Jasper to Lake Louise - Bow Lake & Num-Ti-Ja Lodge

September 14, 2007

Well, today was farewell to Jasper day. We headed back down the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise first thing. It was a beautiful drive. We stopped at several spots along the way for photo ops. I do love being Koty Ko-pilot. Mom needs all the driving advice I can render. :0)

When we got into Lake Louise we headed right on over to the propane filling station. It’s been below freezing nearly every night and we’ve been running the heater quite a bit. Mom figured we must have gone through a lot of gas but it turned out we’d only used ten litres, less than three gallons! Next we filed up with diesel. Good old Clementine only used thirteen gallons round trip Lake Louise – Jasper. The Mercedes diesel is a pip.

Next we checked into the campground. They only have electricity here so that’s what we got. As soon as mom got everything set up we were off to the Parks Canada info center. Mom gathered all the moss she could and we were off.

By this time it was late in the afternoon so she decided we should take a look at Bow Lake in afternoon light. It’s only about 20 minutes up the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise. There is a pretty old Lodge there called Num-Ti-Ja and a trail along the lake that goes to Bow Falls. It was too late to make it to the falls but it was a very pleasant evening stroll and next time we will get there early enough to make the falls.

We drove back to Lake Louise and Clementine for supper and a nice evening.

Until next time.

LAKOTA SUNRISE

©Kinsey Barnard

LAKE LOUISE TO JASPER

Bow Lake

September 06, 2007

We got up bright and early to be on our way to Jasper. But, Shadow did it to us again. This time the battery was dead. At first, mom thought it was because she had left the key in the unlocked position, even though she had disconnected everything else. We looked all over the park for help but no one was awake. We finally found one big bus with some lights on and knocked. A lady appeared in her robe. We were very sorry to disturb her. In the brief conversation it dawned on mom that there was nothing wrong with Clementine so we could drive to a gas station, which we did. Only problem was they didn’t do anything but sell gas. They sent us off to an auto mechanic but when we got there we found it had gone out of business. We spied some kind of Canadian government office and went in. They weren’t allowed to jump batteries but let us use the phone to call AAA. The nearest tow company was in Banff so we waited around for an hour and a half. It took the guy exactly 20 seconds to start Shadow with a portable battery charger. Sheesh! We should have one of those things. We were finally off at 10:30. That little adventure cost us about two hours.

After mom got done beating herself up for being so stupid she realized that probably the reason the battery went dead was because we hadn’t driven Shadow for several weeks and then we hooked that braking thing up and it just sapped what was left of the juice. It may explain the trouble we had yesterday. The battery was just giving up.

It’s a beautiful drive up the up the Ice Fields Parkway to Jasper. Many say it's the most beautiful drive in the world and I certainly wouldn't argue. But, it was cloudy and rainy most all of the way. We made a quick stop at Bow Lake and an even quicker stop at the Columbia Ice Fields. That old glacier is getting very tired looking and is not the least bit photogenic. We stopped long enough to start Shadow and let her run ten minutes just in case.


We pulled in to the Whistler campground in Jasper at about 2:30 pm. Thank goodness we had reservations because the place was sold out except for dry camping sites. We got a really nice spot. Mom got us all set up in about an hour and we took off for a hike. We drove up 16 to the Maligne Lake turnoff and went to the “sixth bridge” trail which is at the confluence of the Athabasca and Maligne rivers. There are number of pretty little trails to follow in this general area. We took #7, which follows the Maligne.

After a couple of hours of walking we called it a day. Before going to our campsite we went to check out the other side of the campground and found a great big old bull elk and a couple of cows. Mom, naturally, pulled out her trusty Nikon and fired off a few shots!

That was our day, this day. Looking forward to tomorrow. I know I’m going to get to hike!

Until next time….

Lakota Sunrise

©KinseyBarnard

THE JOURNEY BEGINS: TO LAKE LOUISE

September 05, 2007

We got off to a little later start then we had planned. Don’t tell her I said so but mom is still pretty green when it comes to this RV stuff. We were pretty much on time until it came to hooking up Shadow. Mom cut her finger trying to get one of the safety cables hooked up. There was blood flying everywhere. The problem turned out to be that you have to hook the cable up before the lights or the hook won’t fit past the lock on the hitch pin. Guess she knows now!

Shadow can be a real pain in the rump, as troubles with her were not done for the day. Shadow has to have this braking system (Even Brake) and it never seems to work right. We got just inside Kootenay National Park and pulled over by a nice creek for a quick bite. As soon as we did the braking light came on but we were already stopped. Form this point on it is a pretty good grade. We definitely didn’t want to be pulling Shadow up hill with her brakes on! Mom fiddle round with the thing but couldn’t find anything wrong. We took off but the brake light was still on so we pulled in at Radium Hot Springs. Mom ended up disconnecting the whole thing and going through the connect sequence from scratch. That seemed to get us back on track. Away we went. The drive from Radium Hot Springs to the 93 and 1 junction is really beautiful. There are lots of hiking trails I would sure like to take but we didn’t get to stop for any today, darn. Mom’s biggest regret was that we didn’t stop at Hectors Gorge for a photo.

We just highballed it straight to Lake Louise. All together the trip took us 6 hours. We got some diesel and headed for the campground. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a line so we got right in. I could tell mom was a little on the tired side as it took her three tries to figure out the right way to park in our slot. She had forgotten that in this campground you have to throw your electrical cord under the rig in order to have things right. And, of course, Shadow’s braking light was on again. But, we got set up, had a little chow and headed off for a walk along the Bow River.

The Lake Louise RV campground is really nice and is situated right along the Bow River. We took the nature trail goes along the river. It’s very nice for strolling. Course, I don’t give a fig for strolling but that’s all I got today.

Things probably won’t be that much better tomorrow as we high tail it straight for Jasper.

Until next time ....

©Kinsey Barnard