Final trip trivia

We traveled 4117 miles, from our house, to our house.

We saw 8 species of mammal: Elk, Bighorn sheep, Mountain goat, Golden-mantled Ground squirrel, Least chipmunk, Coyote, Mule deer, Muskrat. (I guess we saw 12 if you count the cows, horses, sheep and goats.)

We saw 82 species of birds (83, if you count starlings - and most of you know what I think about those vermin!). If you'd like to see the bird list, let me know and I'll email it to you.

For the entire trip, during the day, the temperature got below 80° only 2 times, both at the Columbia Icefield.

Our daytime high was 102° at 7PM in Redding the day we drove home.

Our daytime low was 42° at the Athabasca Glacier.

It rained on us on I-5 near the Sacramento NWR the day we left, Sept. 12.

It cost us an average of $42 to fill the gas tank on our car each time we did that. Remember, for several of those fills, we were paying Canadian dollars. I thought that was actually pretty good. My car's tank holds a little over 20 gallons.

Gas cost an average of $1.05 per liter - and a liter is about equal to a quart, meaning gas was about $4.20 per gallon.

We visited 7 parks, refuges, and natural areas: Yoho National Park, Banff NP, Jasper NP, Malheur NWR, Sacramento NWR, Tulelake NWR, and John Day Fossil Beds Natural Area.

It was a great trip, made more fun by knowing that many of my family and friends were able to keep up with and share in the adventures we were having. The places we visited were all so beautiful and different. I may become a car trip convert! Thanks for reading this blog. I hope you've found it interesting and that maybe you learned a little something or other about our earth and its varied inhabitants. If you have any questions or comments I'm most interested to hear them. I have lots of brochures and other info I'd love to share. Until the next adventure, BYE!

Trivia bits

This bit needs a photo, plus the next few will deal with this glacier, the Athabasca glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. I made a red line in the photo. That line marks the beginning of what's called the first step of this glacier. You can see that there's at least one more 'step' behind the one I marked. Guess how far away that first step is from me, the photo taker (I did not use the telephoto function in my little camera). OK, have your guess in your mind? I'll tell you mine - and I was there! I guessed 100 yards. The guide told us it is 1 kilometer away. For those who are metrically challenged, that's over 1/2 mile away - 0.6 mile to be exact! (To get the full impact of the size of this glacier, think about each of the next sentences for a couple of seconds before reading the next one.) The entire glacier is 2.5 square miles in area. The glacier is 3.75 miles long. At its deepest, the glacier is 300 meters (1,000 feet) deep. If the Eiffel Tower were buried at the deepest part of the glacier, the people standing on the ice would be able to touch the very tip of the Tower. The place were I was standing when I took the photo is moving forward at a speed of 25 meters (80 feet) per year. I did not feel it. This is truly one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. Gave me lots of things to think about!

The rest of the trivia bits will pertain to our trip and will be in the next, and last, post.

End of the trip

Well, this trip has now come to an end. We had so many exciting things happen, it was definitely a great vacation. Banff and Jasper are both beautiful, in very different ways. I think I liked Jasper better - our trip to see the Athabasca glacier was so interesting and educational. It gave me a slightly better understanding of the very slow pace at which most of the earth's events happen. We humans, who live here for such a short time, cannot possibly comprehend the millions and millions of years that have brought such enormous things as mountains and glaciers to their present existence. The sense of wonder at seeing rutting elk, glaciers, 503 million year old fossils, and mountains of such majesty and strength will, I hope, never leave Ivan or me.

In my last post, I'll give you some bits of trivia about our trip - all are absolutely true. It was a wonderful trip and I would recommend highly visits to Yoho, Banff, and Jasper National Parks in British Columbia and Alberta Canada.

Day 15 - Garter snake

This is the Garter snake that had found lunch nirvana. It was completely at home in the water, even going under the surface to fish and/or to hide. Its coloration was so lovely and it moved so smoothly. I could have watched it for a long time!

Day 15 - Virginia rail photo

This is a photo of a Virginia rail. I lifted it from Stephen Fischer's Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_fischer/3888447983/

I tried to find a photo that would show how small these birds are. I guess if I had to find a commonly known bird with which to compare it, I'd pick the Scrub jay. It's actually a bit smaller than a Scrub jay! This is a beautiful photo of a lovely bird.

Day 15 - More at Tulelake

We had a couple of mini-adventures while at Tulelake. When we first started driving on the dirt road that takes you all over the refuge, we entered at a section where the water was bordered by the paved road and by the dirt road of the car path. (I've made a brown circle around the place on the map.) There was a log across the immediate corner there and, on this log was sitting a bird I couldn't immediately identify. It was sitting out in the open and I just couldn't figure out what it was. As I stared at it, a small movement in the corner of the pond caught my eye. The log on which the unknown bird was sitting had formed a trap for hundreds of really tiny fish, some of which were leaping out of the water, all of which were milling around in seemingly frantic movement. The odd movement that had caught my eye was a garter snake which had discovered LUNCH! It was in the water catching many of the little fish. We couldn't figure out what to watch! Ivan took a couple of photos of the snake while I grabbed the bird book and was mortified to realize that the bird on the log, right out in the open and preening, was a Virginia rail! Rails are pretty secretive and this one was in no hurry to resume that lifestyle! It sat for several minutes while Ivan was photographing the snake, not 30' away from it. It was the best view I've ever had of this rail! (FYI - Ivan is back in end-of-vacation mode and hasn't give me his photos yet, but I'll get them before too much longer and will post them.)

Day 15 - TULELAKE NWR!!

For many late fall seasons, when we lived in San Francisco, Ivan and I would pack up our blue VW bug and head to Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge for the impressive spectacle of the fall migration of waterfowl. We were always astonished at the numbers of ducks, geese and swans there. A ranger once told us that we were looking at over a million Snow geese, several hundred thousand White-fronted geese, many hundreds of Tundra swans and uncounted thousands of several duck species. It was an awesome spectacle. As the years progressed we gradually stopped going up there, but, when I saw we'd be in the vicinity with this trip, I made sure we'd go. Yesterday was that day!

I have to tell you that we were a bit early for the full migration - we used to go in late October, even into November. There were no Snow geese, but we saw thousands of various ducks and 2 species of goose. Even saw several of my favorite Buffleheads, although we saw only females.

Another bird in great abundance was one I hadn't seen in many years, the Western grebe. Again, for the non-birders, this is a very elegant waterbird. The bird is about the size of a Mallard, but has a long thin neck, dull yellow bill and a bright red eye. These beautiful birds are renown for their exotic mating/courting/pair bonding dance. (This was the event I thought I'd never see!) This dance is generally begun with the male and female bobbing their heads to each other, then they swim side by side, bobbing heads, and then the most fabulous thing happens. Simultaneously they rise up in the water and run together across the water in perfect unison. The dance ends with each bird entering the water head first and disappearing from view for a few seconds. As I noted before, it happened so fast, neither Ivan nor I was able to get any sort of image of it. I went to YouTube and found a 23-second video which shows exactly what we saw. This is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GOWRK5ic7E. Ivan and I were speechless after we saw this! It was thrilling!

Day 15 - Lake Abert

As we drove along Hwy 395, it began climbing into some mountains and soon we could see a vast expanse of white land, a dry alkali lake. This was the Lake Abert of the previous map. The road was high above the area and we drove and drove and drove with the whiteness always below us and to the right. At one point I said that I thought there was some actual water in the lake, but there was only a thin shoulder to this road and Ivan, who was driving, didn't want to do a 'Nora' and pull half-way onto the shoulder and remain half-way on the road! He did find a pull-out area and we were astonished to see hundreds of waterfowl on this possibly caustic lake. We set up the scope and started counting the species: Avocet, Shoveler, Black-necked stilt, Killdeer, and then we started hearing a rapid series of single-note calls. The calls were clearly coming from closer than the level of the lake, but we couldn't figure out who was doing it. Then we saw the caller - a Loggerhead shrike! It was pretty far below us, too far for a good photo, but as we watched, it treated us to a fly-catching demonstration, launching itself into the air with a flourish of black, grey and white. It caught some unfortunate creature and landed on another shrub, again too far to photograph.

For the non-birders in the group, a Loggerhead shrike is a robin-sized bird that looks a bit like a robber with a black 'mask' across its eyes. It's a predator of arthropods, and medium-sized insects like grasshoppers. If you look closely at the photo, which I took from the web, you'll see that it has a hooked beak. It catches its prey, then holds the prey in its mouth as it flies somewhere where it can impale the creature on some sort of spike (often accomplishing this by using barbed wire fence spikes), and then it can eat the critter. This is a beautiful bird and we were thrilled to see it.

Day 15 - Dry alkali lake

The countryside in eastern Oregon amazed and confounded me. This part of the state is like the eastern side of the Sierra - dry and parched, receiving almost no rainfall each year. There were thousands of acres of sagebrush, absolutely no trees, hot sun unobstructed by any clouds. Very Nevada-ish. These 2 shots show a dry alkali lake (not Lake Abert) and general scenery just south and west of Burns.

Day 15 - Highway 395

When we moved to Fair Oaks from Morgantown WV, we drove on Highway 50 for a good part of the way. We'd often see road signs that read "US Highway 50 - The Loneliest Road in the World." I have news for whomever declared that. We've found a lonelier one!

Day 15 - Out of Burns

We stayed for 2 nights at the Sage Country Inn B&B in Burns Oregon and absolutely loved the place. The innkeepers, Corrina and Mike, are a delight and, even though they were having a new roof installed while we were there, it didn't detract from the fun we had. The breakfasts featured veggies from Corrina's garden and some great conversation. Should you find yourself in the Burns area, we highly recommend this place. Reasonable rates and Mike is sure to keep you laughing.

The map above shows our route out of Burns. This is something new that I've tried. I found a map at Google, printed it, drew on it, and scanned it into my computer. The red scrawl is mine - I hope you can see what I'm trying to show!

Day 16 - Back in Familiar territory

Greetings from East Podunk, officially and more affectionately known as Fair Oaks California. Ivan and I are home after an outstanding and delightful day yesterday. As I indicated, we decided to throw caution to the winds and drive all the way home from Burns Oregon - a distance, at least the way we went, of 623 miles. We had about a half dozen adventures yesterday, at least one was heart-stopping and a big thrill for me. It was something I thought I'd never see and happened so fast, neither Ivan nor I caught it on camera. I'm going to try and see if I can find a short clip on YouTube so you can see what I'm talking about. First I want to list the final posts that will detail our last day on our vacation trip.

First adventure - an unexpected discovery of a huge (get that thesaurus out again!) alkali lake in central Oregon which was mostly dry, but which had what seemed to be about a 6" depth of about 100 acres of water way below the highway we were on, but close to our road (does that make sense?).

Second adventure = TULELAKE NWR! I may have a couple of posts about this place which holds the highest place in my heart of places I absolutely love. We had about 4 adventures here, one of which is the amazing thing to which I alluded above.

Well, I guess that wasn't exactly dozens of exciting things to report, but I think you'll like the next few posts. First I have to see if I can find a quick video of the event we witnessed. BRB.

Another Note from Nora

Ivan and I have been thinking about how we're going to wrap this trip up and we've decided to alter our plans for the trip home. We were to stay in Klamath Falls, Oregon tomorrow night, but we've decided that we want to see Tulelake NWR, even if it's just for a couple of hours. Of course I'll try to keep up with the blog and will post as many of Ivan's fabulous photos as I can. Tulelake is somewhat near to Klamath Falls, but it would mean backtracking quite a bit. Anyway, don't be surprised if the next post(s) come(s) from East Podunk, California. It's still us - we're having a great time and Sunday is approaching waaaaay too fast!

Day 14 - Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Post #3)

Now I'm not trying to be funny with these 2 photos, but this mammal was the first mammal we saw in the refuge. Cattle ranchers apparently allow their animals to graze in the refuge when there are no migratory waterfowl to disturb. These animals were on a dirt road and seemed to think that they had the right-of-way, which, I guess, they did. As we approached, most seemed reluctant to head off the road and into the dried cattails and other unknown deceased water plants. The first to go was the dark brown cow in the top photo. The last was the calf, who had very appealing eyes, the reason I took her photo! You can see my arm and the green of my t-shirt in the rear-view mirror at the bottom of the photo. BTW, I was amazed to see that the high daytime temperature today, in the refuge, was 93°!

Day 14 - Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (Post #2)

(Sorry about the delay - Ivan and I went for supper, for the second night in a row, to a very good Mexican restaurant within walking distance of our B&B.)

As promised, I have 3 photos to show you of Malheur wildlife, as we saw it. The first photo is of a coyote which happened to cross the road quite far in front of us. It looked to be in tip-top health with a gorgeous coat and bright eyes. Ivan took the photo once we caught up with the animal.

Day 14 - Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Friday, Sept. 25

We spent most of the day today at, or heading to, Malheur NWR, a really huge refuge that hosts millions of waterfowl on its lakes and grasslands. Now, let me ask, how many of you have ever been to a wildlife refuge? Let's see a show of hands. OK, I see that most of you have been to such a place. The first type of ecosystem you see there is water, right? Well, this NWR is about 95% bone dry right now. Everyone we talked to around here has asked us why we came in the fall, that the spring is the time to see the zillions of waterbirds. I was astonished! Not 250 miles from here is Tulelake NWR which Ivan and I used to visit every fall for many years and it has, literally, millions of Snow geese, White-fronted geese, hundreds of Tundra swans and thousands of various ducks in the fall. Ivan and I have been trying to figure out why this one is dry in the fall, wet in spring and Tulelake is just the opposite. If anyone out there knows, please let me know! Anyway, we did see many wonderful birds here, but most were too far away for photographing. Let me tell you though, we did see Sandhill cranes! Over 100 of the beauties! In fact, we were the ones who told the refuge folks where the cranes were hanging out! That sighting, for me, made the trip to the refuge a big plus.

As you might imagine, there are also mammals in this refuge. I have photos of 2 of the mammals. Check the next 2 posts.

Day 13 - Sept. 24 Schwabs online

We have successfully and happily arrived at the Sage Country Inn here in Burns. I asked our innkeeper, Mike, to take our photo so you can see us actually writing our online stuff. Tomorrow we'll visit the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the hopes of seeing lots of migratory birds. Hopefully, we'll get some good photos and we'll have some stories worth telling and I'll add those to the blog tomorrow. (It sure is nice to be caught up!)

Day 13 - Sept. 24 Smoky drive

I mentioned earlier that we were driving from Pendleton to Burns on Hwy 395. What I neglected to say is that we were skirting two of the many forest fires plaguing Oregon right now. These 2 fires were burning to the east of us and the air through which we drove was thick with smoke. At times it was actually a bit unnerving, but we passed several US Forest Service folks as well as some from ODOT and none of them seemed too panicky so we forged on. I took 2 photos of the smoke from the car and have posted them here.

Day 12 - Oroville WA to Pendleton OR

This day we left our hosts, Sam Glass and his partner, Donna, at the Inn at Molson and headed south to Pendleton. We did have a wonderful bird sighting, but before I describe that, I want to post a couple of photos of the Inn. This is a home which Sam built himself, something he had never done before and which turned into one of the most magnificent homes I've ever seen. Sam 'scavenged' some of the wood he used from buildings which were to be demolished, & he incorporated interesting materials into each room. Ivan took a couple of photos and I'll try to describe them once I see how this website is going to display them!

OK, the top photo is of Sam in the kitchen. The next one down is of the dining room and I should tell you that he made the table and it's very beautiful and sturdy. The bottom photo is of the most interesting fireplace anywhere. It has a really large firebox that, he said, draws so well that he can get a nice fire going in seconds and the entire house is heated by this device. It was a warm evening when we arrived there so we didn't get a sample of what the fireplace could do, but I just liked looking at it!

Now, the rest of this has nothing to do with the Inn, but with our wonderful sighting after we left. We had not been gone from the house even an hour when I shouted to Ivan to pull off the road onto a driveway. We were in open country with a couple of low hills sort of close to the road. In the sky, circling above one of these very close hills were several large birds which I originally thought might be Canada geese, but I thought they were pretty big. When I realized what they were, I counted them - 40-50 Sandhill Cranes - and rolled down my window and shouted to them, "See you in February in Lodi!!" I regret to say that we have no photos of these fabulous birds. Doggie Divas, I knew you would love this story!

Day 13 (How is this possible?)

Greetings from Burns Oregon, a medium-sized town situated on US Hwy 395 about 220 miles south of Pendleton. Now, in California, 220 miles would take about 3-4 hours, but Ivan and I took a 60+ mile detour to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (making our total mileage for the day 284). We went to the Visitor Center, watched an 18-minute movie, noodled around the displays, talked with the ranger, had lunch, stared at the stark but incredibly productive - in terms of fossils - landscape. One thing we did not do was we didn't take any photos! This place is really something. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit. The road, 395, is very pretty, but is up and down, crossing numerous mountain passes, the highest of which was 5101 feet! It's also only 2 lanes for most of the drive (that's if you're coming south on it!), but I really enjoyed it. And I really liked visiting this fossil center.

In the next post, I'm going to describe yesterday - Day 12 - which I haven't done yet and on which a wonderful bird was seen!

Day 11 - Sept. 22 Drivingdrivingdrivingdriving

We drove a huge distance on this day. We went from Kelowna to Oroville (WA). We had 2 encounters with birds that gave us much pleasure and made the drive worthwhile. We saw a Bald eagle sitting in a tree next to the road and above a small stream. No photos, but we liked seeing it. Then, a few miles down the road, Ivan pulled over to let some vehicles pass us and we saw 7 Ruffed grouse eating weed seeds right next to the road and in front of our car!! They weren't bothered by big trucks roaring by or by us opening the door of the car for a better look. Two very cool birds on a rather testy day of driving.

It's now 10PM and I'm getting pretty tired. I have some neat stories about the Inn at Molson and about what we saw today. My sister Doggie Divas will like the story from today - it's about a bird that we know well! That'll have to wait for tomorrow!

Day 10 - Sept. 21 - Big bull elk #3

This is our Hero announcing to the world, to his females and, in particular, to the offending other bull, that these ladies belong to him and that no one should even toy with the notion of stealing away one of them. He was an awesome, magnificent animal. What a privilege to witness that encounter.

Day 10 - Sept. 21 - Big bull elk #2

This is what an enraged bull elk looks like just before he charges at the source of his agitation.

Day 10 - Sept. 21 - Big bull elk

This was taken before the big bull began bugling and working himself into a rage over the bold younger bull.

Day 10 - Sept. 21 - Big driving day

What I am about to describe to you is absolutely true - it's something neither Ivan nor I has seen before and probably will never see again. We were captivated by the whole unfolding of events. I have a couple of photos, but want you to know what you're looking at so, let me describe the scene.

We departed our lodgings at Pocahontas early because we were to drive from there to Kelowna (BC) - a huge drive. We had been on the road only a short time when we spotted a couple of elk crossing the road. Cars were pulling over because there were 7 females and one huge bull - and the bull was very agitated. We then saw why. Apparently, another younger bull had attempted to seduce away one (or more) of the ladies in the big bull's harem - something the Aussies would describe as pretty cheeky. Odd thing was, the younger bull wasn't backing down right away and this seemed to be infuriating the big bull. There were a couple more road crossings and, at one point, the younger bull crossed the road to the area where the big bull was checking his ladies and rounding them up, seemingly to keep better control of them. The big bull saw him and started bellowing the odd, unearthly shriek these animals make. The big guy threw his head back and ran full tilt at the other bull, who had his back turned. When the big guy was about 15' from him, the younger bull saw him and booked it out of there. The big bull began bugling again and within 10 minutes, all was peaceful and calm and all the elk had disappeared into the undergrowth. I think I went 15 minutes without taking a breath! It was one of the most dramatic things I've ever witnessed while watching wildlife. Two photos with brief descriptions to follow.

Forgot about this one!

OK, this is still from Sept. 20. We also saw, standing right on the shoulder of the road, a male Bighorn Sheep. He was licking salt from the road surface - apparently all the animals do this because their diet is very low in the nutrients contained in the road salt. (Ivan took this photo.)

Day 9 - Last post of the day

As we drove past the town of Jasper, we saw this bull elk resting with his 9 females in a field next to the road. Lots of people were watching him - he had 14 points on his antlers! - and we joined them. I took this photo with my little camera.

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #7) more Athabasca Falls scenery

During the night, it had snowed (!) at this elevation, leaving a rather substantial 'dusting' of beautiful white powder on the mountain tops and on the glaciers. I liked the juxtaposition of the mountain and the falls in this photo.

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #6) Athabasca Falls

If you ever decide to visit this park, one sight you must not miss (well, one of several, but it's a great one) is Athabasca Falls. This is a place where the wide and gently flowing Athabasca River is rather suddenly compressed between 2 massive rock walls, resulting in a waterfall of impressive and deadly beauty. In 2002 a 21-year-old man climbed over the protective barrier and fell to his death in these falls. As with so many other attempts to describe the features of Jasper National Park, words fail me in my efforts. These falls are jaw-dropping, mesmerizing, frightening, etc. (Note: the photo on the top is the narrow channel into which the water in the photo on the bottom flows.) (Really bad sentence - I apologize!)

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #5)

Our drive back to our hotel from the Icefield Parkway took 60 minutes and we had to add several minutes to that travel time because the Ministry of Transport was blasting overhanging rock on a relatively small section of the highway. We had to wait for the blasting the previous day and so we were familiar with the drill. Turn off the engine and get out of your car, walk to the edge of the road and look at the beautiful river flowing about 500' below us! I decided to take photos of the line in front of us (we were car #18) and of the folks behind us (didn't count those cars). Some of the people were fairly upset at the delay, but it was better than having a huge slab of rock tumble down onto your car!

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #4)

We did the touristy thing and had one of the people on our bus take our photo in front of the thing just before we went back to the Icefield Center. Note, if you can, the size of the tires on these buses. They are about 4 1/2 feet in diameter and are about 3' wide! The driver said the tires are inflated to about 15 psi and the vehicle has a top speed of 18 mph. Truly one of the oddest vehicles I've ever ridden in.

Almost forgot to say that, in spite of the bright sunshine, it was quite chilly on that glacier! Like a dope, I had left our hotel with my long shorts on, forgetting to bring anything with more appropriate warmth. I was the only one so dressed!

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #3)

Once down the gravel path (which, btw, was put there by this glacier as it receded), our bus went to the "turn around" place, which is a circle about 100' in diameter, to which all the buses and people outside them are restricted. We could walk around there, take photos and just stare in awe at this incredible glacier. It was a very impressive and humbling experience to stand in the presence of such a massive amount of snow and ice.

The photo on the bottom shows a cap of one of the glacier. We were pretty far from the thing and I don't know exactly how deep that snow is, but it's probably in the range of, believe it or not, 100'. The top photo is of a "cup" glacier which is a glacier that, as it moves, scoops out a cup-like shape in the mountains supporting it. I liked this one the best because it showed the most variety of the colors reflected by the different types of snow/ice in the glacier.

I came away from this experience wanting to learn a lot more about these formations and their effect on weather and the environment.

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #2)

September 20 - Ivan and I drove back on the Icefield Parkway to the Icefield Center. This is a place where you can sign on to take a bus to a location near the glacier and board a sort-of bus which takes you to the glacier. This Glacier Bus actually goes out onto the Athabasca glacier. You can walk on the glacier and learn about what these ice structures are composed of, what effects they are having on the environment, how they are 'behaving' under conditions of global warming, etc. This was fascinating and very educational. The photo shows the gravel road our Glacier bus drove on. There are 3 buses in the photo ahead of ours. The pitch of this road was breathtaking, to put it mildly! 

We're back online!

Greetings from Pendleton Oregon! Yes, R&A, we're here in your old hometown! We somewhat naively thought we'd be able to be online while at our last accommodation, the Inn at Molson. This was the most interesting and comfy place I think I've ever stayed! The innkeeper, a charming and delightful man named Sam Glass, built the place himself over a period of 10 years. He and his partner, Donna, were simply the best hosts ever! I think it's entirely possible that Sam & Donna are actually family members of ours. We had a fabulous time there. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself! I need to tell you about the incredible adventure Ivan and I had the morning we left Jasper National Park. Remember, we were staying, in essence, at the northeast entrance of the park, about as far away from everything in the park as you could get. OK, I'm getting ahead of myself again! Next post will take up where I left off. We had some astonishing and fascinating adventures the past couple of days. Check out the next couple of posts.

Message of Great Importance!

Ivan and I are sitting in the internet area of the Pocahontas cabins having extreme difficulty getting internet stuff done. I have many photos from our amazing day at the Columbia Glacier to post, but, in spite of my decision not to grow old, I'm afraid I'll be old and grey by the time all get published. Hence, I'm signing off for today - and maybe for tomorrow as well. You see, tomorrow, we drive from Pocahontas, 25 miles east of Jasper, to Kelowna, British Columbia, some 420 miles away. This will be done on mostly 2-lane roads and about half in the western area of these Rockies. In other words, we'll be really tired and cranky by the time we get to Kelowna! Look for more posts on Tuesday - I promise!

Day 9 - in Jasper (Post #1)

I always forget this little, and somewhat annoying, fact about life in Canada. The folks in BC have the right idea - they ignore the rule! In Canada, all printed stuff must be in English and in French. This means street signs, literature, pamphlets, etc. I had actually forgotten this when I saw this sign at the Icefield Center located at the Columbia Glacier. I wondered why they were talking about their bears when I realized that the French word for 'bear' is (or must be) 'our.' I thought it lent the correct tone of absurdity to this rule of law!

Day 8 - Accommodations (Post #5)

This is our humble abode for the next 2 nights. Cabin #117 at the Pocahontas Cabins in Pocahontas, Alberta, at the eastern boundary of Jasper NP. Note especially the huge hanging basket of flowers on our porch. These baskets have been everywhere - on lampposts, mailboxes, window sills. All are lovely and a pleasure to see. I wonder how they'd look if they had renegade squirrels looking for good spots to bury acorns . . .?

Day 8 - More mountains (Post #4)

This is an example of what we see as we drive from place to place. Generally only a few cars and mountains, mountains, mountains. Some look rounded and weathered, some look like you'd cut yourself if you reached the top. Some have glaciers, some are bare rock. All are big, enormous, get that thesaurus! This is one of the most amazing and breathtaking places I've ever seen.

Day 8 - Prescribed burn (Post #3)

The southern forests of this park (meaning it's happening mostly in Banff) are succumbing to a natural enemy which, in normal times, the pines can defeat. It's the Pine Bark Beetle. This little creature bores its way into a pine tree (nearby firs/cedars/etc. are unaffected) causing the pine to secrete large amounts of sap to expel the offender. The beetle carries with it a bit of fungus which is normally killed during the very cold winters here. For the past several years, winters have been very mild so the beetle and fungus have survived. These set up a system inside the tree which shuts off the normal water transport system of the tree and the tree dies. Huge swaths of dead trees are plainly visible as you look at the thousands of acres of evergreens here. As one method of dealing with this terrible problem, the Parks department has decided to burn selected areas to prevent the spread of this beetle. This photo shows a prescribed burn which was going on as we passed by. It's not a dramatic photo, but you can see the bits of forest that are dying due to this pest.

Day 8 - Anonymous waterfall (Post #2)

I think there are more waterfalls here than in any other place on this earth! Some are huge and mighty, some are very small and, seemingly, insignificant. This waterfall was one of the latter. There were no road signs announcing its proximity, no parking places to aid in the viewing, no attention whatsoever. We saw a couple carrying camera gear walking along the road to a bridge. As we crossed the bridge, the flow of water caught my eye and we pulled over for a better look. We walked back to the bridge to see this lovely waterfall flowing happily down from its canyon into a stream that eventually led to the Athabasca River. The water in this fall was obviously from a glacier because it was a grey-ish color. That color, in nature, seems odd and unsettling, but the glacier melt is full of sediment, hence the non-clarity of the water. The falls though, were lovely.

Day 8 - Banff to Jasper (Post #1)

Today Ivan and I are dealing with the after-effects of our monstrous climb yesterday. We're both sore and addicted to Advil, 2 every 4 hours while awake. Fortunately, we had a big drive today from our digs at Johnston Canyon Lodge to the Pocahontas Cabins in Pocahontas Alberta at the northeastern edge of Jasper NP and so we got a bit of enforced rest. 

We drove north on Highway 93 to the Yellowknife Highway where we headed east. Along the way we saw some indescribable scenery (and, for the first time in what seems like a century, some birds!!). The mountains here just won't quit! They go from dramatic to stupendous to HOLYCOWWILLYOULOOKATTHAT!! Really, words tend to be inadequate when describing the mountains in these parts. I took a couple of photos that, when you see them, will make you wonder what the big deal is. I'll put the first in this post and will post a couple more different sorts of sights to follow.

Since I'm trying to keep this chronological, the first photo is of the Columbia Glacier which is just across the edge of Jasper National Park. There will be 2 photos.

The one on the bottom is the Icefield Parkway Center and the one on the top is the Columbia Glacier. I took both from across the street/highway. The center is across from the glacier and, in 1844, was under the many feet of snow and ice that comprised this glacier! This glacier is huge. Enormous. OK, get a thesaurus and find your favorite word for really, really big. Jaw-dropping.

As you can see from the nasty-looking clouds above the glacier, our beautiful sunny days seem to be over. We awakened to sapphire blue skies and mild temperatures. As we drove north, it soon became clear that that was only a teaser and we were in for some very wet conditions. It did rain on us a bit, but we were headed in the same direction as this rain system so we got only a taste of the rain.

OK, enough of that. More photos to follow in the next couple of posts.

Day 7 - Proof

This is Ivan, at the fossil site, photographing the fossil of the creature you saw in the previous post.

Day 7 - Trilobite Fossil

OK, all I did was ask, but Ivan has given me this beautiful photo of a Cambrian trilobite which he (pay attention, now) may be putting in his soon-to-be-published book! You are the first persons, other than Ivan and yours truly, to see this lovely creature! Ivan took this photo yesterday when we were on, as I've now started calling it, the "Death March." As proof, be sure you look at the next posted photo.

Day 7 - Hike to fossil bed (Photos 2 & 3)

Well, the object with this post was to show both photos side by side, but, once again, I'm thwarted! The place where we began and ended this mammoth hike is at the bottom of the hill, sort of next to Ivan's left elbow. We were very proud of ourselves for successfully completing this daunting hike!

Day 7 - Hike to fossil bed (Photo 1)

If you look very carefully at the photo, you'll see a faint ring of teeny red dots I photoshopped onto the photo to point out where we actually hiked. This was taken after the hike was over, mostly because I couldn't believe we had actually gone up there!

Day 7 - Hike to fossil bed

OK, this is the adventure to which I alluded a few posts ago. This is from yesterday, Sept. 18.

When we arrived at Yoho National Park, Ivan was particularly happy because he has been interested in a famous fossil bed located within the bounds of this park. The fossil area(s) is/are called the Burgess Shale. Fossils from 505,000,000 (no, I didn't type too many zeroes!) were accidentally discovered by a scientist and they have added to and changed much of the thinking about what lived in those far, far away times. 

In the Visitor Center, we saw that they offer a guided walk to one of the sites and we signed up for the last walk of 2009! Now it is illegal for just anyone to hike up to these places because the fossils are still up there, many just lying on the ground all over the place.

The hike itself (take a second to think about what I'm about to write) is 3 km one way and there is an elevation gain on 750 meters. (For the metrically challenged, that's 1.8 miles one way and almost 2,500 feet elevation gain!). YIKES! We did this yesterday and surprisingly, we feel normal today! I'll post a couple of photos with only brief descriptions in the next 2 posts. The entire hike, start to finish, took 8 hours.

Day 6 - In Banff area (Post #3)

These are the most interesting and successful man-made structures ever! The Parks people up here were concerned about the numbers of large mammals that were being struck by vehicles on the highways that cross the parks. These animals include grizzlies, elk, deer, moose, as well as many smaller animals like lynx and wolverine. After much discussion, the road contractors agreed to a demand from the Parks people that they build wildlife overcrossings as well as undercrossings to see if this would alleviate these accidents. (Obviously, in some cases, people were being hurt too in these accidents and cars were mightily damaged.) So this is a photo of one of these magnificent overcrossings. They installed motion-sensitive cameras on these and have recorded over 100,000 crossings by all the above-mentioned animals since the overcrossings were first built in 1996. That sounds like a pretty successful effort, if you ask me!

Day 6 - In Banff area (Post #2)

The 2 photos show Mt. Rundle, which is, far and away, my favorite mountain here! I've never seen a huge mountain in this shape before. As it turns out, millions of years ago, for whatever reasons, one edge of this mountain just rose up from the valley where it was located. This mountain is unbelievably enormous and spectacular. I like looking at it while trying to imagine the forces that propelled it upward.

The photos were taken at Vermillion Lakes and the bottom one is a long view, while the top one is as close-up as my little camera goes!

One additional note about the Vermillion Lakes. There are 3 of them and they contcined the first birds other than crows, ravens and magpies we had seen! We saw Grey jay, Ring-billed gulls (can be seen in lower photo), Green-winged teal, and, sighting of the day: SORA!! We saw 2 of these shy and secretive rails at the grass edge of the water about 25 meters from us. Truly a FINE bird!

Blogger note!

These last 3 posts were sent from this little internet place called "The Depot" in the tiny town of Lake Louise. Because we're using our own laptops, they make us do it outside (fortunately it's another gorgeous day!) and my battery is getting a bit low. It's Saturday the 19th and we're going to be heading up Jasper way as soon as we're done here. Supposedly, each cabin where we're staying up there is online wirelessly so I can get completely caught up there, if I don't manage that task while here. I appreciate your patience - stay tuned for more adventures! (We had a major one yesterday the 18th, so I hope not to disappoint!)

Day 6 - In Banff area (Post #1)

I had promised some photos of the massive road construction going on in the parks. The road crews have been doing this project for at least 5 years and aren't even close to being done. Two photos here show a small portion of this work.