Tag: british-columbia-and-alberta

There are few words to describe what we saw on our private tour of the Alberta Oil Sands. The scope and scale of the operation is beyond even what I had imagined. Seeing the process in person gave me a fresh perspective on why tar sand mining exists, its environmental ramifications, corporate morality in the oil industry, and international oil politics. These pictures speak for themselves.

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5920658764005288753?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

Today marks the last day of mountains for us before we head 8 hours north to Ft. McMurray – naturally, we did our best to squeeze every last drop out of the day and didn’t stop hiking until 9pm.

We slept in till about 9am, which was much needed after an early wakeup for fishing and and early wakeup to make the drive to Ft. Mac. We made our way downtown (Jasper has a population of ~4,000, so we’re only talking a few small street blocks here) to the visitor center for a tails maps plus suggestions for good, bear-free hikes. We were told Mt. Edith Cavell & Maligne Canyon would be a good plan of attack, so we headed out after stopping at a bakery for a pretty sinister-looking sticky cinnamon bun and a pastry-wrapped sausage roll that can only be consumed guilt-free when one knows they will soon be climbing a mountain =)

You can see Mt. Edith Cavell from town – at 3300m, it’s snow-capped most of the year and has three glaciers (Ghost, Cavell, & Angel) that hang off of it. The first bit of the hike takes you to a nice spot to look up at Angel Glacier and listen to the thunder-like sound of ice breaking off the glacier. In the turquoise pond below, there are floating chunks of ice. We decided to hike the additional 3km up to the meadows for a better view.

Along the way, we saw Pika (a mouse-like relative of the bunny rabbit that makes a loud “Peeeeeeek-aaaa” sound (almost sounds like a bird chirping), several large Hoary Marmots, a hawk, two grouse-like birds, and some overly inquisitive chipmunks. We also saw red squirrels, which apparently Europeans find very interesting – we were barked at for interrupting a squirrel photo opp by one couple, which we find quite humorous. The views of mountains, meadows & glaciers were fantastic the entire way. We were especially entertained by the marmot at the top of the meadows who did this weird belly-flop/star-fish routine on the ground for us. Not sure what that was about, but his big teeth kinda did freak me out, although considering the other wildlife that inhabit this park, I guess a marmot is quite low on the totem pole when it comes to “animals to be afraid of”.

We then drove to Athabasca Falls for some nice pictures despite the crowds. Fun fact: the Athabasca River runs through Jasper as well as Ft. McMurray and goes through the Great Slave Lake all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. I’ve never seen a northern flowing river before (or rather, realized it was flowing north to its end).

We made our way back to Jasper for a second night of pizza at Famoso, which is an Edmonton chain for thin-crust Napolitan-style pizza that is amazing. JD was especially happy about the prospect of pizza after a day of hiking. The manager recognized us as repeats and treated us to some awesome gelato as well – chocolate carmel and strachiatella. Yum! Yet another example of Canadians being totally awesome people =)

We then were headed back to our car when we hear another train roll into town – but this wasn’t just any train – this was the Rocky Mountaineer! With its blue and gold coloring and glass-topped cars, it’s the most majestic train we’ve ever seen – it was a sight to behold. As the train rolled into town, workers scrambled to prepare the train for disembarkation. The Canadian & Alberta flags were flying and it was a very patriotic moment. We were both in awe, but also a tad jealous that we don’t have deep enough pockets to afford such a journey (look it up online…the pricetag hurts, but I’m sure it’s a a fabulous time).

We then made our last stop of the day at Maligne Canyon, which is quite a deep chasm. The creepy part is that nobody knows exactly when all the water in the canyon flows to; water dye tests have resulted in dye flowing to several different locations, taking various times to get there. Very weird. The name of the canyon is derived from the French word for “evil” or “sinister”, which was kind of the vibe we got being there at dusk. We headed home, very happy to not have encountered any of the bears in the area.
Overall, it was an awesome day – usually the awesomeess of a day is directly proportional to the number of pictures taken – and today we had no shortage of fantastic pictures!

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5919990479440140209?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

We had an early start this morning – the fish bite best in the morning, right? We had close to an hour’s drive down to Maligne Lake, where our rented rowboat awaited us. It was a lovely 5C this morning with mist coming up off the water. As we were unloaded our gear on the docks, we met two gentlemen who were headed to the very far side of the lake (it’s a HUGE lake) for a wedding – one to get married, one as an attendee. Very cool – I’m guessing that it was not a black-tie affair given that it’s full day’s trip by boat (no gas motors, only electric), and one must carry ALL their supplies with them to the primitive campsite at the end of the lake. The gentlemen wished us well and told us that we’d certainly catch a fish today. We were sure hoping that was true!!!

We trolled very slowly so as to conserve battery life (the sport shop where we rented our gear had us quite worried about getting stranded) up one side of the lake, casting near the shoreline, especially in places where the lake dropped off precipitously and/or where creeks fed into the lake. We spotted what looked be more experienced fishermen and decided to follow them, because it wouldn’t take much to have more of a clue than we had when it came to where to fish the lake. About 3.5 hours later, we had our first success – a sizable Brook Trout (aka “Brookie)!

After the thrill of actually catching something and the necessary pictures, the oh sh!# moment of how to unhook the fish. I had never caught something that large – I couldn’t even wrap my hands around it! Not only that, but it was soft and not spiny and firm like the little Sunnies I’m used to releasing. After several failed attempts with a really sorry pair of pliers, we decided to enlist the help of the other fishing canoe we had been stalking – their english wasn’t great, so at first they didn’t realize we were calling out to them. Thankfully, they came to Mr. Brookie’s rescue – and by “rescue”, I mean they unhooked him and kept him (as a tourist, what the heck was I going to do with it? Gut it and clean it in the B&B bathroom?). Actually, my biggest concern was how to keep the fish cool (we didn’t have a cooler), then I realized that the lake temp probably wasn’t much above 40F, so just trailing him in the water would have sufficed. Oh well. I think I had traumatized the poor guy too much to release him anyway.

The luck continued after a brief power nap on the “2Fast 2Furious” (as JD dubbed our boat, given its pathetic trolling motor), with Audrey landing a fish that appeared to be at least double the size of the previous one. Alas, the line snapped just as he was boatside (we forgot we had a landing net – oops), so no pictures exist. We promise – it’s not a tall tale, but rather a testament to the less than ideal fishing line that came with our rentals.

We then crossed the lake in what felt like an hour (the lake is that big and our boat that slow), trying to avoid the tourboats that go whizzing by leaving us poor dopes in tiny boats to endure some scary wakes (considering the aforementioned lake temps). The lake was truly quiet and uncrowded, save for those tour boats =/ At least we had been warned that they will mow you over.

JD’s big bit of the day came on the other side of the lake, where he landed a large brook trout that was really red in color (it looked like a Salmon according to the fish ID card we were given, but we were told that Brook Trout can get to be that color). We landed it in the net (so it actually counts as a catch) and idiot Audrey was waiting to take JD’s picture as he lifted it up of of the net for presentation…when…surprise! the line snapped again and Brookie #3 was on his way for the day. I feel terrible that we don’t have photographic evidence of that one =(
We realized then that it was 3:30 pm and we were still quite far away from the dock. Trolling at what seemed like 0.1 mph had us worried if we’d make it back before dark…luckily, some improvised garbage bag sails and running the motor at full blast (they told us it would drain the battery – it didn’t – plus, we had a spare) got us back by 7:30 pm.

On the drive out, we saw a mamma black bear with two cubs eating berries by the side of the road (we stayed in the car for those shots), as well as mountain sheep (rams), which had us feeling much better about seeing wildlife on our trip!

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5919617532768646497?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

Today’s adventure involved a lovely trip along the world-famous Icefields Parkway. The drive itself from Golden BC to Jasper Park should only take about 4 hours, but with the numerous scenic stops along the way, it’s very easy to make an entire day of the drive.
First stop was Emerald Lake to get another look at just how high up we hiked the day prior. We also got a good look at the Natural Bridge, as well as took a walk down an old fire road to a supposed salt lick where wildlife likes to gather (never found it), but we did see a neat spot at the confluence of three rivers, making for a pretty mixing of different water colors.
Once on the Icefields Parkway, we pulled off at many of the pulloffs. We enjoyed that the crowds seemed to thin the later in the day and the closer to Jasper we got. We stopped at the Columbia Icefields and walked up to the glacier (no guided tour for us, since we have just recently hiked Fox Glacier in NZ). It’s so sad to see how rapidly the Athabasca Glacier is receding it’s predicted that it will be gone within the next 100 years. We should all be a little (or a lot) kinder to the environment….
JD shot an awesome panorama for posterity.

We continued our journey and made a couple more pullouts for some photo opps, and arrived in the town of Jasper around 7pm. We are staying at a lovely B&B that’s a steal of a deal and the folks are suuuuuuper nice. Case and point – when we told them we told them we were going fishing, the guy made some phone calls to his fishing buddies for tips and to see if any of them would like to come out with us (some of them are retired and in his words “always looking to take people out on the lake”). I am still blown away by how incredibly nice and easy-going Canadians are!!! Move over Southern Hospitality, the Great White North could give you a run for you money ;^)
We went to the sporting goods store in town to pick up our fishing gear that we had rented and hope to have an early start Brook & Rainbow Trout Fishing on Lake Maligne. (Wish us luck!) Before retiring for the night, we had the most amazing pizza at a little place in town. Expensive pizza, but fabulous pizza – we came home very happy and ready to catch some fishes tomorrow!

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5919249909138953393?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

Today we had an early start to fit in all the hiking we had planned to make up for yesterday’s lack of excitement. After eating about three times a normal breakfast (for Audrey at least,) we headed out to Wapta Falls, just inside Yoho National Park. It was about 5 degrees C when we stated, and the chill felt nice with our fleeces on while walking through some beautiful forests. It was a fairly short and level walk out to the viewing point for the falls. The falls were so fierce, that the spray they put off was quite impressive. The sun was still coming up over the mountains – the peaks are so tall that even when it’s light outside, it still takes quite a while for sunlight to make its way over the peaks. We had the falls mostly to ourselves, which was really a neat feeling. I was worried that with it being Labor Day weekend and all that the parks would be mobbed, but my goodness, Canadian Parks don’t even compare to US National Parks. (Sorry America). There is no traffic, no hoardes of people, no idiots feeding the wildlife that they’re supposed to be keeping wild. Don’t get me wrong, we have some awesome parks back home, and the minute you go on anything longer than a 5-minute “hike” you can escape the crowds, but it’s just such a breath of fresh air to feel like you’re the only people in the worth soaking in the natural beauty. But I digress…

Second stop of the day was the visitor center to pick up a handy park map (we are doing all this sans cell phone – it’s quite liberating!!!) and some friendly Parks Canada Ranger advice. We were thinking of doing the Iceline Trail, but since we had just hiking Plain of the Six Glaciers two days prior, the Ranger recommended heading towards Burgess Pass instead for some “wide open” views. Sounds great – the only catch is that Yoho NP is home of some serious elevation changes (thank you glaciers!), so we were in for a dousy no matter which hike we chose. We parked near the Whiskey Jack Hostel at the foot of thundering Takakkaw Falls and quickly became familiar with elevation gain. The first initial climb was probably no less than 500+ meters. The switchbacks were rough, but thankfully, after the initial climbing hell was over, the trail leveled out nicely.

We passed through some nice forests and meadows before arriving at Yoho lake. We decided to have lunch while taking in the towering mountains and brilliantly-colored waters. We then headed off to Burgess Pass (or at least as far as we could get by 4pm, at which point, we’d need to take our vista pictures and turn around to head back down to ensure we’d be back to our car before dark. I must say, the climbing was worth the reward – the vistas of soaring mountains topped with glaciers that fed into waterfalls, and Emerald Lake glistening below were sights to behold! The hike was mostly exposed at this point, and it was a tough balance between minding where you put your feet on the narrow, rocky path that drops of precipitously on on side and wanting to look all around to soak it all in. JD made some really awesome stitched panoramas that were our best effort of capturing the “wow” factor of this hike.

The hike back down was pleasant as the sun was setting on the mountains beside us. This hike definitely leaves one feeling with a pretty awesome sense of accomplishment and a good dose of motivation to continue to hike (although our mountains back home aren’t quite as grand =( as well as stay in shape so hikes like this are even an option. Hikes like this one are DEFINITELY worth taking a vacation for!

On the way home, we saw some mountain goats just chilling on the side of the road, but it wasn’t safe to stop, seeing as we were barreling downhill coming out of the mountain pass that is Yoho NP. We hope to catch some more glimpses of the mountain goats as we make our way up into Jasper NP tomorrow!

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5918868759599766193?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

Today was a rest day from all that hiking – our legs and feet needed a break, so some paddling in the nearby Columbia Wetlands seemed to be the perfect fit. The Wetlands came highly reviewed, with promise of seeing lots of wildlife while taking in some awesome scenery. The outfitter we used was a family-run operation, and they were really passionate and knowlegable about the Wetlands. They shuttled us and our two person canoe upstream and provided us with a map for navigating our way back to their docks.

The day started out cloudy, but thankfully, the clouds soon gave way to sunshine and the mountains appeared from behind the fog. We took care to go very slowly, so as not to disturb any wildlife. Alas, our efforts were met with only moderate success – the wildlife highlights included an elk that jumped into the river momentarily in front of us, a few ducks, one heron and one eagle. That was the sum total of the wildlife spotted in the wetlands. Kinda a bummer, but looking back on it, maybe middle of the day wasn’t the best time to go for a float trip. We wish somebody had informed us of such, but oh well…the scenery was nice. After 6.5+ hours in that canoe, however, our butts and backs had had enough and we made our way back to Golden.

We had hoped to catch a ride on the Kicking Horse Ski Resort Gondola for a nice evening lookout, but they closed at 4:30 =( At the very least, I wanted to see their resident Grizzly bear, Boo, who lives in an enclosed area on their property. Thwarted in so many ways, we were kinda bummed, but things were soon made better when we went to the local supermarket and had a rotisseire chicken and fresh salad for dinner while sitting in our car outside the laundromat, waiting for our stinky hiking clothes to be clean again. We drove around town and discovered that Golden has a good bit of charm. It’s a blue-collar working town with lots of railway and logging activity, but all the locals we have encountered are so friendly and welcoming. We’re happy to call it our “home” for three nights. We’re staying at a B&B right in downtown that has comfy beds, fantastic breakfast, and the nicest, most helpful hosts. Thus, putting the lack of wildlife on the float trip aside, it was still a scenic day spent in a nice little nook of British Columbia!

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5918478225171226977?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]

Today’s weather certainly matched our destination du jour…what’s better on a rainy day than a hot cup of tea? I will explain…

We started by stopping by the Fairmont Banff Springs for a look around one of the nicest castles…er…hotels around. Exploring the grounds and the interior were both amazing and the pictures don’t do it justice.

We then headed up to Lake Louise to hike the Plain of the Six Glaciers Trail, which leads to one of Lake Louise’s TWO tea houses. The story behind the tea houses is that the only way to reach Lake Louise was by train back in the early 1900’s. This, naturally, was something only the wealthy could afford, so to lure them to the park for a visit they built the tea houses as a way to promise them the comforts of home whilst out in the rugged wilderness. Nowadays, it’s a pretty cool destination – they fly in their supplies at the start of the season, the wait staff must hike in/out (they live in cabins around the tea house during their 5-day shift), and boil their water with butane, as they have no electricity.

The hike was scenic and just about the right grade of uphill to not feel so terrible while climbing the 1000ft to the teahouse, located at 6800 ft (or so my commemorative t-shirt says). We had hopes of the sun poking out, as the tops of the LeFroy and Victoria Glaciers were covered in clouds, but any glimmer of sun was soon followed by patches of rain, and in one instance, sleet! Thus, warm tea and some snacks after hiking up a mountain in cold-ish/wet weather was a welcome break, and by far, the coolest hiking destination to date! Many times we hike just to get to the top – in this case we hiked to get a spot of tea before turning around to head back via the Highline Trail to the Lake Agnes Tea House.

Thankfully the downhill from here wasn’t too terrible on the knees and we took some nice pictures of the lake (we saw a bride and groom freezing their butts off doing the same!) before heading to the car for a warm change of dry clothes. We made the hour-long drive down the “10-mile hill” to Golden, BC, where we will be staying the next few nights as a hopping off spot for more adventures in this beautiful patch of the Rockies!

[pe2-gallery album=”http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/116540931850597192007/albumid/5918129092931998337?alt=rss&hl=en_US&kind=photo” ]