We set the alarm clock for 2am, but it had clouded over by then. We didn't see the full on green/red etc. apparently it gets better as the season goes on, but then we couldn't hang around - it was getting colder!
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Knew I forgot something! Northern Lights
What we didn't realise when staying in Fairbanks was that we'd caught the beginning of the northern lights season - Fairbanks gets this about 240nights a year, not bad eh? We only realised whilst talking to another camper from South Africa - so a couple of night ago we vowed to stay up. We were lucky and managed to see something too! What started of as a whitish glow got greener as it got darker and moved across the sky over the course of about 30 minutes:
We set the alarm clock for 2am, but it had clouded over by then. We didn't see the full on green/red etc. apparently it gets better as the season goes on, but then we couldn't hang around - it was getting colder!
We set the alarm clock for 2am, but it had clouded over by then. We didn't see the full on green/red etc. apparently it gets better as the season goes on, but then we couldn't hang around - it was getting colder!
Planes, trains and ...er... dogsleds!
Denali is pretty cool.
Slightly annoying though, as appart from the first 15 miles, the only way to access the park is on the park buses! Which take 8 hours to do 90 miles!! There was only one 5 mile bike track and other than that it was proper back country hiking (which we don't have the kit for). After sitting in a car for the last week getting to and around Alaska, the last thing we really fancied was sitting on the bus all day, so we checked that exchange rate and wandered off to find one of the 'flightseeing tours'. Wow! (again!)
We managed to get booked on easily as it was the end of the season (in fact the park closes next week) and took off on a 10 seater plane with Fly Denali. The flight was 75 minute long and I spent 72 of those minutes trying not to be sick! Still, despite the sickness, it was a pretty amazing flight. We flew right up to Mt McKinley, North America's tallest peak at over 20,000ft and around it looking at the Glaciers and the wind blowing the snow from the top of the mountains. Apparently they've 'lost' 5 people on the mountain already this year, a plane seems a much more sensible idea than a 3 week hike!
We landed safely and wandered off to find our campsite at Denali National Park, apparently they've had 3 bears in there recently, but we survived another night, despite AGAIN being next to a railway line much to Dan's delight! :-)
This morning was one of my favourite so far! We decided to take one of the ranger lead talks..to Denali's Dog Sled kennels! Wahoo! As the national park laws have designated a large proportion of Denali a Wilderness area no motorised vehicles are allowed so the Rangers rely on the dogs in the winter to help deliver supplies, break trails and service the park. The dogs are bread for this sole reason, their long legs help with the deep snow, they have amazingly thick coats and bushy tails so they can curl themselves up and breathe through it to help warm the cold air. They clearly loved their work and in the winter can run upto 100 miles a day... that'd keep you busy walking one of those guys!
I expected a good demonstration but what we got was very cool! We got to spend half an hour in the Kennels beforehand meeting the dogs (if they wanted to talk to us, it was run very well) and then we got a demonstration of them at work and a good explaination before meeting the dogs again, Dan got on very well:
Oh - and the 8 week old pups! I tried to steal this little girl, but didn't get away with it :-(
We spent the rest of the day heading east on highway 8 the Denali Road and heading to Tok. We're about 90 miles from the Canadian Border tonight and it was windy and rainy so we took the oportunity to try a Motel! Luckily it's very good, clean and had a fantastic resturant, I spent an hour in the bath and Dan's already snoring! I can't believe it's a novelty to walk around without my shoes on....
Slightly annoying though, as appart from the first 15 miles, the only way to access the park is on the park buses! Which take 8 hours to do 90 miles!! There was only one 5 mile bike track and other than that it was proper back country hiking (which we don't have the kit for). After sitting in a car for the last week getting to and around Alaska, the last thing we really fancied was sitting on the bus all day, so we checked that exchange rate and wandered off to find one of the 'flightseeing tours'. Wow! (again!)
We managed to get booked on easily as it was the end of the season (in fact the park closes next week) and took off on a 10 seater plane with Fly Denali. The flight was 75 minute long and I spent 72 of those minutes trying not to be sick! Still, despite the sickness, it was a pretty amazing flight. We flew right up to Mt McKinley, North America's tallest peak at over 20,000ft and around it looking at the Glaciers and the wind blowing the snow from the top of the mountains. Apparently they've 'lost' 5 people on the mountain already this year, a plane seems a much more sensible idea than a 3 week hike!
We landed safely and wandered off to find our campsite at Denali National Park, apparently they've had 3 bears in there recently, but we survived another night, despite AGAIN being next to a railway line much to Dan's delight! :-)
This morning was one of my favourite so far! We decided to take one of the ranger lead talks..to Denali's Dog Sled kennels! Wahoo! As the national park laws have designated a large proportion of Denali a Wilderness area no motorised vehicles are allowed so the Rangers rely on the dogs in the winter to help deliver supplies, break trails and service the park. The dogs are bread for this sole reason, their long legs help with the deep snow, they have amazingly thick coats and bushy tails so they can curl themselves up and breathe through it to help warm the cold air. They clearly loved their work and in the winter can run upto 100 miles a day... that'd keep you busy walking one of those guys!
I expected a good demonstration but what we got was very cool! We got to spend half an hour in the Kennels beforehand meeting the dogs (if they wanted to talk to us, it was run very well) and then we got a demonstration of them at work and a good explaination before meeting the dogs again, Dan got on very well:
Oh - and the 8 week old pups! I tried to steal this little girl, but didn't get away with it :-(
We spent the rest of the day heading east on highway 8 the Denali Road and heading to Tok. We're about 90 miles from the Canadian Border tonight and it was windy and rainy so we took the oportunity to try a Motel! Luckily it's very good, clean and had a fantastic resturant, I spent an hour in the bath and Dan's already snoring! I can't believe it's a novelty to walk around without my shoes on....
Friday, 7 September 2007
Can we join the Artic Circle Club?
Yes, I know you guys did it in Norway, but Alaska counts too right? :-)
Well, I hope we can because it took some driving to get there! Well, by Dan, I was -snoring in the passenger seat. Hehe. (to be fair, this was only for about an hour of an 8 hour trip, but I know he'll take the mick if I don't mention it). We had another day of driving up and down some serious gravel tracks in the artic tundra and amoungst the fabulous colours on our way up there. This really is the time to visit Alaska (with heated seats) as the colours are amazing :-)
Dan found some rocks and as usual, had to climb them:
Disco Rob, the travelling Landy Bear:
Charlie behaving impecably, Dan kept trying for 6th gear as we were flying along! Unfortuantly, someone else travelling the road was quite inconsiderate and flicked up a rock putting a nice 12" crack in Charlies windscreen... still, after about 1,000 miles of gravel tracks we havn't done bad if that's the worst that happened.
We got to the Artic Circle about 2pm had some chicken soup and bread and headed back south again! Still, it was worth it.... wasn't it?! :-)
One for J of the U:
Denali National Park tomorrow, seem's strange to be starting the 'south' and soon 'east' part of the trip already, but as I'm loosing the feeling in my hands typing this I have to say I'm looking forward to California!
Hope all of you going to 7 Sisters have a good time. Missing you all.
Jen
Cheesy Artic Circle pic to go with the Alaska cheesy pic:
Well, I hope we can because it took some driving to get there! Well, by Dan, I was -snoring in the passenger seat. Hehe. (to be fair, this was only for about an hour of an 8 hour trip, but I know he'll take the mick if I don't mention it). We had another day of driving up and down some serious gravel tracks in the artic tundra and amoungst the fabulous colours on our way up there. This really is the time to visit Alaska (with heated seats) as the colours are amazing :-)
Dan found some rocks and as usual, had to climb them:
Disco Rob, the travelling Landy Bear:
Charlie behaving impecably, Dan kept trying for 6th gear as we were flying along! Unfortuantly, someone else travelling the road was quite inconsiderate and flicked up a rock putting a nice 12" crack in Charlies windscreen... still, after about 1,000 miles of gravel tracks we havn't done bad if that's the worst that happened.
We got to the Artic Circle about 2pm had some chicken soup and bread and headed back south again! Still, it was worth it.... wasn't it?! :-)
One for J of the U:
Denali National Park tomorrow, seem's strange to be starting the 'south' and soon 'east' part of the trip already, but as I'm loosing the feeling in my hands typing this I have to say I'm looking forward to California!
Hope all of you going to 7 Sisters have a good time. Missing you all.
Jen
Cheesy Artic Circle pic to go with the Alaska cheesy pic:
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Brass Monkeys!
Well, we have made it to Alaska! YEEEHAAAAW!!
We crossed over at the most northerly border crossing, Poker Creek, population:2
After driving the Top of the World Highway. This was a beautiful drive, blue skies, mountains, amazing autumn colours... just WOW! We managed to find some tracks that went off into the mountains, we were consious of our time slipping away, but had to try a few:
We are currently at the Rivers Edge Camp ground in Fairbanks... after getting a little lost and ending up at the airport, whoops! I really must learn how to read a map one day ;-) And Jen deserves a medal for putting up with me telling her to "go the other way!"
So, tomorrow we are heading up the Dalton Highway with the hope of reaching the Arctic circle... Yes, we are slightly barmey as its been getting progressively colder over the past week or so as we've been heading north. Today we encountered a freak snow storm while travelling up the last bit of the Alaska Highway, and temps have already dropped down well below freezing at night time. But hey, never mind! We have heated seats for the day time and hotty bottles for the tent! It's only about 200 miles to the place we want to get to so with an early start we should be able to get back to Fairbanks and prepare ourselves for Denali :-) Denali looks like an interesting one, you have to enter a lottery a year before for a pass to take your vehicle in! However there are other options, the bikes, a bus ... and helicopters or aeroplanes ... mm, what's the exchange rate looking like at the moment?!
We'll end with the obligatory cheesy pic, Disco Rob is glad to be 'home':
We crossed over at the most northerly border crossing, Poker Creek, population:2
After driving the Top of the World Highway. This was a beautiful drive, blue skies, mountains, amazing autumn colours... just WOW! We managed to find some tracks that went off into the mountains, we were consious of our time slipping away, but had to try a few:
We are currently at the Rivers Edge Camp ground in Fairbanks... after getting a little lost and ending up at the airport, whoops! I really must learn how to read a map one day ;-) And Jen deserves a medal for putting up with me telling her to "go the other way!"
So, tomorrow we are heading up the Dalton Highway with the hope of reaching the Arctic circle... Yes, we are slightly barmey as its been getting progressively colder over the past week or so as we've been heading north. Today we encountered a freak snow storm while travelling up the last bit of the Alaska Highway, and temps have already dropped down well below freezing at night time. But hey, never mind! We have heated seats for the day time and hotty bottles for the tent! It's only about 200 miles to the place we want to get to so with an early start we should be able to get back to Fairbanks and prepare ourselves for Denali :-) Denali looks like an interesting one, you have to enter a lottery a year before for a pass to take your vehicle in! However there are other options, the bikes, a bus ... and helicopters or aeroplanes ... mm, what's the exchange rate looking like at the moment?!
We'll end with the obligatory cheesy pic, Disco Rob is glad to be 'home':
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Up, up and away
We just seem to keep going up!
After leaving Charlie Lake we continued up the Alaska Highway. By the end of the next day we reached Muncho Lake Provicial Park and found a groovy camp site right on the lake shore. It was beautiful! But alas, we couldn't stay up too late as we wanted to get an early start the next day.
One for Jez:
And so we did. After a not so early night having beer with the neighbour, we managed to hit the road by 8:45ish. Within a couple of hours we'd finally managed to get to Watson Lake, the home of Yukons famous Signpost Forest. It a pretty amazing place which has amassed over 60000signs... I'd hate to be the poor bugger that has to count them all. We couldn't leave without putting our own sign up, so in true Land Rover fashion we cable tied one of Charlies number plates to a post and then added a ShireLRC sticker for good measure. So if you are ever there, from the bottom of the steps, go left into the second row of signs and there you will see our plate :-)
From here we took the Cambell Highway (highway 4). A mere 370 odd miles... on gravel! Quite what we were thinking when we set off I'll never know, but we made it in about a days driving. In the first 3-4 hours of driving we only saw 5 other cars. Along the way we found "Yukons best kept secret", the town of Faro, population 370. It reminded us of Thornhill... on a bad day, so we turned around and left. I can't remember if it was the burnt out petrol station or the nasty looking 3-storey flats that made the place so appealing!
There were quite a few flies (understatement of the century), so we had to keep finding rivers to use to clean the windscreen, which worked quite well:
Not to worry though, the views are worth it :-)
Anyway... further points of interest along the way... at mile marker 150 we saw a Moose... and followed it as it tried to run away from us down the road... not the brightest of creatures, but cool nontheless! :-) And another black bear watching the world go by, and a Porcupine. I tell ya, the only way to see the wildlife here is to get off the main highways.
We awoke this morning to a frozen tent and it was blommin' cold! We later found out it was -1C in the nearest city at 7am this morning, so what it was in the mountains last night I don't know. Late this afternoon we finally made it to Dawson City, in the heart of the Klondike Gold rush country, passing the Dempster Highway. The Dempster is a 470mile dirt road ending at Inuvik. It has a reputation for killing vehicle tyres. Even the locals take 2 spares. At the beginning of the Highway is an info board which we thought we'd pull up at and read. We stopped, I got out the car and heard a hissing sound... the back offside tyre was deflating rapidly! and we had only been about 50metres up the Dempster! That was scary enough, we changed the tyre and headed off to Dawson a few miles up the road. So here we are, at a coampsite in the middle of town... quite literally! :-)
So here we are in Dawson City, in the middle of town... gonna go for a bite to eat now. Tomorrow we hit ALASKA!!! ONLY 67 MILES, WOW!! :-) (and a ferry ride! ;-) )
...anyway, I really must go and clean the bikes...
After leaving Charlie Lake we continued up the Alaska Highway. By the end of the next day we reached Muncho Lake Provicial Park and found a groovy camp site right on the lake shore. It was beautiful! But alas, we couldn't stay up too late as we wanted to get an early start the next day.
One for Jez:
And so we did. After a not so early night having beer with the neighbour, we managed to hit the road by 8:45ish. Within a couple of hours we'd finally managed to get to Watson Lake, the home of Yukons famous Signpost Forest. It a pretty amazing place which has amassed over 60000signs... I'd hate to be the poor bugger that has to count them all. We couldn't leave without putting our own sign up, so in true Land Rover fashion we cable tied one of Charlies number plates to a post and then added a ShireLRC sticker for good measure. So if you are ever there, from the bottom of the steps, go left into the second row of signs and there you will see our plate :-)
From here we took the Cambell Highway (highway 4). A mere 370 odd miles... on gravel! Quite what we were thinking when we set off I'll never know, but we made it in about a days driving. In the first 3-4 hours of driving we only saw 5 other cars. Along the way we found "Yukons best kept secret", the town of Faro, population 370. It reminded us of Thornhill... on a bad day, so we turned around and left. I can't remember if it was the burnt out petrol station or the nasty looking 3-storey flats that made the place so appealing!
There were quite a few flies (understatement of the century), so we had to keep finding rivers to use to clean the windscreen, which worked quite well:
Not to worry though, the views are worth it :-)
Anyway... further points of interest along the way... at mile marker 150 we saw a Moose... and followed it as it tried to run away from us down the road... not the brightest of creatures, but cool nontheless! :-) And another black bear watching the world go by, and a Porcupine. I tell ya, the only way to see the wildlife here is to get off the main highways.
We awoke this morning to a frozen tent and it was blommin' cold! We later found out it was -1C in the nearest city at 7am this morning, so what it was in the mountains last night I don't know. Late this afternoon we finally made it to Dawson City, in the heart of the Klondike Gold rush country, passing the Dempster Highway. The Dempster is a 470mile dirt road ending at Inuvik. It has a reputation for killing vehicle tyres. Even the locals take 2 spares. At the beginning of the Highway is an info board which we thought we'd pull up at and read. We stopped, I got out the car and heard a hissing sound... the back offside tyre was deflating rapidly! and we had only been about 50metres up the Dempster! That was scary enough, we changed the tyre and headed off to Dawson a few miles up the road. So here we are, at a coampsite in the middle of town... quite literally! :-)
So here we are in Dawson City, in the middle of town... gonna go for a bite to eat now. Tomorrow we hit ALASKA!!! ONLY 67 MILES, WOW!! :-) (and a ferry ride! ;-) )
...anyway, I really must go and clean the bikes...
Saturday, 1 September 2007
There be Bears here!
Well, here I am in the passenger seat blogging! We left the KOA bright and breezy this morning, our plan to get some miles done, and hopefully reach Dawson Creek. We picked up highway 40, 1 km from the camp site, which leads allthe way to Grand Prairie. But just before the road turns north, there is an unpaved road leading up to Goodwin Corner, so we decided to take that instead. It was a bit slower going than the tarmac road and at just over 100 miles long it took us a good 3 hours. But it was worth it, along the way we saw Coyotes, Deer… and a Black Bear!! You’ll have to forgive me for the picture, but I wasn’t gonna get out the car and go pat it on the head!
We went through some places with weird names… Frying Pan Creek, Misery Mountain to name but two!Then, all of a sudden there was a junction in the road… with no signposts! Hey ho, lets go that way says Jen. A truly brilliant bit of navigational guesswork and 20 miles later we came mud splatting into Grand Prairie :-) First stop, an Esso gas station as we were by now running on vapour in the main tank. But for some reason this station didn’t accept foreign cards. After a quick detour to a KFC we found a Fast-Gas full service station and managed to get 74l in the tank. It’s only an 80 litre tank, dontyaknow, so we were pretty low!
We then trucked on to Dawson Creek who’s only claim to fame is that its where the Alaska Highway begins, Mile “0” as they call it.
As it was only 4pm, we decided to head on a bit further, aiming for Fort St John, another 70-odd km up the road. On the way we went through a place called Taylor. Again nothing very exciting happening there… except a bridge over a deep gorge. It’s an old steel bridge with a steel grating type affair for a roadway. I looked out the window to see that I could see startight down to the river below! Whooping and cheering I explained this to Jen who was driving… not a good idea… she doesn’t like heights at the best of times, so she just buried the throttle peddle!
Anyway, we’re about 10km from the Charlie Lake Camp site and have pulled into a Super 8 Motel car-park to upload todays blog… aren’t we good to you lot!
More picy's later folks :-)
We went through some places with weird names… Frying Pan Creek, Misery Mountain to name but two!Then, all of a sudden there was a junction in the road… with no signposts! Hey ho, lets go that way says Jen. A truly brilliant bit of navigational guesswork and 20 miles later we came mud splatting into Grand Prairie :-) First stop, an Esso gas station as we were by now running on vapour in the main tank. But for some reason this station didn’t accept foreign cards. After a quick detour to a KFC we found a Fast-Gas full service station and managed to get 74l in the tank. It’s only an 80 litre tank, dontyaknow, so we were pretty low!
We then trucked on to Dawson Creek who’s only claim to fame is that its where the Alaska Highway begins, Mile “0” as they call it.
As it was only 4pm, we decided to head on a bit further, aiming for Fort St John, another 70-odd km up the road. On the way we went through a place called Taylor. Again nothing very exciting happening there… except a bridge over a deep gorge. It’s an old steel bridge with a steel grating type affair for a roadway. I looked out the window to see that I could see startight down to the river below! Whooping and cheering I explained this to Jen who was driving… not a good idea… she doesn’t like heights at the best of times, so she just buried the throttle peddle!
Anyway, we’re about 10km from the Charlie Lake Camp site and have pulled into a Super 8 Motel car-park to upload todays blog… aren’t we good to you lot!
More picy's later folks :-)
It's been a busy week!
Well, firstly apologies for not updating the blog over the past few days, unfortunately Banff and Jasper National Parks didn’t have a top priority to provide wireless internet access at their campsites! Unbelievably poor planning if you ask me ;-) So, this will be a long one:
Sunday: Off-roading with Calgary Land Rover
We woke bright and early after another night in the Travelodge (it was cheap) as we had strict instructions to be at the dealership by 7:45am, not good for Sundays! Never the less, a free breakfast lured us both out of the very comfy and warm bed. The day was planned by Rich Ellis, who was originally from York and wanted to take the customers out for a bit of off-roading to show what the vehicles can do. An easy greenlane day was the description which suited us with the loaded Camel and still another 15,000 miles to go on the trip.
Everyone at Calgary Land Rover was very friendly and welcomed us with open arms despite the fact we hadn’t purchased a vehicle, should you every need Land Rover parts in the Calgary area I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. As predicted, our comrades on this trip out and about were mostly LR2’s (Freebies) and LR3’s (Disco’s) with a Rangie (brand new, 3 weeks old IIRC) thrown in for good measure. Griff and Lisa had a Disco 2, it turns out Griff was originally from Poole and used to work at Land Rover Experience! Small world, he tore himself away though to live in Banff, it’s a hard life :-)
We started with a quick run down to McLean Creek, you’ll love this: An ‘Off Highway Vehicle Forest Land Use Zone’ … i.e. a massive free playsite! I think you should all write to your MP’s at home and suggest we have some areas like this. Rich had been up a few day’s earlier and ensured the tracks were clear with his chainsaw. The tracks were mostly a combination of mud and solid bedrock through the trees which was perfect for the shiney’s … only it had been raining and was still raining when we got there. The easy greenlanes quickly turned into areas with not a lot of grip! 15 minutes in and we were assisting a LR2 up some rock steps before helping change the first of quite a few blown tyres. Luckily everyone had spares. I have to say though, it was a superb trip, although we had to stop quite a bit to ensure the vehicles and drivers were ok on the zero grip everyone had huge smiles on their faces and were laughing their way around. Credit should definately go to Rich who, in his own words: ‘won’t have to go to the gym this week’ lol!
Charlie Camel kept the old Landy side up well, even weighing about 3 tons with both mountain bikes on the back! The engine breaking on the TDi with a bit of assistance on the brake pedal kept him safe through most parts and a bit of courage to chuck him over one big ledge with no grip on the other side got us through (my patented method of keeping both feet on the floor of the footwell and screaming was just what was needed!). Joking aside, when you see a LR3 struggle and require some spade work to prevent it going over the edge of the cliff and knowing your next is just what I love about off-roading :-) I think the weight being low down in Charlie and the MT’s helped a bit. Still, the spade work made a good channel for the others who all managed to follow safely, again, all with HUGE grins. Sorry, no pics of the scary bits, we both tried our hardest not to get involved, but by the end of the day we were spotting people down the last few rock steps.
Many thanks must go to all at Calgary Land Rover for their hospitality and company, we really enjoyed the day.
We ended the day with two invitations to dinner and/or a bed for the night, so thanks to Rich and family and Griff and Lisa, but as we’d hung around another day to go off-roading and were still failing dismally to catch up the week we lost at the beginning we thought we’d better head off and try to get some miles under our belt. We made it north of Banff… and then decided that was a rubbish idea and no matter how late we were running we couldn’t miss Banff, so on Monday… we headed back.
Monday: Banff
Figuring Griff and Lisa were probably at work it being a Monday morning, we decided to strike out on our own and see what we could discover about Banff. Wow. What a beautiful place. As we’d driven in to the national park yesterday it was raining and grey and the clouds had obscured the mountains from view, but as Monday progressed we were treated to more and more.
Our first stop was a bike stop in town to see if they could change Dan’s brakes around to prevent him flying over the handlebars quite so much (boo!) …but as he has fancy brakes they didn’t have the bits and couldn’t do it (yay!), more entertainment for me! ;-) They were very nice people though. We decided to have a look around the town and had lunch in a lovely little café/restaurant called Coyotes, I’d highly recommend it if you get a chance to go there, very good food and normal portions – Wahoo! We spent a good few hours afterwards wandering around town, they’re digging up the high street but it didn’t spoil the atmosphere and the number of outdoor clothing shops kept me entertained for hours, especially as I got a $250 fleece for $75, no more feeling cold The town is surrounded by some fantastic mountains and glacial turqiouse lakes and when I say turquoise I mean turquoise. The only colour the glacial sediment doesn’t absorb is turquoise which means it’s reflected back with stunning results.
We found a nearby campsite for the night and as we had both been cold for a good few days now we spent the night up at the Banff hot springs watching the sun go down behind the mountains and the moon come up. We headed back to the campsite feeling all warm inside and smelling slightly of sulphur… :- )
Oh, and took a few pics on the way home, this is the moon:
And the plough:
Tuesday: Lake Louise
Having had this poster on my wall since well before I went to university, to say I was looking forward to seeing Lake Louise myself was a bit of an understatement. Sadly, we awoke to another cloudy day, albeit a little bit warmer than it had been (i.e. I could feel my fingers). Still, being English and used to such weather we didn’t let it deter us. We arrived at Lake Louise and yes, it was stunning. As predicted, it was also thronged with lots of people so we took the advice of all the guidebooks and went for a walk. Yes, I know, but there was no off-road routes and no cycling, Dan refused to give me a piggy-back so I was left with little option! ;-)
The route we chose was upto Mirror Lake and an old tea house, originally built for the posh first tourists in 18something. 2.5miles there and 3miles back didn’t sound too bad, but it was 2.5miles all uphill! Hehe. Still, good for the bum. And again, some fantastic views.
At the top we discovered the old tea house which had turned into ‘home’ for a tribe of ground squirrels, we were good tourists and didn’t feed them but that didn’t stop them trying! The supplies for the tea house are flown in or ridden in by packhorse and the guy and his girlfriend that run it live up there during the year. That’s dedication. Needless to say the walk back down was a bit easier than the one up there, but defiantly worth it for the views. We would have liked to do more trails, but a visit to the information centre informed us the minimum number for a huge number of the trails at the moment is 4… because of the bears. We won’t be messing with that then.
We found our next campsite for the night at Lake Louise, we were planning on heading to Mosquito Creek as recommended by Griff, but by the time we realised what the time was it was 7pm! Time just flys by here. I wish we had pushed on though, Lake Louise was certainly an experience! The whole site is surrounded by 7,000volts of electric fencing and ‘texas gate’ (cattle grid) which is also electrified because of the number of bears that were cutting through the site! If you were camping outside this fence (RV’s only) you were advised not to walk around after dark on your own and if you have to walk in groups of at least 4 and make a lot of noise/carry bear spray! Lol! This all sounded very comforting until we got handed the leaflet about what to do if we found a bear inside the fencing… I didn’t get up for a wee that night.
Wednesday: Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier
Today we decided that as we’d spent 3 days in the southern section of the national park we really should start to head north towards Jasper continuing up the Icefields Parkway as sadly, AGAIN, there were no off-road trails. It just so happened on the way was the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier.
Double WOW! I really want one of these Snocoach… 66” tyres running at 15psi… 6 wheel drive, 250bhp 4cylinder diseasel engine (sure it could be changed for a V8) apparently causing less of an impact than a stiletto heal. Imagine one of them turning up at a play-day! LOL!
Anyway, back to the touristy stuff. When you get off the bus you are only allowed to walk a few meters from the “bus-park” as there are huge crevasses in the ice, covered with a couple of inches of snow. Some of these holes go down 1000ft. Yes, there is the right number of zero’s there. The Glacier is deeper than the Empire State building is tall (excluding ariel)! By ‘eck was it cold! The wind coming down the valley was something else, the Katabatic wind is so cold there it freezes the sap in the trees further down the valley meaning they only grow on one side. But it was an amazing experience. Some parts of the ice look so clear, you can imagine seeing the bottom.
We then visited Athabasca falls.
We stopped for the night just outside Jasper in one of my favourite sites so far, whilst we were making dinner we were treated to a small herd of Elk wandering by, closely followed by a rutting stag (avoid, big antlers!) – absolutely stunning. Luckily they didn’t fancy the look of the Camel. We also met up with Jon, a BMW motorcyclist who is travelling from New York to Alaska, he’s doing some similar roads to us so maybe we’ll catch him along the way, he was a very nice chap who owns a Disco as well.
Thursday: Jasper Tramway
We got up bright and early to our first sunny day in the Canadian Rockies (it had to happen sooner or later!) so we decided to make the most of it by visiting the Jasper Tramway. The tramway takes you up Whistlers mountain from 4279ft to 7472ft, that’s my idea of hiking! At the top the ‘upper station’ is surrounded by people, seriously, when we got there there was another 250 apparently at the top.. needless to say, most being American tourists we only had to walk a couple of miles to be rid of them all ;-) Sadly, it was a couple of miles up to the summit so REALLY hard work, especially at altitudes of 7500ft +, but the view made it more than worth it:
I am missing my gym membership less than I thought.. ;-)
We spent the rest of the day carrying on up the Icefields Parkway and visited Maligne Lake, close to Jasper, the largest lake in the Canadian Rockies. Again, another beautiful view, you can’t look anywhere around here without being amazed. We pulled in at our final National Park campsite in this area, it made you feel all welcome by having a bear trap by the front entrance!
Friday: ‘Wasting’ a day for a KOA!
Well, our park passes had finally run out so we had to make our way out the national parks. Sadly, the dirty washing had also pilled up and we’d noticed a significant shortage of laudrettes in Canada. Not to worry, there’s a KOA Kampsite (I HATE THAT USE OF THE LETTER K – ARGH! …anyway…) about 15 minutes outside Jasper National Park (Hinton). We decided to therefore use today to finally get on the bikes, we’d been getting frustrated that the trail closures (due to bears) and weather had prevented any cycling so far so we were determined to get some miles in no matter what.
We drove past the KOA on the way to the track we were aiming for in Brule, just outside Jasper N Park.. only to see a ‘park full’ sign… eh?! KOA’s are never full. That was when it dawned on us, it was Friday… and Labour Day weekend, the last ‘proper’ weekend in the camping season. We quickly (as fast as a Defender allows) turned around and headed back with an idea to beg for a space for the night, but no need as they only meant full for RV’s. We booked in and headed for the trail head, which was pretty easy to find as Brule only has one road! What awaited us was a fun ride to Ogre Canyon along some seriously rutted dirt roads and sadly, some roads that had recently been ‘repaired’ with stone, lots of stone. I kinda wish I’d gone for a full suspension bike now! Lol! We followed the single track that lead to the Canyon for a while but as the trail started to disappear we started to doubt we were heading along the right path. As we’d headed through lots of berry patches and lots of warnings in the guide book about bears we didn’t want to go too far off the trail no matter how much noise we were making, sprays we were carrying and did you know? Stumpy my Stumpjumper even has his own bear bell now, they had one in red that matched perfectly! Sad eh? So regrettably we turned back around.
Dan had been getting in a mood all along the trail as due to the rain it had involved some serious puddles, now I love puddles, but was wearing Dan’s new North Face soft shell jacket as my waterproof coat is about 4 sizes to big for me now and therefore not really perfect for bike riding. Dan’s brand new jacket is now a bit muddy. Hehe. Still, I made up for it as I tried to circumnavigate one of the deeper trenches up the sideslope of the bank and my mud filled tyres slipped sideways. This gave Dan ample opportunity for laughing at me as I sat in the puddle! I was good though, and didn’t get up until he’d had time to take a photo:
I wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was still about 7.5km back to Charlie…
So, we got back, had a warm shower (the first in ages!) and treated ourselves to a Pizza from Boston Pizza in Hinton. I’m currently sitting in the laundry room having washed all our muddy gear trying to escape yet more rain.
We’ve planned the route to Alaska, starting off on the Highway 40 up to Grand Prairie then the 43 to Dawson Creek, here we start mile 1 of the Alcan Highway and head towards Watson Lake (home of the signpost forest) then pick up route 4 gravel track to Carmacks and north on route 2 towards the Dempster Highway. Here we’re going to reassess how we’re getting on and either head north on the Dempster to try to get to the Artic Circle or head into Fairbanks and head north from there to the Artic Circle before then heading south to Dinarli (sp?) and some more gravel track. For those who are interested in an update on Charlie’s progress, he’s doing well! He, like all TDi Landies has an aversion to high altitude cold starts, so looking good for Alaska then! Lol! But getting 3rd is a lot more successful than it has been, now it’s only taking a couple of minutes every morning before he’s working as he should.
Ok, so we might be signing off for a while again, but will try to update everyday if we can. I’m hoping we’ll find some motels with free wifi and a car park! Lol! Missing you all, so much so, I felt at home when I saw this in the laundrette!
Love to Jo and the kids.
Sunday: Off-roading with Calgary Land Rover
We woke bright and early after another night in the Travelodge (it was cheap) as we had strict instructions to be at the dealership by 7:45am, not good for Sundays! Never the less, a free breakfast lured us both out of the very comfy and warm bed. The day was planned by Rich Ellis, who was originally from York and wanted to take the customers out for a bit of off-roading to show what the vehicles can do. An easy greenlane day was the description which suited us with the loaded Camel and still another 15,000 miles to go on the trip.
Everyone at Calgary Land Rover was very friendly and welcomed us with open arms despite the fact we hadn’t purchased a vehicle, should you every need Land Rover parts in the Calgary area I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. As predicted, our comrades on this trip out and about were mostly LR2’s (Freebies) and LR3’s (Disco’s) with a Rangie (brand new, 3 weeks old IIRC) thrown in for good measure. Griff and Lisa had a Disco 2, it turns out Griff was originally from Poole and used to work at Land Rover Experience! Small world, he tore himself away though to live in Banff, it’s a hard life :-)
We started with a quick run down to McLean Creek, you’ll love this: An ‘Off Highway Vehicle Forest Land Use Zone’ … i.e. a massive free playsite! I think you should all write to your MP’s at home and suggest we have some areas like this. Rich had been up a few day’s earlier and ensured the tracks were clear with his chainsaw. The tracks were mostly a combination of mud and solid bedrock through the trees which was perfect for the shiney’s … only it had been raining and was still raining when we got there. The easy greenlanes quickly turned into areas with not a lot of grip! 15 minutes in and we were assisting a LR2 up some rock steps before helping change the first of quite a few blown tyres. Luckily everyone had spares. I have to say though, it was a superb trip, although we had to stop quite a bit to ensure the vehicles and drivers were ok on the zero grip everyone had huge smiles on their faces and were laughing their way around. Credit should definately go to Rich who, in his own words: ‘won’t have to go to the gym this week’ lol!
Charlie Camel kept the old Landy side up well, even weighing about 3 tons with both mountain bikes on the back! The engine breaking on the TDi with a bit of assistance on the brake pedal kept him safe through most parts and a bit of courage to chuck him over one big ledge with no grip on the other side got us through (my patented method of keeping both feet on the floor of the footwell and screaming was just what was needed!). Joking aside, when you see a LR3 struggle and require some spade work to prevent it going over the edge of the cliff and knowing your next is just what I love about off-roading :-) I think the weight being low down in Charlie and the MT’s helped a bit. Still, the spade work made a good channel for the others who all managed to follow safely, again, all with HUGE grins. Sorry, no pics of the scary bits, we both tried our hardest not to get involved, but by the end of the day we were spotting people down the last few rock steps.
Many thanks must go to all at Calgary Land Rover for their hospitality and company, we really enjoyed the day.
We ended the day with two invitations to dinner and/or a bed for the night, so thanks to Rich and family and Griff and Lisa, but as we’d hung around another day to go off-roading and were still failing dismally to catch up the week we lost at the beginning we thought we’d better head off and try to get some miles under our belt. We made it north of Banff… and then decided that was a rubbish idea and no matter how late we were running we couldn’t miss Banff, so on Monday… we headed back.
Monday: Banff
Figuring Griff and Lisa were probably at work it being a Monday morning, we decided to strike out on our own and see what we could discover about Banff. Wow. What a beautiful place. As we’d driven in to the national park yesterday it was raining and grey and the clouds had obscured the mountains from view, but as Monday progressed we were treated to more and more.
Our first stop was a bike stop in town to see if they could change Dan’s brakes around to prevent him flying over the handlebars quite so much (boo!) …but as he has fancy brakes they didn’t have the bits and couldn’t do it (yay!), more entertainment for me! ;-) They were very nice people though. We decided to have a look around the town and had lunch in a lovely little café/restaurant called Coyotes, I’d highly recommend it if you get a chance to go there, very good food and normal portions – Wahoo! We spent a good few hours afterwards wandering around town, they’re digging up the high street but it didn’t spoil the atmosphere and the number of outdoor clothing shops kept me entertained for hours, especially as I got a $250 fleece for $75, no more feeling cold The town is surrounded by some fantastic mountains and glacial turqiouse lakes and when I say turquoise I mean turquoise. The only colour the glacial sediment doesn’t absorb is turquoise which means it’s reflected back with stunning results.
We found a nearby campsite for the night and as we had both been cold for a good few days now we spent the night up at the Banff hot springs watching the sun go down behind the mountains and the moon come up. We headed back to the campsite feeling all warm inside and smelling slightly of sulphur… :- )
Oh, and took a few pics on the way home, this is the moon:
And the plough:
Tuesday: Lake Louise
Having had this poster on my wall since well before I went to university, to say I was looking forward to seeing Lake Louise myself was a bit of an understatement. Sadly, we awoke to another cloudy day, albeit a little bit warmer than it had been (i.e. I could feel my fingers). Still, being English and used to such weather we didn’t let it deter us. We arrived at Lake Louise and yes, it was stunning. As predicted, it was also thronged with lots of people so we took the advice of all the guidebooks and went for a walk. Yes, I know, but there was no off-road routes and no cycling, Dan refused to give me a piggy-back so I was left with little option! ;-)
The route we chose was upto Mirror Lake and an old tea house, originally built for the posh first tourists in 18something. 2.5miles there and 3miles back didn’t sound too bad, but it was 2.5miles all uphill! Hehe. Still, good for the bum. And again, some fantastic views.
At the top we discovered the old tea house which had turned into ‘home’ for a tribe of ground squirrels, we were good tourists and didn’t feed them but that didn’t stop them trying! The supplies for the tea house are flown in or ridden in by packhorse and the guy and his girlfriend that run it live up there during the year. That’s dedication. Needless to say the walk back down was a bit easier than the one up there, but defiantly worth it for the views. We would have liked to do more trails, but a visit to the information centre informed us the minimum number for a huge number of the trails at the moment is 4… because of the bears. We won’t be messing with that then.
We found our next campsite for the night at Lake Louise, we were planning on heading to Mosquito Creek as recommended by Griff, but by the time we realised what the time was it was 7pm! Time just flys by here. I wish we had pushed on though, Lake Louise was certainly an experience! The whole site is surrounded by 7,000volts of electric fencing and ‘texas gate’ (cattle grid) which is also electrified because of the number of bears that were cutting through the site! If you were camping outside this fence (RV’s only) you were advised not to walk around after dark on your own and if you have to walk in groups of at least 4 and make a lot of noise/carry bear spray! Lol! This all sounded very comforting until we got handed the leaflet about what to do if we found a bear inside the fencing… I didn’t get up for a wee that night.
Wednesday: Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier
Today we decided that as we’d spent 3 days in the southern section of the national park we really should start to head north towards Jasper continuing up the Icefields Parkway as sadly, AGAIN, there were no off-road trails. It just so happened on the way was the Columbia Icefield and the Athabasca Glacier.
Double WOW! I really want one of these Snocoach… 66” tyres running at 15psi… 6 wheel drive, 250bhp 4cylinder diseasel engine (sure it could be changed for a V8) apparently causing less of an impact than a stiletto heal. Imagine one of them turning up at a play-day! LOL!
Anyway, back to the touristy stuff. When you get off the bus you are only allowed to walk a few meters from the “bus-park” as there are huge crevasses in the ice, covered with a couple of inches of snow. Some of these holes go down 1000ft. Yes, there is the right number of zero’s there. The Glacier is deeper than the Empire State building is tall (excluding ariel)! By ‘eck was it cold! The wind coming down the valley was something else, the Katabatic wind is so cold there it freezes the sap in the trees further down the valley meaning they only grow on one side. But it was an amazing experience. Some parts of the ice look so clear, you can imagine seeing the bottom.
We then visited Athabasca falls.
We stopped for the night just outside Jasper in one of my favourite sites so far, whilst we were making dinner we were treated to a small herd of Elk wandering by, closely followed by a rutting stag (avoid, big antlers!) – absolutely stunning. Luckily they didn’t fancy the look of the Camel. We also met up with Jon, a BMW motorcyclist who is travelling from New York to Alaska, he’s doing some similar roads to us so maybe we’ll catch him along the way, he was a very nice chap who owns a Disco as well.
Thursday: Jasper Tramway
We got up bright and early to our first sunny day in the Canadian Rockies (it had to happen sooner or later!) so we decided to make the most of it by visiting the Jasper Tramway. The tramway takes you up Whistlers mountain from 4279ft to 7472ft, that’s my idea of hiking! At the top the ‘upper station’ is surrounded by people, seriously, when we got there there was another 250 apparently at the top.. needless to say, most being American tourists we only had to walk a couple of miles to be rid of them all ;-) Sadly, it was a couple of miles up to the summit so REALLY hard work, especially at altitudes of 7500ft +, but the view made it more than worth it:
I am missing my gym membership less than I thought.. ;-)
We spent the rest of the day carrying on up the Icefields Parkway and visited Maligne Lake, close to Jasper, the largest lake in the Canadian Rockies. Again, another beautiful view, you can’t look anywhere around here without being amazed. We pulled in at our final National Park campsite in this area, it made you feel all welcome by having a bear trap by the front entrance!
Friday: ‘Wasting’ a day for a KOA!
Well, our park passes had finally run out so we had to make our way out the national parks. Sadly, the dirty washing had also pilled up and we’d noticed a significant shortage of laudrettes in Canada. Not to worry, there’s a KOA Kampsite (I HATE THAT USE OF THE LETTER K – ARGH! …anyway…) about 15 minutes outside Jasper National Park (Hinton). We decided to therefore use today to finally get on the bikes, we’d been getting frustrated that the trail closures (due to bears) and weather had prevented any cycling so far so we were determined to get some miles in no matter what.
We drove past the KOA on the way to the track we were aiming for in Brule, just outside Jasper N Park.. only to see a ‘park full’ sign… eh?! KOA’s are never full. That was when it dawned on us, it was Friday… and Labour Day weekend, the last ‘proper’ weekend in the camping season. We quickly (as fast as a Defender allows) turned around and headed back with an idea to beg for a space for the night, but no need as they only meant full for RV’s. We booked in and headed for the trail head, which was pretty easy to find as Brule only has one road! What awaited us was a fun ride to Ogre Canyon along some seriously rutted dirt roads and sadly, some roads that had recently been ‘repaired’ with stone, lots of stone. I kinda wish I’d gone for a full suspension bike now! Lol! We followed the single track that lead to the Canyon for a while but as the trail started to disappear we started to doubt we were heading along the right path. As we’d headed through lots of berry patches and lots of warnings in the guide book about bears we didn’t want to go too far off the trail no matter how much noise we were making, sprays we were carrying and did you know? Stumpy my Stumpjumper even has his own bear bell now, they had one in red that matched perfectly! Sad eh? So regrettably we turned back around.
Dan had been getting in a mood all along the trail as due to the rain it had involved some serious puddles, now I love puddles, but was wearing Dan’s new North Face soft shell jacket as my waterproof coat is about 4 sizes to big for me now and therefore not really perfect for bike riding. Dan’s brand new jacket is now a bit muddy. Hehe. Still, I made up for it as I tried to circumnavigate one of the deeper trenches up the sideslope of the bank and my mud filled tyres slipped sideways. This gave Dan ample opportunity for laughing at me as I sat in the puddle! I was good though, and didn’t get up until he’d had time to take a photo:
I wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was still about 7.5km back to Charlie…
So, we got back, had a warm shower (the first in ages!) and treated ourselves to a Pizza from Boston Pizza in Hinton. I’m currently sitting in the laundry room having washed all our muddy gear trying to escape yet more rain.
We’ve planned the route to Alaska, starting off on the Highway 40 up to Grand Prairie then the 43 to Dawson Creek, here we start mile 1 of the Alcan Highway and head towards Watson Lake (home of the signpost forest) then pick up route 4 gravel track to Carmacks and north on route 2 towards the Dempster Highway. Here we’re going to reassess how we’re getting on and either head north on the Dempster to try to get to the Artic Circle or head into Fairbanks and head north from there to the Artic Circle before then heading south to Dinarli (sp?) and some more gravel track. For those who are interested in an update on Charlie’s progress, he’s doing well! He, like all TDi Landies has an aversion to high altitude cold starts, so looking good for Alaska then! Lol! But getting 3rd is a lot more successful than it has been, now it’s only taking a couple of minutes every morning before he’s working as he should.
Ok, so we might be signing off for a while again, but will try to update everyday if we can. I’m hoping we’ll find some motels with free wifi and a car park! Lol! Missing you all, so much so, I felt at home when I saw this in the laundrette!
Love to Jo and the kids.
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