Elk Island National Park

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After a light day on Friday and a great Alberta beef steak dinner, I drove out to Elk Island to see the bison on Saturday.  I got there and used their map to pick out my hiking trail.  I wound up picking the one that Pope John Paul II went to when he stopped by for some contemplation time.

About five minutes into the trail (of 4.5 hours) I started praying I would not come across any bison.  The trail was so narrow and I was alone.  And there was more than enough warnings against getting too close to the bison. (they charge!)

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But then I did.  There was one right in the path in front of me.  I wound up getting stuck for almost half an hour waiting for him to get out of the way.  The path was too narrow to walk past him and I was too far in the path to go back.  I got stuck again later.  This time the bison started walking toward me.  I took a couple of photos and then split down the trail.  Ten minutes later I was thankfully able to go.

The rest of the time was uneventful.  I did see a coyote though.  I watched as it pounced on some poor mouse on the side of the road and had itself a snack.  All this was from the safety of my car.  I drove around to a few other parts of the park and then back to Edmonton for game 5.

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Game 5 was in Anaheim so this time I watched the game in the bar I went to after game 4.  The Oilers won, so a good time was had be all.  After the game the whole city went wild driving around in their cars blowing the horns.  The Oilers were going to the Stanley Cup finals!!!!!!!!  I walked around for about an hour joining in the festivities and went back to my hotel.  The noise went on all night!