June 21st. The first official day
of summer, and both Jocelyn and myself are finished our summer
jobs. She has acute tendonitis in her shoulders, and I have a
strained muscle in the huge knot I call my back. Treeplanting is
not an easy job. Index of places
June 21st. The first official day
of summer, and both Jocelyn and myself are finished our summer
jobs. She has acute tendonitis in her shoulders, and I have a
strained muscle in the huge knot I call my back. Treeplanting is
not an easy job.
We have no itinerary, no deadline to meet. A perfect way to
cross the country. We had driven from London, Ontario to Prince
George, BC in late April, taking 6 days to do it. Now we could
actually explore Canada. The trunk contained a two-man tent, a
sleeping bag, two blankets, minimal clothes, a replacement bulb
for the Hella H4 lights, and a combination screwdriver. Tapes and
maps were the only things in the cockpit.
British Columbia is a spectacular
province, but its beauty is marred by the huge clearcuts that
sprawl across the mountainsides. It's no wonder the environmental
movement is so strong here; the damage is so obvious. After
working in clearcuts for two months, we had seen the devastation
up close, and wanted to get out of BC. Thus, top down, we headed
for Jasper National Park.
We had stopped in Jasper on our way west. At
that time of year, late April, there are no tourists, and many of
the campgrounds and services are closed. This means that you can
get a feeling of true wilderness, without the incessant whirr of
the cameras. We spent the day travelling up to Maligne Lake,
which is the largest lake in the Rockies and breathtakingly
beautiful. In late April, it's frozen, too.
The road going in is about 40 km long, and goes nowhere else.
It's a great Miata road - awesome scenery, smooth pavement, and
lots of twisty bits. When it's deserted, some serious fun may be
had. Luckily, Jocelyn understands and enjoys it when Baby and I
start to play.
On the way to Maligne Lake is the
Maligne Canyon, where the Maligne River thunders in the summer (I
sense a theme here). At the time of our visit, it was dry. We
spent a few good hours clambering around the bottom of the
Canyon, fascinated by the shapes the water sculpts in the rock.
All alone in the canyon, we were able to feel quite close to
nature. We appreciated the protection afforded to these areas by
the National Parks. Without them, the Maligne Canyon would be
developed and destroyed.
When we returned to Jasper in June, two
things had happened. The ice had melted, and the tourists had
arrived. We revisited the Maligne Canyon, and found it
transformed. Where we had found peace and tranquility, there now
was a river that roared and rushed through the canyon. A 6 metre
(20') drop we had spent some time exploring was invisible,
appearing to be only 1 m (3') high. The frozen waterfall at the
head of the canyon was now a foaming maelstrom of spray and
noise.
The road was more sedate, by comparison. We discovered that
traffic stops at the slightest sign of wildlife, and the Canons
come into play. A cyclist was being mobbed by bighorn sheep who
were licking the salt off his legs, and the sheep were being
mobbed by tourists. As we worked our way through, the cyclist was
passing the point of amusement, and starting to look a little
worried. Being at eye level with the sheep, we decided to move on
as well.
It was perfect weather. About 25 degrees C, sunny and clear. You
can see so much more from the seats in a convertible than from a
sedan. Baby was in her element. Why then, did we see a brand new
Mustang convertible in the middle of this splendor with the top
raised? After much discussion, Jocelyn and I decided that the
driver must have won the car in a raffle.
We began the next day with a visit to the
Miette Hot Springs. The pools did wonders for our afflicted
parts, and the drive in did wonders for our smiles. The road to
the Miette Hot Springs has a warning at the beginning:
Warning: Narrow winding road. Sharp shoulders. Not recommended for large trailers or motorhomes past campground
I liked it so much, I had to take a picture of it. It was an
apt warning, as well. The road is very twisty, with lots of tight
corners requiring 2nd gear.
The
rock faces echoed with Baby's snarl as she wound out of the
corners at 5000 rpm. I was busy shifting gears, revelling in the
feel of the shifter and the sound of the exhaust. The feel of the
car is transformed between 4000 rpm and the redline. All of the
controls take on a harder edge, and there is a sense of urgency
to the Miata. I knew all of this before, but had never had the
opportunity to really drive Baby where she was meant to be
driven. The early morning sun gave everything a sharp definition,
and the road was deserted. The hot springs had changed their
hours of operation only the day before, and nobody else seemed to
know. This was one of the great drives of the trip. I'm still
smiling.
Later that day, we began to head towards Banff
on the Icefields Parkway. This is usually a 2.5 hour drive. It
took us two days.
The parkway is stuffed full of scenic viewpoints,
interpretive exhibits, and Icefields. We would make it about 15
minutes down the road before stopping for something. We traveled
all day with the top down, stopping at more waterfalls,
viewpoints, sheep, mountain goats, elk, and moose. The Icefields
Centre has many good exhibits, and you can hike to the foot of
the glacier there. We were travelling on a very tight budget, so
we didn't take any of the snowcoach tours of the glaciers, but
there's lots to do in the Parks without spending a cent. Watch
for the short hiking trails off the side of the road. We were
stopped to look at Bridal Veil Falls when we noticed a 1.5 km
trail leading to Panther Falls. When we followed it, we found
ourselves at the foot of a spectacular set of falls seemingly
coming out of solid rock. The noise was tremendous, and we were
standing in the spray from the icy water. There was no sign of
these falls from the road, so the moral is: Get out of the car!
We made it to Lake Louise
eventually, and drove up to Moraine Lake for a look. This is the
scene that used to be on the back of the Canadian $20 bill - an
intensely blue-green lake with ten mountain peaks towering
overhead. The part they didn't show on the bill, however, is the
moraine. A huge rock pile blocks off the valley and forms the
lake, but looks completely out of place. It is covered with
walking trails, fossils, and great viewpoints, but we couldn't
help laughing at it. The road up to the lake is another of these
legendary drives - people were actually moving over to let me get
by! I wasn't bullying anyone; I think they could just tell I was
having a lot of fun. The road climbs gradually, and follows the
contours of the mountain. For the most part, it goes through
forest, but every once in a while there is a spectacular view as
you break free of the woods. We had so much fun, we returned to
Moraine Lake to eat our breakfast early the next morning. We sat
on the moraine and watched the sun slide onto the water as we
munched on bagels from the village bakery.
Lake Louise itself is best appreciated if you hike around the
surrounding area. We didn't have the right footwear, but vowed to
return. We kept on going to Yoho National Park to see some falls
and Emerald Lake. Another great road into the falls ("no
trailers allowed"), but we couldn't get close enough. After
the Panther Falls, they were a little disappointing. Emerald
Lake, on the other hand, was too picturesque to be true. We found
that the brightly coloured lakes got to be commonplace after a
while, but Emerald Lake (green) is set off by a perfectly drawn
set of mountains, complete with a little winding stream on the
far side. The chalet there fits right in, and we sat with tea and
hot chocolate, watching the lake and listening to some Germans
having a blast in canoes.
Whenever you are travelling through these parks, take the back
roads. The old TransCanada is labelled Hwy 1a, and is much more
interesting. It twists and turns, climbs the side of mountains,
and is free of the plague of RVs on the main Hwy 1. We took 1a
over the Great Divide to and from Yoho, and then on to Banff. On
the section before Banff (the Bow Valley Parkway), there are
sections where the two lanes split off from one another, and you
find yourself on a one lane ribbon of pavement, twisting back and
forth with smooth shoulders. We went through these on the redline
in 3rd, following the racing line through the woods.
Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a good excuse to double back
and do it again.
Banff has been taken over by the tourists. It
could be worse - people do still live there - but it felt like
Chamonix in a different language; Japanese. There are two type of
people in Banff: the tourists who are spending thousands to see
the mountains on bus tours, and the students who have found work
for minimum wage so they can bike, ski, hike, and snowboard on
days off. We stopped here long enough to discover a store that
had a beautiful metal model of a "Mazda Myata" for
$150. The salesmen, when I pointed out the spelling mistake,
laughed and said that it had been labelled as a Honda Myata for a
while. Whoops. I didn't buy one.
In Calgary, we stayed with my uncle and my little cousins. Kids
are great, especially if you can give them back to someone else
when they get tired :). An oil change for Baby (fresh Alberta
oil), and we hit the prairies.
You reach the prairies in a big hurry,
actually. The mountains just seem to stop, and nothing else
happens (topographically speaking) until you reach Ontario.
There's not much to say, really, except that Winnipeg has some
beautiful neighbourhoods with extremely low housing prices, you
can end up doing laps of Regina if you don't use a map, and that
just because you can see another car coming doesn't mean you
can't pass. Other cars, especially those with Daytime Running
Lights, are visible miles away and may not reach you for a couple
of minutes. This takes a bit of getting used to when you grew up
in Ontario.
The rest of the trip was a letdown, really. We
hightailed it for the cottage in Muskoka, then on to London and
Ottawa. The Hella H4 lights on Baby worked very well through the
blackness of the night north of Lake Superior on the way in to
Wawa (winner of the most expensive gas and campground in Canada:
$0.78.9/litre and $18/night). Miatas became a little more
commonplace as we got closer to Toronto; we began to see two or
three each day. And the drivers in Ontario, especially near
Toronto, were the worst we had encountered. It was a relief to be
back in Ottawa, not moving all the time, but the mountains still
stay fresh in our minds. I have a job detailing cars at a used
car dealership, and Jocelyn is working at a bagel bakery. We're
both about 95% healed from the work in BC, but we can't forget
all of the fun we had.
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