An Attack in Jasper National Park!

  Run Forrest Run!

Today we visited the Miette Hot Springs area in search of more wildlife and got more than we bargained for...Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep were like rats at a garbage dump in the parking lot – we didn’t have any idea what kind of attractant was on the undercarriage of this pick-up but the sheep were going at it like it was some kind of Las Vegas buffet. There was a fair amount of jostling and outright head butting to be first in line at this bit of Ford made deliciousness.  

After spending quite some time in the parking lot watching the sheep eat an unfortunately parked Ford product, we proceeded up the hill to the actual Hot Springs Bathing Pools, an area where, the Canadians flock in droves in pursuit of the healing, relaxing waters.  For only $6.15 Canadian you can enter the pool area with about 500 of your very best friends. For $1.90 more you can even rent a swimsuit to do this in - yeesh!    

Discussion amongst ourselves as we rapidly departed the "attraction" went something like this:

Me: So, would  you guys have any desire to go in there?

Aunt Gwen (lips curled up): Not with that many bodies crammed in there..

Wick: how do you suppose they keep it even close to sanitary (this about a place where they "rent" swim suits)

Barry: Clean nothing! Did you see that Sasquatch out there in the middle?!? (referring to a large, hairy, badly drawn, half naked behemoth enjoying the springs) I wouldn't want to be there with that!

After a brief stop for our afternoon ice cream treat at the Poolside cafe, Beth decided to stroll back down to the truck buffet to see if the sheep were still at it...well, they were still nibbling away at where the truck had been.  Beth was standing enjoying her ice cream and contemplating what the owner of the truck did when he returned to find his vehicle devoured by the RMBHS.  She appeared to be enjoying her reverie right up to the moment when she took one more bite of crunchy ice cream cone goodness and one sheep put the hairy eyeball on her...Honestly, even from 100 yards you could see the look of horror on her face when that sheep raised its head and made it's intention clear.

Now,  RMBHS's have these freaky looking eyeballs to begin with - all slitty-eyed devil- goat like and this one, after putting the hairy eyeball on Beth and her cone made a beeline straight for her with stealing on its mind!

 

Beth's immediate response:  "Eeep!"  

A quick look behind her towards the jeep confirms that help is on the way from the other end of the parking lot. A recheck of the ill intending sheep reveals it still has Maple Nut on the mind and, after careful, strategic consideration, Beth does the only reasonable thing under the circumstances -- she shoves the entire ice cream cone in her mouth...and turns tail and runs toward the jeep! 

Now, while in full-mouthed retreat the only thing she can do is wave frantically, while running to get the jeep to move forward into pickup position.  Horrifyingly, with the horned menace in hot pursuit of Beth, the jeep fails to move forward - not even an inch!  Beth pours on the speed even while hampered with a near fatal brain freeze from the hastily "hidden" cone protruding from one cheek and gets close enough to the jeep to see Barry  slapping his leg and wiping tears from his eyes.. 

Gwen’s compassionate response: “I just wish we’d thought to take a picture...”

Really?

100,000 Miles on the Jeep

Early in our stay at Jasper NP Beth discovered a momentous occasion poised to occur.  The semi-trusty Jeep which we purchased for a mere $5,000 was about to post 100,000 miles on its odometer.  Now, true, it has given us some “moments” but in the end it went everywhere we’ve asked it so you can’t just let an event of this magnitude pass without a celebration commensurate with the achievement!

I mean after all this jeep took us out into the wilds of Canada where, right alongside the road we were able to sit and watch the most amazing mother fox hunt up breakfast for her babies.  She had the most amazing coat on – none of us had ever seen anything but a red fox and this one was a heavily mottled black and red.  We felt lucky beyond belief to have seen her:   

As you know, Jeep has taken us far and wide and back and beyond and endured through ‘low coolant’ and ‘for Heaven’s sake run for your lives’ and ‘why is this floor bed wet?’ and forded streams and lakes and rutted tracks, so when I say celebrate I mean it!

Let me fast forward you to the moment of celebration...We had to have some very expensive Canadian groceries and just as we pull into the lot the odometer rings the warning of impending celebration:  

We do our thing in the grocery store and Beth finishes before everyone else.  Now, after 42 years Beth is aware that Barry isn’t exactly a celebrating kind of guy and she can pretty much predict the reluctant level of his participation in the upcoming event so....she slips behind the wheel of the jeep and proceeds to drive slowly around and around the parking lot. 

Now I don’t think this behavior is difficult to figure out but when Beth passes Barry standing on the sidewalk looking confused, 

Barry hollers,   “What are you doing?!!?”

Puulease? Really?  This isn’t obvious to everybody?!

Beth, “What do you think I’m doing?”

Barry, now trailing alongside the jeep with grocery bags dangling, “Are you driving it around the parking lot until the odometer turns?!!?”

Beth, “Yep.”

     Another trip around the parking lot reveals Wick, Gwen and a very puzzled Barry now standing at curbside and, because I’m nothing if not inclusive, I stop to pick up the rest of the revelers.   Believing it will take me some time to instruct all participants in their respective celebratory roles I slow way down in my circumnavigation of parking lot and the following conversations take place (again, with my sneaky brother surreptitiously manning the video camera)... Click on the links below to have a look:

100,000 Celebration Part I

100,000 Mile Celebration Part II

Now, I ask you.  What do you think?  Shouldn't life's little moments be celebrated?

100,000 Mile Celebration Part III

This is what I got for my trouble:

A Sad, Sad Event

This morning we are putting the Canada travel adventure report on hiatus while we report on a particularly bitter betrayal that took place over a game of dominoes.  Now, as you've read in the past, dominoes with our intrepid Tourbus Adventurers can become pretty competitive (though no fault of the author, I assure you).  After celebrating Wick and Gwen's 50th Anniversary with the family (report to follow) we kindly allowed Scott and Lynn to remain with us on the Adventure.  We were so welcoming we even invited them to join us in a game of dominoes...

Now for any of you who have played Mexican Train Dominoes knows, you play in descending order from the 12's through the 0's.  If you can't follow a double you have to keep drawing before you can bring your train out.  I think it is significant to note here, and I'll allow you, dear readers, to be the judge of the harm perpetrated against Beth's tender feelings, no one single soul would assist me in bringing out my train when we reached the 1's.  EVERYONE else came out quite nicely and somebody or several somebodies had picked up every single 1 off the table.  Not once did anyone offer a 1 for my line so that I might join in the game.  That's right people!  They ignored me entirely, blithely using their excess 1's willy-nilly without thought or regard for me.  I say that's the same as being selected last for Kick Ball in 4th grade.  

I'll leave to you, reader, what do you think of a group that I've been so kind and loyal to who now turn on me like a pack of jackals?

DATELINE: Jasper, Alberta, Canada 8/1 - 8/8

Grizzly in Jasper

We spent the vast majority of our time in Alberta driving mile after mile thinking that around each corner was going to be the ultimate wildlife find.  Now, I will say we saw grizzlies in the wild much closer than ever before.  Right outside the town of Jasper we were involved in no less than 3, count ‘em 3 bear jams (a phenomena caused when tourists stop their vehicles and get out in order to get even closer to these apex predators).  It was quite interesting to watch the NP rangers come charging in with the guns and rubber bullets and tromp into the woods in pursuit of the offending bears yelling,  “Hey Bear! Hey Bear!”  It was of equal interest to watch the bears hang out doing whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted right until they spied the ranger’s trucks arrive.  Boy did they high tail it out of town at that point! 

View from the deck at Jasper NP Lodge

We lunched up at the Jasper Lodge with absolutely gorgeous views.  We 
traveled through Indian territory and saw their ceremonial grounds.  We explored the coal-mining town of Cardamon and visited their pioneer cemetery.  We braved swarms of insects to look at the Mobley cabin – site of one the very first settlers in the area.  We traveled gravel and dirt and grass-covered wagon track and in all, had a wonderful, wonderful time – but, not too many animals to speak of.  

Here we are at the Mobley Cabin.  We were off road, and I mean waaaay off road when we drove into a clearing and came across this cabin.  There was a self-guided walk through the meadow with interpretative signs and everything but no other evidence on the map or at the trailhead that this was anything at all the Canadians even knew existed.

This cemetery was at the top of the mountain outside of the town of Cardamon, Alberta.  The graves were tenderly looked after and the markers a carved in stone history of the historic coal-mining history of this area. The graveyard is still in use today but it was heartbreaking to read all the inscriptions on the tiny graves of the many babies lost to families in the mid-1920's in this area.  There is still a large coal-mining operation in this area - open seam mining - it isn't pretty.

Indigineous Peoples Ceremonial Grounds
The Canadians refer to them as Aboriginal People..

We traveled hours and hours studiously following a map (Yes, made by the Canadians.  No, not a good idea to follow the Canadian map makers)... There was much consultation and discussion about how far the walk would be if we weren't on an actual road to somewhere.  At one point we actually ran into a pair of University of Alberta research assistants who were monitoring the diminishing population of grizzly bears in the area...Well, that, at least explaining part of our problem.  We weren't seeing another living soul and the following is the view out our windshield:

We continued just a like a jeep full of intrepid mailmen through rain and deprivation - really - we didn't have any snacks worth mentioning with us and finally came to an obstacle we didn't think we would conquer.

So we put Wick out of the car with a big stick to test the depth of the water.  I abandoned the vehicle to make my way around the “lake” on foot – Gwen maintained her seat, Barry set his jaw and away he went!

This was all well and good and we were pretty proud of the fact that we had circumnavigated the Canadian wilderness right up until our road dead-ended at this sign:  

Finally! Wildlife!

DATELINE: Jasper, Alberta, Canada                  8/1 - 8/8

August 1^st finds us headed to Jasper National Park in Alberta.  We drive through the Canadian Rockies and into some of the most incredible and remote land we’ve ever seen.  We finally found our wildlife and had some up close and personal experiences.  This first of the Jasper posts will cover ginormous elk, persistent moth-eaten goats, roadside grizzlies and a huge beaver enclave. 

After days and days of searching and lingering doubt that animals were even allowed in Canada we had all but resigned ourselves to hanging around the towns listening to the locals talk – yaa – but just as we were pulling into Hinton where we parked the rigs we spot the BIGGEST elk any of us had ever seen!  Pair of brothers or band of brothers – totally unclear but we were watching a once in a lifetime sight as a pair of 7X7’s lounged next to the road!  

There is no doubt that we were surprised by the limited number of animals.  After talking to my cousin Kay Brader we learned that an earlier visit to the area may have netted a better result.  We did see elk, deer, mountain goats, Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, Marmot, frogs, raptors, and a wide variety of rodents but only as individuals - not the big herds we anticipated.

Pulling back into the KOA in Hinton the manager told us that right in town there was a beaver pond!  Now I’ve seen many a beaver lodge and dam and pond but never so much as a webbed foot on a beaver and I’ve ALWAYS wanted to so you can imagine we made it our mission to get out to the pond.  Well, it was a giant beaver pond, occupied for more than 30 years by this beaver family and their kin.  There were wooden boardwalks that seemed to go on and on and a large elevated viewing platform.

Huge Beaver Lodge & Dam

Miracle of miracles! We didn’t have to go more than just a hundred yards in before we were literally swimming in beavers!  They were everything I was always sure they would be!  We had momma beavers and daddy beavers and baby beavers all being busy, busy just like they are supposed to be.

           
 Wick and Gwen and I are clear over at one end of the pond when Barry casually gestures us over to the opposite side where he is quietly observing a beaver having her dinner not 5 feet from where he stood on the boardwalk. 

Despite the thriving swarms of airborne menace sucking our blood we stood there for probably an hour and made an additional trip later in the week and were rewarded with this tender scene between mother and child.

Now I’ll also take this opportunity to tell you about one of the most ridiculously idiotic wildlife episodes we’ve witnessed anywhere...We were headed up to take a look at Emerald Lake mostly because we’ve learned that Canadians have been reasonably, although not universally, as you will later learn, accurate at least in the naming of places.  So, Kicking Horse Canyon is where some pioneer dude got – you guessed it – kicked by a horse. Thus, we are assuming Emerald Lake to be – Emerald.  At any rate we round a corner in this canyon on a high mountain road and traffic has come to a standstill.  Now we immediately identify this as a Sheep Jam (cause that’s the only animal we are seeing consistently). 

We inch along and get close enough to find traffic covering both lanes and the very narrow shoulders high up on this cliff face.  Honestly, it looks like there has been an accident but it becomes apparent that people have simply screeched to a stop and left their cars to chase down RMBHS in an effort to take pictures of what they must believe to be some sort of endangered species.  One car has actually been abandoned with all its doors open and we trace the path of a woman with her camera running down a sheep to get its picture.  She glances over her shoulder, per chance to ascertain her safety, and sees a RMBHS climbing into the back seat of her lovely SUV which happens to house her now shrieking baby who is trapped in its car seat with the encroaching goat.  Yikes!

Out and Beyond....Way, Way Beyond....

DATELINE:  Golden, British Columbia                               7/28 - 8/1

We spent four days and three nights in and around the very beautiful town of Golden, British Columbia attempting to catch up with all this wildlife portrayed in the See Canada! brochures.  We parked the rigs just off the Highway 1, otherwise known as the Trans-Canadian and set out with hearts filled with hope and the firm belief that the government of Canada wouldn't be party to any false advertising of the travel booklet type...

Now, specifically, we were in search of bears, preferably Grizzly but Black Bears were an acceptable alternative.  As anyone who has ever watched any Disney True Life Adventure or read anything about Canada knows, there are bears everywhere - all over the roads, in the campgrounds, in town - everywhere, I tell you!  Except...they aren't...  It was like some kind of bulletin went out just prior to our arrival because there weren't any bears to be found.  Well, to be perfectly honest, the very first night we did have one sighting - pretty close - just down the road - of one solitary, small-ish, black bear - huh.  

Not to be deterred we loaded up the Jeep the very next morning and began the climb up the Trans-Canadian in search of more bear or moose or elk or just about anything besides more sheep - we were pretty much done with the whole RMBHS business.  Anyway, things didn't exactly go as planned...

While viewing the bear excitement the previous evening, I kept noticing a rather acrid, burning odor seeming to come from beneath the hood of the Jeep...(Again, I would refer kind readers to a previous blog entry wherein the "add coolant" light and the loving reminders of this wife were studiously ignored by a certain Tourbus Captain..)  At any rate, by the next morning we watched with considerable alarm as the temperature gauge migrated upwards and choking fumes began to fill the interior of the Jeep after only about 1 mile of travel on this wilderness byway...

So....We're sitting at the side of the Trans-Canadian Highway in the wilds of British Columbia with the hood raised on the jeep that Barry has repeatedly insisted is "just fine" even though the temperature gauge has announced, amid red flashing warnings, that the radiator is as hot as the face of the sun...things begin to happen...

Now, Gwen and I have made it clear that it isn't on our list to do a walking trek out of BC any more than it was on the list last year to hike out of the Yukon (see last year’s “Wheels on the Bus” blog) so we are seated warily in the back of the Jeep while the men folk stick their heads under the hood and into the now hissing, popping and boiling belly of the beast... It doesn't take us long looking at the confusion under the hood and listening to the ever increasing despair being declared by the soon-to-explode radiator, to decide that the back seat is a potential death trap.  We crack our doors to beat a hasty retreat and ---

In the spirit of equal rights for women – not! - Wick  yells at Gwen and I to "stay in the car!!!" Now, Gwen and I were pretty sure their intent was to just let us blow up with the vehicle that by now sounds like some demented giant percolator... 

Meanwhile Barry and Wick are gingerly poking around under the hood, the smoke is pouring out of the vents and Wick's and Barry's eyebrows are waggling somewhere up near their hairlines, which is way up there on their respective heads as you know... Anyway, the radiator suddenly let's loose with a mighty vent of steam which sent them careening away from the imminent disaster.  Barry and Wick start back pedaling from the bubbling cauldron of death beneath the hood and, Barry is the first to go --  with arms and legs tilting in full swing like a modern Don Quixote he disappears down the embankment in front of the jeep!  Eep! 

Wick, seeing Barry's headlong flight from peril backpedals in the opposite direction and suddenly - BLOOP!  he just drops clean out of sight! Gwen and I peer out the window just in time to see him fall right on his behind. I mean it! THWACK! and down he goes - the only thing that bounced was his hat! Both guys leaptup and Gwen and I decide that maybe we had had pretty good seats for the whole event after all...

We emptied all our water bottles into the radiator which is promptly declared "cured" by the guys...and we proceed into the wilderness of British Columbia... Honest, this was a map posted at what appeared to be the beginning of a road to nowhere...one of our very favorite kind of adventures and undoubtedly a place to see wildlife...  

Now we traveled some of the craziest roads you can imagine into wilderness that we've never seen.  On one particularly remote track we paused to consider our situation..debating what the kids would say if we had to walk our way out of this mess...The roads were just old logging tracks and often we found ourselves at the edge of an abyss or dead- ended over some huge log fall but oh, we did see country!   

You would think, anybody would think, that we would see more wildlife than you could shake a stick at but no - we saw scenery - incredible wild spaces - gorgeous wildflowers but virtually nothing with fur... Now while there was no fur 

there were feathers and skin.  If you look really, really close in the tire track in the picture above you will see thousands upon thousands of teeny, tiny frogs.  Zillions probably.  To the right is an extreme close-up of one frog.  The were maybe the size of the fingernail on my pinkie.  We tried to walk the rest of the way up this little rutted track but found that each step was met with - uh - unfortunate results.  In fact, between the frantic hopping, Beth's shrieking and the moist "popping" sounds it turned out to be a rather unpleasant experience.... So, it's back to the scenery...

This is one of what will be several, and I do mean several shots of the so-called Captains puzzling over maps.  Now, I must admit here that it became apparent that Canadians must be the world's worst cartographers.  Not kidding!  We paid good money for maps that would take us out to the back of beyond and then just decide it was too much trouble to keep drawing in the maps.  Well, we made several long days of road tripping through the wilderness without much wildlife success.  

In fact, Barry's final comment while trying to remove at least some of the dirt from the Jeep was, "All this and I only saw a chipmunk!"  

Little Bo Peep Done Lost Her Sheep and They All Were Found in Canada!

DATELINE: Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia 7/25-7/28

In an act of what turns out to be absurd bravado The Tourbus Adventurers decided to venture forth into the great Canadian wilds in search of the promise of gorgeous scenery and so much wildlife that it becomes a naturalistic spectacle of amazing proportions.  Now, as advertised, and previously stated, Beautiful British Columbia is beyond belief in grandeur and beauty but they lie, lie, lie when making wildlife claims.

To be perfectly truthful, seeing a Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep (henceforth to be referred to as RMBHS) anywhere in the Rocky Mountains is a sight to marvel over, but it didn’t take us long to realize that this was about the only wildlife Canada has in any abundance.  Later in the trip we even come to realize that these animals are a bit of a menace but hey – Day 1 we were still pretty enamored: 

Full Curl sitting right in the middle of the intersection...just like he owned the joint!

These fella's weren't exactly modest...

Or discrete but the locals didn't seem to mind.

We camped in a lovely RV Resort (have you noticed how often those words are used to describe some of the places we get trapped in?) and spent 3 days trekking from camp into Kootenay National Park, Yoho National Park and Banff National Park.  We put hundreds of miles on the Jeep and saw some of the most amazing scenery anywhere – not kidding – this is an area that must be seen to be believed! 

Incredible Scenery at every turn...

The first day we drove into the town of Banff to catch a glimpse of their world famous town-dwelling elk herd.  Yep. You got it. Not a sign of them. Nada. Not a peep.  Not even any poop. Disappointed but not discouraged we traveled about a mile out of town to an area called Vermillion Lakes where rumor had it that beavers, bears, elk, moose, deer and maybe even bobcat roamed.  The first hope was encountered with a large sign bearing the photograph of a grizzly that informed us that bears were in the area and to not run if we encountered one.  Okay then – now we’re cooking...

We stop for lunch at a small pull out just below an under-the-freeway animal crossing.  Along the Trans-Canadian Highway through Banff they’ve installed these giant fences along both sides of the roadway.  In order to not disrupt the animals migratory routes they’ve also installed a rather amazing system of crossings both overpasses and underpasses to reduce animal fatalities.  Clearly, Canada really cares about its wildlife – as well it should – apparently there’s not that much of it...

Anyway, a bicyclist comes pedaling along (there are lots of these health nut sort of folk in Canada by the way) and he rather urgently informs us that we are just yards from one of these animal underpasses.  We all kind of shrug and wave and say, “Yaaa?”  And I mean - really?!!? – a bicyclist is telling us this?  Where the heck does he think he’s going to go when the bears come after him?

 Well, after stowing our lunch scraps in the back of the Jeep we travel about 100 yards and sure enough, there he stands, edge of road – I mean it – edge of the road – nose slapping distance – a grizzly.  Not by himself either.  It’s a mother and two, count ‘em, two cubs!

This is mom walking away from us...

Now this is a spectacular sighting and the closest any of us have ever been to a grizzly bear but Beth was whining away in the back seat about the utter lack of moose sightings.  I mean this was way moosey looking area.  After a studious consultation with her trusty Wildlife in Canadian Parks handbook, Beth suggests a trip up the Bow Valley Parkway due to its guaranteed wildlife sighting potential. 

Again, the only wildlife we encountered was RMBHS that were clogging the roads and had everyone agog at this “rare” treat... Well, we did encounter one very large bull elk but he wasn’t even the main attraction.  We’ve always thought well of the Canadians.  Some of my best friends are Canadians and I’ve always thought they were intelligent and level headed individuals, but, I must say the following sight sort of made me wonder...

I mean, you see this kind of crap in Yellowstone all the time and often, it makes the show “When Animals Attack” and I do have to admit that I was kinda hoping for something like that ‘cause I think that show pays pretty good and you have to acknowledge this crowd had stupidity potential written all over them.  Yikes!

Our Radium Springs stay included enough 4X4 adventuring,  animal sightings and spectacular scenery to lure us even further into the wilds of Alberta in the following days.  For now, enjoy some of the spectacular offerings of this incredible area:

Everything - just stunningly beautiful!