Day 5 - Jasper

After the cold and rainy drive up to Jasper, I hadn't held out much hope for today. But it was gorgeous. Sunny, clear, slightly warm -- the kind of weather that was great for hiking around, which is pretty much what we did.

After breakfast -- which was another buffet and we all ate ourselves silly -- everyone except Darin's dad set out on a hike around the lake by the Lodge, Horseshoe Lake. More of a walk than a hike, though -- we didn't exactly work up a sweat as we walked around the lake. For example, the hiking trail took us through the golf course. "Fore!"

As we got halfway around, we found that the section of the grounds we had planned to walk through were zoned off due to aggressive, calving elk. We started making jokes about how we could go around the giant closed-off elk area, and somehow this degenerated into a joke about seeing if we could sneak through the Neutral Zone without the Romulans finding out. Well, it was pretty funny at the time.

When we got back, it was time to get to the Whistlers tram, a much larger gondola than the one we'd taken at Sulphur Mountain. Instead of four people seated per tiny gondola car, this was 28 or 30 people standing in a tram car as it went up the mountain. There are only two tram cars at Whistlers, and they have to be balanced against one another -- they have to set off at roughly the same time with roughly the same number of people.

At the top, there was a wonderful panoramic view of Jasper and the nearby subranges of the Rockies, such as the Victoria Cross range. Every peak of that range is named after one of the winners of the Victoria Cross, which is kind of a cool idea (except for the whole idea of allowing someone in another country bestow your country's highest honor on you, but I'll shut up on the American independence front).

There's also a high hill behind the lodge at the top of the tram line. Because of the rain the day before and the height at which we were at, we were above the snow line, and the hill was covered with fresh new snow.

            DARIN
        Let's climb.

So we did. Scott and Lauren didn't go up very high, but Darin, Mitch and I tramped our way up the hill. It was tough. Maybe a fourth of the people who'd come up in the trams started up the hill, most of them not particularly dressed for the occasion (the hiking occasion, not the snow one).

About a third of the way up (or what we thought was a third of the way up) a whole bunch of kids starting coming down the mountain. And they decided to take the easy route down, by sliding on their fannies. Thereby smooshing out all the footholds that had previously been worn into the mountain. And those of us downstream of them had to leap to one side to get out of their way.

But we kept going. And kept going. By the time we got to what I thought was the top, it was quite clear we still had quite a ways to go. We hiked up some more. And more. The trails through the snow got rougher and thinner because fewer people had walked through them.

Finally we got to a big rock that had a clear view of the lodge and radioed down that Mitch and Darin were going to continue up to the top without me. I stayed with the radio. It wasn't so hard keeping in contact with Darin and Mitch either, probably because the air was so clear or quiet or something: a slightly loud voice reached them. We didn't have to shout, even as they became smaller and smaller specks.

Then they came back down.

   DARIN and MITCH walk back down to the rock where 
   DIANE sits.
   
            DARIN
        Guess what?
   
            DIANE
        Not the top?
   
            MITCH
        Not even close.

Turned out that once they'd gotten to where we thought the top was, they still had to walk over a plateau to another hill and hike up there. And it wasn't clear if that was the top either.

They decided enough was enough. We hiked back down.

As always, hiking back down is harder than going up, particularly in snow. Thank goodness I had bought new Timberland boots, eh? Dig in the heel first, compact the snow under your foot, then rest your weight on that foot while digging in the other heel to make your next step. This is particularly good advice when the trails back down have either started to slush up in the midday heat, or the trails have been obliterated altogether and iced over due to the sliding fannies of children.

I see I've forgotten to mention that I was wearing shorts while doing this. I kept stepping into thigh-high banks, especially when avoiding the slushy or icy parts.

We made it back down and bought some food in the little cafeteria. Good sturdy food, like hot chocolate and french fries. Then we got in line to get back in the tram, go down the mountain...and go to the Athabasca Falls.

The entire time in the car, Darin, Mitch, and I were trying to figure out what the latest time was for us to leave off whatever we were doing in order to make it back to the Jasper Lodge for dinner.

   DARIN consults the car clock. MITCH mans the walkie-talkie.
   
            DARIN
        We're already fifteen
        minutes from the lodge.
        We have to add this
        driving time to those
        fifteen.
   
            MITCH
          (on walkie-talkie)
        Where exactly are the
        Athabasca Falls?
          (muffled response)
        He says five miles.
   
            DIANE
        Do he know it's five 
        miles or is he guessing?
    
    Mitch shrugs.
        
            DARIN
        I think we have to leave
        the falls by six-thirty
        at the latest.
   
            DIANE
        I have to shower AND do
        my hair.
        
            DARIN
        Hm. Then maybe we should
        head back now.

As it turned out, we needn't have worried. We were back in plenty of time.

However, the Athabasca Falls were cool. The Athabasca River gouged out a falls and the Canadians put a viewing stand over them, which was rather thoughtful of them. You can walk around and see what the river has done to the rock. One of the keenest things is the way that trees will begin growing out of the rock: at first, the trees begin growing out perpendicular to the rock, then they take a sharp upwards turn.

When we got back to the hotel, we pigged out at dinner. Of course, every meal appears to be an exercise in outpigging the last meal -- perhaps I'll just mention to what degree my stomach hurts at the end of each one.

I have discovered exactly how painful the process of breaking new hiking boots in can be. Tender areas appeared on the fronts of my ankle, right where the cushioning of the boot pressed against my foot. I have to train these boots to my foot and how I lace them up, but I'm doing that at the same time I'm doing these hikes. Ouch.

However, as Mitch points out, once the boots are mine they are mine and will last me years. Which is great, because they are comfy. When they're not giving me tender spots.