Well, it's a little tough to get back into the real world, I won't lie. Not that Jasper isn't in the real world, but you know what I mean.
Friday right after work I headed out to meet Travis in Jasper at the Whistler's Mountain HI for a weekend of hiking and sight seeing. We spent the night in the very full hostel before starting out on what we had planned to be a 27.4km hike over 2 days (Saturday Night Lake Loop). After a couple hours of hiking and planning, we decided that we'd love to see more of Jasper, so we decided to shorten our hike by a few K, and stopped about 11Km in at Minnow Lake. Where we were welcomed warmly by a moose and one of her young, and then by Howie (another hiker), who we crossed paths with a few times this hike. We stayed the night there before enjoying our mostly downhill hike out Sunday morning.
Once back in town, we reserved a spot at the Whistler's Mountain Camp Ground (site 4E), got Travis's car from the Hostel parking lot up the hill, and got into the shower house 2 min before they closed them for cleaning. I think they smelled us coming, so they let us in and waited for us to finish. We then commenced our afternoon plans. The plans were to check out the Tram up Whistler's Mountain, Walk around Jasper and take some pictures, and then spend a couple hours at the Miette Hot Springs. We successfully made it up the Tram by 15:18.
At the top of the Tram, we took a few pictures, had a late lunch, and started thinking about our decent, when it was announced that due to a thunder storm in the area, the trams were on temporarily out of service. The lady that appeared to be in charge was very helpful, offering free non alcoholic beverages, free decks of cards, and eventually free soup and sandwiches. So, Travis and I hung out in the cafe playing cards, taking photos, and trying to keep ourselves entertained, all the while trying to curb the urge to keep eating (at least I had to, Travis seems to have a will of steel when it comes to food). I think we were both thankful to have our BlackBerrys.
One of the things Travis's BB taught us is that the
"Jasper Tramway is the longest and highest guided aerial tramway in Canada..." (From "www.jaspertramway.com")
This surprised me, until I learnt from "www.coloradoskihistory.com" that
"The tram resembles, in concept, a funicular: two cars - one goes up the other comes down, and then they reverse direction. The system stops for loading. The gondola is more like a detachable chair: multiple cars, continually running in the some direction, separating from the main cable for loading."
Don't say you never learnt anything from bassdrum.ca!
They did manage to let a couple trams run between lightning flashes, but we remained stranded until the storm was completely passed, getting to the bottom just after 21:00. That left us just enough time to fly (drive really fast) through Jasper to the Hot Springs, where we relaxed for half an hour before they closed.
We made it back to the campground sometime close to midnight, set up our tents, and settled in for the night.
I think our neighbours thought us strange as we packed up camp first thing in the morning, showered and headed out. I'd say we thoroughly enjoyed the campground. I realized after leaving and looking at the map they gave us just how massive the campground really is. Travis was more interested in getting home earlier rather than stopping for breakfast, so he headed out and I enjoyed a brief meal at the Petro Canada before hitting the road to home.
And thus ends our weekend in Jasper. Check out the photos. |
