Snow? On the Summer Solstice?

Mile 2898. Country Roads R.V. Park, Grande Prairie, AB. 1 Black Bear, 4 Elk, 1 Mountain Goat, 2 Deer, 2 Seagulls, 1 almost dead Squirrel.

The beauty of this kind of trip is flexibility. We have no campground reservations after Jasper. From this point forward stops can be lengthened or shortened, destinations can be added or removed. A slow moving storm settled into Jasper two days after our arrival. Several gorgeous, sunny, warm days were followed by cold, cold weather. Steady rain in Jasper and snow at slightly higher elevations have prompted us to cancel our side trip and overnight stay at a hotel in Banff. We’ve been conserving water and battery power for what was originally intended to be a 6 night boondocking stay. That’s all good and well if the weather is nice, but it’s too wet now to walk to the public toilets and as we learned the hard way, the solar panels are not enough to keep the batteries charged. Not sure if duration of stay is the issue or the thick blanket of clouds, but in either case we’re cutting our visit short. We’re not as hard core as the few tent campers still in the campground. Mark robbed power from the truck by hooking the two together and starting the truck. This gave us enough power to keep the refrigerator running and pipe in a little heat while we quickly prepared our departure. There’s a break in the rain creating a window of opportunity. If we don’t get out before it resumes the lake our campsite has become will be impassable. I keep reminding myself, this is an adventure.

Jasper reminds me of Yellowstone in its vastness, colors, and shapes. Our campground, Pocahontas, is on the east side of the park, down the road from Miette Hot Springs. This has been a blessing as the campground also has no public showers. A traffic jam stopped us our first trip there — what we’ve come to know as a “wildlife spotting” traffic jam. How funny it would be to pull over for no reason and see if people followed suit. Anyway, a Black Bear grazing on the side wandered out onto the road two cars in front of us. Our first bear sighting. Jasper takes its bears safety seriously, with warning signs and educational material. Frankly, I think it goes without saying you shouldn’t feed the bears, but who knows what goes through people’s minds in the excitement of the moment.

We followed the path of the Athabasca River on our visit – driving along it to and from our various activities, visiting its powerful falls with busloads of other tourists, and walking on its source, the Athabasca Glacier. The river is small at its source but gains momentum as various tributaries feed into it.

The day we visited the glacier we woke to rain and cold (44 degrees). The rain continued as we made the long early morning drive to the Icefield Centre. It’s at the Columbia Icefield, which feeds the glacier, and is on the border of Jasper and Banff National Parks. Temperature and visibility decreased significantly and rain turned to big snowflakes as we neared the Centre. A huge, $1.3 million all-terrain vehicle drove us to a section of the glacier where we could walk. There are 24 of these vehicles in the world. Twenty two of them are here and the other two are used by the U.S. and New Zealand for research. The walk on the glacier was short and sweet. The almost white-out conditions made it impossible to see any of the surrounding mountains and valleys and it was cold, as you can imagine.

The weather cleared a bit as the day progressed and we dawdled long enough at the Centre, getting coffee and visiting the gift shop, to see in the distance the all-terrain vehicles taking passengers to the glacier. I was determined to get my money’s worth since the morning visibility robbed me of this, so we hiked the Toe of the Glacier trail which takes you to the foot. Finally we could see the glacier. The surrounding scenery peaked through the clouds. Here we learned about the recession of the glacier. It was at its largest between 1840 and 1860 and in recent years has receded about 15 feet a year. Along the trail are year markers measuring the recession. Mark and I were in college one of the posted years and celebrating our five year wedding anniversary on another. I realize how substantial the loss is when compared to events in my life.

Mark and I spend our evenings reading or playing cribbage. He played cribbage as a child with his grandmother; I am new to the game and I’m glacially slow counting my cards because 7s and 8s always throw me off. I guess given the state of our glaciers this adjective no longer means what it used to, but you get my drift. Yesterday’s weather (30s and steady rain) and our desire not to drive anywhere for a day had us confined to the trailer and playing a few games. After many, many slow hand counts I finally got a hand of 10s and 5s. I’m done counting in seconds. “Did you notice how fast I counted those cards?”, I said to Mark. “Blazing fast speed like Spectrum Internet.” I almost peed my pants I laughed so hard. It’s even funnier after a glass of wine and being cooped up all day. I know, I shouldn’t laugh at my own jokes. But that laugh was such a relief.