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Published: October 8th 2012
In the morning, we grabbed some breakfast, checked out and then went to pick up our rental car for the next week. We then went shopping for food and supplies, including checking out MEC (Mountain Equipment Cooperative) which is huge and has great prices on camping and outdoors stuff. We were both starting to feel a bit broke, and we also were pretty limited in how much room we had in our bags, so no purchases were made (so much restraint and discipline!). Actually, we were going to get a reusable coffee filter for $8, but then you had to become a member which was $5 so no really worth it. We finally got on the road towards the Rocky Mountains around 3pm only to discover the perils of Vancouver traffic (especially when it's raining for the first time in ages and everyone appears to have forgotten to slow down in the rain so there were quite a few accidents around). We realised we weren't going to make it to our planned destination, so we stopped in a place called Hope for the night. We stayed in The Swiss Chalet Inn which was a bit of a laugh (apparently "kitchenette" =
microwave) and pretty expensive for what we got. Oh well.
Saturday morning and after eventually getting out of what was a pretty comfy bed we had some breakfast, packed up and drove on. We found a cute little health food store in Merrit and they had a specials table with 90% off! Chris grabbed some energy gels, a supplement powder, and we also bought some decent looking probiotics (for $6). When we were paying we made some mention of them still being a monarchy and this got the shopkeeper onto a rant about the government wasting money. Whenever they do roadworks (which they do every year) they put up signs saying something about "Your tax dollars at work" or something (similar to Australia). Apparently putting these signs up all over the country (and it's a HUGE country) costs around $50bn a year! Seems crazy... Anyway, further along we stopped at an info centre/lookout for a late lunch. For some reason they had put 2.5m high chicken wire across the view - somewhat spoiling it. For the night's camping, Nena had found a little freebie campsite which was right next to a creek. It was a nice spot, and even
Freezing Falls
So cold there.though some rednecks rocked up with guns and four wheel motorbikes they weren't noisy at all so all good. After a delicious red curry for dinner we went and watched the creek for a while, before deciding we'd had enough nature so we went and watched an episode of Game of Thrones before going to bed. Nothing like watching people getting decapitated to help you sleep.
In the morning we drove on, and got to the tourist Info place around 1pm. We found out that they had decided to close the campsite we wanted to use early due to government cut-backs (hmm sounds like California all over again!). After getting some advice on what to see, we drove to Emerald Lake for a lunch stop. It was pretty beautiful with super clear water and some amazing mountains around it. There was a shale mountain just nearby which has yielded huge numbers of fossils from the Cambrian era. As we walked back to the car we passed a couple of American girls, one of whom was saying to her friend "You know like, if you had like ten thousand dollars you could go on a holiday for like... like... a
month or something". erm.. what?! She must have pretty expensive holidays! Given we've done five months for around that.
After lunch the next stop was Takkata Falls. The drive to get there had some of the craziest switchbacks we've ever seen. So steep and sharp. The water in the creeks and rivers around here are turquoise in colour and quite opaque. We haven't got around to asking a ranger why that is yet. There is a lot of clay sediment being dumped, so maybe it's from the glacier grinding stones down to fine clay which then become suspended in the water. That's our guess anyway. It was really cold at the falls, but we saw a few people in shorts and t-shirts. Odd - maybe eskimos? The falls were extremely high and really dumping some water. There were a couple of glaciers visible in different directions too - very beautiful. Driving back to our campsite we passed a car crashed into the ditch on the side of the road. Yesterday we passed a truck trailer on it's side at the bottom of a decline. Maybe too many people watching the stunning views and not the road. We don't have
insurance on our rental so Chris is attempting to ignore the scenery and drive safely.
As we pulled into the campsite we noticed the forecast for the following week - there's a 2C day and even a -5C night! Yipes! Time to see how good our new sleeping bags really are. The campsite was really pretty and not too expensive at $27 a night (with free hot showers). The only downside was the $9 a day "fire permit" if you wanted to have a fire in your campsite. We didn't bother with that.
Monday morning we took advantage of the free showers and following a hearty breakfast we went to visit Lake Moraine for a picturesque view of the Valley of the Ten Peaks. It was a bit of a gloomy morning, but it was still pretty beautiful. Our next goal was to climb to the top of Mount Fairview which overlooks Lake Louise. It's only a 10.2km return journey, but the climb is over 1000m up to a 2744m peak and the last bit is basically a scramble over rocks with no trees or cover. Right from the start the walk was quite steep and we quickly
Looking back
From on top of the boulder pile at Lake Moraine we looked back the other way. shed layers of clothing to avoid overheating. There were a few unmarked forks in the road, but we figured that as long as we kept heading up, we'd be on the right track. Thankfully this was the correct assumption and eventually we reached the Saddleback pass where the trees started to thin. We were briefly entertained by a Clark's Nutcracker bird who was clearly hoping that we'd drop some food for it - sorry birdy, it ain't gonna happen. As we got higher it was getting sunnier and also getting a lot windier. The forecast was for showers in the evening, so we hoped they weren't going to get blown in early while we were up on the exposed section. The scramble was kinda fun - you just walked forwards until the wind gusted whereupon you quickly crouched down and grabbed a rock for stability. Wait for the gust to die off and repeat. It was a very steep climb, and it took a long time to do the last bit but the view was superb. Beautiful vistas in all directions from distant huge mountains to looking almost straight down to the amazing colours of Lake Louise below.
After
looking around on top for a while we decided we should head down to avoid getting caught in a storm (there were some pretty severe looking clouds going past by then). The descent was hard on the legs, but it gave Chris a good chance to test out his new boots (all good - no toe crush). After what seemed like a ridiculously long time, and with very wobbly legs we got back down to the lake, to see it from ground level. The weather was definitely getting a bit nasty so we didn't stay for long and went back to our car to drive back to camp. Along the way we stopped in at the Lake Louise shops to get some chocolate for hot chocolates, and some liquers (also important for hot chocolates). Yum! We were pretty exhausted, and also pretty hungry as we hadn't had a real lunch (just Clif Bars and nibblies) so we cooked up some food and went to bed pretty soon after. About 15 minutes after getting into our sleeping bags it started to pour rain outside. Good timing!
In the morning we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed and attempted to defrost
Glacier
One of the many over Lake Moraine with another hot shower. It was around freezing point outside and the forecast was for a maximum (and minimum) of 1C with "occasional flurries"! It had snowed a lot on the peaks and we saw that Fairview mountain that we had climbed yesterday now had a nice covering of snow on it. Chris suggested climbing it again, but then his legs (and Nena) outvoted him. We wandered in to the tourist info place in Lake Louise and asked about any fairly easy walks to do given we were sore from yesterday and that the weather was looking pretty random. We were directed to check out Johnston Falls which were not too far away and an easy walk. We also chatted about local Caribou as they had a sign up asking if anyone had seen one to let them know. The ranger said that no Caribou have been seen in the area "since that one" (pointing to a stuffed Caribou on display). There was a decent sized herd not too far away but the whole herd was killed in an avalanche! So, now they are only found 100km or more north up near Jasper.
We drove down to Johnston Canyon
Up we go
Starting the climb in the trees up to Fairview Mountain. and did the short walk up to the falls. It was pretty beautiful, and being an easy walk there were a lot of people checking it out. It's quite a drop down into the canyon in places (around 10m), and one of the signs explained that the water just keeps wearing it away so it keeps getting deeper. Around the time of Cleopatra it was about half the depth it is now. The water was an amazing turquoise colour and some spots just made you want to jump in (if it wasn't near freezin glacier run off water and if the air temperature was around 30C higher!). When we got back to the car it was lunch time so we decided to drive up another road to Marble Canyon to have some lunch. The ranger had told us it was very beautiful along that road. Unfortunately as we started to drive up it (and it was uphill) it started snowing very heavily. Given our lack of snow tyres, and our lack of insurance we decided to turn around and head back to our camp for lunch. The snow was coming down even back at our camp by then so we
Sparse
Obvious change in flora as we got higher and around to the more exposed side. made use of one of the shelters and got a good fire going (ignoring the need for a fire permit on the grounds that it wasn't at our campsite). A couple of other campers joined us and so did the campground supervisor (who wasn't worried about us not having a permit). Just as he arrived we heard a huge crack and rumble which sounded like a drawn out thunder roll. It was an avalance on a nearby mountain. We had heard a few since the snowfall the night before and they sound amazing. Intimidating and powerful and awe-inspiring. The camp supervisor told us he had watched one come down into Emerald Lake once and said it was beautiful to watch (you just wouldn't want to be under it!).
Due to the snow we hung around the shelter for the afternoon and evening and did some reading and chatting while attempting to stay warm. Eventually it got dark so we jumped into our sleeping bags to give them the hardest test yet (forecast minimum had dropped to -7C for the night).
Wednesday morning and it was bitterly cold. The picnic tables were covered in hard frozen ice and everything
Nena Climbs a Tree
Mishka told her to climb a tall tree and see what she could see. The ground... a long way away. was crunchy to touch. Chris' sleeping bag isn't rated as cold as Nena's and he thinks that was pretty well the limit he could handle. With any luck that's about as cold as we'll ever be camping in anyway. We quickly packed up the tent and jumped into the car, only to find a note from the ranger informing us that we hadn't paid for last night's accomodation. Oops. We chucked the money in an envelope, dropped that in the payment box and left in search of warmth. A bit further down the road we pulled into a little picnic spot next to the river and heated some milk up for porridge. mmmm warm food. Further along and we stopped again (this time in the sun) at a picnic area which marked the completion of the trans-Canada Highway. We made ourselves a couple of coffees, took a few photos and continued.
Chris was feeling pretty alert so we actually drove quite a long distance, making it all the way back to the town of Hope (our first stop coming the other way). We didn't bother with the Swiss Chalet this time and went straight for a cheapo campground. It
was fairly minimal and a bit grubby but at only $17 with free showers it was worthwhile. We also found that if we went for a short walk we could grab free Internet from a nearby hotel. Awesome. By now we were getting mixed emotions about the impending end to our vacation. On the one hand we were looking forwards to getting back to our house. On the other, there was a sadness at finishing the journey. It was all too easy to feel glum about things we had missed out on, or had spent not long enough enjoying before rushing off to the next location. It made for a sombre night.
The following day we only had a short drive to get back into Vancouver. As it was the Vancouver traffic was up to it's old tricks and we spent a lot of time at walking pace. Oh well - plenty of music in the car.
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