16. Jasper

The drive to Jasper was a long one.  What should have been a 3 hour journey turned into 5.5 hours following a landslide at a place called "Field" on Highway 1 so we had to take a detour via the Radium hotsprings and basically start our journey by driving 100km in the wrong direction!

Still the beautiful scenery along the way made it way more tolerable...

Taking a coffee break at Bow Lake en route..

As we approached Jasper, we noticed that there were cars stopped randomly on either side of the road and people running around in a panic.  We automatically thought that there had been an accident, and someone may have been hurt!  However, we should have known better because as we got closer it became clear that everyone's attention was focused toward one side of the road and they were all holding their cameras.... then we spotted the reason..... there was a black bear roaming along the side of the road.  We too then joined in on the mayhem and pulled the car over and reached for the camera! 

Bear Alert!

In this area we have since got quite used to the scene of cars being abandoned on the side of the road, with doors left wide open, all road sense apparently gone as people desperately try to get a shot of the wildlife that may have wandered into view. Suddenly their whole lives depend on getting that crucial shot!  Some we now refer to as the "drive by shooters".  They normally drive large dark coloured SUV's with tinted windows.  Whilst slowly coasting down the middle of the road, you see them slide down the window, push up their sunglasses and then point their 300mm SLR zoom lens out the side.  Not quite sure what happens when these guys meet oncoming traffic or photographers, they probably just think they hit a bump in the road..

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However after all the travel (plus unpacking), we managed to relax and end the day with a romantic meal at the Pines restaurant (situated at the hotel), with views over Pyramid Lake!

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On our first full day we found that it was much easier to find somewhere to hire mountain bikes than when we were at Kicking Horse....just a walk to the hotel reception in fact!  Photo of Svan above with Lake Edith in the background.

We really enjoyed this cycle as we found some great terrain and with NO mosquitoes!  The one dicy moment came just before the photo above was taken where I had been feeling particularly good, picking up speed on some downhill stretches. At the bottom of one there was a puddle, but I had to try and take more speed and go though it as there was an incline the other side, so I just sent to ride straight through it.  This is when I discovered that large holes can hide under small puddles! My front wheel jammed in the hole and I flew straight over the handle bars landing on my helmet - well I guess that's what they're there for!  Luckily nothing was hurt, apart from my pride that is, and we continued to enjoy the rest of the ride!

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On our final day we had thought about cycling out to Maligne Lake and Maligne Canyon after my friend Martin had said that he thought this lake was even more stunning than Lake Louise..... with a recommendation like that we had to see it!

Luckily we checked the distance from Jasper town down to the Lake.  It was nearly 40 km!  So we decided to drive...

I have to say that I agree with Martin, Maligne Lake is stunning (as is the cost of the ferry trip across it at $57 each by the way, needless to say we declined). With dimensions of 22.5x1.5km it is massive when compared to Lake Louise at 2.0x0.5km! I agree that size doesn't always matter, but in this case with the snow topped mountains and evergreen trees surrounding it I think it is prettier than Lake Louise even though Louise is often quoted as one of the most beautiful lakes in the world!

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 After seeing Maligne Lake we popped in to see Maligne Canyon - the shot above is a side on view of what is Canada's deepest and longest limestone canyon!  The fast flowing water here is amazing and has to be seen to be believed!

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View of one of the glaciers forming a part of the "Columbia Icefield" driving back from Jasper down the Icefields Parkway (Highway 93).  No detours this time so we had more time on the way back down to Lake Louise including stopping for photos, a popular hike (the Parker Ridge) and yet another stunning blue lake!

http://www.icefieldsparkway.ca/

Photos above of the Parker Ridge Trail hike, it's not a particularly difficult hike, and after a series of "switchbacks" you are then truly rewarded with some great views of the Saskatchewan Glacier!

 Our final stop on the way to Lake Louise was at Peyto Lake, where we dodged the showers to get this shot!

15. Kicking Horse

At the start of the Terminator Ridge Hiking Trail on our 1st afternoon in Kicking Horse.  This hike was recommended by our friend Katherine.  It is at the top of the Golden Eagle Express Gondola, the start of which was situated literally just a few metres away from the Glacier Hotel where we were staying.

This hike was going to prove challenging though..

and I would need to check for gaps in the clouds..

At the "Superbowl" ridge part way through the hike.

Although we got caught in a shower on the way back it was still a great way to start our visit!

Day 2 in KH saw us "attempt" to go mountain biking. The 1st challenge was actually finding somewhere near the trails that rented bikes. After talking to the Visitor Centre they recommended we try out "The Eco-Adventure Ranch", from where we should be able to gain easy access to the "Moonraker" trails. On arrival it turned out they only had 4 bikes and none of them had been particularly well serviced. Just after we had picked up the bikes it started to rain, but we guessed it would just be a passing shower, so we waited and it cleared. We were advised in the shop that the best trail to go to involved a steep climb at the beginning where we would have to push the bikes up hill for around 15-20 minutes, but after that we would gain access to some great terrain! This steep uphill climb turned out to be our first mistake. The rain meant that the path up had become very slippery and almost impassable for hikers let alone pushing a bike! If this wasn't difficult enough, the hill was next to a river and this combined with the rain seemed to turn the local mosquitoes into blood thirsty vampires! Unfortunately, as we got stuck on the hill we were sitting targets, and our mosquito repellant seemed to count for nothing! 30 minutes later and covered in bites we reached the top (and that was only after Svan had to help me!) This was then followed by us getting lost and going through an abandoned trail where Svan went over the handle bars of her bike twice before we then had to cycle solidly uphill for a further 20 minutes. At the top, where the photo above is taken (at Sander Lake - bites don't show at a distance) we decided we had had enough and called it a day and cycled back to the rental shop, before driving home to shower and apply plenty of anti-itch cream. It turned out that between us we had nearly 100 bites, Svan had been bitten through her clothing and on her face, and I had been bitten on my head. Suffice to say we did not make a pretty sight!

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After our "bad mosquito" experience the day before we took it easy on our final day in Kicking Horse and visited a couple of places recommended by the Visitor Centre that were based on the way out of town towards Revelstoke.  The first of these was the "Wolf Centre", where we saw real life wolves up close! While we didn't dance with them Kevin Costner style we did howl with them! Check out www.northernlightswildlife.com

On leaving the wolf centre, we had the option to go for some Canadian fast food..

...funnily enough we declined...

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Then just down the road we were lucky enough to turn up at the Buffalo Ranch at a time when we were the only visitors there and to have the undivided attention of the owner Leo Downey (shown above).  He moved up from California in 1998 to set up the ranch from scratch.  He is clearly a man of many talents! By trade he is actually a musician, but after working with animals in California and then talking to some old guys who had reared Bison for many years he decided to set up his own ranch in Canada after falling in love with the place on his honeymoon!  Leo was full of interesting stories.  One of these was that (both female and male) bison are very aggressive and will charge you if you enter their pasture. This in itself is perhaps not that unexpected I grant you!  However, with the females they will apparently charge you (running at the speed of a horse) and if you stand your ground, they will, he assures me, stop within a few feet of you!  This he puts down to their intense dislike of being touched.  Well, at least they stop 99 times out of a 100.....it takes a brave man to take those odds with an animal weighing in at around 1500 lbs charging at you! Then of course you wouldn't want to get the sex wrong either as the males don't stop....ever!  I think I will give this a miss, there are plenty of other "extreme" things to do...

Above is a picture of "Chester" the 2,200lb bull sire of the hurd.

If you are ever in the Kicking Horse area check out: www.rockymountainbuffaloranch.com it is a great way to spend some time if you have a spare afternoon!

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We finished our trip to KH with a great meal at the Kicking Horse Grill with Lisa and Dan, who have a weekend place in town.  We first met Lisa snowboarding back in Val Thorens in 2007/08 and have stayed in touch ever since.  It was great to catch up again and to meet her fiance Dan for the first time!

Strangely enough the Kicking Horse Grill did serve bison ribs!

14. Fernie, BC

It would be interesting seeing Fernie in the Summer. Whilst Svan had snowboarded there 3 years before, it will be where we will both be spending the whole of the next Winter season...

On the way up from Waterton we had already got to see our first bear @ The Cinnamon Bear Cafe, and he was quite a friendly one to boot - his cinnamon buns were great!

As soon as we arrived and had unpacked we booked ourselves in for a 2 hour downhill mountain bike course for beginners.  The bikes felt really strange to ride as they have front and back suspension, but believe me you are grateful for this when hurtling down the trails!  (Please allow some poetic license to use the word "hurtling"!) 

On the 1st full day we took the bikes out on our own, and even started doing ramps, oooowahhhhh!

The above shots show Svan riding the "Honey Bee" Trail

Me at the end of "Honey Bee"

Enjoying a drink with Katherine and Liz at Yamogoya Sushi Bar at the end of our "rest" day

At the top of Polar Peak with Katherine and Svan. According to the guides this is rated "difficult" - rocky terrain with significant elevation changes. "Some scrambling is necessary"....no shit!  This 3.5 hour hike was our most challenging yet, with only a few markers to follow across some steep and uneven terrain plus a couple of rock slides on the final decent - yikes!

We had a great time in Fernie and look forward to riding these same slopes with our snowboards in the Winter!

13. Back Country in Waterton Lakes National Park

We were clearly entering dangerous territory...

View over Upper Waterton Lake at Dusk

Our first hike took us to the top of "Bears Hump"

View from Bear's Hump over the town and lake

After hiking the Bears Hump in the morning, we then did Bertha Lake in the afternoon, but all of this was to be just the "warm up" for the next day..

Making a snowball at Bertha Lake in July!!

The "Crypt" hike which we did on the second day, is apparently rated as Canada's #1 hike, and takes 6 hours to complete!  There is a risk that you can encounter both black bears and even grizzlies!  Apparently grizzlies can be more aggressive, but when you have not seen either before it's not easy to tell the difference, and they don't make it easy for you!  We thought that grizzlies were brown, black bears (logically) black!  But apparently, black bears can be brown too!  What you have to look out for is that the grizzly has very small ears, the black bear very large ones and when they walk, the hind legs of the back bear will be it's highest point, whereas the grizzly has a hump on its back which is its highest point!  Either way we were armed with pepper spray and our secret weapon..... Svan's singing!

To get to the "Crypt" involved a short trip on the speed boat, which added to the sense of going somewhere not usually accessible...

The first cool thing we came to was a beautiful waterfall

Then to get to the lake we had to go through an amazing cave..although standing up proved challenging..

This was the view that we trekked nearly 3 hours to get to see..

This was the spot we ate a well deserved packed lunch at before making the journey back to catch the boat at 4pm..

On the way back..

We made it!

As we took the waterfront detour (which added 20 minutes) on the way back, we had to get our skates on to make it for 4pm, although we found that by breaking into a jog we could just about out run the mosquitos! What a great day though!