Day 2 - Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

Sunday May 10, 2009

Prairieland

An interesting thing about train travel is that when you wake up, you don’t know where you are. Assuming the train was on schedule we may have been near the Alberta / Saskatchewan border or right into Saskatchewan when we got up, which would have been at 5:30 am at the latest. So, you really don’t see much of Alberta on this trip!

This wasn’t the Saskatchewan prairieland I remember as a kid on family driving holidays. Back then we would drive across dead-flat, dry land and see nothing but grain elevators on the horizon which took hours and hours to reach. It was an excruciating wait to reach the next grain elevator where I always hoped there would be a town with a restaurant. But we were probably south of this rail route, and it was summer during those trips. I hadn't been through the prairies since I was 15 so I looked forward to this part of the trip through 'big sky country.'

Later in the season the fields might be covered with wheat or canola or whatever they are growing these days, but in early May most of the route through Saskatchewan looked fairly colourless with fields of grey and tan, and leafless black-trunked trees. Mile after mile.

When I was a kid I thought Saskatchewan had no water, so it sure came as a surprise to pass countless ponds and marshes pretty much through the entire province. Not only that but they were alive with ducks and geese. We saw a few hawks too. A fellow train passenger said that the ponds are from snowmelt and would mostly disappear later.

We had bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. No lunch. The meal at lunch is as big as the one at supper so we soon learned to just grab a mid-day snack from the dome car.

Stops were at Saskatoon in the morning and Melville in the afternoon. Saskatoon train station area was bleak and neglected-looking but it's always nice to get out and stretch your legs. Sunny but cool. I watched water being drained out of each car. Melville, as with other stops along the way, had an older station that had been boarded up.

The train's service manager talked for quite a while in the dome car and told us that half the Via Rail budget had been cut by Prime Minister Mulroney. It's too bad that many of the older stations were replaced with newer, less interesting ones.

At the Saskatoon station

Old Melville station

We saw a coyote and a small herd of buffalo somewhere.

Nearing (or in) Manitoba we saw great mounds of potash. I realized I didn't know what potash is. We were told that it is used in fertilizer and China buys a lot of it. Once into Manitoba the terrain changed and we started seeing slight changes in elevation.

Potash (& marshes)

Qu'Appelle Valley

There is a Cree legend that goes along with the Qu'Appelle Valley. I’ve read many variations but it goes along lines of a brave who went by canoe to visit his sweetheart in another village. Paddling along he heard a faint call of his name. “Who calls?” he asked but only heard his echo in reply. Later when he reaches his sweetheart’s home, he learns that she died the night before. It was her voice he heard calling his name. Since French was the common language of the fur trade, the Cree word for “who calls” became "Qu'Appelle".

For supper Glenn had roast beef and I had chicken in port wine sauce with sun dried tomatoes. Both with mashed potatoes and carrots. We sat with the father and daughter from the interior of BC again.

I wonder what this little broom was for?

Winnipeg

Nearing Winnipeg we passed through a residential section of Portage la Prairie, hometown of my Dad. Here is a little trivia from the net:

• The name is derived from the French word portage, which means to carry a canoe overland between waterways. In this case the "portage" was between the Assiniboine River and Lake Manitoba, over the prairie.
• According to Environment Canada, Portage la Prairie has the most sunny days in warm months in Canada.

I missed the nicer shot of the rowing club on the river.

Winnipeg is where most of my family was from and some still are. I figured we would have a lot of time off the train with a three or four hour stop and thought I might phone an aunt and uncle in town. But we were held up getting off the train until sometime after 8:30 pm. We had to be back on the train within 45 minutes or wait an hour longer to reboard. The station is right by The Forks, and area of shops, restaurants and a riverside park so named because this is where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet. Since it was a Sunday night and Mother's Day, there wasn't much open so we raced around and got back on the train within three quarters of an hour.

Winnipeg suffered another big flood this year. We were told we wouldn't see much evidence of it as most of it happened on the other side of town. The flood of 1950, which caused the largest evacuation in Canadian history, was the reason my parents left Winnipeg and moved to Victoria.

At The Forks

At least we found a caboose! You don't see them on working trains any more. What on earth do kids nowadays wave at on driving trips?

Day 1 - Vancouver to Jasper to Edmonton

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.

The front-facing windows in the dome car above the three people are the important ones to get cleaned.

A locomotive by the train station

Pinecones and stones

A Cree saying, in a store window

Mountaintop

Mountain sheep.
It's very hard photographing wildlife from a train!

The start of our train trip - Victoria to Vancouver

Friday May 8, 2009

Our trip started on the right foot with a good taxi driver from home to Victoria’s bus depot. The older driver told some interesting stories about his life and played a song he had recorded. He had a very nice singing voice with a slight western twang which tied in with the Willie Nelson song ‘On the Road Again’ that was in my mind before we left.

View from the bus of the Empress Hotel
and Convention Centre, Victoria

We caught the 11:45 am bus and the 1:00 pm ferry. When we arrived at the Vancouver bus depot / train station at 3:30, Glenn's sister and her husband from Delta were there to greet us and take us to dinner. It was nice to see them again and it made life easier for us. There is only a McDonalds in the old train station and since the station is not in the nicest area we would've had to have taxied across town to one of the few restaurants we know.

They chose a downtown restaurant called the Cactus Club where we shared appetizers and Glenn and I split a steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus. It couldn't have been better. A most interesting feature of the restaurant was the stylish washrooms. Push a button and new plastic wrap rotates out to cover the toilet seat! Small tv screens were set inside cubicle doors (I'm not sure I needed to see Tiger Woods at that very moment but there he was). Later, when Glenn went to the washroom, which is on the 2nd floor, he took the elevator and found a screen in there too, but instead of showing a program it was a camcorder view, focused on our table! Coincidence? Or does someone sit in a little room watching to see who gets into the elevator and then turns the camera on the table they left?

Cactus Club, Vancouver

After supper, we went for a drive down to the bay to see the new convention centre near the Pan Pacific Hotel. It was bigger than I expected.

Convention Centre with reflections
of Canada Place and cruise ship

We were surprised how many new tall buildings have been built in Vancouver since we were last there. We rather felt like the Clampets visiting New York City for the first time. Most of the towers have slick, shiny surfaces, so it almost seemed that direct light doesn't come into the city as much as it reflects from building to building. Tulips were blooming and, as in Victoria, pink tree-blossoms drifts were on the streets and sidewalks.

Downtown Vancouver

We said our goodbyes and boarded the train just after 8:00 pm.

We are travelling with two carry-on bags apiece. Via Rail allows fairly large bags as carry-ons, up to 50 lbs total for each person. Even though we weren't checking any luggage, the agent, who was 'right there' at the station as if he had been waiting for us, took three of the bags we didn't want to lug with us to dinner and said they would be in our room when we arrived. And they were. No charge, although I had expected to pay $3 per bag.

The train left a little later than its scheduled 8:30 pm departure time. After getting settled in our room we sat in a dome car as the sun set. As we were passing the Pattullo Bridge a large full moon sat above the horizon.

There are a variety of sounds as the train slows and speeds up, lurches, squeaks over bridges, through tunnels, etc. The eerie, loud and sudden sound of a passing freight train can jolt you out of a sleep like a horrid nightmare. The movement takes some getting used to. It's like being on a ship except, as Glenn pointed out, the movements are less predictable. But I like this train. It has a substantial feel, and there is the historical factor in that British Columbia joined the Confederation based on the promise of this link. The last spike was driven in BC in 1885.

We are about to see many trains and yards, and will pass or be passed by many long freight trains. Some are 12,000 feet long, we are told.

Canada by train

This shows the route we'll be taking by train between Vancouver and Quebec City. (Click on map to enlarge.) It's too bad we can't make that extra 'hop' over to Halifax on the east coast, but that is another 18 hour train trip from Quebec City, one way.

Butchart Gardens May 1, 2009

You might be saying, "Enough with the tulips already," and it might be as we go on vacation next week. Want more? Check out Rene's tulip and blazing gazania pictures from Turkey here.

Down in the sunken garden...

... some other flowers.

A double daffodil?

Leaving by the entrance gate.

Government House grounds April 30, 2009

There are lots of camas flowers here this year.

I knew that native North Americans cooked and ate the bulbs but didn't know they also turned them into flour and made bread! The Nez Perce offered this bread to Lewis and Clark expedition travellers. Apparently the women held rights to family camas patches and used surplus bulbs for trading. I don't personally know anyone who has eaten a camas bulb... but I'd sure like to try that bread.

A teapot of towhees!

Well, no, just one. I'm completely confused as to its current name, but to me this delightful little bird is still a rufous-sided towhee.

Towhee trivia from the net:

• From their 'che-wink' call, I guess, this bird is also known as a chewink.
• Chewink is mentioned in a Robert Frost poem about blueberries.
• The towhee also known for its 'drink your teeee' call, which might have something to do with a group of them supposedly being called a 'teapot of towhees' (or a tangle of towhees). Hmm, from a murder of crows to a teapot of towhees.
• The female doesn't fly directly to the nest but lands nearby and walks to the nest.