Fallin' In Love with Jasper

Yeah, the moment the greyhound lady told me I missed the bus for Edmonton, I felt lost. So I lingered around the train station and sulked for a while, wallowed in my emotions and tried to rationalize my thinking. Good thing the station only had me and 3 more people in it that morning. I took a deep breath and decided.

This was a sign that I should still stay in Jasper. Okay Fine. Signs, Reasons….i Thought..Whatever.

I called a cab and asked to be dropped off at the Hostel in the Maligne Canyon. The cab drivers name was Brandon, a very cheerful guy from Toronto who's been lovin' Jasper and been playing in a local band too. His weakness? Ice Cream! :) woot! My happy food!

We got there just to be greeted by an eerie silence and wind blowing through the empty cavities of the cabins. He decided to take me instead to HI Jasper-Tramway. I didn't know what to expect of the place.

I found Donny at front desk, and told him I paid back in the HI wilderness hostel for 2 more nights (till Thursday), so he said that was fine and would just ring the guy there. I checked in around 10 am.

I got bed 12, and it was 1 big female dorm room for everybody. I met Mercedes (Merc), a geologist originally from Winnipeg but was looking for a job anywhere in the B.C. area. Talking to her was a breathe of fresh air and she sort of put me back into perspective about a lot of things. And she also told me there are sometimes Seasons for a reason….or maybe the reason could be forever. There was a certain maturity to her and how she perceived things. She also told me that if I'm traveling a lot, I should learn not to be attached to a place. But yeah, easier said than done.

I slept the whole afternoon as I felt I had to recharge before I walk anywhere. Donny said there were sightings of grizzlies already around the area...but I was just too tired. I dozed off after lunch.

At 5 pm I woke up and because the day was really pretty, Merc suggested I walk up the tramway. The gondola itself was closed for the season, but anyone can explore the tramway itself except the inside of the building. I went up there, a 15 minute walk and checked out the view. Convinced it was going to be a beautiful sunset, I went back to the hostel and got my camera . I stayed for a while and enjoyed the view until 8:30. When I got back to the hostel, Merc was a little bit worried, thinking I was taking too long.

That night 2 girls from Germany arrived, Maike and Theresa along with their friend Dan. They've been traveling around and also Maike  worked up at the skifields. We exchanged some interesting stories and perspective about Canadian culture.

Exploring Jasper

Merc was heading off to Banff and offered me a ride to town. She knew I was going out to walk some trails. Blanche, a girl from France, also joined us.

I had quick short breakfast in town before I studied the trail map. I thought of checking the Old Fort point trail so headed that way. From far away I saw Blanche looking lost. At first I thought she was looking for the toilet (which I just passed by), but then she explained to me she couldn't find the start of her trail. She was looking for trail 7 and 4a, which was around Lake Beauvert. We decided to discover it together.

The trail was a little bit icy i.e. slippery walks . I was a little bit scared for Blanche coz she had a slip the day before.  The walk itself followed the Athabascan River. With the blue skies above, it was perfect for photography of reflections and contrasts. We eventually reached track 4a and found ourselves in the premises of Jasper Lodge. It had a beautiful view of Lake Beauvert where the early migrants of the Canadian Geese flocked around. I chose a spot and took some photos too. When we got to the front of the lodge, we found Maike, Theresa and Dan sun bathing. We stopped for a while and had a chat with them and from there decided to walk back to the start of the trail.

Blanche and I chose to go back to trail 7 and the others went back to the carpark. On the way , we stopped for lunch and sat beside the Athabascan River. As we found ourselves to the bridge, I noticed a staircase going up a boulder beside the bridge itself. We realized that was trail 1. So we decided to go up and check it out. Up , up and away we got until we saw horned sheeps. The male sheeps look at us and we got scared so decided to retrack our steps. But then a couple, by the name of Oscar and Lily were also going up. Oscar was so used to them that we just followed him until we got close enough to take photos. We then decided to get to the top of the track where we had 360degree view of the town of Jasper amidst the amazing wilderness of this bountiful National Park.

To end the day of walking, Blanche and I decided to go a coffee shop coz she was craving for something sweet. I decided to just have a small bowl of soup.

It was her last night at the hostel. I cooked dinner and shared my meal with her. We exchanged details and I told her I'd let her know if I ever get to France.

We also met Undine from Germany. She just arrived that day and had bad food poisoning. It was good she felt well after a long day's rest.

Out and About in Jasper

I woke up and had breakfast. I was thinking of having a rest day but then decided to tag along with Maike and the group as they checked out the Five Lakes. It was a little bit cloudy that day, but the walk was enough to keep us warm. The walk was a little bit challenging with the slippery track at a certain incline. Part of the Five Lakes were still frozen, but there were still good photo stops. We came across a portion of the walk where we saw 2 skulls and signs of a battle (for lunch/dinner). We took photos while Theresa (Taz) walked away from the scene. Around the walk were a few Prairie dogs and I found a quiet deer hiding beside the trees watching us as we walked pass by. The guys stopped to take photos of a few butterflies too.

When on the road they had me listen to a few songs from Germany and explained to me the lyrics. Of course we also had Ben Howard tunes in the background :)

We then moved on to the Pyramid Lake. Instead of walking the whole trail, we parked at the bridge and cross to Pyramid Island. It was so pretty. At the end of island was a lovely vantage point facing Pyramid Mountain. The sun was shining on it that afternoon and Mother nature designed it with a fallen tree that provided us a good photo shoot scene of us sitting there and lazing under the sun. We took a few wacky photos too :)

We had lunch in town  and I told them to check out trail 1, with the hope the horned sheeps would be there. We were huffing and puffing when we got up there. But I'm sure it was all worth it for them. On my return there, I still loved the views. I truly loved Jasper and its ruggedness :)

That night I cooked some veggies and shared it with the girls. It was another great day in  Jasper.

Last day in Jasper

The girls and Dan dropped me off in town. I had to do a few more errands and send the postcard before I left. I met a couple who owned the shop. They had a few problems with the xerox machine so I stayed for a while. Unfortunately, they didn't know the password to their config file. I had to go.

As I got back to the hostel, Amman was there. He was feeling a little bit bored and down, anxious to start his job soon. I shared my ice cream and donuts with him, that made him happy so far. HE said that was the highlight of his day. I say he knows what to say :D

I decided to go out coz it was warm enough for me. I took out Luna and started playing some tunes and writing a new one too with the title Livin' the Moment.

Beth, one of the HI crew had a fleeting chat with me and told me so many things that had me thinking about my music. It's funny how people actually leave a mark in your memory, and maybe at some point in this journey I'll work on that suggestion.

That night, I shared 1 bottle of beer with Maeve and had a chat with Undine as well. We talked about working in the farm, about the different cultures we've encountered, what we thought about the craziness of some teenagers and so many other stuff.