We walked so far today.
SO FAR!
Aimi’s brilliant idea was to walk from our campsite to the Skytram. It was 6.1km there following some tracks but the main hill up to the cable car was following the road. It took so long to walk that road, the shuttle bus driver passed us twice and decided to pull over to give us a lift the last kilometer to the top.
Then when we got to the top of the cable car there was another 3km round trip to the summit and back down. This was a REALLY steep climb, but we got into the groove and crushed it out in a hour, including building a few stone towers.
And once we got to the bottom of the cable car, we could have got that shuttle bus we were very well aware of, but no. We decided to walk another 7km into town.
Then after a refreshing beer at the Jasper Brewing Co, which made me tipsy-er than 1 beer should have, we went shopping. Many unknown kilometers and shops later I nearly murdered her when she suggested hiking back to the campsite. It’s just another 5.4km down the road…
We had already done at least 16-18km by this point so I refused and found us a local bus. An american shaped bus, which was fun to ride. Especially because just as we left town we passed a HUGE male Elk. He was eye to eye with me and I was sitting high up in a bus. His antlers were easily the height of the bus, fucking crazy big animal.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
The skytram was really good. Saved us a further 6.9km hike and 1000m of elevation gain to the top of Whistlers peak. When we came off the gondola I asked if we could see any wildlife up here and immediately a chap pointed out a Pika. It scuttled right out in front of us on the rocks, stopped briefly to collect some grass, and then shot off again into the rocks. Aimi nearly exploded at the cuteness.
From the top we had an incredible view up and down the valleys around Jasper. You could see the full extent of the wild fire that devastated 1/3rd of the town. Walking into town later we passed all the flattened house lots and the carpark full of temporary container homes where the displaced citizens were living while it was all rebuilt. Interestingly, the fire did not pass thru the town, but hot embers floating on the wind landed in trees, on balconies and roofs and that’s what burnt the houses. Some miraculously survived but a lot didn’t.
At the top skytram station they also had a restaurant where we rewarded ourselves after the steep walk. The food was excellent and with the view out the window it was just so relaxing. This is where I had the first of my Jasper Trail Session IPA beers which is probably why my judgement was impaired and I agreed to the 7km hike into town.
Once down from the skytram, we picked up our first geocache of the day. Hidden just behind a huge rock at the edge of the parking lot. After the long hike we got our second of the day near a “Welcome to Jasper” sign. And then the last of today’s geocaches was on the sign in front of a burnt out church, which was sad to see. Hopefully it gets rebuilt for the community.
Already a lot of building had taken place and several shops were being rebuilt along the main roads. We found several mural paintings on the sides of buildings. A couple of which included the phoenix, for obvious reasons.
To finish the day off, we had dinner at the Mad Grizzly Bistro Bar where I had Bison meatloaf and Aimi had another ramen. Basically chicken noodle soup, it must have worked because as tired as we are at the end of the day, she seems a lot better. Well enough to have a huge ice-cream while waiting for the bus to take us back to the campsite.
And now I sit here watching the sun going down, eating grapes.