Product Description

For many years, the CPR offered free return passage each summer for the employees of its magnificent hotels. The "Dominion" and the "Canadian", Canada's famous trains travelled west to the Banff Springs Hotel and to Chateau Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. In 1957, captivated by stories of lofty mountain peaks and clear blue lakes, eighteen-year old Roger Patillo from Belle River, Ontario, signed up and set out to experience the West for himself. One summer turned into seven and changed his life.

The stories of his adventures while at the world famous Chateau are both humorous and poignant. He draws from many friendships, among which are the Feuz brothers, the legendary Swiss guides, John Lynn the much loved pianist who presented nightly concerts in the lobby, Beef Woodworth, the Park Warden and Lawrence Grassi, the "keeper of O'Hara". The book recounts the author's time skiing, flyfishing, mountaineering and canoeing down the Bow River. While these stories are entertaining enough, it is in the sharing of the sometimes hilarious pranks and misadventures of the staff that keeps us smiling throughout. The steak roasts, the dances, the parties at Gables (the Bellhop's residence) and his special friends all come alive again as Patillo recalls in tale after tale, a more gentle time when maybe Lake Louise really was the best.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1407398 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-21
• Released on: 2006-07-06
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 440 pages

About the Author
Roger Patillo lives in Aldergrove, B.C. in the heart of the Fraser Valley on an acreage where he and his wife Donnie have an active family and raise a few Arabian horses. (they have had fourteen children between them and presently have nine left at home - the youngest of which is seven years old.) Growing up on a farm near Windsor Ontario, he has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics, a Masters of Social Work and a Masters of Business Administration. He has climbed the corporate ladder on a number of occasions in both the public and private sectors, taught university level courses at the University of British Columbia and at Trinity Western University and has been a management consultant. For the past few years Roger has been an award-winning realtor specializing in fine country acreages, ranches and horse properties in the Fraser Valley and throughout B.C.

While Roger has written countless technical reports and research papers over the years this is his first attempt at writing a book. An avid outdoorsman, fly fisherman, mountaineer and horseman, he has recovered from a triple bypass operation in January of 1999. While recuperating he used his time to write his first book on his experiences and adventures while working at Lake Louise in the 1950s and 60s. He has two other books on the go at the present time and has plans for more.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction

There's a special magic at Lake Louise and the surrounding area. It's in the glacier-hung mountains, the turquoise, green lakes, and the pine-scented air. It's in the quality of the light and in the sun on your back as you tramp down the trail after a long hike or climb. It's in the sudden, moment-to-moment changes of nature - from the first shafts of light that caress the high peaks and glaciers to those last few evening rays that bid the end of another day and turn the highest mountains to golden-rose again. The special enchantment here is also in the sudden rain and snow squalls, the lightning and the thunder, and in the sound of those great avalanches that go crashing to valleys below. It's in the sudden brilliance of the rainbows that span near and distant valleys, and in the night sky, alive with the northern lights, stars, constellations and galaxies that one can almost reach out and touch. This magic reaches down deep inside you, and shapes and paints your memories for a lifetime - especially when you're eighteen and as free as a hawk on the wind.

Much has been written about Lake Louise and its mountains and meadows by those more eloquent than I. Many have penned songs about the beauty of this place, its poppies, its glaciers and sometimes about loves found and lost there. I don't plan to repeat this, although at times it will be inescapable. How could one not marvel at the sight of that magnificent lake, calm and glassy in the warm summer air, except for a little ripple here and there as wisps of playful breezes from the glaciers above caress its blue-green waters? How could one not be spell-bound at seeing that lake at night, lit-up by a shaft of golden moonlight reflecting the snow-white glaciers from high above? And how could one not be touched when walking along its shoreline, hand in hand with someone special on a clear, dark night and seeing a thousand stars reflected on its velvety, black surface?

The Annual July 1st-Great Canadian Canoe Race

July 1st was another welcome occasion for the staff to hold a major, daylong celebration. Among the events were a series of canoe races and sprints along the shoreline. Everyone entered at least one race. The grand finale was billed as the 'Great Canadian Canoe Race', and was hotly contested. The route was from the dock at the far end of the lake, back to the Chateau. The rules were that anyone on the staff could enter a canoe but it had to carry three people, one of whom needed to be a 'princess' clad in a bathing suit. The first canoe across the line at the boathouse would be the winner and its princess would be crowned 'Queen' of the daylong festivities. The two winning paddlers would each win a bottle of Hudson's Bay over-proof rum and the Queen would be presented with a crown of flowers and a bottle of gin (an odd combination in retrospect). To this coveted end, the teams practised their paddling for at least a week, and did some test runs on the lake to get their times down to a competitive level.

Robbie Hamilton and I decided that we'd enter the big event and Sally Laing was to be our princess. She was spunky and tough and the previous summer, she'd climbed some of the most challenging mountains in the Rockies with Rob and I. We thought the three of us would make a winning team.

Rob, from Huntsville, Muskoka, had spent a lot of his youth paddling a canoe. He was strong, stocky and good-natured. I'd also grown-up with a paddle in my hand and had lots of experience canoeing, so our chances of winning were excellent. Upon checking the rules, we discovered that, while there had to be three people in the canoe, strangely though, there was no limit on the number who could paddle. Most assumed that the two brawny paddlers would do all the work while the princess would simply look pretty and go along for the ride, but the three of us had a better idea. For a week or so before the race, we obtained a canoe from Laurie Nickel, the boatman, in the early evening just before dark. We always asked him for one or two extra paddles on the pretext of needing them in an emergency. Rob paddled in the bow, I took the stern and Sally, of course, sat in the middle, supposedly just coming along for the ride.

Rob and I would paddle at top speed until we were well out of sight of the dock along the left side of the lake. Sally would then quickly kneel and paddle hard with us. We would just fly down the lake and after three or four practices, felt assured that the prize would be ours on the big day. Returning to the dock, Sally would sit, smiling pleasantly on the thwart giving no hint that she was our secret weapon.