At long last, I enjoy a bit of Banff

After so many years of avoiding the Banff Mountain Film Festival , I finally attended Sunday’s closing-night program. And I’m certainly glad I did. Among the various outdoors-oriented films, my favorite was “Take a Seat,” a documentary that follows a British guy in his quest to ride a tandem bicycle from Alaska’s northern coast to the extreme southern tip of Argentina.

At one point, when the guy is less than 1,000 kilometers from his goal, he’s biking through the snow and mud and things are looking bad. That’s when the song “Desperado” begins to play. Great moment.

As for why I never attended the festival previously: In the years I worked at The Spokesman-Review, this festival was always SR Outdoors Editor Rich Landers ’ beat. He wrote the previews and saw the movies. I had other things to do.

Those days are long over, thank Buddha. And I’m taking as much advantage of it as I can.