fredag den 31. juli 2015

Heading down the Icefields Parkway - including Maligne Lake detour.

This morning we were back on the road again. Heading towards our next wilderness hostel - Mosquito creek. Not as bad as the name implies - we hope. Originally we just wanted to head towards the hostel - it is after all a 200 km drive, but in search of a real bear the guy at the hostel suggested we go to Maligne lake. A 90 km detour but why not. We might see the bear or two.

Beautiful morning drive towards Jasper and then on the road towards Maligne lake. We passed through an area where there had recently been a big forest fire so we also got a chance to see how nature reboots once in a while. No bears on the way though. Only a couple of deer.

It was quiet at Maligne lake, so we did a short walk and just as we sat by the lake shore and had it all to ourselves a couple of deer appeared in the lake, heading our way and crossing a small creek just in front of us before they disappeared into the woods. Detour justified.

We headed back to Jasper, did lunch outside town and then we went to find Janice and Wayne's house. They travelled with us through most of China. We managed to catch Wayne on his way out so he spent an hour with us, giving us all the information needed to head down the Icefield Parkway (thanks a lot). Unfortunately Janice was stuck on a train - 13 hours delayed, so no hope of seeing her.

Shopping for the next three days of wilderness hostel was quickly done, and then we headed out on the road towards our first planned stop - The Athabasca falls.

We spent around 1 hour at the falls. Good footpaths for walking around then, get close to the main fall and have pictures from various angles. And of course enjoy the roar of the water as it goes down the gorge.

The next stop on the way was the visitor centre at the Columbia icefields glacier. We even managed to do the short hike to the foot of the glacier, pass by the "here was the glacier in 1982"-sign before we did the last short drive to our hostel.

Malene now knows why it is called the IcefieldS parkway. So many beautiful glaciers to look at on the way - surrounding us with stunning mountains as the sun was setting.

For dinner we did flame grilled T-bone steaks on the fireplace - and the necessary sides for a good steak - including a much deserved cold beer.

What a day.













































torsdag den 30. juli 2015

Hiking the Edith Cavell Meadows

The night in the dorm turned out to be disturbed by at least one serious snorer - somebody sounded like an earthquake for most of the night.

Anyway, we were ready to hike the Edith Cavell Meadows. Being a bit lazy we drove up the road to the parking lot and started our hike there. It was a beautiful sunny morning, blue sky and no wind. Hardly a better day to hike to mountain.

We hiked a bit up the trail, then went "off-road" towards the end of the canyon before returning to the meadows, resting and getting a bit of lunch. Then we headed up the ridge. It was a busy day with lots of other people hiking. On the way up we met a lot of people saying they had seen a bear - right in the area we just came from. And on the first plateau we met a small group of other hikers pointing to a rock in the valley where "two bears" were hanging out.

Since we had just passed to large marmots on our way up the mountain we had to disappoint the other guys by telling them that their "bears" were not as dangerous as a real grizzly would be.

We had our second lunch on the plateau, overlooking the mountain and the glacier on Edith Cavell, just enjoying how nice it looked.

Heading back home we got our swim wear and headed for the nearest lake. A nice and cold swim made it for the missing shower at the hostel.
What a great first day of hiking