Aug 7, 2021, William E. Switzer Provincial Park

But first a quick glimpse at yesterday, International Beer Day!

August 06 – Happy “International Beer Day”

What happens when you have a beer or two? You cozy up with this guy!

I wake up earlier than I’d like, (at 443, Fitbit is very precise). I put it off and off and finally give in to the cold. Crazy!!

Today's destination... William E. Switzer Provincial Park, a 20m drive from our park. Google Maps says turn left, we do.  At the point I took the second photo, Google says "Arrived". Don't think so.

The rebel in sunglasses is, happily ours 🙂

We find a place to turn around, back we go. T’is pretty

Back on track, we arrive at the Visitors Centre

Hum, maybe I shouldn’t have read this sign

Here we go…

Kelley’s Bathtub! Named for a local outdoorsman who once fell in, (wished for a more entertaining story) Kelley’s Bathtub is a picturesque pond in William E. Switzer Provincial Park with pretty mountain views and plenty of wildlife (think moose, beaver, loon, and others). Despite these potential viewings and those on the sign, we are view-less. Not complaining.

Walk over the bridge and encounter this poor fish who perhaps jumped out of the water a little too far. Or maybe, a bear ate the rest of him?

Rewards!!

Our kind of place 🙂

Evening sky.

Thursday, Aug 05, 2021

Today we head to Hinton, AB.  It's about a 3h drive so we aren't in a hurry to get going. We leave iRVin at 1030, get fuel and are on the road at 1050.  
We quickly find our construction, then it’s clear sailing to the border

We enter Jasper Park, this time we do not have to pay $10/ea as we are just passing through. Rule is, you can stop for a “pee” break but no photo taking outside of Bailey.

We finally see animals. These guys have no fear!

The magestic Rockies are over shadowed by the wildfire smoke.

Yet more brave ones. Drink time, Cheers!!

Great signage after seeing all the animals

We are here!

Hum, does this look sturdy enough? Off we go!

Make it!!!

And we’re set up! Site 22

Anxious to experience our time here and another Jasper visit

August 2, 2021 Cranberry Marsh

Smoke continues, I can’t imagine what the fire fighters are going through.  Mexico sent us 100 of their fire fighters to assist.  A short drive and our adventure begins.                                                     

The march is in the outskirts of town, the walk is a 6k loop.  I like loops.

We drive along 17th which turns into a “Bob” road, ie gravel.

We park  at the Ash parking area and walk left on the trail.  The boardwalk!

Up ahead, no photos, cause I’m frightened – 4 people walking one scary looking dog.  I’m full of anxiety.  The 4 walk slower than we do, we lag back.  Poor Allan and the stuff he has to put up with, he is so sweet and concerned he pulls out our dog/coyote spray just in case.   The group stops to gaze at the marsh.  The dog notices us and starts approaching.  Allan calls out “Could you please hang on to your dog till we pass?”  They are accomendating and do.  I explain I am terrified, they held on. 

Keep moving on   

More grassy stuff, and lots of mosquitos even though we bug sprayed.  We are into this walk 45m, total should be 60m.  15m too long for my liking.  

Make it to the lookout 

    Not so much!!

Round a corner, again no photo, there are at least 8 Canada Geese waiting to attack,  Would our whistles disperse them or attract them.  I’m not walking back through all the tickling vegatation, don’t want to go forward!  What to do…  the geese feel sorry for me and  “flock” off.  🙂 

We make a wrong turn and end up at Hwy 5, back we go and finally find Bob. 

Not the best adventure but hey, it’s done!

 

Another smoky day, Aug 01, 2021

We’re off to     

It was Allan’s birthday yesterday, here he’s posing in this birthday bear t-shirt

The falls

Looking down the falls

We arrived in time to see the rafters load up     

    those brave soles                 

Waterfalls were fun, next stop                                       

We were discussing how all this sand got here…

now we know    Beneath our feet & in our shoes!  Lots of sand.    

The sun is trying so hard, the smoke keeps winning.  This was at 111p

              So ends this trail loop

 

July 30, 2021 Mount Robson Provincial Park

First stop, Visitors Centre to learn today’s must doThe suggestion is hike the Berg Lake Trail to Kinney Lake.  It’s 4.2k each way, will our weary bones make it? 

A quick walk around the Visitor’s Centre, oh our history

3,954 m = 12,972 feet   WOW  It’s not quite as smoky hereBerg Lake Trail, be kind to us 🙂Back to Bob to get our bear spray.  Berries & bears!

Fast moving river!

Tree on tree!  Mount Robson as seen from the trail, with just a little zoom

We’ve passed a few of these, skat?   If so, then the answer is…                             “Yes, a bear does shit in the woods.   

Almost there!     

Made it!!    Simply beautiful!  So calm  Beautiful!  Handsome!! 

Well earned!!  Find our rewards…Walk back, big mountains, big trees  Fence, made of logsSkies at home 🙁   Mountains gone again!   

Today’s funny     

 

 

Smoky July 28 & 29

  Today is George Hicks Park day

We walked from our park so our step goal wasn’t an issue.

View from lookout #1 

Lookout #2

Clear water, no salmon, yet.  We’ll have to research when spawning season begins. 

The park/trail was much shorter than expected.  The trail loops and we are back where we began about 15m later.

Back at Bailey the smoke from the wild firest is getting worse.  We are surrounded by mountains which are barely visible.

This is how dry the ground is.  One spark and …

Evening sky, there is a mountain there.  

July 29th  The days have been rather dreary because of wild fire smoke.  The photos on the left were yesterday, right today.  We can see the mountains!!

There is a famers market in town today, hours 4p – 7p.  Weird hours, nothing in this town opens early.  I’m hoping for tomatoes, corn & garlic scapes. We’ll walk to town, go to the market, then have dinner at the The Loose Moose that opens at 430p (even on the weekend).  We selected this restaurant because it has Rickards Red on tap.  Allan hasn’t had that since Kelowna!  And Chicken Parm.

Can’t remember if I spoke about trains here.  There are trains, super long trains, feels like they run 22/7, and blow their whistles (long, long, short, long).  We have the misfortune of hearing 2 separate crossings.  

We have been lucky on our walks to not encounter a train.  But not today                       The conductor waves 🙂 5m later we cross, yes, I timed it. 

We walk past the Valemount Fire Department.  They have an engine for sale This mural is on the side of the building. Who thought a mural of a fireman watching a fire burn was a good idea??? 

The market was larger than we expected

No tomatoes or corn, we did score garlic scapes. Yum

The Loose Moose has no Rickards on tap, in fact no beer on tap.  Then why not update your online menu?  They have all the listed bottle beers, Allan selects a bottle of Kokanee.    Sorry, we don’t have that one either.  Allan settles for a bottle of Rickards.   My wings were good.                       Allan’s Chicken Parm, bottom of photo was the weidest Chicken Parm. 

Featured in the men’s room of this classy restaurant

 

They can’t all be gems!!

Jasper, AB July 27, 2021

It’s a beautful day for a road trip to JasperJasper Provincial Park, welcomes us with a $20 day pass & construction.

This however is not construction rather a rock slide they are clearing

We duck in Jasper; #47

 We the “tourists”

 

 

 

 

 

Allan’s new friends       

Had a delicious lunch at Something Else Steak HouseWe had a fun day.  We’ll be back!

I’ll leave you with a reminder

 

 

Valemount July 25 & 26

The plan is to go to a trail in Tête Jaune Cache, 15 minutes down the highway.  We have a map!  Allan is a great map reader.   First right, over the railroad tracks, and there the trail is.  Hum, the street on the map does not exist.   We, take the first right – no railway tracks.  Take a drive back the other way and end up on this bridge over the Fraser. Bridge is not a Bailey bridge.  Maximum weight 25,000k

Back at the park we take a stroll under mean looking skies. 

July 26th

Errand day!  Post office to return the flag post, Visitor Info Centre as it is the #1 thing to do in Valemount, IGA for Boursin cheese (Allan has decided  TicTok Pasta for his birthday dinner on Saturday), Deep Woods Off (works great for mosquitos), non allergic sunscreen.  BC Liquor to put a smile on our day. What a fun day!

Visitor Centre, we park beside 2 Jeeps.  Jeeps tend to do that, park together.  Neither have ducks….   yet!                  We get to duck them #45 & 46   

Next the Post Office, parts missing flag post returned.

“Let’s do the Valemount city walk” the Visitor Centre suggested.   Stopping at Swift Creek Train Station.  Allan is interested in the caboose.   

Bye bye Allan, wave bye bye 🙂

Inside the caboose 

Equipment of the day! 

A Busy Bee!!

Mission failures…  No Boursin cheese, meat shelves mostly bare, no non allergic sunscreen,  no Deep Woods Off,  BC Liquor closed between 1 & 2 for lunch.  What time did we get there?  115.  How do people survive?

 

July 24, walk to Valemount

We took the 5m drive to Valemount yesterday.  We ordered a replacement flag post from Amazon and had it shipped to the Valemount Post Office.  We’ll be flying our flag again. Not so fast, the box is missing a part.  Back it has to go.    We’re back in the flag post market.

This is the first town we’ve been to that doesn’t open until 3.  Our destination is Three Ranges Brewing, they put the ALE in vALEmount.  They have 4 different ambers beers,  Allan can’t wait to give them a try.

We leave at 225.   We walk & walk, through a forest.  Granted the road is paved but there is nothing else around.  We’re good, we have our bear whistles.

At the side of the road, an out of commission, tractorWe’ve encountered some strange stuff.  This work of art is right up there.The word “Stu’s” is made from vehicle grills, under it is a Studebaker truck mounted on a pole. It must be there for a long time as the bottom part of the truck was overgrown. Perhaps this was the delivery truck…


Here we are, we walked by the brewery at 304 (they open at 3),  the line up was up the sidewalk. We’ll go to Home Hardward to see what they carry in flag posts.  None 🙁   Back at the brewery the line up is shorter. Takes a while to get to the front of the line but, we order, no outside seats, inside we go.  Wonder.. why as they are so packed they don’t open earlier especially on the weekend? They fill growlers, Allan is anxious to put his to use again.  The top of the walls are lined with growlers from other breweries. Allan’s flight and my beer!

Allan likes each beer, LESS, than the previous!

No growler fills here!  We did meet a young couple who were here from Toronto wilderness backpacking.  Their backpacking was cut short when his mis-step resulted in a sprained ligament.  They still had 10k to walk downhill = brutal!  Memories being made = priceless!  They didn’t see a bear, only a wolf.  I can’t imagine sleeping in a tent in the wilderness!

It was a fun day, back home we walk. 

I tell the bears this… 

July 22 on the road again!

Who BBQed last night in the hail/rainstorm??  This guy, AKA my guy! It wasn’t raining when he started.  Flashstorm, good for the wildfires. BC declared a”State of Emergency” starting  July 21st. The fires are disconcerting, we are monitoring our routes.

Good bye PG!   It’s been fun, not quite a blast but fun.   

RCMP  Building 

Clock Tower, clock doesn’t work 

On the road again! 

Allan’s fire research prior to us heading to Valemount revealed we are going to detour.  Here we are!Too funny.  The flagman, unlike most, will not make eye  contact

We are first in line, Bailey the Leader!  Here we go, finally … This is single lane!

More hay  First photo I’vetake of bikers.  Blows my mind how many travel the highway.  Even in the Rockies.

Back on the road     

Arrived!  IrVing RV Park

Settled! 

Love our new kitchen mat