April 14th -15th – Jasper

April 14th 

I got up and hit the road to Jasper with Thomas. We stopped a couple of times along the way and took photos, the drive was pretty scenic. At the first stop there were 2 people doing alpine skiing, but you could hardly see them – they were tiny black dots on the mountain. There were also two ravens hanging around, and I threw them some trail mix which they sort of liked lol. The last stop we made was at Athabasca Falls (where the Athabasca River flows north towards the Arctic Ocean), and the view was pretty cool. The water was a beautiful green-blue colour and it flowed right from the waterfall through a narrow canyon, and back out into an open river.

Well I don’t have anything too exciting to say so I’ll recount one of Bill’s funny/interesting/insightful stories. The story started because Dan mentioned his girlfriend was living in Tacoma, the Hilltop area (where Bill once lived). Just Wikipedia Hilltop and you read about how it has a high crime rate. Apparently that is where the show Cops started out according to Dan. The story begins will Bill sitting in his car at Jiffy Lube, while he is getting an oil change. Across from him was a McDonalds with people eating inside. A drive by shooting from a Cambodian gang with Ak47s completely shootout the McDonalds (they even emptied a second clip). Needless to say, their targets were dead along with bystanders. He thinks “this day just can’t get any worse”. Later that day, he drives to a mall and pulls into the parking lot. As he pulls in, another car with a guy in a corvette, pulls into another spot near him. Out of nowhere, two guys jump out pointing a gun to the man’s head and takes his car and wallet. Bill and the guy head towards the mall to report the incident. Bill thinks “this day just can’t get any worse”. As the two of them approach the mall entrance, they see a guy in front of them with a sawed off shotgun robbing the place. They quickly close the door and run away, feeling bewildered with everything. After that he completely gives up living in that place as he tells his ex-wife about the story. Who knew I would ever hear a wild story like that in Lake Louise on my trip.

Oh also on the car ride, I got to know more about Thomas. He left London (UK) for Calgary on April 6th. He is only 22 and is trying to get his Level 1 downhill ski instructor certificate so that he can become a ski instructor in Banff. He was curious about how our Canadian education system was run. He was shocked to find out that the government didn’t cover it. In Denmark they cover your tuition (regardless of program), and they will pay you a bit of money (about a grand). He decided to become a carpenter (his dad is one), but is considering of doing more studying to become something like an engineer. In Denmark, he tells me, it is pretty easy for someone to go on and continue their education if they wanted to do so.

April 15th 

Today was my first day and only real day in Jasper. I decided to go for a little hike to the Old Fort lookout (about an hr hike). At first the hike seemed pretty boring, until I reach near the top of the hill and was rewarded with a fantastic view. In contrast to the other places I’ve been, Jasper was mostly snow free on the bottom. So I had a wide view of the forest and the surrounding mountains. As I pulled out my camera to shoot, I realized I forgot to put my memory stick back in. Fuck… Well at least I had my cell phone. The old fort lookout was a cool open grass area, like it was out of a movie. There must have been something like a herd of moose, elk, or caribou browsing in the area (evident by their poo). I also saw wolf tracks! I was super excited, as I never saw them before (there was wolf scat too) and so I had to take some pics on my cell phone. I guessed they were about 2 days old, seemed kind of fresh (the tracks! Haha). I also saw huge foot prints (but they were old and snowed in a bit), and the only animal I could think of was a Grizzly bear. After that I became paranoid and kept my hand on my bear mace on the way back to the car. Good times. I drove out to Medicine Lake which was a super cool view, with jagged mountains and apparently (according to the sign) the world’s largest underground stream.

Afterwards I walked around the town of Jasper, it seemed like a cool place. The town had a nice view of the surrounding mountains. I thought it was nicer than either Banff or Canmore.