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Daisy and Chad
Steffi and Jesper with Daisy, and J and R with Chad in Golden Its been a while since we wrote - 26 days in fact. Since we last wrote we have seen many of animals; black bear, moose, elk, mule eared deer, white tailed deer, mountain goats, big horned sheep and osprey, found work at KOA (Kampgrounds of America), biked (thats not that surprising I know), broken and fixed Chad the Van and meet some awesome people who bought the first van we looked at in Vancouver.
When Rob last wrote we were in Golden. We stayed there for a few more days biking, walking and meeting up with Steffi and Jesper. They were travelling in a GMC van, which was a little older than ours, but looked like it came from the same factory as Chad. We had looked at 'Daisy' before Chad, but didn't (obviously) buy it. Rob had been for a ride at Moonraker trails and had seen a moose in the bush. The following morning (24th April) we woke to snow falling and we went back up there with Stef and Jes to stalk. No moose but later that evening we heard a lone wolf howling in the night.
On ANZAC day we headed east in convoy to Lake Louise.
Mountains (:
Driving on the road in Banff NP On the drive there we saw big horned sheep and the funny looking mountain goats. The lake was covered in snow and frozen. For some reason we had not anticipated the quantity of snow around. We embraced the cold and trugged up to Lake Agnes which was stunning in the ice, snow and sun! That evening Stef and Jesper continued to Banff and Jasper. We spent a sneaky night down by the train station (trains are becoming a reoccuring feature of our Canada trip) under a clear starry sky. In the morning we had ice on the inside of the wind-screen and the thermometer told us it had dropped to -10 celcius.
We left the cold tourist town and went to Emerald Lake near Field in Yoho NP. As the name suggests the lake is a beautiful greeny blue colour, however it was white and snowy when we arrived. We decided on a big walk up to Burgess Pass, but didn't make the pass as there was too much snow and we were worried about the avalanche risk. The big horned sheep made an appearance again, and Rob filmed some of the males beating on the vegetation.
The following few
days (27th-30th April) involved job hunting. Writing cvs, emails and making phone calls were interspersed with bikes at Mt Macpherson, chillaxing at the lake and biking 10km up the 'Meadows in the Sky' parkway. We stayed around Revelstoke for the weekend, enjoying the farmers market on Saturday morning and then going south to Lake Echo for a relaxing walk and afternoon. On Sunday we tried to walk to Lake McCrae, but again the snow prevented us from making it. It has been great having the snowshoes, Canada has a very short summer season!
On Monday morning we dropped into KOA and started work. Rob has been leaf blowing and weed-eating, and I have been working in the office taking reservations, answering phones and general cleaning duties. The job market is very tight in Canada at the moment and we are lucky to find some work. In the afternoons we have been exploring the area on foot or bikes. The river near the camp is really gorgy and beautiful, and the other day we saw an otter swimming around.
On our first 'weekend' we decided to head down the lake/river towards Nakusp (Na-cusp). We made it 25km from Revy and then
Pancakes
Pancakes and real Canadian Maple Syrup - YUM! the van decided to 'make popcorn' in the engine. We lost power and we could hear back firing in the motor block. We limped back to town, it took 3 hours and spent the night on the roadside. On Saturday we took Chad into the garage and almost left him there. Anyways after a $600 bill (better than the $2000 quoted originally) and 3 days of no house or car, he was back on the road and purring sweetly. We didnt waste the weekend, biking up to a day shelter (with fire place) on the 'Meadows in the Sky' parkway for the night and beyond the next day.
Monday (10th May) to Saturday (15th) we worked and explored the bike trails around the campground. The hummingbirds are amazing here at the moment, buzzing around like teenagers on fizz and lollies.
Our second weekend saw us finally making it down the lake to Nakusp and New Denver after a lovely Indian meal in town. We headed down the river on dusk and saw 3 black bears (mother and cub and single) foraging on the side of the road. We also saw a nice big Elk and a scared moose trotting alongside
Sandon Silver Mine
Rob in the trolley that took miners into the mine each day! the road. We spent a lovely evening in some natural hot springs in the bush with a bottle of wine. On Sunday we drove down to Nakusp for coffee and onto New Denver and Sandon. Sandon is an abandoned silver mining town, and we fossicked around in the old houses, mines, and old machinery. We may or may not have found a little bit of silver! Today (17th May) we have biked up the old railway trail to Sandon. It was a lovely ride that continued on the cultural tour of the area. Halfway along we had to pull ourselves along a cable car over the raging river. We biked back along the old Sandon road high above the gorge. I could hear Rob singing in front of me, "bear bear bear bear" to the tune of 'Its a small world after all' as we saw lots of sign on the track as they have started to become more active! We headed slowly back to Revy, over the free ferry across the Upper Arrow Lake.
Next few weeks, I think we will be busy at work as we have a long weekend coming up and the 'season' has just started.
Mine shaft
Juz outside a mine shaft..... We hope though that we can get away a bit on our weekends and hopefully borrow a canoe from here to paddle one of the many lakes. Hope things are not cooling down too fast at home! Love to all, j.
Can't get photos from big camera....will in few days and put bear piccys up!
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