Deve’s Blog

After… way, way too much time… still following my good intentions, I’ll get back to the travel diary of my trip to Canada, 2007… maybe my memories will be a bit blurred by now, but let’s try, also with the help of the usual pics.
So where were we? Kamloops, a stop between Whistler and Jasper.
As I woke up I felt a bit of fever… just on the day we where supposed to go rafting… And, for a change, it’s still raining…
We left, and travelled the whole morning, going from British Columbia to Alberta (on the notes of “Alberta Bound” by Gordon Lightfoot). The bad weather even spoils the view of the tallest mount of the Canadian Rockies, Mount Robson, of which otherwise we could have had a great view from the rest stop where we had lunch.

That’s where the rafting guys came to pick us up and take us to the Fraser River, the same river that flows into the sea by Vancouver, but that to the north-east is good enough for some medium-levle rafting.
Getting “dressed” in the rafting wetsuit and boots was curious… they made us change under the rain (a light rain, fortunately) withouth ceremonies… and the inside of the wetsuit was not dry at all…
Oh well; I still didn’t feel very well, but we got a paddle and split on several rafts, starting the navigtaion… I must say the experience wasn’t so great for me, maybe also because of the rain and cold… but still, there weren’t many exciting rapids, and a good part of the navigation was a bit boring. We even had to walk around the toughest rapids, because they were considered too dangerous… Near the end we also had the chance to jump in the river for an icy bath, but considering my conditions I decided to avoid that…

We changed back into our clothes at a service WC (4 walls around a hole in the ground, to be honest…), and the guys drove us back to Jasper, where we met those who chose not to do rafting. And finally, a little bit of sun is coming out…

For dinner, Ron took us to the De’d Dog Bar & Grill, where I think I probably had the best steak of my life… pure Alberta Beef, medium cooked… mmmmh… anyways, after that steak I didn’t feel any fever or cold anymore, I was completely regenerated!
After dinner, again following Ron’s suggestion, we headed to Pete’s Nigth Club, for some music and fun till late night… Fortunately, on the following day we had to leave no earlier than noon!

Around 10 am I decided to go for a walk around Jasper. The sky was still a bit clouded, but it could be said: the sun’s out! Walking around the place for an hour or so I immediately fell in love with it… nature everywhere, pure air, little american houses and a lot of peace: well, a little corner of paradise indeed… Of course, I don’t know if I could live there for long, ’cause after all I still feel a city man… but with a good wideband connection I think I could get used to it for quite a while

The day tour consisted in visiting the main attractions of the area: a cruis on Maligne Lake, a stop at Medicine Lake and a visit to the Maligne Canyon. What can I say, awesome scenery, but still it was only a little taste of what was expecting us on the Icefields Parkway the following day…
The cruise was particularly good, we only caught a few drops of rain near Spirit Island, but the sun never really left us… Maligne Lake was our first encounter with a glacial lake, having a beautiful turquoise color because of “rock flour“. The erosion caused by the glaciers leads to the formation of this rock dust, which floats in the waters of lakes and reflects the light blue-turquoise-green tones, creating breathtaking views. So it’s not the water itself that has strange colors, but technically it’s just “dirty water”… and indeed, when there’s too much rock flour (usually in rivers or strong torrents), the water takes on the typical (and not very enticing) brown color of muddy water…

Back to Jasper we had a couple of free hours, so I decided to go for a lonely walk along the Jasper Trail, a path that goes all around the city, through the wood surrounding it. Unfortunately I can’t go for a full round, I didn’t have enough time so I had to stop maybe halfway, but it was two pleasant hours, even if I was a bit worried by the bear danger and Ron’s related jokes… for example: “They say you should wear little bells on you to keep bears away, so they hear the sound and stay at a distance. Also, you can figure out if there’s a bear nearby (and what kind of bear) by looking for their feces. For example, if you find bear feces with some rests of berries or vegetables, then you’ll know there’s a baby bear nearby. Otherwise, if you find bear feces with little bells in them, well that’s an adult bear…”

For the evening, we had an included dinner at Jasper Pizza Place… where obviously pizza wasn’t real pizza… but at least they had a pool table to spend some time, before going to rest before the big day that was waiting for us: the trip along the Icefields Parkway…