March 2014 – Page 2 – Dale and Becca

Vancouver Take 2

We got lost trying to leave Kamloops (gmaps doesn’t work well if you’re driving in anywhere that has highways and ramps, and you leave it on walking mode), then had lunch in the small town of Hope, before finding a place called Chilliwhack, where we examined a museum. Vancouver surprised us by being warm when we arrived, like 15 degrees, and a little bit sunny. has rained since then though. It likes to rain a lot in Vancouver.

The town of Hope is very specific about what goes on in its' parks. — The town of Hope is very specific about what goes on in its’ parks.

We spent Friday sorting out the car, which we sold and sorted that day. We also sorted our New York accommodation, and my flights back to NZ. A very productive day.

Saturday was time to see some more sights of Van, and we took a walking tour of Granville Street and Gastown. It was very interesting, and the tour guide was interesting and seemed to enjoy what he was doing. The main thing I took away from the tour was that Canadians like to drink, they like hockey, and they occasionally like to riot. Once, they rioted after they lost a hockey game (a very important one), but it is ok, because the next day they all helped clean up the mess. The town as a whole seems to like neon signs (they show up well in the rain).

The Art Museum. Protesters protesting outside

It was a bit chilly, and it rained a lot on the tour, but it was still good. We went out for good poutine with our roomate Emma, who was having her last poutine before heading back to Australia.
Sunday was just gonna be relaxy, but we heard bagpipes outside, and remembered that there was some sort of parade on, so we threw on some clothes and ran off down the street, where we watched the St Patricks Day Parade, (which had 6 different pipe bands playing!) and then wandered through the food stands and irish stands.. They had bands playing during the day, and people dancing in the streets (which were closed especially). The guy who was introducing the bands amused me greatly, by exclaiming that the weather was good! It was actually overcast, and the ground was wet.. but it wasn’t too cold, and most importantly, it wasn’t raining! The only sad thing about parades, as an adult, no one gives you candy or balloons. Even if you are wearing a fox hat :<

Unicycle bagpiping with flaming drones (not shown)

After lunch was stocking up on maple syrup, sorting photos for blog posts (boo), and discussing packing. I finally gave in and bought one of those bean filled travel pillows. The silly one you wrap around your neck. I’ve always thought they were a bit silly, and annoying. But in light of the last long flight I did, and knowing how much plane travel I’m doing in the next couple of months, I totally gave in and bought one. It has black plush on one side, and red and black smiley face Canada Maple leafs on the other. We have to pack tomorrow. Boo.

Canada is Melting…Also, Puppies!!

After being in Grande Prairie a few days, and with a few reasons we realised we wanted to change every plan we had already made.We wrapped up our trip to Grande Prairie much sooner than we intended, only staying a week. After a very busy few days planning, we changed all our plans. We leave Canada next week (cry!), flying out of Vancouver on Tuesday 18th March. We are heading to New York (exciting!!!), where we will prance around and see the sights for a week, before leaving on a Jet Plane, to London! Eeek!

My little brother Tommy, and his lovely fiancee Katharina, are getting married at the beginning of May, so that is kind of what threw us into alternate planning mode. Hopefully I will be flying back to NZ for a couple of weeks then.

The first few days in Grande Prairie were super cold, but then the last few, it warmed up a ton, and everything started melting. I am suspicious of this “Spring” that is happening, it is 10 degrees outside, and thoroughly balmy. I think it is a ruse, spring has just happened like someone flicked a switch. I’m sure it will get cold again… second winter!

We did our last few chores, and packed the car up again, and drove back to Jasper. Half of the snow was gone. Canada was no longer in black and white, but now had a range of colours, blue green in the rivers, tans and browns in the fields – we could actually see grass! – green and mossy on the trees, and grey and green of mossy rocks. Lovely! Some of the rivers have melted up tot he surface, so parts are visibly flowing again.

It is tricksy though, everything melts a little, then cools and freezes again overnight, so you now have to watch out for patches of ice, where before there was just lovely snow.

Today we did the best thing ever, husky dog sledding up a mountain valley… we went with Cold Fire Dog Sled Tours. They seemed to keep their dogs well, and mostly I think they were the only place around Jasper to do dog sledding. The dogs all seemed in fine form, all were SUPER EXCITED TO RUN< PLEASE LET US RUN, TIME TO RUN? IS IT TIME? TIME TO RUN? PLEASE OH PLEASE RUN, RUN< RUN, RUN, RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN…. They all caused quite a commotion when it got close to the time of the sleds leaving, barking and howling and carrying on Had to hold them back.

What was great on this tour, is that they let you steer a sled yourself if you want. They give you the basic instructions and commands- start, top, braking, parking), and the tour guide rides the sled in front of you, so you are limited to their speed, but you get to steer and command the puppies…It was awesum!!! I want to go back and do more. It was so much fun having them all so excited about running, and that you could tell them to stop and go, and steer your little sled, and stop them from pulling you off into the drifts at the side of the trail, (Stop? they didn’t like to stop, you had to put the brake on, and tell them a few times, and if you were stopping for any length of time, put the anchor down, and when we stopped for lunch, they tied the sleds up, so they couldn’t just keep on running..).

P1210652 — One person drives, one person gets to snuggle in the sled

We had lunch cooked over a little fire, snacks, and apple cider (Which in Canada is actually just warm spiced apple juice), before zooming off again. It was great fun 😀

P1210737 — Sled. Stand on the two outer poles, stand on the silver bar or black pad to slow the sled, stand with all your weight on the silver bar to stop, then put the anchor out!

Saw “Warning Moose Crossing” signs along the road, but unfortunately no moose. We drove on to Kamloops, where we stay the night.

The thing I am sad about is that I didn’t get tot see the northern lights. In Grande Prairie, I was finally at a latitude that was high enough to see them if they were just a bit active. However, they were not active this week. Incredibly quiet compared to the previous weeks. Or it was cloudy/snowing, so I couldn’t even see the sky. Disappoint!

Tomorrow we head for Vancouver, where we sort out the car, then make sure all our belongings can fit into our bags for the plane ride.

Grande Prairie Farmstay

We left Jasper smothered in snow, and drove off to Grande Prairie. I was concerned we wouldn’t get to see any wild mountain sheep, but no chance of that… barely out of Jasper, and there was a herd all over the road, and everyone had stopped to wait for them. Got to stop too, and take pictures, while the sheep just ambled across the road, unconcerned.

If you turn left here, then drive approximately 2600 km, then you will reach Alaska! (Which is longer than NZ).

Saw another herd on the road 10 minutes along, then another herd a wee way after, up on the rocks. Saw a couple of eagles, and some mule deer peeping out of the trees, but that was pretty much it, and the rest of the drive was simply trees, trees, lakes and snow. For about four hours.
Grande Prairie is a sizeable town though, and we are staying on a cute little farm just north of it.

We get to help feed/clean/milk/move the numerous cows, calves,pigs, chickens, rabbits, emus, turkeys, geese, rabbits. Give food, hay, water, bottles of milk. The calves are the cutest.

Last night the heating system broke, so it was pretty cold inside, and even more so outside (-30). I had all the blankets I could find on the bed, which made it very cozy.

The geese were very excited to get out of their house

The first night working we froze, running around outside in the dark was pretty darn cold. Milking the cows by hand is nice though, very warm. Some of the cows live in a barn, and mostly we look after those, and the cows who are about to give birth, and mums and calves recently born. The barn is all steamy inside, with the breath and heat from the cows. There are often ice crystals growing all across the inside of the roof and doors. The cows that live outside often have ice crystals on them, or snow, if it has been snowing.

Bottle feeding the calves is fun. The next time outside, they provided us with quilted overalls, which are the most amazing snuggly things (like onesies, but are appropriate to wear outside). Keeps me nice and warm, and just have to have a scarf for over my face, and everything is good.

We have to give water to the cows twice a day, and only as much as they will drink; if we leave the water in their buckets, it is well frozen by the time we come back in the evening/morning. Chilly. If it freezes in the buckets, you have to spend a while getting the solid hunk of ice out.

The emus, chickens and geese provide eggs, but by the time we get them they are usually frozen. Still good for in pancakes though.

We always had lovely sunsets, with soft pastel colours, and occasional bright oranges.
I got very excited when we arrived, as there is a treadmill! The most exciting thing!!!! I got to run, which was fantastic, run without feeling like your insides are freezing every time you breathe. Never thought I’d see the day where I would be excited about a treadmill.

We have changed all our plans now, after a couple of crazy planning days, and are leaving Grande Prairie in a few days, to drive back to Vancouver.

Jasper – 3rd March

The cold snap was continuing, and it was again, freezing. I cannot stress how cold this day was. There is no other feeling like the insides of your nostrils freezing! My phone doesn’t like to operate in this cold, if I take it out for more than a minute, it has a hissy fit and turns off; it won’t turn back on until I have warmed it up again.

Our first day in Jasper we headed up the road, where you drive up a glacial valley, firstly to lovely views back over Jasper, then on to Maligne Canyon, to do the walkthrough.

We did the little walk down the way, and made our way to where the canyon opens out, and we climbed carefully down into it. The river was frozen mostly solid, with only a bit of water flowing right near the bottom. Water had flowed from the walls, and frozen, forming more walls of ice, ice all around! The floor was super slippery, what with being sheet ice, and parts of the floor had little ice terraces, where water had flowed over the top, but then frozen. It was very pretty, a bit otherworldly.
I wanted to spend longer down there, you can walk quite a way up teh canyon, but the lack of feeling on our feet made us leave. The walk back to the car was great, as it warmed us up a bit.

We then drove up past Medicine Lake to Maligne Lake, where we had lunch, then cruised back to town. This is an interesting area: Maligne Lake is a large glacier fed lake, the largest lake in Jasper National Park. It flows down to Medicine Lake, which was created when the river backs up, and disappears underground. It flows under and overground, and comes out furthur down in Maligne Canyon, where the walls are covered in fantastic ice sculptures, from the different springs and parts of the river that flow and emerge from underground.

After driving around some of the smaller lakes, we saw a squirrel, and another coyote, this one had some lunch in its mouth.

We watched a few squirrels, then headed back to town to get warm again.

The next day we had planned to drive to Valemont in BC, to get our licences sorted, but we gave them a call first, and I think we can use our NZ licenses for up to 6 months if just visiting. We are only here for a bit longer, so it seems a shame to have to drive so far and pay money to change our licenses when its only for a month or so.
We ended up with a day and not much to do. It was snowing, but a wee bit warmer, so we decided to walk the few blocks to town and check out the sights.

You can't see me, behind the couch! — You can’t see me, behind the couch!

We checked out the Den, a little corridor of native canadian scenes set up with stuffed animals. It was interesting to see, but it smelled a lot like dead animal.

We wanted to go to the museum, but that is only open Wednesday to Sunday. We wandered back home (after lunch at The Bears Paw bakery – delishuz), and started the car with only a little reluctance, and drove to the Athabasca Falls.

"Poor" road condition — “Poor” road condition

IT was very lovely, another frozen in time falls, with a bit of deep blue in the small patch of water that hadn’t frozen. We saw some squirrels playing near the car, and I got quite close to one who was just sitting there, eating his little nuts. Two of them had a bit of a fight while running up a tree.

P1210251 — I like it when I get to grow ice crystals on my face

This is how we drive in Canada when it is cold.

A quick drive back to home, and dinner at a yum pizza place. Also, we had dessert pizza that was filled with nutella, a dessert calzone, and it was delishuz.

This is what happens to mayo after it is frozen and unfrozen a couple of times

Icefields Parkway

We awoke bright and early in Banff, to a slightly chilly temp of around -30 degrees. From what I heard, Sunshine skifield was on hold due to it being too cold…. wtf!!! You know it’s pretty cold, when Canadians close their skifield. We stopped at the supermarket to get some lunch, then headed north, along the section of road called the Icefields Parkway. It is not a transit road, it is a scenery/tourist road, maintained by Parks Canada, and it one of the prettiest drives ever.

We stopped at all the places that were open. It was very, very cold, but it was perfectly clear and sunny, which is what we wanted. I will not go on about each place (hey look, another mountain!), but I do of course have pictures of each mountain. Well, most of them. There are more pictures than words in this post 🙂

My favourite bits were:

Weeping wall – an ice covered wall, frozen and blue. We stopped here for lunch, next to a very pretty little river.

Mistaya Canyon – very pretty! There was a raven sitting at the edge of the pull-out, and his feathers were fluffed out all over his feet, I assume to keep them warm. He didn’t want to move when I got close, but he eventually did, and looked a little put out.

Mistaya Canyon, Mount Sarbach in background

Athabasca Glacier – the glacier has retreated quite a way, but you can walk up almost to the face, to the frozen pool of water that sits in front of it. Down one side you can see the exposed glacier, a beautiful deep blue, with layers and lines. It was hidden away, most of the glacier is covered in snow. On the walk up, there are lateral moraines (scree piles), tall on either side, and you climb up a terminal moraine. Occasionally, the bedrock pokes through, and it is sleek and smooth to touch, slippery to walk on if wet, and you can see the lines scratched into it, from when the sheer mass of glacier was moving rocks across it. The glacier is part of the Colombia Icefield, which is over 300m2, and feeds at least 8 glaciers. It was pretty. They had plenty of signs telling tourists not to try and walk on it, as people fall in to crevices and die.

Wild coyotes – Dale spotted one walking down a river, so we screeched to a stop, and jumped out to watch it. It trotted down the river, peed on a rock, then continued on its way. We spotted another one crossing the road in front of us further down the river, and we stopped to watch that one too.

There are around 100+ accommodation places that are guesthouses, located in the basement of peoples houses, in Jasper, a bit like in Field. It seems to be a good way for people to make a bit extra from home. Warm and snuggly, if no view, and we found a relatively cheap one for our few days in Jasper. It was nice to have a lounge and space to ourselves.