Heading West again!

As we write this, we’re on the Canadian Rail train “The Skeena” which runs from Jasper in the Rockies to Prince Rupert on the west coast of British Columbia, some 1160 km away.  It travels through some remarkable landscapes – from the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies through thick forest and great stretches of wilderness, lakes and rivers.  Moose and deer are seen all along the track and black bear foraging near the edges of the thick forest.  Our first sighting of a bear was only an hour out of Jasper and the train driver stopped and reversed to allow everybody on the train to get a good look and a few photos.  This, of course, is quite an unusual occurrence and the driver received a round of applause from those in the observation car.  We spotted many black bears in the clearings on the edges of the forest foraging for fresh spring growth.  Apparently, around June, they head higher into the mountains when the young ones are more independent and the snow has melted.

Day one on the train is some seven hours with stops at some small communities on the way.  We stop at Prince George for the night (as there is no sleeping car on the train) and continue for a 12 hour day on the second day.  At this time of year the train is quite small, with a limited number of passengers, but as summer progresses, the train increases in patronage.  We started out with some 64 passengers including a tour group which did a 2 hour run to Dunster and was met by a bus for the remainder of their tour, reducing our numbers by almost half. 

Yesterday we arrived back at Jasper for another night at “The White Brick Inn” where we stayed on our way out.  The drive from Golden was in bright sunshine and mid-20’s temperatures, unlike our trip down the Icefields Parkway, last week, when we encountered -4 degrees on the road, snow flurries and somewhere below minus 10 (with wind chill) in a snow storm on our tour out onto the Athabasca  glacier.  The contrast could not have been more remarkable.  There were an amazing number of self-drive RV’s, many with Australian flags in the rear windows on this return journey and we were quite thankful that we had decided to travel so early in the season. 

We passed through the same country we’d travelled through last week, but again the difference was significant.  There was spring budding everywhere, trees starting to leaf and lakes and streams thawing from the frozen winter.  

One of the strange quirks of Jasper is that the B & B’s are not allowed to serve breakfast – something of a contradiction in terms.  Apparently there is some kind of local ordinance which limits the serving of food only to restaurants and ‘approved accommodation houses’ – hotels and motels.  You can bring your own food in, but the hosts cannot supply or prepare food.  Anyway, we found a great little place in town called “Papa George’s” which served a very good $6.95 breakfast with 2 eggs, 2 rashes of bacon and a good supply of mini-hashbrowns, with 2 slices of toast.  Plus, they served a great bottomless cup of coffee.