On The Road To Vancouver

Friday, July 28

Jasper turns out to be a far more pleasant town than Banff – possibly because its streets are twice as wide – but mostly because, as well as the tourist shops, it has enough real commerce to suggest that, if all the tourists suddenly stopped coming, Jasper would continue on quite comfortably.

Speaking of commerce, Darlene and I would like to attest to the thriving industry of rail freight! Our campsites have invariably been close to the tracks and we know that there’s a LOT of rail cars moving across this land of ours – day and night.

On Tuesday, the 24th we camped on a lovely little provincial campsite just south of Jasper on the 93A, where the smiling ,helpful park attendant assured us that bears were quite common in the park because of the buffalo berries that grew plentifully. We didn’t really share her enthusiasm. We did, however, wind up with a beautiful site overlooking the Athabasca River and saw no bears.

The next morning we drove up to Mt. Edith Clavell so that Ian could relive some youthful foolishness. Those of you who have heard the story should know that my stupidity was even greater that I have previously portrayed it. I’ll include a photo with the fateful crevasse circled.

Just south of Jasper we came across a herd of cow elk grazing in a wooded area just off the highway. There were cars and vans pulling off at all angles – and all speeds – people dashing this way and that, and these animals seemed oblivious to us. ( I felt very sorry for the people on a tour bus that pulled over but the driver wouldn’t let anyone off the bus.)

As we traveled away from Jasper through Mt. Robson Park we also see a wonderful 5-point elk beside the road, but now we’re in B.C. and the traffic on the 16 is mostly commercial and only we and a couple of motorcycles bother to stop.

Wednesday night is spent in McLure camped in a private campground, and this now gets top billing as the WORST night camping. The campground itself is just fine, lots of trees and reasonable seclusion. It’s the heat – HEAT! And the trains – TRAINS! The heat was ridiculous – 40 degrees at 9:30 – and the bloody trains didn’t just pass through – they stopped and backed up all night long! At one point when I was getting up to have a pee, Darlene was sure I was leaving her behind and heading for a motel.

From McLure we opted for the 5 to get us into Vancouver quickly but hit stop-and-go traffic at Chilliwack that stays with us most of the way. This is frustrating as we want to get to the Museum of Anthropology on the UBC campus and it closes at 5 p.m. We take several wrong turns getting there – map failure + navigator error + driver incompetence – but eventually get to wander among the phenomenal Haida totem poles and carvings and get to wonder at the mastery of Bill Reid. There is something approaching ”holy” in these artifacts.

Leaving the museum, we drive to Granville Island and check out the crafts shops. Alysha wants us to buy a particular hammock but when we finally find the store it is just closing.

At night we decide to try the YWCA Hotel in Vancouver and are very pleasantly surprised. It is clean, comfortable and secure. ( And for only $105. including the parking)

Today has been another wonderful day. We got up early and roller-bladed around Stanley Park then spent a couple of hours at the Art Gallery of Vancouver. They’re currently showing an exhibit of traditional and contemporary Native artwork based on The Raven and we were both overwhelmed with its beauty. As well, they have a presentation on the architecture of Arthur Erikson whose work with concrete structures is breathtaking. (He designed the Museum of Anthropology as well as Roy Thompson Hall.) Things I know today that I did not know yesterday.