Blogs from Jasper, Alberta, Canada, North America

The train leaves from Jasper at 9:30am and we plan on being at the station by 8:00am to get the bikes on the train and get our seat allocation. Things get a little tense when Jeff can't find his passport, but eventually it's found - in his pannier. I'm feeling a little better now because I "lost" my Garmin yesterday and it took Graeme to find it where I'd already looked four times! At the station we book the bikes in and we help the porters insert our bikes into plastic bags and tape them up, and then lift them on to carts for them to be loaded as baggage. At 8:45am the four of us get called for pre-allocation. Effectively they put us on a golf cart and drive us up to the carriage we'll ... read more

An uneasy sleep in the bunks at the Beauty Creek Hostel and a slightly late start to the day. Packet oats with hot water and a cup of tea for breakfast was not up to what we have become accustomed to. And it was cold - very cold. No mucking around this time, we all put on multiple layers before we took off. It was a beautiful blue sky that greeted us but the highway was still in shadow because the mountains were so high around us. It took a good 30 minutes for us to warm up. The highway presented the same smorgasbord of mountains topped with snow caps and forests running up to the snow line. The occasional lake to break things up. It never gets "old". We came to our first stop today ... read more

Woke up in Unity, Saskatchewan - mountain time zone, surrounded by prairies with white wheat fields bordered by yellow/orange leaved poplar trees. The tracks south of Unity are lined with silos, grain elevators. Train is now six hours behind schedule. We had stopped often during the night to let freight trains pass; evidently many freight trains have moved north to our tracks due to flooding in the south. Mid-morning we are slowly climbing in elevation, beginning to see more cattle, a few oil pumps, hills, clouds with light rain, more stops for freight trains. Brunch in Alberta, still stopping for freight trains, then speeding down the tracks. Hard to drink coffee at times. Rode all morning through prairie with some hills, rivers, getting to Edmonton a little after 2:00 pm. The capital of Edmonton with a ... read more

Last day with the car today!! Taking of cars, and skip this if you're bored, we saw one enormous motor home today. But instead of towing a small mini for use when parked up, this was towing an enormous twin cab the size of most camper vans in UK. The world is going mad!! The exception being these new reversing cameras, which I've found very useful on our, so called, small sized car!! We went up Whistler Mt in a cable car. For this you want blue sky and no wind. The weather gods prevailed!! A tad chilly at 7500ft, but breath taking views. We walked part way to the summit from top station, but the last half needed snow boots and it was getting steep!! We did, though, take lots of pics, so beware Colin ... read more

Even before I arrived at the steps of the Palliser Hotel, a greeter from Jasper Park Lodge called out, "Hello!', and asked if I were going to Jasper. She took my suitcase and directed me indoors to register and to have muffins and coffee. As we drove along the TransCanada I enjoyed again the sight of rolled hay in the fields. The overcast sky dulled the colours, but heading west into the mountains is always uplifting. Turning onto the Banff-Jasper highway, I noticed the deciduous trees were bare, fading into the grey-green of the vegetation that cloaked the lower reaches of the massive rock faces of the mountains. Occasional bursts of sun decorated the peaks. Our arrival at the Jasper Park Lodge came at the best part of the day, mild yet invigora... read more