Ice Ice Babies...

So there we were in our tee shirts and shorts, sunglasses on, sitting on the porch of our log cabin in Jasper National Park enjoying the evening sounds and views and a glass of something... when she who knows stuff declared that we'd need to wrap up warm for the next day. “Wrap up warm!?”... “I'm on the verge of taking off me shirt and it's 10 o'clock at night... I'm radiating heat from me cheeks that you could fry an egg on! Wrap up warm!!??....”

Of course She was right... because we were going here

No visit to Alberta would be complete without visiting the Columbia Ice Field, that's what everyone who knows stuff told me, and no trip to the Columbia Icefield would be complete without getting ones picture taken in front of the wheel of the ice bus. So, let's do that first....

These things are huge! 66 (that's taller than Linda!) x 43 inches of Goodyear that's hardly inflated.

and not wanting to be left out, here I am doing a very good impression of Mr. Benn, just as he was about to change into one of his adventure outfits having left his house at 52 Festive Road. Those of you as old as me will know what I'm talking about ;-)

“As if by magic... the Shopkeeper appeared...” No? Oh well...

Back to the ice then.

We left the warmth of our log cabin and log fire and sunshine in Jasper and I confess to wondering why on earth I was trussed up like Sir Ranulph. Then, as we approached our destination, the clouds came down, it rained like we were back in Burscough on a Saturday and Oh My God... was it cold! Then as we got out of the car the hail started and I wished now that I was wearing a welders mask to protect my eyes as it came in sideways, no really... sideways!

We checked in having already booked our tickets from back home. Then there was time to look at the gift shop where I confess... the first thing that I did was buy myself a hat. A very thick and very warm hat! The bear above would have lost at least one of his arse cheeks if I hadn't been able to get a hat I can tell you. Did I mention that it was cold?


The ride up was exciting and very interesting. The bus drivers/guides were good raconteurs and explained everything from the weather to the gearing ratios of the buses.

Here's our babies looking a bit chilly up on the glacier.

The water up there is possibly the freshest water that one could ever get. The ice is constantly melting and this little trickle here, is actually the start of the Athabasca River. A lot of people actually knelt down, took off their gloves, and put in a bottle or a cup to try it. As much as I would have loved to taste the freshness, they must be mad!!

did I mention that it was cold?

Some individuals did provide good entertainment as they slid around in their leather soled sandals and chattered in their shirts and one even stepped into the stream as he tried to cross it. He was later seen in the restaurant dipping his foot into a bowl of soup to thaw it out... so he could have it sewn back on... Here is that stream. Sadly Linda couldn't cross because it was too wide.

What we can see here is the 'toe' of the Athabasca Glacier which is just one of the feeds from the Columbia Icefield. The “Icefield” is the largest sub-polar body of ice in the whole of North America covering 325 square kilometres. In places, the ice can be up to 365 metres (that's 1200 feet for most of us) deep.

It's incredible to stand on this moving surface and consider to oneself that it's equivalent to standing on a snow ball, that's as tall as the Eiffel Tower. The surrounding views as the cloud lifted were stunning.

This was the first Ice Explorer from the 1950's. Although there were some pictures of early tourists going by horse and cart.

and at the first base station there is this exibit from later in the last century.

The current fleet.

It was a fantastic experience, VERY educational and thought provoking and afterwards we fled back to Sunwapta for a very welcome bowl of the local stew. It was SO COLD!!

Water Water Everywhere

It is my belief that I was very lucky as a child. My parents always took us away for fabulous holidays and days out near to water. By the sea on Anglesey where we had family on my Dad's side, down to a river such as the Ribble in Ribchester where we had family on Mum's side, or a lake such as Pickmere, and on and around the canals of Cheshire, Shropshire and Lancashire. We even spent many years on boats from inflatables to canal narrowboats. So ever since being a young boy I've loved being by the water, looking at water, listening to water, be it the sea with howling winds that steal your breath away and crashing waves like at the roughest coast in Cornwall, or throwing and skimming pebbles into the ocean at Molfre which entertained me for hours when I was young (and still does!), or walking along the canal towpath or around a lake or in fact anything to do with water.


One day I hope to live somewhere that I can draw back the curtains, and see water (no, not the rain in Burscough!). I just love it! And that's just as well... because in Canada, there's loads of it!!

The first thing one notices about the water in the Rocky Mountains is the colour. It's an amazing colour caused by glacial erosion. You know... suspensions of Rock Flour... where the glacial ice moves and rubs against the rocks in the mountains, and as it melts it takes some of the sediment with it downstream and it gets so concentrated that only certain light colours are capable of
reflecting through it... I knew you'd understand.

It really is awesome to see and at times you can be forgiven for thinking for a moment that it just can't be real or that there must be something wrong with it. Well... there isn't! It's some of the most natural, freshest, cleanest, coldest and life sustaining water on the planet, and it stops you in your tracks.

The Athabasca river originates as a trickle at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Ice Field (more of that in the next blog). From there it winds its way across more than 700 miles crossing plains, falling through rocks and forming gorges, channelling into lakes and out again, and gathering tributaries and momentum, and power.

One afternoon we visited Sunwapta Falls falls which have a total drop of about 18 metres and they're very impressive. Sunwapta is a native word meaning turbulent water and I can see why.

Sunwapta also has a great restaurant where we had a bowl of the local Chilli and made one or two purchases from the gift shop.

Athabasca Falls drop more than 23 meters and the noise is fabulous. You get the cold spray from time to time in your face and it's such a naturally refreshing sensation.

There is a gorge you can walk through which in previous years was in fact a water channel, carved over thousands of years by the force of the river.

As you come out of the other side of the channel it's hard to believe that this is the same place, only a few feet away and yet it's all so calm and so quiet. You can still see the power from the turbulent water coming out from the gorge on the right but it's completely silent and all rather
beautiful.

Some of the calmer waters we saw were Waterfowl Lake...

and Honeymoon lake which is wonderfully romantic.

Lake Edith was a quiet spot where we saw a Coyote. It's a small lake with residential dwellings around it and we came accross this cencus marker in the ground.

The Dominion Land Survey is effectively a grid system which is used to identify townships in Canada. This marker would be one corner of a square mile which would be used for agricultural and other purposes in identifying boundaries.

Sarah and Katie wanted a closer look.

You can see from the outfits that despite the sunshine, it was a little bit crisp on that day.

Pyramid lake is one of the most peaceful places that I have ever been to. It sits up in the mountains above Jasper town, in the shadow of Pyramid Mountain. We'd been for dinner one night at The Pines restaurant on the lake, I'd eaten Elk! I know! How could I? But hey... it was delicious :-)

Then we had a stroll to walk off a little of the excess that we'd consumed and we were fortunate enough to witness the sun setting over Mount Edith Cavell as we strolled quietly around Pyramid Island, watching the fish jumping. It was so calm that evening, there was barely a ripple on the lake. The water is around half a square mile in the shape of a kidney dish.

It has a sister lake called Patricia about a mile and a half lower down the mountain towards the town. These two and Edith are some of the waters in which swimming is recommended.

The girls really enjoyed the walk and the sunset and remembered that our bus driver from the raft trip (later post!) had told us that he'd been up to Edith Cavell the previous night and had witnessed an avalanche. We watched for a while in the distance but nothing moved... thankfully.

Maligne Canyon was by far my favourite water experience. What you can't tell from this picture is that the water has dug its way down through 50m of rock. SO at this point, one could hear the water but barely see it.

The noise was unbelievable, like a jet engine, or a Motorhead concert, SO loud that it's disturbing and yet so fascinating that I just couldn't move away, I just wanted to stay and listen and watch the water gushing through the narrow openings in the rock and watch it swirl around in the whirlpools that it forms.

Maligne (mah-leen) is from a French word meaning sick or malicious. That's because the early
French / Canadian fur traders considered the whole Maligne river system and the 'Medicine' lake to be a little odd, or even evil... The river enters Maligne lake in great torrents and in great volumes.

However, it never appears to go anywhere else, there is no obvious 'exits' from the lake. Then in the summer, Medicine Lake actually disappears completely and doesn't come back until the autumn. Now I'm not talking about a small pond here, this is a HUGE great lake which just goes, and nobody to this day understands exactly where, how, or why.

Katie suddenly found the urge to pray at Maligne Lake and we couldn't explain that either...

The Maligne Valley is riddled by the most extensive "karst" system in the world. A karst system is a geological formation of caves above and below ground level. Scientists have tried for years to trace the Maligne karst system but failed or been stumped. They experimented with tracing dyes. But it has taken anywhere from half a day to a week for the water to make the trip from Medicine Lake to Maligne Canyon, a distance of about ten miles. Sometimes, the dyes didn't show up at all! Even more bizarre, in some experiments, the dyes turned up in Lac Beauvert which is just by Jasper Park Lodge and in other lakes around the area... Wierd!!

Peyto Lake was named after Ebenezer William Peyto, an early trail guide and trapper in the Banff area.

The colour of the lake set amongst the mountains is so startling, Turquoise, that it is very often featured in art, postcards, books, films, etc... It truly is a wonder and I could happily stand for weeks on end and not tire of looking at it.

The walk up there is challenging, but beautiful with many wild flowers, chipmunks, butterflies and dragonflies.

I asked Linda to take a nice shot of us with the lake in the background... Oh well, nice picture anyway!

And this is Beauvert.

We had a lovely walk around the shores of Lac Beauvert which coincidentally is also the route of the golf course at the Jasper Park Lodge.

Fabulous wildlife along the way in close up and then an excellent meal in the JPL hotel.

Linda even had her first ever Bellini :-)

Then there is Lake Louise...

Lake Louise is favourite for many people and was named after the Princess Louise Caroline Albert, the fourth daughter of our very own Queen Victoria. Princess Louise married Sir John Campbell who was the Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883.

This is a very impressive place both in terms of natural beauty and the stunning hotel, Chateau Lake Louise which has seen many important guests over the years from British royalty, to
American Presidents, to Geoff and Hazel Clarke who just happen to be there at the very moment I am writing this!

The locals (below) were very friendly to us and we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon here en route to Banff.