Song for the day: “Colours of the Wind” from Pocahontas. The town of Banff was very touristy. It reminded Shelley of Vail, and Debbie of Whistler Village. Even though the Chateau at the east end of town is as impressive as all the pictures, it was decided that one could skip the town and spend the time on Lake Louise, or one of the other impressive natural sights. The drive from Banff to Jasper probably was representative of what the guys were hoping this trip would be: wild, expansive scenery, a photo opp wherever you turn and great weather.
Highlights: Shelley’s first black bear sighting! Buses that looked like ants driving up a glacier. (What were the tires like?) Dozens of aquamarine alpine lakes. Rugged, spectacular mountain peaks. The Saskatchewan Crossing, where we were surrounded by mountains – 360 degrees, with a river rushing through the middle of it. Bighorn sheep on the side of the road.
When we left Banff National Park, we entered Jasper National Park. The beauty was endless, much to our enjoyment. The town of Jasper was crowded, loaded with tourists, with three roads and too many buses and cars. Also appeared to be a major Railroad hub. Outside of Jasper, we found a nice campground named Pocahontas with (ta da!) steaming hot water and outlets in the bathrooms. Yet another story to tell. When we pulled into the campground the sign read: Bear has been sighted in campground. Beware. They even had a bear trap at the entrance. We chose a campsite near the washrooms (as they say in Canada) so any late night trip could be safer than farther away. After seeing that sign and as we started into the park, we saw two people with pasty white legs in shorts and one person exclaimed “Look, Bearsicles on a stick—actually twinpops!” Then we were worried about the bear in our own campsite but as we went around and saw all the tenters we decided that the bear would think they were foil dinners or Lean Cuisines and would rather have them than us so we felt safer (ha, ha). But the gun was still loaded and ready just in case.
About 10 miles up the forest road from our campground was Miette Hot Springs. Dinner included the first buffalo burgers of the trip and following dinner we all “partook of the waters”, as they say. The hot springs had been cooled to 104 degrees, which we all agreed was very therapeutic for road-weary bodies. Don’t worry, no pictures will be posted on this site of that event!
Now for some tidbits: Bikers definitely need Monkey Butt powder, Butt Buffers, and other necessities. Another necessity is to have a heated vest when going through cold, rainy weather. Insulated gloves, and it appears that a soda bottle with a hole cut in the top for a straw is a must have to keep awake on the long road. Now at this point some of you may be wondering what the support vehicle riders do all day. On Day 4, three of them road through the Banff Park on the back of motorcycles most of the day while one drove. Other days, we are all together writing these posts and getting ready to post them whenever we can find the WiFi available to upload. Yet at other times we are reading, crocheting, and very rarely sleeping. Yet most of the time we are planning our next stop and where they can fuel up for gas—about every two hours, and what we will be eating for meals and reading maps, and tourist booklets. It seems that every time we stop it take 45 minutes. But the support vehicle has had to put a limit on the time during the stops in order to get caught up on schedule. Our motto is what we spend in time on this end, we pay for by not having the time in Alaska. The pictures today are of the park. Simply breathtaking every step of the way today.
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