Frontier Canada... Vancouver and into the Rockies
Hello Y'all,It has as I well know been rather a long time since the last update but now that I have unlimited internet access I am gonna nail this bad boy so that you've got so much bedtime reading that you'll have no trouble getting to sleep at night...
So Sunday June 12th, 2005. Got up at sparrow's fart to get a cab from The Green Tortoise to The Red Lion Hotel to catch my 3 week 'Frontier Canada' tour. So got the cab no trouble and aware that there are 2 Red Lion Hotels in Seattle I showed the cab driver my tour ticket to make sure that the clown didn't take me to the wrong one: "Yes sir, off course sir, I am taking you to Red Lion sir, no problem sir!" So assuming that the man has a hold of the situation I slump back into my seat.... The journey is however taking slightly longer than I anticipated having previously checked that it was only a 10 minute cab ride not the 20 that it had been so far... Naturally I reconfirmed our destination with the driver, and my doubts regarding his 'knowledge' of the Seattle area was immediately thrust back in my general direction, really how could I be so naive to think such a thing. So at the Red Lion we arrive, I pay the man for his less than satisfactory service (no tip) and as I get out of the cab I am immediately struck by the fact that considering this place has a number of tours departing at 7am all around the states, there is a startling lack of activity considering that the current time is 6.50am.. Common sense takes me to the hotels reception and once I mention 'Trek America Tours' greeted with a look of utter confusion I realise that this ain't the right Red Lion... So, with the assistance of a very helpful receptionist I managed to contact the tour leader at the right hotel, get a cab there and make the tour only 30 mins late with a mad sweat on...
So after meeting my travel buddies for the next 3 weeks: driver - J.D Boyle (Kentucky, USA), Luke and Georgie (NSW, Australia), Tim (Sydney, Australia), Carla and Edwina (Bath, UK), Claire and Julie (Scunthorpe, UK), Vaughn and Debbie (Rotherham, UK), and packing the van with everything including the kitchen sink we set off for Vancouver. However, first stop was the mighty Walmart... For those of you that have been to a Walmart before I apologise for boring you, but I was somewhat taken aback by this place, huge simply does not do this place justice as quite simply there is nothing you can't get there, and how cheap?? So we grabbed a few essentials for the next two days and took to the border. Passport control we had been warned could prove to be an extremely tedious affair, fortunately for us it was entirely hassle free.. Next stop Vancouver only 32 miles from the border. We entered the city via South Vancouver over the Granville St Bridge into Chinatown - Gastown - the very shady Hastings St and onto Stanley Park, the inline-skating capital of the world. We made it to Capilano RV Park mid-afternoon. This is a delightful spot just over the bridge directly under the freeway - perfect for a sound night's sleep in your first night in a tent for about 8 years.. oh and did I mention it was pissing with rain. Anyway, we set off into the city for some exploring, first stop Granville Island. This is a fascinating blend of restaurants, theatres, buskers, boutique shops and markets reached either by the bridge or our choice, the bathtub sized passenger ferry. After grabbing some nosh and a little wander Tim, Luke, Georgie and I headed for Gastown where Vancouver began after 'Gassy' Jack Deighton, an English sailor who gave up the sea to open a bar, and when a community formed around his watering hole around 1867, the Gastown name emerged. We took a few snaps of Jack's bronze statue along with the Steam Clock. From there we had a rather leisurely stroll around the Downtown area before making our rendezvous point at The Great Wall Mongolian BBQ Restaurant on Denman St at 6.30pm. This was a truly special place - $9 all you can eat Mongolian BBQ and hungry enough to eat the chair I was sitting on I made it up there 3 times to ensure that I got my money's worth. Satisfied and sick we took a well-needed stroll to the van along English Bay Beach and then back to the campsite for some a rather wet night's sleep. I did also get spotted sprinting the toilet in the middle of the night wearing nothing other than my boxers which did come back to haunt me several times.
Up nice and early on Monday we packed and loaded the van, a very meticulous, military-style operation and then hit the highway through Kowloops, Clearwater and eventually onto Wells Gray Provincial Park in the Canadian Rockies. Here we found our stop for the night at the Wells Gray Ranch where we had a cabin for the night - a very thoughtful way of breaking us in on the part of J.D as the tents were soaked and the forecast wasn't pretty for the coming night. It was then down to the nitty gritty of getting dinner prepared and cooked so J.D and I decided to take the initiative and get some home made burgers together and spark up the BBQ. Luke got a campfire going to provide a focal point and within a half hour dinner was served, the troops were fed and watered and off to bed we went.
Pretty rough night's sleep to be honest, especially embarrassing when I woke everyone up 'sleep-shouting': "HELLLLOO!".. I do recall a dream involving some red-neck standing in the doorway with an axe, I think the cheese we had with those burgers must have been kinda strong... At about 9am the group split into 'hikers', 'horseriders' and 'quadbikers'... Yes I was a quadbiker, I mean who in their right mind could resist tearing around the Rockies on a 300cc quad that can tackle pretty much anything including pushing over trees as we were demonstrated. The morning was topped off with some throttle opening and river crossing then back to the camp for a shower. Once the rest made it back we packed up and set off for Jasper for one of the most jaw-dropping drives of the tour.
First stop of the day was the stunning Helmcken Falls where the Murtle River surges 137metres down into a misty mess. Home to not only the more obvious bear, moose and elk but also 30 species of moss and about 50 species of mosquito, soon to prove to be the source of much frustration over the coming weeks. Leaving the Falls we headed past the heavy flowing 'Mush Bowl' of the Myrtle River and onto our lunch stop complete with raised viewing platform for some spectacular views of the Myrtle Plateau - incorporating Lake Mahood, Pyramid Mountain and Trophy Mountain.
Already feeling totally spoilt with the scenery we headed east towards Mount Robson Provincial Park complete with steep glaciers and more flora and fauna than you could shake a snake at. Mount Robson is 3954m and the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, a truly unforgettable sight. After making it to Moose Lake where we were lucky enough to get our first black bear sighting of the trip we headed across the salmon rich Fraser River into Alberta and set up camp in Jasper National Park at the Whistler Campground. Camp fully erect and we headed into town for a feast at the Jasper Pizza Place. It was then back to camp for some songs around the campfire and some very poor sleep, in preparation for tomorrow's hiking in the rain.....
Up at the crack on Wednesday for our hike. We headed into Jasper National Park to tackle the Sulphur Skyline Trail a 9.6km return trek with a 700m elevation gain... I have to be honest that the first 5 minutes of this actually hurt the most after that it was just autopilot as I thought sod this I'm gonna get my ass up here pronto. So that I did. Halfway up the skies opened and with the delightful blend of sweat and rain having a rather musky cooling effect on me I got to the top. The views = disappointing but that was wholly due to the dense mist that had formed across the horizon. The hike down was more of a jog to be honest as I wanted to get to the Miette Hot Springs at the base of the trek route to rest my weary legs... Back down in record time J.D, Luke and I decided to literally take the plunge and do the 3 pools ranging from 10C to 40C... The sensation jumping in the 10c pool (rodding cold) and then the 40c pool (jam hot).. something similar to thermal shock I imagine.. Similar feeling to when I ran into a glass door when drunk. That said it was a beautiful experience sitting in outdoor hotpools surrounded by stunning mountains.. not bad..EH! After the pools it was back to town for some fridge magnet and pillow purchasing then back to camp for dinner. With dinner out the way we hooked up with another Trek America group and headed into town to sample some of the local brews and have a taster of 'Pete's Nightclub'... It was around this time that I was told by J.D our tour guide that he reminded me of a cross between Robbie Williams and Dave Matthews...err not convinced myself.. I was thinking more Robin Williams and Dave Spikey... aaanyway hilarity prevailed at Pete's, there was drinking, fighting, vomiting (Tim!!) and a rather entertaining cab ride back to the campsite - all the ingredients of a great night out in Jasper.
Thursday we took off pretty early with some pretty intense headaches and headed to Medicine Lake. Then we took the short trip to Maligne Lake, the largest of the glacier fed lakes in the Rockies, a wonderful setting slightly spoiled by the hordes of tourist buses ploughing through there conveyor belt style, but otherwise perfect with Mt Warren, Mt Charlton and Mt Unwin surrounding the lake. Once I had said goodbye to my rather unpleasant headache we took a leisurely 3K hike around the area then headed back to camp for some chili con carne and some bocce ball. I'd love to say that I had a great night's sleep but that's simply not true.. In fact we all had to listen to sick girl and brutish boyfriend on the adjacent plot providing some pretty harrowing noises . Not sure what they were up to but all I can tell you is that she really did sound to be in a terrible amount of pain. errrr... ;)
Friday was a day packed with stunning sights starting with a trip to the Athabascan Falls on the Athabascan River and a superb drive through the mountains surrounded by literally hundreds of glaciers. Next stop was the Athabasca Glacier halfway between Lake Louise Village and Jasper Town. The glacier is the main attraction in the huge Colombia Icefield where you can find around 30 glaciers, 350m thick with ice. A true remnant of the last ice age covering 325sq km on the plateau between Mt Colombia (3747m) and Mt Athabasca (3491m). It's the largest icefield in the Rockies and feeds the North Sakatchewan, Colombia, Athabasca, Mackenzie and Fraser River systems with its meltwaters. After briefly visiting the Icefield Centre we made the short drive to the glacier parking area and took the hike onto the glacier itself, only a small feel of the glacier as the walking route only takes you onto the toe of the glacier as there is a significant danger of falling into crevasses which really would ruin one's holiday or should I say vacation. After the glacier we headed straight on to Banff. The weather at this stage had taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Words can't accurately describe the level of rainfall that we experienced when we got to Banff but imagine standing outside and being pelted continually with buckets of water and you're about halfway towards visualising how wet you'd get. Our attempts at putting up the tents and trying to keep them dry were wholly pointless.. once erect all the tents were absolutely drenched inside and out so the prospect of sleep later in the day was not pleasant... After several attempts (failed) to raise the group's morale we headed into Banff Town to the monstermarket to stock up for dinner and I then made a dash to the camping shop to invest in some waterproofs, a very wise decision that I would definitely not regret. The rest of the day was filled with whining and whingeing and general low morale so I decided to consume as much cold beer as I could with dinner landing somewhere in the middle. At bedtime, errr whenever that was, we made a decision to break rule number one of camping in the Rockies - which was to sleep in the shelter where you've been cooking. Now this is a particularly BAD idea for one obvious reason which is that BEARS KILL and the least that they do is REALLY HURT!!! But, we really were left with very few options as the tents were totally flooded and I for one had no intention of sleeping in a bloody lake. So sleep in the shelter we did and foolish we were. The nights sleep was simply torturous and the only good part was the rather amusing interlude at about 4am when a very drunk dude staggered into the shelter thinking that we were his group and shouted: "Chris has been arrested guys!" at which point I shouted: "Shut it mate, we are trying to sleep and what's more who the f*** is Chris!" At which point he says: "Where are the van keys?" So I reply: "Well you see that tree over there? Well they are on that tree go get 'em". Rather confused he staggers off into the snow... SNOW!! What the hell... Yes it had started dumping with snow whilst we had been 'sleeping', and I mean DUMPING with snow. Deciding not to break the news to the already desperately unhappy group I decided to put my head down and leave them to discover that the nightmare had worsened when they awoke. So, when we all decided to get up at around 6am morale definitely hit an all time low and the decision was made to get the hell outta there. Wet tents packed and very wet clothes chaffing rather badly we set off for the mighty Medicine Hat.. yes there really is a place called Medicine Hat and boy it's a strange one.. So Medicine Hat here we come... watch this space....
laterz kids
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