ROAD TRIP CANADA 2014 PART IV

WILD FLOWERS IN JULY

The skies have been  hazy and overcast  for several days but nothing out of the ordinary for a hot summer.  As we head West out of Edmonton the change is dramatic.  The once blue sky turns a dirty yellow brown and there is a definite smell of smoke on the air.  Western Canada is on fire.  There are reports of fires up in the Northwest Territories as well as Eastern British Columbia.  Canada has a policy of let them burn unless they are endangering personal property.   So, it would seem we are in for a long stretch of foul air.  The weather has been dry and hot and there is no change predicted in the near future.  As we head out of the plains for the mountains the weather reports include predictions of dry lightening, not a good thing. 

Once again we are out in rural Canada, rolling hills, rape and wheat fields and the occasional stand of pine and/or fir trees.  The communities are few and far between, mostly groupings of a half a dozen or so homes, small convenience stores associated with camping and recreation sites a few lakes and lots of green and yellow.  Once you get on to Canada 16 (the Yellowhead Highway) there are only about four crossroads over the next 400 or so kilometres.  These roads take off for exotic locations like Slave Lake, Grand Prairie and Dawson Creek; ultimately reaching Alaska.   

HIGHWAY MARKER

I kept wondering why they referred to it as the Yellowhead Highway, thinking perhaps it referred to a bird.  A bird with a yellow head would not be an uncommon occurrence.  What I finally discovered was it was named for Yellowhead Pass, the pass which the highway travels in order to cross the Canadian Rockies.  The pass in turn was named for an early fur trader and explorer named Pierre Bostonais. He had yellow streaks in his hair, and was nicknamed "Tete Janune" (Yellowhead).  In the end we were not destined to cross Yellowhead Pass but I believe Frank and Carol may have traveled it on their way from Kamloops to Jasper.  


We are making our way to Jasper, definitely a tourist area.  In order to avoid artificially high prices and limited choices we choose to stop in Hinton before entering the park.  Our first foray into civilisation leads us to a small IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) which I though was American but it seems to have made it in to Alberta.  It was small and pretty limited, just what I was hoping to avoid.  Inquiries lead us back to the highway and a much larger IGA, perhaps 5 km down the road.  We stock up on perishables and Mick finds there bulk section which has some very stale sour gummies; to each their own bad taste!!

ATHABASCA RIVER

 With forty kilometers to go it hardly feels as though we are in the mountains.  The reality is we are IN the mountains, having already climbed gently all the way from Edmonton.  We travel along the Athabasca River but the sky is so heavy with smoke it is hard to get a real sense of the mountains around us.  I am going to "borrow" some images from the Internet since I chose not to take any myself.  

We find ourselves in the town of Jasper while still trying to find signage directing us to the campsite. My first impression is of high end condos and townhouses lining the roadway.  These give way to the shopping street with the railway station on one side and a large tourist information center on the other.  There is the usual assortment of outdoor stores, fishing shops, souvenir stores, women's clothing and restaurants.  People live here but the main street is obviously all about the tourist.  We try to make our escape, not wanting to pull the tent trailer through town.  A traffic light offers the opportunity for a left turn on to Hazel St., which our map indicates should take us back to the highway.  A red truck honks and flashes it lights at us, uh, omg it's Frank and Carol.  We wave frantically at them and then all progress ceases.  Yes we were supposed to meet up in Jasper, but not at a downtown intersection, talk about small world.  

PATRICIA LAKE

They take off in the other direction while we sit with eight or ten vehicles (mostly trucks) in front of us.  It appears that we have turned on to a street that has a train line crossing it and, naturally enough, there is a train going by.  This is not  a little passenger train, not even a reasonable length freight train but a giant, economy size freight train going about two miles per hour.   We wait, and wait and wait some more.  The tail of our trailer nosing out in to the cross traffic behind us.  But we have nowhere to go.  As if the indignity of having our rear end out in traffic is not enough someone pulls in behind us and then just to cap things off the train comes to a halt totally blocking through traffic.  Finally someone, a few vehicles ahead, pulls out of the queue and makes a u-turn.  Traffic creeps slowly forward but the dude directly in front of us holds his ground, he is going nowhere!  I finally get out of the car and walk forward to politely ask if he would pull forward so, we too, can make a u-turn.  I get a frown and a grumble and something other than polite acquiescence but he does move. We make the u-turn, trailer and all and head out of town.  Yes we waited probably ten minutes plus, yes I had to ask someone to move and yes we made a very poor choice.  But just to make it even more absurd . . .  the road through town took us where we needed to go  and although it had to cross the same train line there was an underpass which totally eliminated the need to be stopped by any train at all.  Suffice it to say, although we spent another four days in Jasper we never once attempted traveled on Hazel Street.  

IT'S 5 O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE

Just in case you had imagined that when traveling in this style we stint ourselves in any way please be assured that when it comes to food we do well.  Guess I really didn't need to put that in writing, did I?  Our accommodations may be somewhat primitive, our facilities lacking in  modern conveniences but food, well that is another thing entirely.  If we do well our traveling companions manage to take it a step further.  After dealing with a long day of travel and inconvenient train stoppages we arrived at our campsite to note from Carol and Frank inviting us to dinner.   We gathered up our chairs; chairs are one of the things of which you do not carry spares when camping, and made our way over to their campsite.  

SASKATOON aka SERVICE BERRIES

We are greeted by hors d'oervre (pistachios, cheese and crackers) along with a gin and tonic, including a wedge of lime, not too shabby.  Dinner is a stir fry but it doesn't stop there.  Carol and Frank jointly prepare a cobbler of Saskatoon berries, which they have picked at their previous campsite.  Not only do they prepare a cobbler but the prepare it in a cast iron dutch oven right in the coals from the campfire.  Guess that must qualify as real camping, not exactly our version of it, which entails buying a rotisserie chicken and making a salad. 

MALIGNE LAKE

WILD ROSE - PROVINCIAL FLOWER

We did our best to keep up with Frank and Carol who are "hiking fools" but it was pretty much a lost cause.  You really need to understand I like a walk with the best of them but hiking . . . that means you have to work at it and probably get all hot and sweaty.  According to Websters a hike is a long walk especially in the country or wilderness.  That definition pretty much works for me except possibly for the "long" part  I long ago discovered that my max is about five, possibly seven miles on a flat surface.  Add ups and downs and rocky uneven surfaces and my enthusiasm drops dramatically.  Never mind, we had fun and explored Patricia and Pyramid Lakes as well as did part of the Five Lake Trail.  

One evening was spent on a walking tour of Jasper.  It was a salutary reminder of just how new a place western Canada is.  The area in and around what is now the city of Jasper and Jasper National Park was first a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading outpost.  It was a part of the the route from York Factory (on Hudson's Bay) to New Caledonia or what is now British Columbia.  Much like Fort Edmonton it was an outpost for the collection of furs and meeting place for the trappers and First Nations people.  The park was established in 1907 but the town of Jasper, originally named Fitzhugh, did not really exist until 1911 when the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway made it to the park.  Just to put things in perspective it was until September 1905 that the Canadian government added both Alberta and Saskatchewan to the Commonwealth.  

We finished our visit to the park with a boat trip on Maligne (pronounced maleen) Lake and tea at the Chateau.  The name was given to the lake by priest who termed it maligne which in french apparently means wicked.  Just exactly what was wicked about it I no longer remember but it is pretty inaccessible and often covered in ice.  The trip out there took us past the Maligne Canyon and an intriguing lake which has holes in the bottom, a Karst Formation.  The lake never quite fills and the "river" downstream is often dry, but the water pops up again as springs some 15 or so miles further down the valley.

Not to ignore the tea at the Chateau.  It was quite wonderful with a view out across the lake at the distant glaciers.  One of the items we were presented with was a multicultural delightful . . .  French bread, English Cucumber and Canadian Goat cheese and more than that it tasted good.   

Things I have learned:

1. Rape seed (Canola or Canada oil) is "Traditionally made in to salad oil, frying oil, margarines and shortenings, canola is also being used in cooking sprays and flavoured oils; coffee whiteners and creamers; cosmetics and aromatherapy oils; dust suppressants, industrial lubricants, hydraulic fuels, biodiesel, printing inks, plasticizers, oiled fabrics and as an anti-static agent for paper and plastic wrap."  Doesn't that just make you want to rush out and buy some more.  
2. "A" is for avalanche.  When you look at wooded mountainside and you see an area where there are no trees, if that area is "A" shaped it was most likely caused by an avalanche which tears down the mountain obliterating everything in its way.
3. Fire stations are built with towers so hoses can be hung up to dry.  Try to imagine using a hose that has frozen solid in the dead of winter.