Squamish, British Columbia, Canada / More car trouble

Saturday, September 3

Up and at ‘em, we broke camp and started out to look for a garage. First place couldn’t take us – too few mechanics and already booked solid for the day. But they recommended another few places, one of which was open and was eventually able to squeeze us in after a wait. Since we had our laptop and books right there with us, waiting was OK with us.

Lindy and Noel at Newport Auto in Squamish were fantastic!

Good news was – brakes were just fine. We did an oil change while we were there since it was time. Bad news was – another couple of hours spent in a garage waiting room. Sigh.

After we left, we took off to do some much-needed shopping. As we were pulling out of the shopping center, my “Check Engine” light came back on.

You! Are! Bleeeeeeeeeeeep! Kidding! Me!

I haven’t even been out of the last garage for more than 30 mins!

The string of four-letter words that left my mouth would not be polite to enter here into this blog. Suffice it to say, I have had more than enough of car trouble. And I am tired of spending time – and money – fixing a stupid vehicle. Love the RV part of the Champagne Chevy, hate the Chevy part of the Champagne Chevy. Grrrrrrrrr.

I needed a walk and some fresh air and so did Auggie, so we went on a quick hour or so hike to Shannon Falls, which were literally right across the road from our campsite. Pretty.

We also got our very first look at some waters of the Big Blue Pacific - we've traveled a long way to see this! 

Perhaps inspired by the scenery, we cooked a marvelous dinner – snapper with a lemon-butter sauce, couscous and steamed broccoli – and then finally finished the fourth Harry Potter book, the “Goblet of Fire.”

(This was my favorite Potter so far! The kids are getting older, the story is getting more complex and sophisticated, just like the kids’ brains and the thoughts that come out of them, and the political complexity and background surrounding each of the characters is getting really intriguing. Can’t wait to start #5.)

John & Ellen, I’ll send both #3 and #4 back to you when I get back into the States in a few days! Thanks - I'm loving this series! 

Jasper toward Vancouver

Thursday-Friday, September 1-2

We woke up Thursday morning and it was only 32 degrees Fahrenheit at 08.30 in the morning - Brrrrrrr! This morning I turned on the furnace, not just the heat pump. I put on my hat and gloves and kept the warm tights on to walk the dog in the morning! Wow – welcome to September in the Canadian Rockies!  

Auggie and I broke camp quickly and drove the few kilometers up to Lake Annette, a “kettle lake” formed by one of the many glaciers eons ago. Again, this scenery is so stunningly beautiful, it looks like it is in Disneyworld made out of plastic.

Around our quick walk at Lake Annette, we also saw a pond of quicksand, for the first time in our lives! (No, we did not go into it!)

After a lazy lunch break and a few phone calls, we started our way west, onward to Vancouver. But first, how bout this beautiful river as we left Jasper???

It’s a long way to Vancouver (bout 10 hours or so), so we broke it into chunks. We made an overnight stop at Kamloops, British Columbia (where we are now officially in Pacific time zone). Then it was on again for the drive closer to Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean.

We took the scenic route and were again rewarded. More twisty, turny roads (weeeeeeeee!), lots of elevation gain and drop and more beautiful snowy mountain peaks, lakes and valleys. Wow again!

I did need to stop and let my brakes cool down as we were nearing the end of the twisty-turny 150+-km up-and-down route. The steering wheel had started to shake when I applied the brakes! Not being mechanical but knowing immediately that was not a good thing, I pulled off, had some lunch and called my friend, Scott, who knows a heck of a lot more than I do about mechanical things.

He agreed that stopping was a good thing, gave me some tips as to how to drive the next section with my brakes in mind, and then he suggested getting into a shop to have them looked at as soon as I could, just to make sure all was in order. (Yikes – it’s Friday of the long Labor Day weekend. This might be tricky.)

We got out of the mountains safely and drove down to Squamish, where we found a campsite for two nights. A bit unsettled by more mechanical concerns, I cooked dinner and went to sleep with the goal of trying to find a garage that could give my brakes a look in the morning.

Lake Moraine, Lake Louise / Drive to Jasper

Tuesday-Wednesday, August 30-31

Tuesday was the first rainy day we’d had in a very long time. And since we didn’t have anywhere to go, I stayed in bed and read my Harry Potter book - book #4 is getting really good. The most remarkable thing I can say about the day is that I took no photos.

Wednesday morning we woke up to more cold and wet. I had slept in my warm tights and was happy for them! I even turned on the heater for the first time to take the chill off of the morning.

Deciding that we felt like being more than just sloths this day, I got us packed up and on our way. We first visited Lake Moraine, a “scenic wonder nestled in the Valley of the Ten Peaks,” according to our parks guide. And it was stunning. The coolest part was the cloud cover from the rain, which made for eerie, beautiful surroundings.

 We walked along the lakeside and back, giving us a bit of exercise, but not too much (jeez, I’m still feeling that Sulphur Mountain hike in the front of my calves!).

Then we drove the short way up to Lake Louise, another gem of an alpine lake. Cloud cover was still present, so more eerie, cool scenery.

While we had been in the gift shop at Lake Moraine earlier, two women had said they had seen lots of bears on the drive between Jasper and Lake Louise. I hadn’t actually intended to go to Jasper, but tempted with the possibility of seeing some more bears (from the safety of my vehicle, of course) and knowing that we had the time, I decided that we would make the drive to Jasper that afternoon.

And boy, were we rewarded!

Only about eight miles into the drive, we saw our first bear. It was a little cub, right by the roadside. We pulled in and watched for a long while. There was no sign of mama anywhere, but unlike many others around me, I did NOT get out of my car. Who knew when Mama might come looking for Junior?

Auggie had never seen a bear before – this was his first one. He was transfixed! He watched that little cub everywhere he went. At one point, Auggie whined because he wanted to go out. Ha!

Not this time, my friend. I need to keep both you and that little bear cub alive.

About five more miles into the drive, people had stopped on the other side of the road. So we pulled over and saw a very large black bear, foraging for food down in a bunch of shrubs and trees. (You can barely see him here.)

We didn’t see any more critters along our drive (still have not seen a Grizzly bear or a moose in my lifetime), but holy moley – the scenery was amazing. There is some pretty powerful nature in Jasper National Park! 

The glaciers did a fantastic job of sculpting out big, vast, curving valleys and peaks. We even had a little snow from the mix of cold, moisture and elevation. It’s hard to believe that it’s August 30! Take a look.

When we got to Jasper, we poked around a little bit and quickly saw two elk. They were just hanging out at the city park, munching on grass. Guess they were female, because they didn’t seem to want to charge at anyone.

I splurged again and had dinner at a restaurant – elk and bison meatloaf with mashed potatoes! (I know - I just saw those elk outside ... how could I?) It was so yummy. And even better that I did not have to wash dishes afterwards!

We found our campground and went to sleep fast.

Banff to Lake Louise

Monday, August 29

I could walk when I woke up, but there were definitely some sore muscles to contend with. Auggie and I took another (flat!) hike along the Spray River. 

Nothing strenuous, just enough to get the body warm and work out some of the stiffness.

My massage later that afternoon was FABULOUS. Not only because it was a good massage, but because it was the first bodywork I’d had in a long time. My body needed the splurge!

And then we took the scenic route out of Banff along the Bow Valley to Lake Louise, still in Banff National Park. More lovely mountains, more spectacular peaks, more green-blue creeks and rivers and winding roads. We were hoping for more critters, but no luck. Nonetheless, we had smiles on our faces.

Lake Louise is a pretty small place, so we quickly found our campsite and went to sleep.

Banff

Sunday, August 28

I picked a strenuous hike for Sunday – Auggie and I certainly got a workout!

We hiked up Sulphur Mountain, which started at 5,200 feet and ended at 7,484 feet – a total elevation gain of more than 2,200 feet. We are gonna feel the legs tomorrow! (After that horseback ride, what was I thinking???  J)

I don’t know how many switchbacks we covered, but it was a lot. It was a fairly popular trail with lots of people out on a Sunday, so we didn’t really have to worry too much about bears. (But I did have my bear spray with me. Can someone please make sure my dad knows I had it with me?)

The trail also crossed under the Sulphur Mountain gondola lines – cool to see those people ogling us down on the trail from their gondola cars. We waved, watched them ride by and reminded ourselves what a good workout we were getting.

We kept getting more and more beautiful views of Banff and the valleys. It really looks fake, it’s just that beautiful!

As energetically as he had started out, Auggie began to take a few breaks toward the top. I had lots of water for both of us and we had stopped every 20-30 mins for water. And then I realized: Auggie has never hiked at altitude before! He’s only ever been close to sea level where we live. He’s in great shape, but he was just sucking wind getting used to the altitude.

He did a great job! We made it to the top in good time and took a break to take in the view and have some snacks.

Auggie was hungry, but also very distracted by the large number of chipmunks that live up top on that mountain. They were cute. One was close, so I tossed it one of my cashews. He picked it right up and started nibbling.

Those chipmunks are clearly very used to humans, perhaps too comfortable for their own good. That silly little chipmunk finished my cashew and then started coming closer, wanting more. I grabbed Auggie’s collar to hold him back. I shushed my backpack toward the chipmunk to scoot it away, but it didn’t move away. It came closer! I warned that chipmunk that it was about to die – I was doing my best to hold back the dog, but Auggie had unbelievably brave/stupid prey right in front of him and was pulling hard. Then that chipmunk came right up to Auggie’s nose! I had to quickly ask someone to come scare it away because I wasn’t going to be able to hold Auggie back much longer. He’s a strong dog and he really wanted that chipmunk!

Whew – crisis averted, and the chipmunk went over to someone else looking for more food. But I held Auggie close the rest of the time we were up there – chipmunks were everywhere!

We did a little more walking up to the Cosmic Ray Station that was up on top of Sulphur Mountain. You really feel like you’re on top of the world up there!

(Yes, that’s Auggie looking away toward another chipmunk!)

And here’s yet another stare-off, which ended with Auggie barking at the chipmunk and me trying to pull him away from it. Good lord, dog, let’s go hike back down the mountain. It is, indeed, always interesting hiking with Auggie. J

As we got down to the bottom of the mountain, we took a little detour to check out the hot springs (yes, that’s why they call it “Sulphur Mountain” – there are hot springs there!). I decided to splurge and ended up booking a massage for the next day (anticipating some sore muscles), and I then did some good stretching when we got back to the van.

But before we got back to the campsite, we took a little detour first to the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel, then to Bow Falls, which sit just behind the hotel. Both very lovely spots.

We poked around downtown for a bit, doing some window shopping – just look at that view down the main street!

That stretch felt good before going to sleep, and I gave Auggie a massage, too. We were both pooped and ready for bed and fell asleep in no time flat.