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Chasing Summer p.009
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Day 29 - Sept 13th - Johnsons Crossing to Liard Hot Springs
Not sure yet why (I guess just 'because we could'
) we've decided last night to not setup the tents. We wanted to give a try to the wood stove of the shelter available in these Yukon CG.
The stove worked very well but the 'room' was so open that it was a case of 'burning' on one side and freezing on the other
. Not our best night so far but it was fun to try it.
Today, the road will mostly consist at covering miles to reach Liard Hot Springs. It’s not that the road is bad or anything but there is nothing ‘special’ to notice and too few turns to make it fun. Yes, we’re getting spoiled and just think as ‘normal’ to see beautiful forest of green and yellow trees with lakes and rivers along the road and mountains in the horizon .
What is new however is that we saw Bisons on the side of the road!
And for our second encounter, there were many of them.
Better not hit that at full speed, eh?
Aren't they cute?
Still more long miles...
We finally arrive to the springs. The public campground at the springs is quite nice and we’re happy to learn that the springs are open 24/7.
A 3/4 miles boardwalk leads to the springs. View from the side...
And the springs baths
It's never as fun as more "natural" places but it was great anyway to relax in them without too many people around.
Day 30 - Sept 14th - Liard Hot Springs to Hudson's Hope
We decided to have 2 long days of riding to have more time at Jasper and Banff. One of the reasons for going pretty quickly is that we suppose that the road will continue to be ‘ordinary’. We were so wrong! The whole morning is a real delight with a narrow, twisty road with beautiful scenery. The colors are spectacular: sometimes with a perfectly balanced mix of dark greens, light greens, bright yellows and reddish yellows. Sometimes the whole forest is dark green with just a few accents of bright yellows.
We’re also seeing an amazing amount of game. For a while we have to stop almost every mile for Mountain Goats or Reindeers. First encounter with mountain goats...
Then more...
The only reindeers that I could photograph before they ran away.
Before Fort Watson however the scenery becomes flatter and the road straighter. We have lunch at Fort Watson in a restaurant that’s also a bowling. We’re almost the only customers and decide to give a try to the ‘Canadian Bowling’: smaller balls (with no holes), only 5 pins and 3 shots each time. It’s just as fun!
Everyone we talk to there complains on how bad the weather has been in August and September. It has also rained the last 7 days. It looks like we’re lucky again because it’s warm and sunny for us. Continuing the Alcan going south is not quite interesting.
Along the way, we’ve asked several time what would be the best road to go to Jasper from Ft St John: the longest one (+ 150 miles) that goes West of the mountains or the one that goes through Columbia. We heard different opinions but finally decide to go west because it’s supposed to be more scenic. Just before Fort St John we take the West cutoff by the road 29. It’s a welcome change! Not only it offers very scenic views of the large Peace River but they are also great curves on it.
We camped just after Hudson’s Hope, by the river.
Day 31 - Sept 15th - Hudson’s Hope to Jasper
Another long day of riding with very few pictures. But I couldn't miss Mt Robson, just at the entrance of Jasper National Park. At close to 4,000 meters it's the highest point in the Canadian Rockies.
3-way communication
As you can see there was just no time for stopping...
The TEAM
We camp in the state campground a couple of miles from Jasper and then head to town. Jasper reminds me of Tahoe which I guess makes sense since it’s also a ski resort in winter. It's pretty fancy and busy (we're a Saturday night) and of course, rather expensive. We enjoy a fine dinner but it's feels a bit weird to be in such a place after crossing Alaska and Yukon...
Day 32 - Sept 16th - Jasper (by Teryk)
Jasper is a really weird place. It has a reputation for being beautiful and rugged, however, when we got there it had more of a feeling of Disneyland than anything. Ton's of hotels, expensive restaurants and stores. I had been wanting to get out for a hike or run for awhile and definitely needed to experience the natural side of Jasper. One thing about motorcycle touring is it provides very little exercise in and of itself. It is easy to fill your days with riding and camping. The second day in Jasper, I decided to go for a hike, while Jean-Luc hung out in town working on the thread and catching up on other things.
I asked the visitor center for a 3'ish hour hike somewhere off a dirt road that might scare away camper and rental car drivers. They suggested a hike to Lake Geraldine which is 8km up a fairly steep dirt road. The trail follows a river up through a valley to a series of four lakes. It was 6km up to the second lake which is where the guy at the visitor center suggested I hike to... perfect.
Doesn't sound too far but the trail is steep and rugged gaining almost 1500 feet over the 6km.
Here's the river it follows
And here's what the "trail" conditions were like up to the first lake
And here's the first lake
After the first lake, the trail became a series of talus fields separated by thickets of black spruce. More rock hopping than hiking. It became a bit of a scavenger hunt finding the cairns among the fields of mottled pink granite covered with lichen.
Pushing out of the last thicket up to the second lake made all the climbing worth it. Even though it was starting to rain a bit, it was still breathtaking.
This is the waterfall at the outflow of the second lake. You can see the first lake in the background.
I sat and read until the wind picked up and it started to cloud over. I figured I'd better start making my way down. With the clouds coming in and the sun behind me, finding the cairns in the talus fields became even more difficult.
In the end the "three hour hike" took me about 5 and a half hours with time for losing the trail a number of times, a fair amount of pondering and losing my third pair of sunglasses of the trip.
If anybody is contemplating this hike, I would suggest reasonably stout hiking boots. I did it in my running shoes and could definitely have used better ankle support.
Day 33 - Sept 17th - Jasper to Field (West of Lake Louise)
Today I wanted to do some hiking too and enjoy Jasper wildlife. I was rewarded by a sight of this superb bull elk!
Okay, I have to confess that my hike was not quite as far or adventurous as Teryk's one
. Yep, we saw several females passing through our campground in the early morning with this exhausted bull on their steps. We were glad he was tired because he was huge and the bulls can be very dangerous during the rutting season.
The road to Banff (Icefields Parkway) is quite extraordinary and since there are only 230 kms we take our time and stop at every opportunity.
The mountains are very high and sharp...
There are also glaciers and waterfalls. The most spectacular are the Athabasca Falls:
The river was previously using that abandoned corridor...
The only minus is that there is also a bunch of small RVs everywhere. It’s not bad, it’s just that we’ve been spoiled by this end-of-the-season lack of traffic earlier. We're still truly enjoying the ride though!
Getting close to Columbia Icefield Glacier...
It's the biggest glacier of the Park and it's accessible through a relatively short hike.
However, because there are so many crevices people are discouraged to go outside the perimeter of security. There are indeed some pretty big ones!
Teryk's pic
Back on the road...
We were really impressed by the size of those 'layers' of rocks pushed to a 45 degree angle to create some unusual summits/crests.
Teryk's pic
Just gorgeous!
Teryk's pic
Lake Louise is very famous and since I had seen so many beautiful lakes on the way I was expecting something even more grandiose. And in a way it is: it’s really big, its waters are fed by 6 glaciers and it’s just a very beautiful site.
What I was not prepared for however is how touristy and developed it is! Have a look at this huge resort (the picture only shows a 1/4 of it), right on the lake. No matter that they call it ‘Le Chateau’ it’s not what I was expecting in a National Park (at least in the US).
I guess that the only way to appreciate the place is by hiking around and to the glaciers. Unfortunately I can’t really hike for long (bad knee) and Teryk has hiked them the previous year so we decide to move on. From what we heard the town of Banff is quite over-developed and with currently huge street work (replacing pipes in the main street) and so very congested. We’re a bit tired of that expensive and (relatively) crowded park so we go West on the 1 to find a place to camp before Field. Teryk had done that road in his bicycle trip and knew about a cool place to camp by the river - you can see our tents on the right side.
Teryk filtering water from the river to cook our dinner...
Great evening, looking at sunset and enjoying a nice fire...
Teryk's pic
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