Columbia Icefields - Part 3 the fields

Back.

 

Anyways, on the way to the ice terrain vehicles was a kindly witty old fellow.  The ice explorers themselves were cool.  The things were alot like a bus with huge tractor tires.  They brought us to the ice glacier and the pile of indonesians on a group tour came pouring out [The bus was probably half full of the tour group].  The glacier itself was nice and sunny, but there was a chill wind that came from the main ice plateau.  It was cold like a sunny day in the middle of winter in Ottawa. [I was only wearing my spring jacket, so it was still pretty cold]

  The ice water trickled down so I made sure to drink some.  It was really brisk and refreshing, just like when I was a kid [I had been here before, but I was really young].  When I went back, the indonesian group got control of the mic, It was neat how accomodating the bus driver was.  Also, on the way to the chalet/centre, the old witty man shared some of his lame puns. so good. [I haven't retained many of these jokes unfortunately]

  I had visited that gift shop when I was a kid with my best friends' family.  We both bought stones to represent our friendship.  I still have mine, but he lost his.  When I went to that same store, they didn't sell the same stones, only carved or small versions [They also had some of the stones with googly eyes on them... how tacky...].  I did find a stone dispenser that randomly gave you one.  I saw some in town, but for sentiment sake, I bought a few there.  I wonder if my old old friend of years lost even remembers that rock.

  Our way back to town was quiet again.  The guide stopped at a resort gift shop and some other waterfall, but thats about it [Where I stopped to finish my breakfast, which was still surprisingly good].  Apparently he was behind schedule from the previous stops and was gunning it to town.  He dropped us off and apparently had to bus another load of people which he was late to pick up.  They scheduled his pick up at the same time as our drop-off. [Sort of a shame, since I was hoping to get some pictures with less clouds]

  With a good 7 hours to kill, I called Nita and went to a net cafe.  Out of change, I went to the restaurant 'Papa Georges' where I started this entry.  I was told the soup of the day was turnip and cinnamon. weird.

  I ordered the wild game burger with wedges cooked in duck fat and a beer.  The free bread was olive loaf, which I though were raisins until I got 3 bites in.  The waitress much like most of the workers in Jasper was aussie.  When I asked, she explained that the work permits were easy for commonwealth countries.  She had a cute aussie charm that most of the aussie girls here had.  I can see why everyone loves aussies so much.

  I went to kill more time watching 'The American' with Clooney.  It was a little slow and artsy, but the movie left me a bit lonely and I thought about home and Nita.

Afterwards I walked around town a bit and decided to come back to the hotel to write this.
Bus leaves for Vancouver at 1am and it's 11:45pm. Almost.

Columbia Icefields Part 2 - The falls

September 14th cont'd

  I am writing from the same restaurant.  After my breakfast this morning, I headed out to the tour.  I met with the guy early on and we left to pick up another 4 people from their hotel.  The 4 were made up of 2 older couples who were from England [Really nice people, but not super talkative].  The guide was really nice and talked a bit about the forests.

Not even 10 mins in, we saw 2 does and a buck.  The elk are beginning mating season so the males were much more aggressive, as we were told.  The two females crossed the road and the male elk followed behind. [Bow chika wow-wow]

  We continued on and the view was amazing.  Yesterday the view was cloudy so I couldn't see as well.  Along the road, however, there were lots of mountains and tree-filled valleys.  On top of that, the clouds cleared up as we drove out and it was a beautiful day.  The road we took was set up as a scenic road, meaning no transport trucks could drive on it.  There were also a bunch of scenic viewpoint stops along the way.  It was quite amazing how vast and beautiful the rockies are.  Everywhere you looked was a picturesque view of the sprawling trees or snow-capped mountains [I didn't take as many pictures as I should have on the road, but the shots that I got when we got out turned out pretty good].  We stopped at Athabaska Falls and toured around it.  We also stopped at one point at a viewing lot.  Most of the trip was silent but we would occasionally ask a question or talk amongst ourselves.  The group from England are going to Ottawa coincidentally.  They started in Vancouver and are going to see family. [I took tons of pictures, but won't put very many up.  Ask for more if you want to see them]  When we got to the icefields, it was asian-central.  There were tons of asian tourists crowding the centre.  We went onto a bus to bring us to the ice explorers.  On the way was --

Oops.  Food is here

[Had to take a bit of a pause to eat]

Columbia icefields Part 1 - Breakfast!

September 14th Tuesday


Journal 2!



  I don't know why but I kept waking up last night.  I didn't have trouble sleeping again, I just thought it was weird that I slept better at the hostel. [The hotel was interesting in that it had a sink and mirror in the room, but I needed to go down the hall to use the shared bathroom/shower.  It was all good though, as the hotel was a good 40-100 bucks cheaper than other places]

I guess the crazy amounts of walking this trip has been paying off because my legs aren't terribly sore today.  I took the hotel conditioner because it was pantene pro-v, so I can carry that smell with me by shaking my evergrowing hair.

  I checked out and stored my stuff before heading to the post office.  I sent my letters and my first journal out express because it was only a dollar something difference.  Also, Nita will be seeing everyone this weekend at Jacob and Claire's new place.

After getting my icefields ticket, I headed to a restaurant called 'Papa Georges'.  The menu outside said there was a wild game burger with elk, bison, and venison.  I wanted to try it but they serve breakfast until 11:30 [my tour leaves at 12].  I may come back for it.  Instead I got a 'carnivore skillet'.  I expected a small denny's skillet, but a massive fajita skillet came out.  The monster breakfast has tons of sausage, homefries, peppers, mushrooms, and is topped with 2 large eggs and salsa/sour cream.  I finished half and packed the rest for lunch.  I also got chamomile tea so my stomach won't be all over the place for the tour. [Despite its size, it was quite delicious and heavy]

Whistlers Mountain

September 13th Monday

[Big day!]  I woke up this morning and saw a mouse scuttle across the floor.  I wasn't very surprised that it was there, but I looked up and my eyes locked with some other dude who saw it too... oh wells. [Thinking back, that was pretty gross... haha]  When I went to shave a dude was already shaving.  I don't have any shaving gel which has lead to a previous 2 cuts.  I kept looking over while brushing my teeth to catch his eye, which I'm sure looked odd.  He had an old school system involving a brush for applying and a white mass that whips onto the brush.  I did eventually get his attention and he happily obliged.  Europeans are much more down to earth about those kinds of things, especially the older ones. [Is that unsanitary? I guess it is a bit, but it's not like I used his razor... it's like borrowing tooth paste right?]

  Shortly after I shaved, I noticed a worker putting out of order signs on the showers.  Apparently the water tank was empty and there was no water available.  Thank god I showered the night before. [By the way, that shower was amazing after being on a bus all day... then again, most times when I got to shower was pretty amazing]

  I soon after realized I didn't have any breakfast food outside of a couple apples from Hebs and Wakana, and some granola bars that Hebert didn't like [Those granola bars ended up being god-sends on my upcoming hikes].

  I bought some instant noodles for 75 cents and heated some leftover water in a kettle on the stove.  This of course resulted in a gross, cheap-brand, half-cooked noodles.  I packed my stuff in the lockers and started up Whistlers Mountain. [The noodles were pretty gross, but I at least ate, which was more than I could say for everyone else who didn't have any water that morning.  I also bought a gatorade from a vending machine outside and filled my water bottle]

  The climb started rough, and I had a hard time catching my breath.  About a half hour to an hour in, I stopped and ate an apple.  Whether it was the aclimatizing or the apple, I got loads of energy for the next few hours [I later learned that it wasn't likely to be either the apple or aclimitizing... it was most likely pacing and steepness].  It was an hour in when the rain started.  It wasn't bad at first, but quickly became harder as I climbed higher.  It was never bad enough to stop, but made the trail harder.  As I kept climbing it got foggier as I entered the clouds.  About 3 hours in I hit an opening with lots of rocks.  I climbed the rocks as it began to snow.  I stopped for a granola bar which was brief as it was cold and I was wet from sweat and rain [It was pretty interesting sitting there in silence eating a granola bar on the side of a mountain allll by myself... except for this little squirrel thing that was foraging about].  I switched to a warmer sweater and kept climbing.  I soon realized the rocks were too steep to be part of the trail and back tracked.  When I found the trail again, it was all out snowing.  The clouds and heavier snow made it hard to see ahead but I did find the tramway [The snow wasn't too bad... but I had been climbing for 3 and a half hours and in a sweater and spring jacket].  When I got in, the girl said I was crazy for hiking in that weather.  I was only a half hour to the summit but it was dangerous and I was told it was a white-out so I wouldn't see anything.  I picked up a one-way down and a patch for my guitar case and trammed down.

  By this point I was soaked down to my socks, so I showered at the hostel.  When I was at the bottom of the tram, I met a nice couple from Jersey.  The lady gave me an extra map and they even drove me down to the hostel which was about 15 mins walk I saved [Sort of wish I took a snapshot of them, they were really nice.  The man said "do it while you're young" or something of that matter, and to be honest, that's why I was].  After I showered I shuttled back to town, and gathered some info on the ice fields.  Afterwards I needed some calories from my hike, so I ate some KFC. [I was so hungry by this point having not eaten anything but a pack of instant noodles, an apple, and a granola bar... it was around dinner time when I ate]

  After settling my plans, I got a hotel and did some laundry [Hotel was quite nice, and a much appreciated break from locker-room hostels and mountain trails].  While it was spinning I called home and Nita.  Since my shoes were still wet, Nita suggested drying my shoes so I did.  I feel kind of bad for the next person drying because my shoes smell kind of funny. [Okay so my bad... I thought she meant I should put my wet shoes into the dryer... but she meant I should run it through the washer first since they were soaked all the way through anyways.  I still don't think it's nice for the next person, but a lot nicer than what I did haha]

  Past the halfway point!

[It was at this point that I switched to the new journal, as I had finished off the last page of my first one.  I sent my journal along with my cards to people over to Nita.  It was about the same price for express and standard, so I just sent it for a quick 2-day]



Destination? that little house! (not that little)

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