Leaving Jasper

I decided to take the 6:30 a.m. bus from Jasper to Edmonton on a Saturday. Initially, the plan was to catch the greyhound bus from Banff to Edmonton. But after checking out the distances and practicality, it was more practical to catch it from Jasper.

Undine and Maeve were deep in sleep when I woke up. I prepped up at 4:30 and was thinking of having breakfast after carrying my stuff to the lounge. I tried to be as quiet as a mouse not to wake the people up in the dorm.

The day before I recall leaving my bag of cheap bagels in the fridge, but when I checked it, zilch. Most probably someone owned it. Haha. Can't blame them. Bagels are Y-U-M. :)

I lingered for a while before I called a cab. The lady driver was on graveyard shift, not that chatty, chewing gum and only answered "Yeap" to my questions. Yeah, driving on that shift wouldn't be a fun thing to do I'd say. But it was warm inside the van, so all good.

I got to the bus stop, the same bus stop where Cam and Josh dropped me off 5 days earlier. It was a funny feeling. Déjà vu. The train station wasn't open so I was outside in the cold, jogging in place just to warm up. The town of Jasper was quiet, dark, peaceful. The Rockies around stood still as layers of clouds creepily covered sections of it. I was there 1 hour earlier.

For a while there, I reminisced the past week, the adventures, the people, the encounters and the experiences. I didn't really want to leave Jasper. The town grew on me and I was that close to applying for a job. But because of my commitments in Winnipeg, I told myself I should fulfill that first before I make a decision what the next destination is.

By 6:25 am a greyhound bus stopped and I was glad it was on time. I waited outside as the driver unloaded the mail parcels just to be told that it wasn't the bus to Edmonton. Toink.

2 blokes got off the bus, stinking with booze, collected their bags and had a smoke. They've been working in Toronto for the past 6 months on a working holiday visa.

All 3 of us walked back to the shed coz it started to shower. The smaller guy was Malcolm and the taller one was Gary. Both from Ireland. Man, I really like that accent. :)

Malcolm apparently has a band back home but have been writing his own songs, more ballady and Ryan Adams style. We talked a bit about the Toronto music scene as well as the places I should avoid at night or even stay. He asked about Vancouver and also Jasper. So I gave them some tips. They were just there for a night in Jasper.

After a while Gary and I crossed the street trying to follow the smell of food. That was when I was told my bus was delayed. Okay, so there goes the typical Greyhound.

Gary was on the other side of the road when I saw a herd of Elks grazing in front of the Information Centre. I stopped to take some photos. When they suddenly decided to cross the main street. I hailed the 4-wheel van approaching since the first Elk was hidden from view. I watched them cross gracefully.

At that point I thought they were going to stop in front of the chains at the carpark, but they decided to go on. The First Elk smelled the chain, looked beyond it and then jumped. Voila, the discovery. Thus, the rest followed. It was such a cute and funny scene to watch at 7 am in the morning. Gary ran along and was taking a video.

The herd slowly to cross the train tracks….and when I say slowly, oh yeah, it was as if they were contemplating on it. BUT then I saw the Canada Rail starting up and moving through the tracks, so I decided to jump over the chain and try to shoo them away. Well I guess the Elks figured it out when the train started honking.

What was the funniest sight though was then the train stopped in the middle of the tracks and the elks thought, "Why not check out the spaces where we can fit and cross to the other side". OH yes they did that indeed. The 3 of us were laughing and Malcolm was capturing the whole thing in video. :)

During my last few minutes in Jasper, I was still amazed…….. I said goodbye to the guys and boarded the bus..not wanting to leave.