Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

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Jasper - Prince George (382 km. 4 hours. Elevation maximum 1,147 metres)

First of all: Hipp Hipp Hipp Hurra for 17nde Mai. Happy national day in Norway!!! We did not end up celebrating our national day this year, but instead driving across the Rocky Mountains. We did do that while looking at photos from our family's celebrations back in Norway and listening to music by Øystein Sunde and De Derre. So not all bad.

Well, the great weather in Jasper was gone this morning - and so were our mountains! The low cloud cut off everything from a few hundred meters up the slopes, but that didn't stop us going for our morning walk before setting off. The other reason for the delay was that we had to return our rented bear spray and the shop didn't open until 9, but this did give us an excuse to have another walk in Jasper.

The urban part of our walk took us past Jasper train station. Apart from an old steam engine, there were real VIA Rail trains, transport trains, and also the Rocky Mountaineer (exciting-looking but pricey Canadian holidays by train).

This time we walk out of the town towards the river to an area called Fort Jasper. We thought there might still be a fort there, but actually there were just some trails and the once called Old Fort Point Lookout didn't seem too long..... Famous last words as the start was a 90-step set of stairs - and then the ascent started! We climbed about 150m in less than 1 k with a lot of it pretty rough terrain.

At the top we were greeted with some disdainful looks from the bighorn sheep. Puny humans, they seemed to say, as we wheezed out of breath to get around them.

At this stage we were so high up that the little bit of rain we had, came down as snow! We tried to catch it on film with snowflakes landing on Hild, however it just looked like Hild was doing Tai Chi very badly.

From there on, it was generally downhill for the 3.2k return to the bottom, but some bits were quite steep descents as well. So, instead of the gentle start to the day, we did another 9 km altogether (since we had walked from the hotel) and were back by about 9.45 for our cup of tea.

We - finally - checked out just before 11 and filled up in Jasper (to make the most of the lower gas taxes in Alberta of $1.65/litre compared to $2.08/litre in Ontario and BC) and set off to Prince George. We crossed into British Columbia (BC from here on in) at Yellowhead Pass, but lack of cell coverage meant that we didn't notice the time change almost until we got to Prince George.

In several places we were reminded to carry chains unitl 30th April (check), and there were areas along the road dedicated to put your chains on ("Chain-Up") and off ("Chain-Off"). We are glad we are here in May!

Another peculiar thing we noticed is the design the use for their road-side signs: The speed signs are suspended from a frame, rather than attached to a pole like we are used to. I wonder why they chose this design? What if the wind is blowing strong?

We stopped in a park in McBride for our usual sandwich and tea lunch, where we realized that our little Trangia stove was close to 30 years old - and one of our vacuum flasks even older.

Our only other stop was at a place called "Ancient Forest" referred to as an easy board walk through some old un-logged forest. Well, it might have been an easy walk in the summer but now there was still a lot of snow especially when you first leave the car park so we got out the boots again (who were actually looking forward to a bit of a rest, truth to tell) and off we slogged. There was a nice board walk - with roofing tiles to make it non-slip, but it was quite narrow and with so much snow it was quite tricky and we were grateful for earlier walkers who had slipped off the boards as they kept us on track by avoiding the deep holes in the snow!

But the stress was worth it. These are really big, old cedar trees - some estimated to be over a thousand years old. You can't really date an old cedar because the middle rots away even while the tree is quite healthy, but when they are as big as this, you know they have been around for a while.

There were also some lovely yellow flowers that Hild had spotted in the forest even before we stopped. There were lots of these in places and we were keen to find out what they were called - only to find they are referred to as "skunk cabbage"! Apparently, not only do they smell really bad if you crush the leaves they are also pretty toxic. Ho hum, that's life I guess.

We arrived at our hotel at about 4 pm (Pacific daylight time now) and Hild has done a great job finding this one as not only do we have a sofa and desk, we also have a balcony facing the setting sun - where we are sitting right now catching up with our notes.

May/June 2022

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