Jasper... the 360 viewtiful

I've hit the rockies and the view so far is amazing.  The rain cleared up and I can see the thick clouds whiting out the tops of the mountains. [When I hit the town, I was really taken aback by the 360 view.  First thing I did however, was duck into a diner, where I ordered a delicious pasta and changed into some jeans in their bathroom.  Also, my backpack had been sitting in a puddle of dirty water on the bus, so I wiped that down throughout my meal]

  After talking to the bus driver and a nice lady, I heard about the Columbus Icefields.  A straight tour to Banff would cost a lot, but I could probably fit a day tour in tomorrow.

  Jasper is incredible.  It's a small tourist-y town nestled in the middle of a bunch of mountains.  Everywhere you look, on all sides are beautiful mountain ranges.  I took a bit of the town in and went to some stores.  There were a couple of tacky gift stores, where I bought some cards to send out to people.  I also stopped by a native arts store.  The store was filled with traditional hand-made native goods, including high end expensive jewellry with canadian gems.

  Not wanting to spend $100's on a print, I bought a neat native art card which I will paste onto the front of the next journal.

  I took a quick cab to the hostel, which sits at the base of Whistlers mountain.  A tram goes up and down the mountain.

  When I got outside the hostel I noticed I had to catch my breath.  I'm assured the hike up the mountain is doable, so I'll try tomorrow morning.

  The dorms are not co-ed, and they are huge.  I'm guessing there are at least 36 beds crammed into this area [That's just the guys side].  Given that everyone who comes here is probably hiking or doing something outdoors, that's over 20 sweaty guys sleeping together.  Sufficet to say, the room is a bit musty and gross, but not bad at all considering the circumstances.  The place is pretty clean overall if you can get past sleeping in a guys locker room setting.  I spent the night writing cards to friends back home and to Nita.  Hopefully I can wake up and get an early start tomorrow. [They had a book shelf and I found an old comic book someone left.  I was thinking about lifting it, but I'm not really the stealing type, so I packaged it up and left it]



Me and Jasper