With about two weeks in Canada, it was time for me to say goodbye, and hello USA. Has about two weeks here, and then, home sweet home.
Just a quick update to give a sign of life this time. I am amazed to find that it's easier to find free wireless internet connection in Eureka, Montana than in Calgary, Alberta which has about roughly estimated 1000 times the inhabitants...
But since I'm sitting in the car outside a SubWay resturant, I'll leave the more elaborate posts for later.
Anyways, GO MONTANA!
13 February, 2009
09 February, 2009
Driving back from Jasper.
It was unfortunately not as clear as the day before, and since I was getting fed up with sliced bred, butter and pepper salami, I made a quick stop in Jasper for a medium meat lover take away pizza from Pizza Hut. Two pieces into the pie, I was full, but that left me with pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow, which doesn't sound too bad now.
Fortunately the gate was up in the air:
Needing to watch for these on the road:
(high speed drive by picture...)
The extra time in Jasper cost me a while of light through the park, so not so many spectacular pictures through this spectacular park this time either, except some from the beginning:
Something extraordinary however did happen. About midways through the park, there was two cars stopped on a parking lot next to the road, and there were some people in the road waving for me to stop. At first I thought they were old fashioned remote highway bandits, but after a 2nd thought, I figured I should stop anyways. Turned out it was a couple of national park hikers that could not get their car started. The dude had had his car keys in the pocket all day, and of course they've gone wet, and the little specialized 12 volt battery for the anti burglar system of his truck was gone flat, and there they were, left in the middle of somewhere, about 100 km in each direction from people, unable to get their truck started.
Lesson learned. Never drive into the wilderness with a car that's dependent on a tiny battery to start.
Anyways. There were another couple also standing there, and offering them a ride, so since there was not much I could do to help, I wished them good luck and drove off.
So I stopped a few times to try to get some night time moonlight pictures of the park, I was approaching Lake Louise. Then suddenly I saw some car lights - which was strange enough in itself since there were hardly any one on this road, but these seemed a little different. So I slowed down and realized it was a car lying on its roof on the side of the road. Since there were nobody else there, and I figured it was a quite odd setup for a robbery, I stopped again and realized it were the same two people (and their dog) that had stopped to help the hike-truck-car keys couple from earlier!
So it appeared that while I had been stopping for pictures, this couple had passed me, and just two minutes before I arrived, they'd hit an icy part of the road and their Toyota Camry had swirled around in the road a few times, then hit the snow backwards and flipped around. Fortunately enough the snow was "soft as butter" the guy said, so they had a soft landing, and none of them, including the dog was hurt, and they were out of the car and up and walking. They had already stopped a passing car, so I was 2nd on the scene, and they'd sent for help in nearby Lake Louise. Again, they did not want my help - there was not much I could do anyways, they were unhurt, had warm clothes but neither of us had a tow rope, but I promised that if I did not see any tow-truck coming up before reaching Lake Louise, I should get a tow truck or something for them.
So I zeroed out my trip-odometer in order to report how far up they were and continued on. About 10 minutes later, I saw some flashing lights, and it was a regular sized police car coming speeding out. "Ah! Good!" I thought, so at least they'll get some help. Although it was not a police car they needed - as far as I knew, they had not done anything against the law, did not seem drunk or influenced by drugs or did not carry unregistered firearms in the national park, at least not to my knowledge. 45 seconds later, a big police truck came racing up the road, then a fire truck, and then a big ambulance. Ok. So they'll get their help all right. So I reached Canadian HW 1 and figured out they were about 5 clicks (Canadian, or something, slang for kilometers) up the road. Then I rolled into Lake Louise and there I finally saw what the couple really needed. A tow truck was heading north.
Here is a shot of one of the emergency vehicles:
So I figure the couple got what they needed. For the unfortunate hikers with the flat battery, I don't know, but at least there were some traffic on that road so they'd be able to hitchhike to either town, and then back with a new battery.
That was enough excitement for today. I made it safely over the mountain, and prepared for a quiet night in Lake Louise.
Fortunately the gate was up in the air:
Needing to watch for these on the road:
(high speed drive by picture...)The extra time in Jasper cost me a while of light through the park, so not so many spectacular pictures through this spectacular park this time either, except some from the beginning:
Something extraordinary however did happen. About midways through the park, there was two cars stopped on a parking lot next to the road, and there were some people in the road waving for me to stop. At first I thought they were old fashioned remote highway bandits, but after a 2nd thought, I figured I should stop anyways. Turned out it was a couple of national park hikers that could not get their car started. The dude had had his car keys in the pocket all day, and of course they've gone wet, and the little specialized 12 volt battery for the anti burglar system of his truck was gone flat, and there they were, left in the middle of somewhere, about 100 km in each direction from people, unable to get their truck started.
Lesson learned. Never drive into the wilderness with a car that's dependent on a tiny battery to start.
Anyways. There were another couple also standing there, and offering them a ride, so since there was not much I could do to help, I wished them good luck and drove off.
So I stopped a few times to try to get some night time moonlight pictures of the park, I was approaching Lake Louise. Then suddenly I saw some car lights - which was strange enough in itself since there were hardly any one on this road, but these seemed a little different. So I slowed down and realized it was a car lying on its roof on the side of the road. Since there were nobody else there, and I figured it was a quite odd setup for a robbery, I stopped again and realized it were the same two people (and their dog) that had stopped to help the hike-truck-car keys couple from earlier!
So it appeared that while I had been stopping for pictures, this couple had passed me, and just two minutes before I arrived, they'd hit an icy part of the road and their Toyota Camry had swirled around in the road a few times, then hit the snow backwards and flipped around. Fortunately enough the snow was "soft as butter" the guy said, so they had a soft landing, and none of them, including the dog was hurt, and they were out of the car and up and walking. They had already stopped a passing car, so I was 2nd on the scene, and they'd sent for help in nearby Lake Louise. Again, they did not want my help - there was not much I could do anyways, they were unhurt, had warm clothes but neither of us had a tow rope, but I promised that if I did not see any tow-truck coming up before reaching Lake Louise, I should get a tow truck or something for them.
So I zeroed out my trip-odometer in order to report how far up they were and continued on. About 10 minutes later, I saw some flashing lights, and it was a regular sized police car coming speeding out. "Ah! Good!" I thought, so at least they'll get some help. Although it was not a police car they needed - as far as I knew, they had not done anything against the law, did not seem drunk or influenced by drugs or did not carry unregistered firearms in the national park, at least not to my knowledge. 45 seconds later, a big police truck came racing up the road, then a fire truck, and then a big ambulance. Ok. So they'll get their help all right. So I reached Canadian HW 1 and figured out they were about 5 clicks (Canadian, or something, slang for kilometers) up the road. Then I rolled into Lake Louise and there I finally saw what the couple really needed. A tow truck was heading north.
Here is a shot of one of the emergency vehicles:
So I figure the couple got what they needed. For the unfortunate hikers with the flat battery, I don't know, but at least there were some traffic on that road so they'd be able to hitchhike to either town, and then back with a new battery.
That was enough excitement for today. I made it safely over the mountain, and prepared for a quiet night in Lake Louise.
Jasper/Marmoth Basin
Despite all recommendations, I was now in Jasper, described as a "mellower Fernie" by the back countriers from Rogers Pass.
It's a rather large ski area too, with a "detachable quad" (a chair lift that sits four people, and the chairs are detached at bottom and top to make it easier for the riders to get on and off), and a few smaller chair lifts to the top of the mountain. At first it seemed like a good place to get some nice untouched snow, but I soon realized that the snow was untouched due to the entire area being closed off with angry signs saying extreme avalanche danger, and revoke skiing privileges and trespassers would be prosecuted and other terms I did not understand the meaning of, other than that I was not supposed to cross those red ropes. I found it rather hard to believe that it was an avalanche danger in the area, since there was hardly no snow on the mountain at all, with rocks damaging my skis and edges both in the groomed runs and outside. A local I shared a lift with, confirm that it had been the winter with the least snow in 13 years, and he seemed to be the age that could remember at least 13 years back. But he told me to come back in March or April. Then they would normally have at least two meters more snow, and about every 2nd day it would be fresh snow at least up to the knees, and sometimes up to your waist. Well - too bad for me I won't be around in March. So I stayed on the grooms trying to keep away from the rocks.
Overall rating. Not too bad, and it surely has potential when there's more snow.
They made a snow sculpture giving the impression of a lot of snow. (I did not really realize what it was supposed to be until I saw the picture)
A piece of the mountain
Apparently they use explosives for avalanche control here too.
Jup. Here is the fire tower, see that nice cannon on the roof? Explosives inside. Stay off!
Is snow coming?
The dark skies made me a bit worried. Was the big snow storm moving in, that they had forcasted? Would it be impossible to drive back through the park on my summer tires? Would I be stranded in Jasper? If yes, for how long? Would I have to make a 4 1/2 hours extra detour around Edmonton?
It's a rather large ski area too, with a "detachable quad" (a chair lift that sits four people, and the chairs are detached at bottom and top to make it easier for the riders to get on and off), and a few smaller chair lifts to the top of the mountain. At first it seemed like a good place to get some nice untouched snow, but I soon realized that the snow was untouched due to the entire area being closed off with angry signs saying extreme avalanche danger, and revoke skiing privileges and trespassers would be prosecuted and other terms I did not understand the meaning of, other than that I was not supposed to cross those red ropes. I found it rather hard to believe that it was an avalanche danger in the area, since there was hardly no snow on the mountain at all, with rocks damaging my skis and edges both in the groomed runs and outside. A local I shared a lift with, confirm that it had been the winter with the least snow in 13 years, and he seemed to be the age that could remember at least 13 years back. But he told me to come back in March or April. Then they would normally have at least two meters more snow, and about every 2nd day it would be fresh snow at least up to the knees, and sometimes up to your waist. Well - too bad for me I won't be around in March. So I stayed on the grooms trying to keep away from the rocks.
Overall rating. Not too bad, and it surely has potential when there's more snow.
They made a snow sculpture giving the impression of a lot of snow. (I did not really realize what it was supposed to be until I saw the picture)
A piece of the mountain
Apparently they use explosives for avalanche control here too.
Jup. Here is the fire tower, see that nice cannon on the roof? Explosives inside. Stay off!
Is snow coming?
The dark skies made me a bit worried. Was the big snow storm moving in, that they had forcasted? Would it be impossible to drive back through the park on my summer tires? Would I be stranded in Jasper? If yes, for how long? Would I have to make a 4 1/2 hours extra detour around Edmonton?
08 February, 2009
Jasper national park
Having finished my skiing in Golden/Kicking Horse, next on the plan was a place called Jasper. Halfway between Golden and Banff, and a long way north, south west of Pocahontas (Yes, it's a place called that). First I wanted to get some gasoline in Golden, and drove on. The x-miles-left-to-so-and-so signs kept on talking about Radium Hot Springs, with no mention of neither Banff nor Jasper, and after about 25 miles going straight south east, I decided it was about time to check the map. Sure enough, I made a wrong turn in Golden, and had to go 25 miles back. So about an hour after leaving Golden, I was back in Golden, found the right exit onto Canadian highway 1. After that mistake I've been a bit more careful to make sure I'm on the right road.
Somewhere up in the mountains where the sign for the 93 junction. After a quarter mile or 400 meters that they would call it in Canada, there was a sign like this:
Then a sign like this:
Then this:
And this, not much help to get on the mountain it seemed:
And then finally this:
With my Arizona registered automobile with Arizonian summer tires, I decided to give it a try. After all, it was a Japanese hyper electronic controlled 4 wheel drive, and a Japanese hyper electronic anti skid gizmo, and not to forget. I was born on a slippery winter road (more or less). After all, I could always turn around if it got too bad (was I not laying in the ditch somewhere that is), I was just a few miles from Lake Louise.
So I made a quick calculation of my gas level, my estimated gas consumption, translating this into miles per gallon, figuring out what the trip odometer would read when I reached the gas station, and decided I would just about be able to make it without running out of gas. That also meant that if I went further than halfway to Jasper, I would not be able to make it back to Lake Louise.
Carefully I continued, at moderate steady speed in order to minimize the gas consumption.
It was long after dark, but the sky was clear and the moon was full, and it lit up the most gorgeous landscape! I was driving along at steady paste, the road seemed dry and safe, and I was gazing out at the wonderful moonlit mountains I was passing by.
I only stopped a few times for pictures, here is one:
After about 60 km from anything looking like civilization, lay a rangers station. It was lit and seemed inhabited. Poor guy I thought. Sure looks lonely! Another 170 km of constantly nervously recalculating remaining distance and estimated gas consumption and I was in Jasper. Tank not nearly empty, still I decided to fill her up. Glad to be there.
Somewhere up in the mountains where the sign for the 93 junction. After a quarter mile or 400 meters that they would call it in Canada, there was a sign like this:
Then a sign like this:
Then this:
And this, not much help to get on the mountain it seemed:
And then finally this:
With my Arizona registered automobile with Arizonian summer tires, I decided to give it a try. After all, it was a Japanese hyper electronic controlled 4 wheel drive, and a Japanese hyper electronic anti skid gizmo, and not to forget. I was born on a slippery winter road (more or less). After all, I could always turn around if it got too bad (was I not laying in the ditch somewhere that is), I was just a few miles from Lake Louise.
So I made a quick calculation of my gas level, my estimated gas consumption, translating this into miles per gallon, figuring out what the trip odometer would read when I reached the gas station, and decided I would just about be able to make it without running out of gas. That also meant that if I went further than halfway to Jasper, I would not be able to make it back to Lake Louise.
Carefully I continued, at moderate steady speed in order to minimize the gas consumption.
It was long after dark, but the sky was clear and the moon was full, and it lit up the most gorgeous landscape! I was driving along at steady paste, the road seemed dry and safe, and I was gazing out at the wonderful moonlit mountains I was passing by.
I only stopped a few times for pictures, here is one:
After about 60 km from anything looking like civilization, lay a rangers station. It was lit and seemed inhabited. Poor guy I thought. Sure looks lonely! Another 170 km of constantly nervously recalculating remaining distance and estimated gas consumption and I was in Jasper. Tank not nearly empty, still I decided to fill her up. Glad to be there.
Travel tip
When you're traveling around, you might wanna look for a sign looking something like this:
Then you want to make sure you have thought ahead and bought some of this:
You put that in an apropriate container located somewhere in here:
And since you've already stopped, and probably had a large coffee with your breakfast, you might wanna take advantage of this before heading on too:
But if you're raising sheep, you might wanna skip this stop:
Then you want to make sure you have thought ahead and bought some of this:
You put that in an apropriate container located somewhere in here:
And since you've already stopped, and probably had a large coffee with your breakfast, you might wanna take advantage of this before heading on too:
But if you're raising sheep, you might wanna skip this stop:
Kicking Horse
Approaching Kicking Horse, the weather clears up.
The name fits nicely with the Mustang logo. Didn't see any tho.
Getting closer, this looks promising
Aparently not only the Treslings that got that idea.
Looking good
Gotta be careful
They were gonna have a freeride contest
Good thing I wasn't signed up, they were dropping down those cliffs back there, then entering the huge bigjump just in front of the crowd.
I rather wanted to go down here, better snow there for me.
So after a short walk along the ridge, a break for some food, an encounter with two dudes from Czech Republic. Turned out they had been to Norway. They had actually been to Norwegian prison. They were going rafting on Driva and Sjoa, and brought no less than 180 liters of alcohol in order to finance their trip, but unfortunately for them, they got caught. Anyways. Here they were, wondering if they should go down this or that way.
While they were debating in Czech or some other language I don't speak fluently, I took another picture.
So I made up my mind, one really good ride! I stood and waited to see if the boarders were coming down, but did not see anything, so I went on. Later I met them at the bottom, where some girl managed to tip over the metal fence preventing total chaos before the lifts and making a big scene, and they told me they've been sitting on the top having a beer and waiting to see if they could see me at the bottom, but they never saw any of me. Nevertheless they also decided to go down the same way I did, and told me they also had a great ride. We exchanged email addresses and here is a picture they took of me on my way down.
-----
Anyways, so after that steep mountain, I was only half way down yet, still some more snow
Could have gone down there too, but I'd rather come back when there's some more snow... -or not
And a word from our sponsors...
Is that Pisten Bully gonna run that fake not Kicking Horse?
A great day in Kicking Horse is over...
High speed into Alberta
Golden to Kicking Horse
Three nights in Revelstoke was enough for me, time to move on.
I left my friendly hosts at the Canyon Motor Inn and headed further east. Todays
destination: Golden and the ski area Kicking Horse. First I had once again got to
drive through the absolutely spectacular mountains of Rogers Pass, and I could
not help myself from taking about a hundred pictures from the car.
People getting ready for back country.
The Rogers Pass Visitor Center
Avalanche protection for the road
Is that Peer Gynt riding on the cariboos back?
I left my friendly hosts at the Canyon Motor Inn and headed further east. Todays
destination: Golden and the ski area Kicking Horse. First I had once again got to
drive through the absolutely spectacular mountains of Rogers Pass, and I could
not help myself from taking about a hundred pictures from the car.
People getting ready for back country.
The Rogers Pass Visitor Center
Avalanche protection for the road
Is that Peer Gynt riding on the cariboos back?
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