. You have to get those at the specific lottery time to get. Not only do you need your National Park pass, but you also need specific road reservations for several different roads in the park. It's not just like one general park reservation the same way that it is with Rocky Mountain and some of the other national parks. So it just makes it a bit more complicated because you really need to plan out what are the hikes you want to do and what roads do you need to take to get there so that you can plan several months in advance to get your road reservations. 1s Okay, next question. Tips for navigating the fluctuating temps in the van. This is a great question because something that I would have never thought about before doing van travel. But if you are planning on doing any sort of van or RV or anything like that, temperature is going to almost rule your entire trip. It's kind of crazy how much the weather can affect things. Um, specifically, if you don't have an actual AC unit in our van, we have it's basically like a swamp cooler, so it runs off of water, but it's not going to cool you quite as well as an actual AC unit. We just don't have the solar power to power something like that. So we had to get by with a fan and then our quasi AC unit. So because we have not actual AC, our van is dark and it's a little bit older. I would say the insulation isn't awesome. It gets crazy hot in our van. Crazy hot. Even on a day when it's only like 70 degrees, it feels like it's about 85 in the van. So as far as things that you can do to deal with this good window covers and putting them on early even if it's cold out first thing in the morning because the temperature changes wildly in a place like Canada, right? You wake up in the morning, it's kind of chilly and then before you know it, the temperature is creeping up and it's really hot, especially if you're parked in the sun. So putting on really good window covers, we had to buy some expensive ones that were magnetic and worked well with our van. But it's absolutely worth investing in because it makes a big difference in keeping the heat out, having multiple sources of airflow. Like I said, we have a Max air fan and then we also have our 1s quasi AC unit, which is run on water. So at least we do have a couple sources of airflow within the van, which definitely makes a difference. Parking in the shade when possible, there's nothing that's going to heat up your van like sitting in direct sunlight. So if you can park somewhere where there's some trees or some shade, that's going to help quite a bit and then have a plan B in mind. So on the really hot days, you might just not be able to sit and work in your van. Obviously, if you're off adventuring and you're not in your van all day, it's not going to be as big of a consideration. But specifically for us needing to factor in our dog working from the van and our daughter, like napping during the day in the van, we definitely had to think about it quite a bit. And it definitely affected our enjoyment of certain locations. So having a plan B in mind coffee shop, how are you going to make it work? Is there anything nearby that you can do instead of just staying in the van the whole time. Okay, next question is. 1s How to get hikes in as a full time worker. So I kind of talked about this initially, but you need to kind of plan ahead, right? Like you're not going to be able to do probably these ten mile hikes every single day if you're starting them at 05:00 p.m. Or after that. One thing that was on our side in Canada was that the sun didn't go down until about 1045 at night. So that really allowed us to have several hours of good daylight and that was really helpful. Another thing is planning your campsites or where you're lodging based on the hikes that you want to do. Because one thing that we noticed in Canada and in Montana was that things are really far apart. So even if mileage wise, it's only 15 miles, it might end up taking you an hour. So looking into these things beforehand before you just haphazardly pick a campground or pick a town to lodge in, really look at like, okay, if I'm doing a hike after work and I can't get off work till four, if it's 2 hours away, then that's going to make it really tough. You're only going to be able to do like maybe a three mile hike and you're going to spend most of the night driving. So looking into those things in advance so you can set yourself up for success being able to do some of those longer hikes. 1s Is going to be really helpful 1s and just doing the shorter hikes on weekdays and longer hikes on weekends, that's always kind of how we've operated. We do what we can during the week. It might not be the most epic experience every day because sometimes we're tired and we just want to cook dinner and hang out. Other times we do want to try to get in hikes, but we plan our bigger adventures for the weekends. Another question I got was is there anything you would have done differently? I would say I would have not done Kootenai National Park. During the heat wave, we just didn't really look into how drastically the temperatures were going to change. At the beginning of our trip, there was snow, tons of rain, it was cold, it was in like the some days. And then by the time we were ending up in Kootenai, we had camp reservations there and it was up into the it's a lower elevation area, so it was insanely hot and really tough to do in the van. We actually didn't end up staying our full reservation. We had to make other plans because it was just way too hot for our dog. We were having to go into coffee shops and we just couldn't make it work. So that was one thing that I would have done differently, is planning. Coot and I potentially on the front end of the trip when it was colder, and again, it's hard because you don't know what the weather will look like when you're booking campgrounds. But that was just something that I felt like we didn't really get a great experience there for that reason. And then I would have potentially tried to book a place closer to the many Glacier entrance in Montana for Glacier National Park because we stayed, like I said, in Whitefish. And the hikes that we really wanted to do in the park ended up being two and a half hour drive each way. We did not look into that when we first booked our airbnb and Whitefish because it was close to one entrance of the park, but not the entrance that had the really epic hikes that we wanted to do. So again, poor planning on our end, I would have definitely done that a bit differently as far as lodging. 1s The next is spend more time in Canmore. I just don't think I realized how amazing it was and all of the hiking potential. We were only there for a few days, and I wish we would have had more time. Okay, finally, what was our Itinerary planning like? So I wouldn't say that we are master planners. Oftentimes we end up kind of winging things. But we did do a pretty good job of planning this trip because we knew we needed some campgrounds booked and we wanted to minimize the amount of unknown variables and stress, because, admittedly, traveling with a one year old and a dog and working at the same time is already pretty stressful. So we wanted to make it as simple as we could. So we started with looking at a map. We knew that I was running the race in Banff on this one specific date, so we wanted to start looking at places closest to Banff that we didn't go to on our previous trip, that we really wanted to check out the different national parks. And then we would start researching those specifically through YouTube videos and blogs and things like that. Doing our research about what do we really want to make work, do we need reservations for these things? Can we get campgrounds there? And then we started booking camp sites and actually researching specific hikes in each area and bookmarking those in all trails. So I wouldn't say we had plans every single day. Like, it wasn't perfectly marked out because it was a full month, but for the most part, we were pretty well planned so that we didn't have stress on where are we staying, where are we hiking, when are we going here or there? Definitely recommend doing some research on these sorts of things before booking things and before showing up for a trip like this, just so that you can get the most out of it. Okay, so that is everything, you guys. Thank you for the questions. Definitely made this episode a bit more seamless. I like the Q a style. I hope that this has been helpful. If you're planning a trip to Banff, Jasper Yoho Kootenai, or even Glacier National Park, I hope it has been enlightening. If there's anything else on these topics that you want to hear about or if you like kind of this Q A on specific location or trips, send me a DM to the Fit for Hiking Instagram page. Let me know what you guys are liking so far with the episodes, what you want to hear more of. I am all ears. I want your feedback. I want this to know something that you guys look forward to and get a lot out of. So thank you for tuning in today and I will see you guys in the next episode. 1s Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Fit for Hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at ponytail underscore on a Trail. That's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at fit Underscore for hiking and find more free resources@ponytailontatrail.com. Happy and healthy trails.