Friday was a wonderful day. It was a 212-mile trip to Kamloops, British Columbia. We entered Canada near Abbotsford.
We had been warned that the border people were hyper about bringing fruits and vegetables into Canada. For the past several days, we had been eating everything in our refrigerator that even looked like a vegetable so we could pass inspection at the border. We still had some broccoli left, so Becky hid it in our cooler that we keep in our bedroom closet, on top of our washer/dryer. When we got to the border, they asked us if we had any firearms or mace, but not vegetables. Oh, well.
The trip from the border to pretty Kamloops (Population: 84,000) was remarkable. The weather was perfect, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and the roads (mostly Canada Route 1) were lovely.
We are staying at the Kamloops RV Park, a nice place on the East side of town. As usual, we did very little during the rest of the day we arrived. (Travel days are tiring.) On Saturday, we didn't do much more. A little grocery shopping, and browsing at the nearby RV parts store. And walking Ramsey incessantly, of course. This is, after all, just a pit stop on the way to Jasper National Park in Alberta.
Sunday involved another 200+ mile day, going to Valemount (Population: Negligible), all of it on Canada Hwy. 5. The scenery was mostly thick evergreen forests, not as dramatic as on the way to Kamloops, but beautiful, nonetheless. When it wasn't drizzling or pouring rain, the weather was pretty nice. We are staying at the iRVins [sic] Park & Campground, just outside the center of town.
The park is very nice. I don't think we will be doing much sightseeing here. The village of Valemount seems to have as its principal purpose being the gateway to Jasper National Park, where we are headed on Tuesday. There are otherwise far too many hotels, restaurants, and RV parks for a town of only 1,018 residents.
It also boasts that it is in the shadow of Mount Robson, the tallest peak in the Canadian Rockies (about 13,750 feet). It actually seems like a nice place, though it's probably horrible in the winter.
One of the fun things about being in Canada at this time (mid-June, if you’ve forgotten) is the fact that it’s 9:30 PM as I write this, we are at the far East end of the Pacific Time Zone, and yet it’s still light out.
We had been alerted by some Canadians we met before coming up here that fuel prices were much higher here than in the States. It turns out that the prices are generally only a bit higher than the ridiculous California prices we are used to. And, being a somewhat socialist country, some Canadians are a bit fuzzy on the mechanics of competition. In Valemount, there are two gas stations, one on each side of the principal intersection. At one station, the diesel price is $.16 cheaper per litre [sic---we‘re in Canada, after all]---that’s $.67 per gallon---less than at the other. Guess which one had all the business?
Wednesday was our day to go to Jasper National Park, an easy 78-mile trip through lovely scenery again. Jasper is the largest mountain park in the Canadian national park system. The weather continues to be iffy. We are staying at the Whistlers Campground in the park. It’s been raining consistently here, so there is a lot of mud, but it’s otherwise a very nice place---heavily forested, though---with large areas between sites. Our first site, assigned by management, was a bit too cramped for our rig. It also had too many trees for our satellite TV reception. We arranged to move to a different site, which, though still without TV reception due to the heavy forestation, is a lot nicer.
We ventured into the town of Jasper (right in the center of the park) to take a look, and ended up having a late lunch/early dinner at Karouzo‘s Steakhouse, on Connaught Drive across the street from the train station. I had delicious French onion soup and a BLT, Becky had escargots for the first time in many moons and a Cajun Chicken Caesar salad. Of course, we also had a bottle of wine (a Syrah from Argentina). All were delicious.
We then settled in for an early evening of listening to a satellite radio feed from the Fox News Network. (Travel days are so tiring. Remember?)
Since we are now in Alberta, we are now on the far West end of the Mountain Time Zone, and it will be interesting to see how late it will stay light tonight.
Wednesday was an interesting day. The sun played hide-and-seek all day, but at least it didn't rain. Yippee!
First we went to Maligne Lake, about 34 miles from our RV park (and still in Jasper National Park). It is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies.
The lake is a big drawing card for tourists (and mosquitos), but is, frankly, not that interesting.
More exciting was Medicine Lake, nicknamed Mystery Lake, which we passed on the way to Maligne Lake. It is just beautiful.
The “mystery” name came from the Indians (the Canadian PC name for whom is "aboriginals"), who couldn’t figure out why the lake virtually disappeared each autumn. It turns out that the spring snow melt simply overwhelms the ability of the natural passages out of the lake to handle the water flow---thus filling the lake. In October, the water flow slows substantially and the lake level drops to little more than a narrow creek until the cycle repeats the next spring.
On the way back from Maligne Lake, we stopped at Maligne Canyon, a gorge on the Maligne River (about 20 miles below the lake) which was created during the ice age by water seeping through the granite under the ice cap. The rushing water flowing through the gorge is quite breathtaking.
After that, we stopped at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, the upper crust hotel in the park. It‘s a lovely property, nestled between two lakes. Naturally, we had to stop for a drink in the lobby bar.
This hotel is much like the hotels/lodges run by the same company in Banff and Lake Louise, which we have visited previously. All of them are much nicer than the ones we have seen in our parks.
This park is known as being a good place for animals because it has far fewer visitors than, say, Banff National Park, which is more well-known. Today we saw a caribou, a bear, and several elk wandering free. It was fun.
We then returned to our site for a relaxed evening of reading and listening to the radio. (Damn, I miss live TV.)
We had breakfast Thursday at Café Mondo in Jasper (I had a Belgian waffle for the first time in at least ten years).
Becky and Ramsey then hiked back.to our campground through the forest. On the way, they had a surprising run-in with one of the calving elk that have the run of this place. It was quite scary Becky told me, since the elk took the protection of her baby very seriously.
We then headed for the Jasper Tramway. It ascends more than 3,000 feet up Mount Whistler, ending at the 7,500 foot level.
It provided a spectacular ride and spectacular views of the valley below. I’m glad Becky kept from me the little fact that the tram had an accident only 2 years ago that stranded more than 100 people---who were eventually rescued by helicopter. Knowing that would have made the ride up a little more exciting.
We then settled in for another relaxing evening, looking forward to our move toward Banff on Friday.
Friday we went 182 miles to Golden, British Columbia. We were in national parks the entire way---first in Jasper, then Banff, then Yoho. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe the scenery. It’s simply breathtaking to drive through the Canadian Rockies. Most of the way was on “The Icefields Parkway” which is described as the most scenic in the country. And I can’t disagree, even though I’ve seen only a small part of the country so far.
Golden is a small town (Population: 3,701) with the nearest RV park to the city of Banff---whose RV parks (that we can fit in) are closed for renovation. We are in the Golden Municipal Campground, right in the center of town. It’s a nice little place, and we are in a superior site, abutting the Kicking Horse River. They held their largest site for us, knowing that we had a big rig with a satellite dish on the roof.
Our arrival was stained by a very scary problem---our slideouts would not open---making our rig uninhabitable. We tried everything to make them move. I called the manufacturer in Elkhart, Indiana, knowing it was late on a Friday afternoon there. The fellow tried valiantly to help, but, ultimately turned out to have useless information. I then called the dealer where we bought the rig. They tried, but, as usual, were no help at all. And we had a lousy phone connection, to boot. We asked the clerk at the office for help and, after several attempts, she finally found a car mechanic who had some familiarity with RVs who agreed to stop by when he could. He arrived about a half hour later and solved the problem within 15 minutes. It turned out that a remote control (which we never use but which overrides the direct control) had to be reprogrammed before the slideouts would work. He stumbled into that solution just by dint of his having experience fixing mechanical things. Great guy. Our day (weekend?) was saved.
We celebrated with Chinese food that we had delivered, and by watching live television for the first time in three days. Yea! Life is good.
On Saturday, Becky got a haircut, and we walked across the new covered (wooden) pedestrian bridge across the Kicking Horse River. Pretty interesting bridge, which was constructed in only 48 hours!
Our RV park also arranged for a pig roast for some bicyclists who were staying here. The roasting pit was right next to our rig, and we were treated to some nice aromas.
And it rained all day.
Sunday was road-trip day. Notwithstanding that there was a 90 percent chance of rain in the area, we took a 200-mile round trip to three of our favorite places in this part of the country: The Banff Springs Hotel, Moraine Lake, and The Chateau Lake Louise.
We first visited The Banff Springs Hotel in 1983 and we stayed there in 1990 when we skiied in the area. It's still a beautiful, very impressive property, though it's now been expanded a couple of times such that it is now rather complicated and confusing. It is also quite the tourist draw. There were a zillion people there.
At Moraine Lake, which we also first (and last) visited in 1983, we were pleased to see that they have now built a nice lodge there, but have not wrecked the atmosphere. It's just lovely.
The Chateau Lake Louise has also been expanded since we were first there in 1983. But it's still beautiful and more open and inviting that the Banff Springs Hotel. (They are both run by the Fairmont Hotel folks, as noted earlier, but, curiously, the Chateau Lake Louise is actually owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Pension Fund. I don't know who owns the Banff Springs Hotel.) We had sandwiches in the deli in the Chateau.
The lake is still beautiful. We had been warned that its significant attraction---the Victoria Glacier that looms over one end of it---had disappeared due to (the dreaded) global warming. In fact, the glacier is still there, and substantially unchanged from what it was in 1888 when the lake was first photographed.
The rain did come, but sporadically, and never got in the way of our enjoyment. Altogether, it was a terrific day.
Monday was a travel day, heading for Kimberley, British Columbia, 160 miles away. Just before we left, we noticed that one of the tires on our rig was flat. We had the office do their thing again, this time to find us a tire repair person. An hour and a half later, we hit the road with a new tire. The speculation was that the old tire had a weird wear pattern that caused a slight tread separation that, in turn, caused the flat. The tread wear also made it legally unsafe to put the tire back on the rig---so the dealer could not remount the tire even if he could repair it, which he couldn’t, anyway. The drive to Kimberley, a small (Population: 6,700) former mining town, was uneventful, except for the occasional rain (OK, downpour), as we drove through mostly agricultural country getting there.
When we got to the Kimberley Riverside Campground (very nice, by the way) we noticed that the new tire was flat. A call to the place that installed it ended up with a promise from its affiliate in nearby Cranbrook to send someone to replace the tire this afternoon. Before the man arrived, the occasional rain turned to serious hail, thunder, and lightning. Then it all stopped as quickly as it had started. Nathan arrived, took off the new tire, inspected it, the wheel, and the valve, and determined that the problem was probably with the valve, but in any event he was going to install the new tire he had brought with him, just in case (and because he determined that the tire I had bought this morning was not exactly the right size). He replaced the tire and the valve, and remounted the wheel. Suddenly, he heard a hissing sound. It turned out that the wheel had a tiny (almost invisible) crack in it that was releasing air, and that the crack had been the problem all along. He blamed missing that crack on the shop in Golden. He then installed the spare tire (which did not have a wheel that matched its mate) and took both the old (new) tire and the new (new) tire and the wheel back to the shop until we figure out where to get a new (matching) wheel. Whew! What a day. Tomorrow will be busy sorting all of this out. I‘m sure it will not be cheap.
At least, we are in a terrific site in a terrific RV park, and the rain has stopped.
A call to the trailer factory on Tuesday revealed that a new wheel had to be ordered from the wheel manufacturer, which could take a couple of weeks. I arranged for the order, with the understanding that the factory would call me when it arrived---for delivery instructions. I then arranged with the local tire people to mount---on Wednesday, on our way to Coeur d’Alene---the new (new) tire on the cheapest wheel he could find, and we would use that package as a spare until we got the new matching wheel.
Then the rain started again, and we spent the rest of the day relaxing, after a quick trip to a hardware store in Kimberley (there being nothing of interest there except the big local attraction, an underground mining train).
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