Meg and Greg’s Tag On Holiday

On our last day in Jasper, Meg awoke early to go looking for elk. Near our bungalow Canada Parks has placed signs warning about elk activity in the area and that the elk are very protective of their calves. Unfortunately the elk had decided to sleep in on the very day Meg got up early, so only vocal squirrels to be seen and heard.

At around 9am a snow storm formed and the whole area was quickly blanketed in a fine white cover that continued for several hours. Luckily this was one of our travelling days so we could enjoy the snow and fog rather than wishing it would clear.

Meg in snow storm

We rushed around the last of the Rocky souvenir shops, brushing off thick snow in each store and finding more Australians working behind the counter. Amazingly, we also bumped into a student of Aberfoyle Park high school that my dad taught 15 years ago.

We found out from some locals that there were two bear sightings where we were yesterday. They must have been looking for the unfrozen lakes too.

 

By midday the snow and skies mysteriously cleared and all that could be seen was wet roads and blue skies. We caught ‘The Skeena‘ train today. The Skeena travels 1160km between the Rockies and the North Pacific coast. The Skeena was a bit late today, attributed to a late Vancouver – Toronto train. This was most likely a result of the early morning snow. We boarded the train a little after 1 o’clock and headed for the coast (with an overnight stop at Prince George). We felt a little out of place, we brought the average age down to 65.

The train isn’t that fast as it moves through the Rockies. On one side we have the Rockies, on the other the Cariboo Mountains. The Skeena has a central carriage with a glass roof, similar to the Rocky Mountaineer but at about half the cost. During the trip we had 6 bear, whole pile of elk, beavers building dams and a moose sighting along the route. The driver would call out which side the bear was on and everyone would lurch to that side. Lucky we’re not on a boat. Meg was proud of herself as after an hour of sitting glued out the window, she spotted 3 bears in quick succession all on her own, and no-one else saw them (except Greg).

Skeena

We reached the highest point of the trip quite early in the trip, from here on it’s all downhill. The mountains have all changed to become smoother and more rounded rather than the sharp peaks we’ve seen in Banff and Jasper.

We received updates from the train staff as we went along. We had a strip map with all the interesting points. A 14 year old kid with a violin and a lute struck gold. He was passing through the carriage and began playing. The “oldies” began collecting money for him. I wonder if he makes a profit on every trip returning home. Pity the American tourists paid him in US dollars.

The train continues tomorrow but the violin kid got off at Prince George.

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