The Requisite Bear Story, eh.

Alright, here goes. Can't head this far north without the requisite bear story. And if there are any Canadians reading this consider it your 'crazy Americans' story for the week as well as proof positive that the staff of Parks Canada actually has a sense of humor in a gotcha kind of way.

We're in Waterton Lakes, Canada which sits right across the border from Glacier National Park. Waterton is one of our favorite spots on mother earth as it offers everything from hiking, kayaking, and biking to a quaint town setting and great wildlife viewing all wrapped up in one of the most beautiful places you can imagine. But back to bears...

My wife has seen upwards of 7-10 bears on this trip while I've seen just one so when I set out for an evening bike ride I was hopeful I'd at least double my count. A year ago Waterton had a huge wildfire which burned thousands of acres of trees but thankfully spared the town. However, one year out many hiking trails and even roads remain closed awaiting repairs. One of the roads, up Red Rock Canyon, is among those closed to motorized traffic but open to bicycles.

So, it's 7 o'clock, which is approaching dusk in these parts. It's the cool of the evening, just perfect for a spin of the pedals into the backcountry surrounding Waterton. I'm riding alone as my wife is minding our pups back at the campground. Shadows are long, sightlines are short and as I top a blind rise in the road there it is. Off on the side of the road just watching me, probably thinking to itself that it hadn't ordered delivery but what the heck, never turn down a free meal. It was a pretty bear and it brought me to a screeching halt as I'd be in extremely close quarters with said ursine companion if I tried to get by. Normally these bear encounters, of which I've had many through the years, end with the bear eventually realizing I'm not a threat and simply wandering along on its merry way. Still, one never knows, and the worst thing one can do is surprise or startle a bear. While, as you'll see in the first video, this bear seemed to be staring right at me and watching my every move, it's better to be safe so I started talking to the bear in a calm voice to make sure it knew I was human. My conversation of course was rather one sided for more than one reason which I was about to discover.

Well, to make a short story long, this bear didn't seem inclined to budge and seemed especially intent on protecting it's real estate. Neither of us wanted to yield but eventually I concluded that if he didn't want to move I might be able to slowly cycle by on the left shoulder.  So off I go, bear and I intently staring at one another in the dwindling light. I'll leave it to the second video to show what happened.

Needless to say I lived to tell the tale and when I got back to the campground and shared my story the surrounding Canadians all had a hefty chuckle about another one of those 'crazy Americans'. And thank you Parks Canada for giving me yarn to spin. Gotcha, eh.

Up, up, and away!

While we've been to Jasper a couple of times through the years, one of the things we had never done was take the Jasper SkyTram up Whistlers mountain. This trip we finally remedied that oversight.

The SkyTram was built in the 1960's and whisks visitors a little more than 1,000 meters (about 3,000 feet) up in elevation over a 7 1/2 minute ride. If you're afraid of heights this one's not for you but needless to say the views from the gondola as it sways in the breeze are spectacular and only get better the higher one goes. Much along the likes of a European gondola the slender cable stretches high above the ground as it whisks you to the upper station which interestingly seems to be only about 3/4 of the way to the summit. From the upper station it's a brisk (that's mountain talk for steep) 45 minute hike the rest of the way to the summit.

The SkyTram even allows dogs and ours got their own ticket. They were a little nervous about putting paws into a swaying contraption full (and I mean 30 other people full) of folks from around the globe anxious to test their mettle in the rarified mountain air.

Once at the top you can wander various trails and spend as long as you like before the trek back down. For the really hardy there is a hiking trail, 6 1/2 miles one way, if you're so inclined to use foot power all the way up or down. For the less intrepid there is a full service restaurant at the upper station and for early risers (on the Tram before 9 a.m.) and twilight riders (after 5 p.m.) a breakfast or dinner is included in your ticket.

We watched the weather closely and managed to pick a day without clouds. We were able to see Mount Robson in the distance which according to the Tram folks is only visible 12 days or so a year. Robson is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, topping out just shy of 13,000 feet. That might not sound that high to my Colorado readers but the elevation gain from bottom to top in the Canadian Rockies surpasses that of 14'ers back home. And it's high enough that it makes it's own weather which is why it's usually socked in and obscured by clouds.

So, if you make the trek up this way, my suggestion is to not wait until your 2nd or 3rd trip to Jasper before plunking down the $47 Canadian (currently the U.S. dollar has a favorable exchange rate where $1 Canadian equates to about 60-70 cents American) to take the beautiful ride on the Jasper SkyTram!

What would you do?

As we travel we often stay at KOA Campgrounds. For the most part you can count on them to be clean and well maintained. Certainly you pay somewhat of a premium for the consistency from KOA to KOA but overall the pricing seems to be fair for the amenities (clean bathrooms and hot water showers) that campers crave at the end of a long day on the road.

Overall I'd give KOA a solid B+ so it was a little bit of a shock when we pulled into the KOA in St. Mary on the east side of Glacier National Park. We had no reservation, and it was a Friday afternoon at the height of the tourist season so we had every expectation they were likely full and indeed that was the case. No surprise at all but we thought we'd at least check.

What did come as a shock, and a little bit of a slap in the face of a couple who consider themselves loyal KOA customers was when the young clerk offered to put us up in the overflow vacant field for only $110. Weve stayed at the St. Mary KOA several times throughout the years and candidly have never spent $110 a night let alone to be parked out in a vacant field. For that amount you'd not only expect full hookups (water, electric, and sewer - which as tent campers we never use anyway) but catered breakfast in our sleeping bags as well. So this offer struck us as a classic case of price gouging that we never anticipated from KOA.

My question is, if you were the franchise owner of the St. Mary KOA and you were setting prices what would you do? Charge the highest price you could get away with (short term profit maximization) or price it more fairly (probably in the $25-45 range recognizing this was marginal revenue and it was really a courtesy service extended to tired campers pulling in late without a place to stay? Something tells me Trumpian economics may be at play here but in the long run KOA may have turned off a once loyal customer for one night's gain.

By the way, if you're wondering where we eventually spent the night, the Blackfeet Tribe runs a campground just five miles east of St. Mary that was in essence the equivalent of the KOA field. It was there we spent the night, perfectly content, for a whopping $25...

The other side of Jasper

Jasper, being a vacation hub for thousands of visitors, has plenty of hotels, restaurants, bars, and gift shops in which to spend your hard-earned discretionary income. Heck, even the Whistlers campground has more than 700 campsites. Like most popular resort towns  most everything is full or as the multitude of signs up here proclaim - "No Vacancy". As my wife Sophie constantly points out to me,gone are the days where you just show up and find accomodation. Prior planning is definitely required for a trip to Jasper and reservations for the campgrounds begin promptly at 12:00 midnight on January 2, 2019. But heads up, the Whistlers campground will be closed for major rennovation in 2019 so you'll have to head for the nearby Wapiti campground which does feature riverside campsites.

Dig a little deeper though and Jasper is still a real town where folks get up and go to work, raise their kids, and live a life apart from the tour bus masses that fill up main street. I took a stroll around the real Jasper and found an eclectic mix of homes and beautiful gardens lovingly maintained. Some date from the 1920's and '30's and most, to this not architecturally savvy observer, seem to be bungalows. Like Denver you do see the occasional scrape-off where someone has torn down the old original and put up a more modern home. And like Denver, Jasper needs to be careful that it doesn't lose its special charm. And charming describes these little bungalows with their immaculate lawns and glorious flowers. Here are two short videos showcasing some of the homes of Jasper,

a place it's easy to fall in love with.

Wildlife along the road that beckons

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the road that beckons, at least for me, is the suspense of what I'll find around the next bend. The chance to see wildlife is certainly one of the more enjoyable aspects and often plays a large part in deciding which path to take.

The Canadian Rockies are home to some of the larger forms of wildlife from bears to moose and elk to caribou. What with the summer crowds we weren't quite sure how much fur and hoof we'd actually see but have been pleasantly surprised at the variety we have observed.

The campground posts the almost requisite bear warning signs and the stores in Jasper seem to be doing a brisk trade in bear spray and we hear a lot of bear bells (referred to by the locals as dinner bells as it lets the bears know where the tourist treats are). What do you call a tourist running from a bear? According to t-shirts sold in town that would be Canadian fast food.

More seriously, there are bears, both black and grizzly in the campgrounds hence the warning signs. Why the grizzlies? Apparently for the young elk calves which also wander amongst the tents and campers. While we haven't seen an actual bear in the campground we have seen plenty of cow elk with calves as you'll see in the video at the bottom. Out on the road to Maligne Lake we've also spotted black bear, elk, moose and young bald eagles in the nest still learning to fly. Bull elk are also seen munching on vegetation and sporting majestic racks still covered in velvet ahead of the upcoming rut. And yes, tourists still cause bear, elk, and moose jams on the roads. The animals themselves seem to take all the attention in stride but one still cringes when someone tries to get too up close and personal with the local fauna. Still, if you love to see wildlife Jasper is a great place to do it. Here's some of what we've seen along the way...

A visit to Maligne Lake

If you’re ever in the Jasper area a must is a visit to Maligne Lake which lies about 28 miles out of town up a well-paved road along which you’ll have the chance to sight elk, moose, and bear. If you’re a cyclist it’s a wonderful road to ride as it’s a steady climb of 3-5% with occasional grunts of 10-12% thrown in just to make you forget that there may be a 300 pound hungry carnivore lurking off the side of the road as you whiz up the grade at 5 mph.

Photo by Sophie Mabry

I’ve been to Maligne Lake now four times and have seen it in glorious sunshine to pouring rain. Either way the Lake offers incredible scenery. On our first trip we kayaked halfway down the lake and camped and then the next morning, before the tour boats arrived, paddled to Spirit Island which is probably one of the most photographed spots in the world and deservedly so. If nature built cathedrals, sitting in a kayak at 6 a.m. on water as smooth and reflective as a mirror and staring in wonder at the towering peaks that surround you is a good excuse for a pew. The silence on such a morning is deafening, at least until the tour boats start arriving around 9:00. I know not everyone has the wherewithal to kayak the long miles back to Spirit Island so definitely take the boat tour. They are about 1 1/2 to 2 hours long and of course they have a guide pointing out all there is to see along the way.

Photo by Sophie Mabry

This trip I haven’t put paddle to water on Maligne though haven’t given up hope of still doing so. I did have the chance to bike it. Once at the top I had a chance to capture some of the scenery and had a chat with a Canadian lady who remembers visiting the lake in the 70’s when the road was still dirt and the amenities weren’t quite what they are today. She fondly reminisced about the lake before it was “discovered” by the tourist hordes (myself included) from around the world. There is no lodging at the lake today but in the early 1920’s some enterprising folks did build a lodge which today houses a fancy restaurant where you can enjoy a delicious meal while enjoying the spectacular views.

If you have your own non-motorized boat (canoe or kayak or even SUP though it would be a long long trip subject to changeable lake conditions on a paddle board) there is a separate parking lot and launch area to get you out on the water away from most of the congestion of the regular car and tour bus parking lots. There’s also loads of hiking trails available and plenty of picnic tables if you’re blessed with a sunny day.

Having experienced the Jasper area, including Lake Maligne, in the summer makes me curious about how staggeringly beautiful it must be here in the winter and buried under a blanket of white. I watched a Nature episode that followed a Canadian biologist who tracked a moose and her calf for an entire year and the winter scenery was amazing. Maligne is a big lake at 14 miles long and has depths
of more than 300 ft. And it does freeze over come winter. Folks were talking the other day about seeing the Aurora Borealis lighting up the nighttime skies the other night and I can only imagine what  the Northern Lights would look like over a frozen Lake Maligne. But that’s for another trip...

This one's for Barbara

I mentioned in one of my recent blogs that I didn't miss being in a cubicle. I do however miss the folks I worked with on a daily basis. Over the course of my career I've worked for many bosses. One of my last ones, Barbara, likes to get out in her kayak now and then and since I do as well I sometimes think how much she'd enjoy some of the places I'm dipping my paddle these days.

Today we spent time kayaking on Pyramid Lake up in the mountains just west of Jasper. We weren't lonely on this lake and had company in the shape of other kayaks, SUPs (stand up paddle boards), canoes, and even pedal boats launched from a resort on the eastern edge of the lake. There was even a big Voyageur canoe with upwards of 10 people paddling away. Still, once on the water, it didn't seem crowded and certainly nothing like Chatfield or Cherry Creek reservoirs on a busy summer day.

The weather was hot and dry for Jasper and some very white-skinned Canadians were bravely daring to swim in the still very cool waters of the lake. And yes, some tourists, who shall remain nameless, also dipped more than their big toes in an effort to cool off. Here are some of the sights from our paddling excursion. All in all, not a bad way to spend a summer day. And Barbara, this one's for you.

It's been too long...

There are certain sounds that evoke the wonder and magnificence of nature. The satisfied harumph of buffalo rolling in the dust, the majestic bugle of elk in rut, but for me the most evocative is the serenely plaintive call of the Loon echoing across the mirror of a calm lake at the close of day. As a kid growing up on a lake in New Hampshire whenever I heard the Loon's call I'd stop whatever I was doing (usually paddling a canoe at twilight in those long ago days) and simply listen.

The other night my wife and I were taking a twilight stroll around Lake Beauvert  which features peace, quiet, and incredible scenery all for the price of some wear and tear on shoe leather when I heard it. More often than not you can't see the actual bird calling but this night there it was. Or rather there they were, for we were treated to the sight of a Loon family not twenty yards from shore. Mama and papa Loon were shepherding a small bundle of brown feathers across the smooth as glass surface when they broke into their distinctive call.

I loved my job when I was working but these days don't miss being tied to a cube. What I did miss, all those years of working in an office, was the sound, almost forgotten, that instantly takes me back to a time of childlike wonder and happiness. The symphony of the Loon's call framed by the stillness of a Canadian sunset was over far too quickly. I hope to hear it yet again this trip for it truly had been way, way too long.

Icefields and more....

The trip from Banff to Jasper via the Icefields Parkway only measures a little more than a hundred miles. Normally you’d cover that distance in an hour and a half ( or faster for those of us with a lead foot!) but distance covered is not the objective when it comes to this journey. Especially if you are blessed with sunshine the drive more likely will take the majority of the day as you are constantly oohing and aahing at the magnificent scenery unfolding in front of you. This is definitely one road that beckons around each and every curve. I’ve done this trip now three times over some thirty years and this time was blessed with gorgeous weather after having waited out the rain camping on the Banff side at Waterfowl Lakes for 4 nights. And worth the wait it was as majestic mountain after majestic mountain reveals itself. These mountains only top out at about 6,000 plus feet but their ruggedness as they soar into the blue Canadian sky more than makes up for what they lack in height. And for anyone who’s hiked a Colorado fourteener don’t let the lack of altitude fool you. Most of these peaks offer challenging technical climbs compared to the trails we hike back home. And of course being this far north (52.8 degrees north compared to Denver’s 39.7) these peaks host not just summer’s lingering snows but real glaciers descending out of the high mountain valleys and capping the rugged peaks. That said, like elsewhere, global warming makes itself inconveniently known as these glaciers are in definite retreat and at the Icefields Centre they have signs along the trail documenting, year by year by year, where the glacier used to be compared to where it is now. Still the Columbia Icefield dwarfs the monster-wheeled ice buses  slowly crawling their way onto the glacier loaded full of tourists from around the world. In the video below, if you watch closely you can see these buses making their way to and fro in the background.

Crossing Sunwapta Pass, just before the Columbia Icefield, also takes you over to the somewhat drier climate surrounding Jasper. This part reminds me most of the Colorado High Country perhaps because there are more Aspen trees among the towering pines. As I mentioned, this is trip number three along this stretch of pavement and this trip makes me appreciate the first two all the more. The trip from Sunwapta to Jasper will never again be what it was, at least in my lifetime. The pine beetle epidemic which decimated parts of Colorado has now hit this region of Alberta and whole mountain valleys are awash in the brown of dead and dying trees. The pine beetle is a natural part of the environment and it’s destructive path will ultimately give rebirth to the forests but in human terms it is sad to see a whole forest ecosystem being destroyed. We’ll be visiting Maligne Lake, one of the prettiest places on the planet, to do some kayaking. Just two years ago on our way to Alaska I took what I consider the best picture I’ve ever taken halfway down this lake so I’m apprehensive about what we’ll find this trip. The Canadians don’t say much and the campgrounds and town still seem busy enough so whether it’s impacting tourism, which certainly drives the local economy, is unknown. And what with all the dead standing timber over such vast areas one can only imagine the conflagration that will come with the inevitable wildfire threat. The Banff side still seemed largely unaffected, but only time will tell.

Finally, Banff...

Internet connectivity north of the border has been problematic so finally catching up with our travels since leaving sunny, hot Colorado for more northern climes. The trip north saw us spend some time in Buffalo, Wyoming where we picked up the rain that has dogged us every other day. In Buffalo I was caught in a deluge the likes of which I have never seen while attempting a ride up Crazy Woman Canyon which according to the locals is a must see. When the Wyoming skies open up and let loose it's something to be experienced. My hastily donned raingear was but a laughable and futile attempt to stay dry but what the heck, sometimes the road that beckons seems more akin to a waterway than a roadway.

We also spent time in Montana and then crossed the border into Alberta heading to our first Canadian stopping point Banff. If you've never been to Banff it's hard to describe.it certainly has the affluence of a Vail or Aspen but seems to lack the pretentiousness of those hamlets. Banff is definitely an international destination and the streets are full of folks from around the world. Europe, the Middle East, the Orient are all well represented and the stores offer a far more eclectic mix of offerings than anywhere I've seen stateside.

For us the journey to Banff was more for the natural rather than human beauty and in that regard Banff does not disappoint. At least when you can see it... we left Denver in 100 plus temperatures and drought conditions but up north neither of those seem to be an issue. Sweatshirts, long pants, and rain jackets are the norm here but still, about every third day, old Sol deigns to make her appearance and when the grey skies make way to sunshine and white cottonballs drifting by Banff is a spectacular place to experience the outdoors. Folks sometimes ask why leave Colorado when we have mountains galore but the Canadian Rockies, despite lagging in altitude, more than make up for it in rugged splendor. Here's a little teaser of what Banff has to offer:

From Banff it's on to our final destination of Jasper via the incredible Icefields Parkway but more on that to come!