We woke up to the sound of Erich beating our tires with a rubber mallet. The rain that had started yesterday afternoon finally abated enough we could hook up without getting soaked. After a fuel stop for the Navion and a Tim Horton stop for us we were headed north to Jasper.
The first really noticeable thing was how high and fast the rivers were flowing. Apparently the rain we had Saturday and Sunday had really added to the snow melt. The Fantasy weather god must be working because we had light rain to Lake Louise and then it cleared off the rest of the way. Since we had seen most everything from Canmore to Lake Louise already that worked out about perfectly. There were a number of vantage points with pull outs we could use for photo ops and some areas where you could drive back, park, and then hike to a lookout point. Peyto Lake was one such place and I hiked back to the vantage point for a beautiful view. It was still cloudy so perhaps not as colorful as I would have liked. We did see 2 black bears along the road and Donna saw a deer while I was dodging frost heaves.
Our big activity of the day was the visit to the Columbian Ice Fields, an area of glaciers that are positioned to drain off to three different oceans; Arctic, Pacific, & Atlantic. This was quite an operation that somewhat reminded me of the Hearst Castle in California. They have a visitor’s center where you get your ticket, and then they bus you to a staging area where you transfer to the HUGE ice buses. (Now this is where it pays to be on the caravan. Our tickets were pre-arranged and we walked right by everyone else at all stages of the experience.) Our driver, Bruce, did a great job of explaining the whole glacier event, from conception to melt off. The bus we used was built in Calgary and was powered by a Detroit diesel engine of only 200+ hp. As he explained it, “It’s all in the transmission.”
After we reached the Whistler Campground and got settled in our staff provided a Hot Dog Roast Social with drinks and snacks which was enjoyed by all