The Final Trek North

Our time in Glacier and Yoho National Parks was brief. Due to inclement weather we did not do any hiking and didn’t get our first glimpse of the Rockies until late in the day when the clouds began to lift. Once we were in Banff National Park we hiked the loop around Emerald Lake, this was Court’s first view of the incredible turquoise colour of lakes in The Rockies. The colour of the lakes and rivers is due to a combination of rock flour (fine silt eroded from glacial movement) and pristine water giving off a majestic turquoise colour.



Court and Aurora at Lake Louise

From Emerald Lake, we drove to a campground near Lake Louise for the night. This campground was surrounded by a live electric fence to keep the bears out! This was pretty wild! We rolled into the campground in the early evening and after dinner we went to an informative bear talk given by a Parks Canada interpreter. After this talk we were pretty excited to see a bear (from a safe distance).

Bear Jam, Park staff stopped the highway traffic in an attempt to reunite a mother bear with her cubs on the other side of the road.

On the 27^th we did the full tourist route, we saw Lake Louise, Banff (and the Banff Springs Hotel) and we were in our first “bear jam”. These locations were beautiful, no doubt; but they were packed with tourists (mostly European). We hiked Johnston Canyon Falls in the afternoon. This hike was about 5km and consisted of many suspended boardwalks lining the canyon walls and following the turquoise coloured river. There were two sets of falls and they were both beautiful.  We camped at Castle Mountain campground with plans to get up before the rest of the campers and hit the trails.

Suspended boardwalks at Johnston Canyon

The 28^th was a big day. We saw many mind-blasting things. Although we didn’t get up as early as we intended, when we got to the Castle Mountain Lookout trail there was only one other car in the parking lot. This hike was a 7.4km trail with 580m elevation gain. This was one of the highlights of Banff National Park for us. The view was spectacular and we had the whole trail and lookout to ourselves. We ate lunch at the top and enjoyed the panoramic view. When we got back to the parking lot there were probably 20 cars in the lot. Along the drive to the Columbia Icefields we stopped at Peyto Lake and Crowfoot Glacier.  



Brad on Castle Mountain Lookout



Peyto Lake

In the Columbia Icefields, we hiked to the Athabasca Glacier. The glacier was unreal. In just seven years since Brad was there last, there was notable difference in the size and appearance of the glacier. Seven years ago Brad and Alex walked out on the glacial toe, now a large meltwater river separates the trail from the glacier. The park has set up signage of furthest extent of the glacial toe since the 1840s. The speed at which the glacier is melting is enough to make you cry. In the past 100 years the glacier has lost 60% of its volume. It is forecasted to be completely gone in the next 100 years.

Athabasca Glacier



Year 2000 marker, note tiny person for scale.

After leaving the Athabasca Glacier we saw three bears; two black bears and a grizzly. The best sighting was in Jasper National Park where we saw a black bear munching away at some soapberries. We have tried these and I must say that this poor bear was either very hungry or has a very different sense of taste than we do, yick!

We stayed at Wabasso Campground for the night. It was another rainy evening (our 4^th in a row) so we used picnic shelter and played some cribbage.

The 29^th was another doozey. In the morning, we spent about two hours at Mount Edith Cavel. This could possibly be the ultimate trip highlight. While standing on the Angel Glacier (that’s right, standing on it) a massive portion of submerged glacial ice calved free and emerged to the surface. The surface of the water heaved and gave way as a tennis-court-sized chunk of ice exploded out of the glacial lake. The sight and sound were pretty scary and we both felt far too close for comfort. As rocks started to fall from behind me (Court) and towards the now turbulent waters, I worried I might be going for a hypothermic swim. We both made a pretty speedy dash off the glacier and onto solid ground. Not 30 minutes later we heard another terrible crashing sound, this time from the top of the glacier as a huge chunk of ice broke off and came crashing down the mountain. We watched as the meltwater waterfall turned into a slurry of rock, ice and water. Rocks tumbled out onto the glacier about a hundred meters from us.



For scale: the shear glacial face at the edge of the water (blue with brown stripes) is about 10 stories tall!

  

Newly emerged bergs!

The current size of Angel Glacier is minuscule compared to its coverage only a century ago. The glacier is melting fast (as we witnessed) and is predicted to be gone in three generations.  It was interesting to hike on the moraines and in the glacial spillway and to see new plant life struggling to eke out an existence in the gravel till.

We left Mount Edith and drove into the Jasper town centre. We walked the busy downtown, had a beer and chips at The Whistle Stop Pub and did some interneting. While enjoying the sunshine on a park bench we ran into a friend from Waterloo! Dan (who Court worked with at the Region of Waterloo) gave us a great recommendation for a must see in Jasper. So later in the afternoon we explored Pyramid Lake. It was a secluded sandy beach with great mountain views. We had a great dinner down by the beach and Aurora went for a big swim.

In the late evening we returned to Jasper and found a spot to boondock for the night. We sat on the tailgate drank beers, discussed past travels and future endeavors and counted train cars as they went past (one train had 160 cars – we figured about 3 km long).

The morning of the 30^th was sunny and bright. We drove north to the Miette Hot Springs. The spring was developed into four pools of various temperatures. We spent close to two hours dipping in each of the pools – it was refreshing and exhilarating to go from hot to cold (and vice versa). After our time at the springs, we said goodbye to Jasper and drove north to Grande Prairie. GP is a city of 50,000+ about an hour from Dawson Creek. We stopped here to have one last night ‘on the road’. Thus concluding our trip.

Today we will arrive in DC. Deep Breathe.

Trip Summary and Final Thoughts

What We’ll Miss

What We Wont Miss

·         Waking up in a new place every morning and asking “Where do you want to go today?” ·         Talking to fellow travelers ·         Constantly being surrounded by immense natural beauty ·         Cooking our camp favourites out of the drawer ·         The simplicity of life on the road, our greatest worries and concerns (where to camp for the night, what to eat for dinner and where to set up the tarp) are trivial at best.

·         Aurora’s tether and it’s aptitude to tangle (often around ankles) ·         Tarps. Period. ·         Awkwardly getting dressed in the back of the truck ·         Shaking out the sheets. Josie can attest to our facial expressions when we send up a cloud of dog hair, dander and grit. ·         Buying gas multiple times a week. ·         Sporadic showering

Thanks for following us along on our adventure. See you in the funny pages.

Peas and Love

Total Distance Traveled	14, 859Km
Number of Days on the Road	85
Total Nights in Hotel/Motel/B&B	0
Total Nights in Campground	26
Number of Meals Out	8
Number of Photos Taken	1156