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Aug 9 -15 This last week was so very pleasant that we forgot about the blog – and you. Westward from Lake Louise takes you through Yoho and Revelstoke National Parks with the famous Rogers Pass in between. Before the pass we saw the section of CP tracks and the spiral tunnels with two loops – one about 270 deg. the other almost 360 deg. By building the tunnels, the straight line hill with 4.5% grade (dangerous for trains) was reduced to 2.2%. There is much freight traffic on this line and that was obvious at our campgrounds in Golden and Canyon Hot Springs Revelstoke. One location had constant shunting of cars 300 metres away. The other campground had rails on a hill along two sides. As the engine increased power, pulling the squealing wheels of the long trains around the curve it was difficult to have a normal conversation. Luckily they did not run this stretch during he night. You have probably heard about Golden and Revelstoke as famous ski centres.

At Revelstoke we turned south and the drive was unusual as the road paralleled the Upper Arrow and Slocan Lakes. The views reminded us of Norwegian fjords and we even had a ferry ride providing excellent water-view.

Nelson was our goal because my good friend from high school in Smiths Falls, Gordon Gray, lives here with his wife Moe. We sat on their veranda high above Nelson with a view over the Kootenay River, walked the steep streets and shopped. Several good meals and much good company completed the visit. Just south of the campground we also visited Mark Cochrane and Yvonne. With their family they live in Ymir (‘whymir’) with their children. The mountains almost too close for us but it is a beautiful place nonetheless and it was great to see Mark and meet Yvonne. These were good times and very relaxing for us, and being able to leave the trailer in one location for 5 nights is always special. Kline’s RV Park is one of the nicest campgrounds we have visited on the whole trip. Not modern, well laid out or full of conveniences - actually none of these. Instead we backed on to a bedroom view of a good sized creek with crystal clear water. Power and sewer connection plus the water from the tap was clean enough to drink and good-tasting. We also had free cable TV and Wi-Fi. All for $20.00 per night!

From here we shall complete the circle and drive east to Alberta.

21 Lake Louise to Nelson

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Sorry - we know this map is getting a bit cluttered. But it helps to zoom in a bit.

Aug 3-7 Mt Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, lies almost right beside Highway 16, also called the Yellowhead Highway. 3954 metres (12,970 ft). We stopped at the wayside rest to admire for a while.

Then Jasper National Park – The Whistlers Campground. No ‘hookups’ means that for these days we live off our water tank, solar panel and propane tanks. It works well and with a small inverter we charge computer and camera batteries. To save on water, Einar took showers in the community shower building where there are also electrical outlets for razors. One day, a young fellow sat on the bench between sinks and waited for his iPhone to charge! He was camped in a nearby tent with his family.

Mountains, mountains everywhere – and we could get a bit blasé – except one never tires. They all are magnificent, different and awe inspiring, especially when you come from Ontario. We hope some of our pictures demonstrate this and that you will enjoy them too.

One day we took the Jasper Tramway up towards the top of Whistlers Mountain. Jasper and our campground are at 1050m (3,400 ft), the tramway starts at 1200m (3.940 ft), tops at 2250m (7,380). From there (well above the tree line) one could hike to 2470m (8.105) at the top. It doesn’t sound like much more, but at that altitude the thinner air made it a struggle for us. Pausing every 50m or so we made it to about 2400m (7,875) - and threw a snow ball for fun. The rest of the way to the top was quite a distance away; we chose not to do it. It is easier going down - for the lungs - but tough on the ‘quads’. In some places the trail crested and then disappeared from view because it was so steep. (Have you discovered how difficult it is to illustrate steep inclines with a camera?) We were glad to have our hiking boots though care was needed because of the loose shale and pebble-like gravel. Low vegetation and many flowers blended beautifully with the rocks where it was almost impossible to see white-tailed ptarmigans resting 2 metres away. And then there was the view. Spectacular sharp topped peaks, one range behind the other, all with some snow and some with glaciers. We rested well that evening and think our pictures are worth a look.

Another day took us to Maligne (pronounced ‘Maleen’) Canyon. In some places the river was 50 metres below in a canyon which at its narrowed measure 3-4 metres wide. One could only capture this with a wide-angle lens and camera turned 90 degrees. It is amazing what water can do to limestone.

Aug 8 – The Athabasca Glacier is right beside the highway – that is the ‘Icefield Parkway’. It is an arm of the giant Columbia Ice field and is located about mid-way between Jasper and Lake Louise. The large welcome centre provides information and has an informative display about how glaciers are formed. We booked the tour and a normal bus took us to the edge where a special one with huge soft tires and lots more horsepower drove on to the glacier. Cracks and deep holes were everywhere but the bus negotiated a well prepared ‘road’. Walking on it wasn’t as special as we had expected because it was raining gently and the ice was very slippery. Good shoes kept us upright! The location is spectacular so please look at the pictures. There was lots of room in the parking lot so that’s where we spent the night at 1940m elevation. And then the morning view as the sun hit the top of the mountains !! What is so special about this drive is that most of the road lies between 1500 and 2000m, yet we are still looking up another 1500m to the mountain tops.
Onward to Golden, BC.

20 Jasper & Glaciers

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July 24-27 We recovered in Whitehorse and so did the car. On the Monday we both had our haircuts, and the car had another oil change (last one in Yellowknife). By now it has travelled about 11,000 km since we left Milton. The whole rig got a well-deserved wash. First the car, where it took several dollars’ worth of coins to wash the grime from in and around the car wheels and wells. This stuff hardens like cement and in some areas had built up to 3-4mm in thickness. When we later washed the trailer, the same sticky mess stayed on after pressure washing. Only the foam brush worked.

July 28 – August 2nd . We have travelled from Whitehorse YT to Prince George BC in 6 days – and tomorrow we arrive in Jasper AB. That will be 2600 km in 7days. Talk about distances up here! One-night stops are not favourites, but we decided to give priority to Jasper National Park - to have time there. Sadly, we must also make sure we have enough time for the drive home.

Although we had driven much of the same part of the Alaska Highway on the way north, we were really glad to see it again, this time with sunshine. Our pictures are never perfect because Anne-Grethe takes most of them out the window as we drive, but you will see what we mean. The only unpleasant ‘event’ came from a truck roaring towards us, building up speed for his uphill run. We were at the bottom of the hill, the road curved left. He hit a gravel patch and sprayed our windshield with rocks. Two more marks plus a whole lot of minor cuts, and it will probably need replacement when we get home.

We were 2 ½ days in the mountains before we came to the plateau a few hours before Fort Nelson BC. On the second day, near Watson Lake, we discovered we could not have driven south on the ‘Cassiar’ Highway (#37) as we had first planned (shorter route to Bella Coola, Vancouver Island and Vancouver). It was closed due to forest fires. Another fire closed the area further south around Williams Lake where we had also planned to stop. Most of the province has been bone dry this summer, and a huge electrical storm passed through the week before. This was the same storm that had left so much rain in the mountains around the Dempster Highway. (See last week’s blog.)

But all’s well that ends well and so far the week has gone quite smoothly. On Saturday we had the challenge of meeting four hills with 10% grades – two up and two down and one of them 6 km long. It was the ‘scenic’ (!) route running parallel to the Peace River., close to Hudson’s Hope, north of Prince George. The Lynx RV park was charming and we rested an extra day and took time to see the Bennett and Peace Canyon Power Dams which supply 1/3 of the power for British Columbia.

Tomorrow to Jasper National park and some serious sightseeing.

19 Whitehorse to Prince George

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July 23. Ridin’ the Dempster!
You know we stayed in Inuvik longer than planned, but it was worth it! Friday was our departure day southbound, and since we planned to drive half-way to Eagle Plains, we took it easy. 370 km even on a dirt road wouldn't be too bad. There were several photo and rest stops and we arrived at the hotel at about 4pm. Then - we learned about all the rain in the preceding 5 days south of us (sunny in Inuvik). The lady at the reception said there was talk that the highway was about to be washed out. The ‘geo-guys’ that had worked there were told to forget about taking the evening off and “get out of there”! The main river, Peel River, was expected to crest in 14 hours. One fellow arriving from the south said he had noticed about 1/4 of the road at km. 220 had already washed out. We had three choices:
- stay and be stuck in a second class place for 2-3 days
- drive on and hope to make it, or
- find out 2 hours further south that we couldn't get through!

We took the chance and just made it! One more car 30 minutes behind us also got through but was told he was the last. There were several tricky spots, but at the worst there was a grader to help. About ¼ of the road on the left (‘downstream’) side was gone. The new waterfall down the cliff on our right sent water about 6” deep across the road. The driver said “follow me closely” and we watched as he created a 50 cm high bank on the right which held the water just long enough for us to drive through – a least 40 metres (130 feet). (We have later reasoned that by then the road was closed to further traffic over a 150 km stretch.) It felt dramatic and exciting and yet Anne-Grethe was able to take some unusual pictures. Take a look!

The drive was 12 1/2 hours on a road that was considerably worse than when we went north. With the trailer it would have been a very tough, perhaps impossible, trip and we would not have made it for several more days. We slept were the trailer had been parked at km zero, and drove 5oo km to Whitehorse the next day where we planned a few days of rest. On Monday we saw on the internet that part of the section had been fixed for 5 km of one-way traffic and then Wednesday it was closed again! We consider ourselves very lucky – and the Whitehorse weather was a beautiful sunny 25C, with cool nights.

Because of the extra time we took both in Inuvik and before that in Dawson City, we have come to the conclusion that we cannot take the time to drive through Bella Coola to Vancouver Island and then Vancouver. We are disappointed in some ways but our decision to take the extra time here in the north was a good one. Over the next few days we shall decide which route to take home. It will likely include Jasper or Banff if we can get campground space.

18 Dempster return

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July 20-23 Inuvik (‘vik’ means ‘the place of’) is a town of 3500 people. None wealthy, quite a bit of poverty, and everyone very friendly – saying ‘hi’ as we passed on the street. The town sits beside the Mackenzie Delta, and it is the east channel that serves the community. From here it is about 160 km to the Beaufort Sea and it widens to about 70 km at the sea. The Delta starts south of Inuvik. As in Dawson, all the buildings are built off the ground and here “utilidors“ (utility corridors) above ground contains water and other services (see pictures) to serve each house. It is not possible to place any infrastructure in the ground.

The ‘Igloo Church’ ( Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church) was built about 1920 by a man with grade 5 education, using no blue prints. Building lumber is not available here and was floated down Mackenzie River from a mission sawmill in Fort Smith NWT – 1600 km upriver. A remarkably beautiful place, and the whole structure rides on a concave concrete platform which sits on coarse gravel insulating the permafrost. The gravel was hauled from 80 km away. A local artist Mona Thrasher, deaf and almost blind, painted 24 inside murals in 13 months. We liked her work so much that we bought a print of her magnificent painting of an arctic wolf.

We spent extra time here to see the town and to fly north (45 minutes) to Tuktoyaktuk. Seeing the huge Delta from the air was special! And all the pingos. No they are no animals. They are perfectly circular mounds created on the permafrost by freezing of surface water. They form in recently drained lake basins or old drainage channels where hydrostatic pressures push water up and the unfrozen saturated sediment progressively freezes. There are over 1400 of them in the Delta and some are 50 metres high (pictures).

‘Tuk’ has a stable population of 1000 people. Sadly the hotel and restaurant is closed, but a B&B operates. We saw one of the old DEW line sites, a military radar post from the cold war. AND - we put our feet into the Beaufort Sea! It was surprisingly warm; we guessed 14C. A young gal on our tour had planned for this by dressing in a bikini under her clothes. She swam! You can also see some pictures of the local community ‘refrigerator – a series of tunnels and rooms 10 metres underground, hacked out of the frozen ground by hand, where the temperature in the permafrost is a constant -6 C.

The next day in Inuvik we went on a four hour boat tour of the Delta. Although the islands are low and flat, one cannot see over them, and so it felt as if we were touring a few of the hundreds of ‘rivers’ that link up to form the Delta. How easy it would be to get lost here, but our local guide Paton knew every bend. There was little wildlife to see at this time of year though we saw a seal, ducks with young ones and arctic terns. The main river, wide and fast, is the highway for all types of barges.

On July 23rd we started south and the beginning of the Dempster was fine. That was about to change!

17 Inuvik & Tuk