Jasper

 

Suddenly our wild life watch has its first success. A moose with a baby appears on the road ahead it is being spooked by rather inconsiderate drivers but we get a good clear view. Soon after we are seeing bears thick and fast. At least 5 and maybe 6, they are an amazing sight. Wyatt informs us that the increasing temperature will send the bears to the higher slopes and a week later we may not see any. Our final stop is below Mount Robson the highest peak in the Rockies. The top is appropriately cloud covered. Migrating humming birds feed on sugar water provided by the café. Jasper in named after yet another railway pioneer, our homework is to discover what a Lobstick is?
We fancy a pizza but the topping combinations are a bit strange so settle for Caesar Salad and juicy steak. The house wine is French? VIN du pays d'Orange. I window shop the gift sellers while Meg use the 'Loo and I buy an Alberta Flag, adding a new dimension to flag collecting. Meg counters by buying the biggest moose head yet on the pretext that the tone of our entrance hall needs lowering.
On the way to Malign Canyon next morning, Wyatt checks to see if we still know the length of highway 1. Derek complains that 4867miles in now occupying the area of his brain he was reserving to use learning how to iron. At the canyon Adrienne instructs us to turn left at the junction in the paths. We shuffle behind a crowd to the bridge. They have given us an hour which allows plenty of time for eating and shopping. As neither interest us Meg and I make a rebellious right turn. The canyon is spectacular, 6'wide and 100' deep. After 20 minutes we retrace our steps to the now empty bridge and enjoy the official 10 minute walk in solitude. Meg still has time to buy another moose for our Christmas tree.
A Lobstick is a trail marker made by cutting all the lower branches off a pine tree. The top branches are then cut to leave the appropriate message, "Safe river crossing" "dangerous natives" etc.
We are not doing anything as like as well on wild animals. One mule eared deer, but the scenery is stunning. Medicine Lake is turquoise. It fills with snow melt once the subterranean channels are full. We see dicos accurately described as tennis balls with ears. Malign lake is as beautiful as Medicine Lake was. We all shun the lake cruise, most shop and eat and shop while Meg and I use the hour to walk the lake shore and watch yellow fronted finches. We meet a couple of Italians and a lot of mosquitos.We purchase neither flags nor moose.
The white water raft ride is quite different from our Truckee river ride at Lake Tahoe. Here there is much more and faster flowing water but far fewer obstacles. There we were on our own; here we have a professional oarsman who does his best to get us wet. It is a very pleasant to see the mountains from a different viewpoint and we get to see osprey and mergansers. We all fall for the expensive group rafting photo, sixteen of us went altogether. We return to the hotel for a swim then swig the gammay-noir before walking into Jasper for the evening. After a meal in the Jasper Inn we join some of the group for drinks.

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