Back North

The title of this log entry may give you some clue on where I decided to go. That's right: back north, back to Yellowknife! Not to BC, but to NWT. I missed Roslyn so much, that I decided to head back and suprise her by just showing up again.

So, I hopped into the bus in Jasper headed for Edmonton, to transfer to a bus that would take me as far as Enterprise (just south of the Great Slave Lake, near Hay River). As we approched Edmonton though, I was told there was no connection to Enterprise, but that I could only get as far north as Peace River. Nice. I decided to head up anyway, trying my luck hitchhiking up. I started by taking a taxi to a decent starting point, the beginning of the highway north. While there was not a lot of traffic, it took an hour and a half to get the first ride, about 150km up. At least I would be at a better place than at an intersection in the middle of nowhere.
It did not take too long to get a next ride, to another intersection a bit south of High Level. "A bit" turned out to be about 60km, so that was not a very good place to be, especially since trafic was pretty low. I got a ride to High Level pretty soon though, and arrived there just after noon. Not too bad. I wend in for some bruch and tried to hitch a ride further north. A car that I had seen passing at the intersection passed me again, and stopped this time. Two girls in a small jeep were going to Yellowknife, but the car was already so packed that it wasn't possible to fit me and my luggage in there as well. Still, they assured me it should be no problem to get a ride, they had done it themselves on more than one occasion. Well, it turned out that it took quite a lot of time to get a ride. After trying for more than four hours I finally found somebody that was willing to take me, and he was going to Yellowknife (still a ride of about 700 km!). The rest of the journey was pretty uneventfull, except for the large amount of buffalo we saw along the way. Other wildlife spotted included a cayote, a wolf, a hawk, deer and moose with young. Not bad, for a single ride!

Roslyn could not believe her eyes as she saw me standing at her doorstep once more, just after midnight. It was good to be back...

Invermere and beyond

After spending another day around Banff (going up in the gondola, doing some laundry, building a little fire at the campsite at night...) it was time to head to Invermere. I made a phone inquiry, and agreed to just head over on wedsday, being there around noon. It's about a 150km drive from Banff to Invermere, again crossing some beautifull scenery. I made it to the airfield on time, but the weather didn't look too promissing yet. I had a chat with Trevor, the owner of the operation there and the one who was going to take me up in the Duo. He was confident it was worth waiting a bit, so that's what I did. I wend to luch with an American from Seattle who was flying there, and generally just chatted with the people hanging around at the field. Slowly the weather improved, and around four, it looked promissing enough to start putting some gliders together and opening some hanger doors. We took a tow at 16:30, and low and behold! Thermals! :-)
We climed using some thermals along the ridge, and although Trevor thought they weren't as strong as he'd like them, they did the job just fine (2-3 meter thermals). We first flew over the mountains to the east of te valley, and later on crossed to the west where conditions looked better and the scenery was even more spectacular with snowcapped mountains and glaciers everywhere. Unfortunatly, I got sick twice during the flight, but I did not let that hinder the fun too much. After two hours of flying and making lots of pictures, we landed back at the field.
Trevor had offered to let me camp out on the field for the night, and to stay for dinner, so I did not have to go anywhere. Nice! We spend a nice afternoon and evening out on the deck and in the clubhouse.

june 16
Time to head back into the Rockies again! I drove back to Lake Louise, hoping the road to the falls would be open by now. It was not (opens june 24), so I just drove on to the Columbia Icefields once more. I stayed at the same campsite just under the glaciers again, and when I arrived, I was the only one there. Later on more people showed up, but it wasn't full by any means. The weather had cleared again nicely, but by the time I though it was nice enough to head onto the glacier, the tours had allready stopped running. That could not be helped, so I headed back to the campsite, and build a little fire again, had a couple of beers, and thought about what was yet to come...
I wend to bed on time, but I had trouble catching my sleep.

june 17
I was up fairly early, and washed myself in the (cold!) stream that was rushing next to my tent. Still, it was nice and refreshing. I cleared away my stuff, and headed for the visitors centre to have some breakfast. While I was up in the restaurant, I saw the cloudbase comming down and it started to rain. What to do? I was planning to hike up Wilcox pass (a hike highly recommended in a guidebook I bought), but the weather did not look too cooperative. I asked the information what they thought about the plan, and they said to just go for it as long as I had decent gear. I judged that I had, so I went to the trailhead, put on my coat, and just walked up the trail. While it continued to rain lightly, it was still a very nice hike, with some great views of the glaciers (at least, of the parts not covered by clouds). The good thing about the weather was that it was very quiet on the otherwise bussy trail. Only at the top I met another group, and on my way down another couple. So, not too bad after all!

After comming down again, it was time to head back to the car, and drive on the Jasper. And that is where I am now, writing this log entry :-) Tomorrow, I have to hand in my car. I'm not exactly sure what to do next yet. The plan is to head into BC, but I'm not sure where I'll get of the bus yet. We'll see.

Columbia Icefields, Lake Louise and Banff

june 12
Today, the plan was to head up the glacier by foot and by bus. When I woke up however, it rained. I took a look outside my tent, and saw what I had allready feared: the weather did not look good at all. Not only was it raining, the cloudbase was so low that you could only see the lower edges of the glaciers. The mountaintops and the rest of the glaciers disapeared inside the clouds.
I decided to head up to the visitors centre and the glacier itself anyway, to at least take a look at it. Once up the small area you can walk on without a guide, it became clear that it would be useless to spend more time and money here to get futher up the glacier. Instead, I packed up my tent and headed for a slow drive with many stops to Lake Louise, including a stop at a very pretty view over Peyto lake. I tried to get to a campsite next to a waterfall a bit west of Lake Louise, but the road up was closed. I did manage to catch a train going through the famous figure 8 tunnel, build to decrease the slope of the rails. You see the back of the train going into the tunnel, while the front is comming out at almost the same spot but quite a bit lower. Very nice!

I ended up staying in the Lake Louise hostel. Staying in Lake Louise is expensive! Although the hostel is very nice, I find it a bit overpriced really. However, since the campsite was expensive too, and it was raining, I opted for the hostel anyway.

June 13
I had a good nights sleep, and got up early to beat the crowds at Lake Louise (the lake itself) and lake Moraine. It must be said: the lakes are beautifull. I may try to back on a better day however, as the much of the mountains around the lakes were still in the clouds.

I wend back to the hostel to check out and get my gear, and make a reservation to go rafting in the afternoon. The trip would leave from Banff early in the afternoon, so I took the old, scenic road from Lake Louise to Banff. Here I saw more elk (at leat, I think it was elk). I arrived in Banff with plenty of time to spare, so I wend to go look for a nice campsite right away. I ended up staying at the beautifully located site of Two Jack Lakeside. With a spot overviewing a lake surrounded by mountains, I was more than happy.

The rafting was very cool! The whitewater on horseshoe canyon made for a thrilling ride. We even had the the opportunity to jump a cliff into the river, several meters down. I took the plunge, of course, but it was quite scary to be honest!
The afternoon was passed when I arrived back in Banff, where I first wend to get something to eat and then headed back to the campsite. A bit of reading and a couple of cups of tea later, I wend to sleep.

Jasper

Thursday night, I had to say goodbye to Roslyn. It was a very hard thing to do, since I'm completely in love with her. Tears were shed, and promisses to see each other again as soon as possible made. I really, really hope I'll see her again soon. I love you, my Rose!

The goal was to get to Jasper, which takes a 27 hour busride from Yellowknife. I managed to get some sleep along the way, but not a lot. Worst of all: what to do when you arrive in Jasper at 4:15 AM? Lucky for me, it wasn't too cold and there was no rain, so I just hang around the visitors centre and even managed to get some more sleep. At 7:30, I took a cab to the Youth Hostel to drop my bags, do a bit of freshing up and rent a bicycle. I also posted a note asking if anyone is interested in joining me on the Rocky Mountains trip I planned and for which I have rented a car that I will pick up tomorrow. I hope so, as it would provide some company and would reduce the costs significantly.

I took the bike downtown, to get some information at the (now opened) visitors centre, and to check if the time I pick up the car really matters. It doesn't, so that is ok.
A lady in the visitors centre recomenced me a nice trail do do some mountain biking. Damn... That is hard work, especially uphill! I suddenly have huge respect for the people doing races in this sport... Anyway, a nice climb still awaits me, as the hostel - some 5 km outside Jasper - is at significantly higher ground than the downtown area. I guess I'll just have to take it slow, as I am getting pretty tired. I long for a shower and a nice long night of sleep in a bed.

Addition, done on june 14
Well, the bikeride back up to the hostel was hard work too. I had to step off the bike more than once. Halfway up, a pickup truck offered me a ride though, so I reached the hostel without being totally exhausted. I did take that shower and a change of clothes, and decided to head up the hill a bit further to take a ride in the Jasper tramway. It provides a very nice view of the area, overlooking six mountain ranges in the area. The climb to the top of Whistlers Mountain proved to be quite tiresome, as I had to hurry to be back in time for the last gondola down again. In terms of view, it was worth the climb however, and I took some very nice pictures.

I spend the rest of the evening quitetly reading, first outside on the deck, then inside, and then wend to sleep early.

June 11
I checked out of the hostel, and made a reservation for another hostel close by for the night from friday 17 to saturday 18 june. I picked up my rental car, a nice white Pontiac. First, I headed to view Medicine Lake and the famous Malinge lake, a bit futher up the road. Today, I also spotted my first big wildlife in the Rockies: Elk and mountain sheep.

In the afternoon, I drove up the famous Icefields Parkway, and made my way to the Columbia Icefields. I found a very nice campingspot almost under the glacier, right next to a wild stream rushing down the mountain. A small fire, a cup of tea, a rushing stream and a view on white-capped mountains... What more could you ask for?

Travel plans

To keep you all up to date on my travel plans, I'll use this blog. So... What do we have now?

I have started my trip in Calgary, where I arrived on may 14. On may 19, I have taken an evening greyhound to Edmonton. I stayed there untill may 23, when I'll hopped into yet another greyhound to Yellowknife. I have stayed here just over two weeks, because I left this most Northern point of my trip to go to Jasper in the Rocky Mountains on june 9. Of course, Banff and Lake Louise were of be part of the trip to that area of Canada. I took a about a week, including a visit to Invermere where I did a bit of flying. I ended up in Jasper again. Instead of heading into BC, I decided to go back to Yellowknife. From there, the plan is to head West to Prince Rupert. A boat trip trough the Inside Passage will take me south to Vancouver Island, where I plan to visit Long Beach and Victoria. At last, we're talking about early july now, I will go back to the mainland and visit Vancouver. My flight from there leaves on july 6.

As I have more details, I will update the above outline. So, keep checking back if you're interested in my plans!