Marmot Lodge Hotel Jasper

After giving up on Switzer and Wildhorse Provincial Parks (not my kind of camping where you are too close to your neighbour), we breezed into the town of Jasper where we wet our whistle (had two pints of Big Rock Traditional Ale) at the Whistle Stop pub which included a music jam on Sunday afternoons. Bogie loved the Big Horn sheep scattered around the park -- but they didn’t :).

Moved into the Wabasso campground for four days with a site ...

... to the ridge to see the views. I had to skip this in order to nurse my knee through the last day. The verdict was “ very nice, but it's not Patagonia”. Hardly anything is.

It was roughly 13 kms out and we were off to a late start, but it was a very pretty walk above the Maligne valley until we dropped back into the trees and down to the car along the fire road, where the chief interest was the variety of mushrooms, some the size of a dinner plate.

M.

... wo ein kleiner Tümpel aus Treibsand ständig lustige Wasserbläschen sprudelt. Ausserdem hatte es auch hier ein Cache versteckt, welcher Silvio zuerst fand.

Weiter auf der Strecke kamen wir erneut in einen „Bear Jam", weil alle Autos anhielten um einen Bär am Strassenrand zu fotografieren. Ein paar ganz mutige (oder wohl eher dumme?) Leute stiegen sogar aus und näherten sich diesem.

Fast hätten wir danach einen Geocache verpasst! Beim abrupten Wendemanöver von ...

... were seated at the table with me.  John is a coroner in Chicago and his wife doesn't work. We talked about politics, my journey, and his daughter's poems.  He was an engaging man who cared deeply about his country and made discussion about the assassination of Barack Obama intriguing.  Then I had a delicious carrot cake and retired for the evening.  

... I just had to laugh. What else could I do? I wasn't wearing Armani, everything comes out in the wash. It was so bloody funny and the 3 of us just sat and cried with laughter. (David: We got two rounds for free.) You know the spooky thing though?? Apparently, the piano bar is also haunted with a mysterious man that sits at one of the tables and moves things around! As well as the female ghost of room 202 wandering around occasionally. I KNOW this had something to do with it. The ...

... The rest of the day was just chilling and getting gifts from the various shops, maybe watching the odd freight train rumble by. I grabbed a subway for lunch, the second of my trip, just fancied one! I met Kelly at the shuttle stop point and we caught the 16:30 back up to the hostel again. 

... It was 12 and I felt very hungry. I was concerned about going faint on the last climb as I have done that on previous walks but was reluctant to eat as bears can pick up on the scent. We continued on and I decided that I had to eat so sat down on a rock and opened an oat bar inside my bag. I broke it in half and was trying to eat it as quickly as possible. Ben was exploring a little then stood in front of me, looking out at the view across the side of the mountain through the trees ...

... I had to admit that it was a great trip and would happily do it again!! After we had dried out, warmed up, we then chilled out back at Patricia Lake, then went and found Lake Edith and Lake Annette and watched a very dramatic thunderstorm come over the Rockies - great lightning! Tomorrow we are driving back along the Trans Canada highway and are visiting the Columbia Icefield where we hope to walk out on the Athabasca Glacier! Great stuff.

... to Calgary for a weekend (and a little Stampeding), then back to Banff National Park (Lake Louise) for a few days, then north to Jasper National Park. Mountains, wildlife (both the natural kind, and the scary, mini-skirt and cowboy boot wearing Stampede kind) and friendly people dominated this past 10 days. The highlights were: · Spending Canada Day in Banff...beautiful location, lots of festivities, Canada Flag and Beaver tattoos ...