All free on the National Elk

Trip Start Oct 15, 2007
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Trip End Aug 24, 2008


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Flag of Canada  , Alberta,
Thursday, November 8, 2007

The journey to Jasper was made more interesting by the rum and coke we smuggled on to the train - we had been told that it was not allowed for passengers to drink their personal alcohol, only that sold on the train. However, the Toronto to Winnipeg staff also had implied that it was acceptable, if not expected, for passengers to be carrying their own 'pocket rocket'. Consequently, included within our train picnic where 2 litres of coke and a small bottle of rum. It made Marlene the conductress (the world's scariest woman - a sort of Pat Butcher meets Hitler with the voice of an irate strawberry-blonde goose) slightly more bearable.

We saw some lovely scenery as we approached the Rockies and the dusting of snow made it all look even more spectacular. As we were nearing Jasper, we saw some elk from some distance; as the train pulled into the station, they were grazing alongside the tracks.

We went and checked into our hotel, which was really nice. Having gone for a swim in the hotel pool, soaked in the hot tubs (both inside and outside) and steamed in the sauna, we had showers and decided to go out for food. As we opened the door to our room (which opened straight on to the outside world), there were about half a dozen elk grazing on the patch of grass in front of us.  Assuming that they would react like other deer or like cattle and basically keep out of our way, we walked around them but without stepping into the traffic to give them a huge berth. The big one with the antlers seemed slightly unimpressed by this and reared up a bit, but appeared to decide that we were not worth the effort. On our return to our room, we found the information card recommending keeping at least 30m away from elk. Oops.

In town, we found a bar where we shared a huge platter of food and a pitcher of beer, before heading back for the night. We slept well in our massive comfy bed and in the morning, we spent the $30 food credit which came with our room on an all you can eat breakfast buffet.  Bellies straining, we got the shuttle to the station and boarded our train for Prince George, which amazingly left on time! We survived the rest of the day on packet soup which the train conductor rehydrated for us, and a granola bar.
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