Cloud 9: Jasper

Friday May 29, 2009

Since some people are leaving the train in Jasper, which we should reach about noon, breakfast is being handled differently today. Instead of breakfast beginning at 6:30, there will be a continental breakfast in the dome car and a brunch beginning at 7:30. No lunch. So at 6:30 we trekked down to the dome car for coffee but the pot was empty. Good news was that there were packets of Honey Nut Cheerios for Glenn and there was one banana left. Before long others came looking for coffee and once the attendant reappeared he brought another pot. We heard a lot of complaints from passengers mainly about the lack of water and the cold. I don't know if I mentioned before that normally you each get a bottle of water in your cabin every night but they ran out after the first night. What - they couldn't send somebody out for water during their four hour stop in Winnipeg, or any of their other stops?

Anyway, at brunch Glenn had bacon, eggs and toast and I had waffles with berries. Sat with the man from Squamish again and a humourous Chinese fellow from Vancouver.

We passed a pond with a large beaver house which would have been easy to photograph if I'd been ready with the camera. In fact, we passed many beaver houses and I never got a picture of one. It became sort of a joke with the people around us in the dome car when I'd miss house after house. Even with the camera on and ready to go, by the time you see something and get the camera focused it's too late.

For over an hour we sat by a lake west of Edmonton, blue in the sunshine, waiting for a freight train to pass. Freight trains take precedence. I'm not sure if the one we sat by for so long was Lake Wabamun - once used for float plane landing practice by the Royal Canadian Air Force, or Mink Lake. Some docks and boats line the shores of the lake. Mostly blue sky, high cloud. Red-winged blackbirds periodically visit the small fir tree out our window. I can't hear them calling but can tell they are when their wings and tail feathers fluff out.

An announcement came on asking people to limit their time in the dome cars to half an hour. Reading, dozing, viewing, it can be easy to sit in there for hours. No doubt those cars will be packed once we get into the mountains.

Apparently the tracks were being cut ahead, whatever that means, and we had to stop for more freight trains. We are now two hours behind schedule for getting into Jasper.

Mountain sheep

We saw three black bears, one quite small, elk and mountain sheep.

There seemed to be not much snow around Jasper, but then the mountains seem flatter and less spectacular than down around Banff, I think. It is interesting though to see the rock formations.

There was some snow

Views in & around Jasper

Hooray they're finally cleaning the windows and we'll be able to see better for the rest of the journey through BC.

And we're on our way although we were delayed so long that there isn't much daylight left.

Above left: These are the new concrete ties that are replacing the old wooden ties.
Right: According to Glenn, the silver structure contains equipment which monitors the condition of the freight car wheels and detects "hot boxes" when axles are overheating and transmits warnings to the trains engineer.

We had supper with a lady from a small town in BC and a man from a different small town. They weren't together. She was a crusty older lady who had done a fair amount of cross-country horseback riding in the interior BC. She left the table before dessert and then the man, who had barely said a word up to that point, slowly began to open up. We found out that he had retired from the railway and had lost his wife a year and a half ago. So he seemed a bit sad and at loose ends, but was such a sweet soul that I wish we'd met him earlier in the trip. He was departing well before Vancouver to visit his son at a place on a lake.

Glenn and I had chicken with scalloped potatoes and we shared a cheesecake dessert.

Click on map to enlarge
and follow the red line northeast

Saturday, May 9, 2009

A 20 car train and 147 passengers... to start

From west to east from Vancouver to Toronto, this train is called the Canadian 2. From east to west it is the Canadian 1. From Vancouver to Quebec City is considered a four day train trip. Although we left on Friday, it was late, so we'll call Saturday Day 1.

We didn't have a great sleep this first night what with the excitement, movement and unfamiliar sounds. I would have liked to have stayed up for the whole section up along the Fraser Canyon... it's too bad we have to pass through this spectacular scenery at night.

I did wake up a few times and peered out our window. The first time I believe we were travelling by the Fraser River but near water level. There were a few lights across river half way up the hillside. The second time I saw lots of trees and a clear, starry sky. Near daybreak we were in Kamloops-type country. Velvety hills. Silver-green sagebrush (photo below). Pine trees. Cattle country. I feel good just thinking about how dry the air must be outside.

Around these parts are some descriptive names such as: the Battle Bluff, Copper Creek and Cherry Creek tunnels; Rattlesnake Hill; Rainbow Canyon.

We got up at 5 am - yes, you read that right - and showered. Up to the dome car at 6:00 for coffee and banana. Glenn must have a banana a day it seems or he gets terrible leg cramps. We are still following a river. Go into tunnel, one of many in this area. Out other side we see light shining on silver train, a bit of mist low on the hills, and sun shining through industrial steam or smoke plumes.

I wish I could say exactly where the above photos were taken, but one thing this trip showed me is how ignorant I am about my own country.

The train entered Kamloops at 6:30. I didn’t recognize anything in or around the train yard from the time I was 18 and, along with friends Jody and Lyn who were with me vacationing at nearby Paul Lake, decided to grab onto the side of a boxcar and had to jump off when the train picked up too much speed. The three of us weren’t too bright. That was in August when it was supposedly hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, although I never tried it, and we were treated a display of northern lights one night that a local radio station reported was the most spectacular in the area in 40 years.

Anyway, for breakfast Glenn and I both had the banana pecan pancakes and coffee. We had a chatty table companion, Andy, who talked about the mountain pine beetle devastation on the pine trees. It is a shame because the pine trees are a wonderful feature of this country, I think. He blamed global warming as the beetles used to not come this far north.

He also talked about the change from wooden railway ties to concrete ones and how they're not sure what to do with the old creosote covered ties. As I write I see heaps of them trackside outside our window.

Lunch: we shared a hot roast beef sandwich on a bun. Table companions were a couple from Australia on their way to Montreal and then Prague.

Mountains, waterfalls and more mountains

Continuing through BC we passed Pyramid Falls and Mount Robson which, at just under 13,000 ft., is the tallest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. There is also a Mount Terry Fox.

This isn't a train that stops for photographing, so you wind up with a lot of blurred pictures, window reflections and missed shots. More often than not, a view-blocking tree will come into view just as you click the shutter.

Much happens at the BC/Alberta border, which is also the border for two parks, one in each province. At the summit of the Yellowhead Pass is the Great Divide where all rivers on the west side of the divide flow into the Pacific. We entered Mountain Time here and moved our clocks forward an hour.

On to Jasper, and a little housekeeping

Before suppertime the train stopped for a few hours in Jasper. Did you know Jasper used to be known as Fitzhugh? I didn't. This would explain the name of the local newspaper, "the Fitzhugh."

On some longer stops the trains are cleaned and windows washed. We were allowed off for only three quarters of an hour so we took a quick walk around town which has grown since I last saw it. There are many eating places, wilderness shops and clothes stores. One could probably buy a whole wardrobe here. Rocks, minerals and fossils were for sale too.

With more time I might have walked back down the highway where we passed four elk in a grove of trees by the tracks, but they are much bigger than me and I wouldn't want to get too close on foot. We saw many elk in Jasper National Park but unfortunately I failed to get pictures. We also saw a number of mountain sheep. During dinner, we were gazing at a herd of them on a distant hillside unaware that we were about to pass by some right beside the tracks. Too late with the camera again. People ahead kept seeing bears (they radio back to the dining car staff). This might be one disadvantage to being at the back of the train because by the time we would reach them, they'd ambled off. Someone said now was a good time to see bears as they were coming out of hibernation.

Our dinner companions this night were a father and daughter from BC traveling across country. Glenn had chicken in curry sauce (yes, you read that right too) with baby potatoes and I had something-encrusted halibut with rice, both with bok choy. Coconut lemon bar for dessert.

The train picked up more passengers in Edmonton and probably left near midnight. We weren't aware of it though because we were asleep.

Town of Jasper

The French-Canadian attendant in the suit, above, was really good. I think everyone who works on these trains has to speak English and French. He kept a few bananas tucked away for the next morning so Glenn would have a better chance of getting one, and he provided a bowl and milk so Glenn could have his Honey Nut Cheerios that he brought along. In fact the staff on this eastbound trip were generally outstanding.