We work up crazy early in the morning (6:15 am is too early when you’re on vacation) to take and early trip into town and have sandwiches made before catching the train. We were warned by the concierge when we booked the trip on Saturday that we wouldn’t have access to food on the trip and to bring our own. By the time we were done running around town and getting out to the train we’d forgotten to have breakfast. Good thing we couldn’t resist the urge to pick up a few scones when we ordered sandwiches.

Once we returned to the Jasper Park Lodge we took a few minutes to snap some photos of the views from the lodge.

We weren’t the only ones who were hungry. We passed a number of snacking elk on our drive into town.

The Via Skeena train travels through the Rocky Mountains and into BC. Our trip was approximately 2.5 hours on the train – from Jasper to Harvey (sp?) and then we were met by a tour guide who drove us back to Jasper via one of the park highways. Few people joined the train in Jasper so we were able to spend the entire trip in the observation deck.

The ride was well worth it. We got some amazing shots of Mt. Robson – the highest peak in the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains.

A few miles down the track we traveled by an ice wall.

We shared the drive back with a young couple and two small children. Babies being babies, he cried a bit during the drive. Mom’s being mom’s, his mom made more noise trying to shush the baby than it was making while crying.

I passed out napped for an hour after arriving back at the hotel. Most of the restaurants close early on Sunday in the Winter so my sleeping interfered with Drew’s opportunity to eat at some of the restaurants in town. After waking me up he settled on pub fare at the Whistle Stop. As soon as we walked in the door we were greeted by Bruce, one of the pipeliners we met on Saturday, and dragged over to his table to meet some Aussie tourists.

Throughout most of our trip elk and squirrels were abundant. The big horned sheep we’re used to seeing in the summer didn’t make an appearance, but on Sunday evening we were lucky enough to get a shot of a coyote running across the lake.

Due to a pressing need to rush home today we didn’t take the Maligne Canyon tour today. Perhaps we’ll do it on a future visit. The tour is offered year round and I figure I’m less likely to fall and hurt myself if I take it during the summer instead of winter. Dog sledding is still on a future “to do” list. Now that we know it’s offered and have a general idea of the time required and the cost we can start saving our pennies and plan to take the trip at a later date.

Yesterday we drove into town and wandered through the shops. I found a nice sweater on sale and am considering picking it up tomorrow before we head home. We stopped in at the Bear’s Paw for coffee and scones and scoped out their sandwhiches. Later we drove through the mountains and up to Pyramid lake for a short stroll.

We took a few pictures but I haven’t downloaded them to my laptop. I’ll do that tonight after returning from our trip and try to post them this evening. We have to walk to the main lodge to access the internet as not all of the cabins (including ours) have access yet.

It struck me on the drive how beautiful Canada is. Not just the mountains – which are amazing – but the roll of the flat prairies, starkness of the tundra, green hills and fall foilage of the maritimes, etc. We tend to forget just how fast and changing the scenery can be throughout the country and just how big Canada is. Sure, other countries may have centuries of history and fancy churches, temples and castles dating back to the dark ages but we have space.

As is typical of any visit to a new town we dropped in on the local legion for a beer. Having surpassed a decade as Legion members, it’s become somewhat of a tradition for us to try and support as many of them as we can. Last night the Legion hall in Jasper was “the place to be”. 150 people packed into the small hall for meat draws, 50/50 draws and a game of chase the queen. The fire marshalls reminded the Legion that their occupancy was limited to 150 bodies so they meticulously counted all who entered and exited. The Legion shares their space with the French school and is fundraising for a second story on the building to expand both the school and their hall. Since it was so packed when we arrived, we had to scrounge around to find a place to sit. Lucky for us we seemed to have chosen the best table in town. We shared the space with a number of pipeliners. Engineers. Pipe benders. Flaggers, Labourers. We had a fabulous time getting to know new people. Collette – one of the flaggers who is married to one of the project engineers – took us under her wing. She and her husband own homes in BC and Edmonton. They’ll be back in Edmonton for a short vacation soon so we exchanged phone numbers. We’ll have an opportunity to return their hospitality.

Today we’re heading out on a train ride through the Rocky Mountains. The train stops just before Vailmont in BC and then we hop into a van for a guided tour back on the highway. If we had more time and a bigger budget, I think Drew may have selected the dogsled/train trip. You take a dogsled out to BC and catch the train back into Jasper. It’s a full day trip as opposed to a 5-5.5 hour trip but seemed very interesting. We’re still waffling over whether or not we’ll make it out to Maligne Canyon for a tour tomorrow. It’s a 3 hour hike and with a 4 hour drive back home, we’re not sure if we’ll be up for both. Ok, to be honest I just don’t want to be stumbling through slush and ice only to fall down on my butt! I’m not the most co-ordinated of individuals on the best of days.

Internet access is catch as catch can around here. The main lodge has wireless but they are still in the process of installing it in the cabins. To save time I’ll likely end up writing in the room and then heading into the lodge to post.

Jasper is definitely different at the tail end of winter. I’ve been here a few times in the summer and it was crawling with tourists. With Marmot basin being so close I’d expect to see more businesses open in town. Many of the coffeeshops and restaurants are closed for the season. I guess Jasper is Banff and Whistler’s poor relation. On the other hand it’s really nice to be able to stroll around town and NOT bump into people with every step.

Drew’s cancelled vacation has been “un-callenced”. We received a call from Drew’s work notifying us that he could stay on leave until Wednesday (as per the original plan) approximately 15 minutes after we checked into the hotel and made arrangements to let go of the extra days on our room. Luckily we were able to get the days back and have managed to piece together a vacation similar to the one we’d had planned.

Since this whole vacation is a belated Christmas present – booked long before Christmas and delivered via IOU under the tree – for Drew I’ve left most of the decision making about what we’re doing up to him. I did veto the idea of a trip to Marmot basin for skiing since Drew has never been on downhill skiis before. We can try that sometime when he’s not on notice for a tour and can afford to risk breaking a bone (or six).

In the meantime, we’re scoping out the brochures for dog sled rides, the mountain train trip, Maligne Canyon walks, wildlife spotting hikes, snowshoeing (which I’ve never done before, but Drew has many times), Columbia Icefield hikes, etc. Dependign on what Drew chooses the budget may only cover one or two activities. I’ll fill you in on what we decide to do – and how it went – as soon as I find out myself!

As for pictures – we brought a small digital camera with us but Drew didn’t bring his big manual one. Photography could be interesting this weekend if I’m to take pictures. I’m not very skilled. However, I’m sure I’ll find a few suitable for posting.

We got a call this morning that will cut our trip to Jasper short. Drew has to go into work and had some of his leave cancelled. We’re still heading out for the weekend though. I’m not passing up a shot at the Jasper Park Lodge! I don’t know if I’ll have Internet access while we’re away so there’s a good chance there won’t be any blog updates until we return.

If you’ve put on your reading glasses (or taken off the blindfold) you’ll notice we’re dressed a little differently around here today. No. It’s not a result of the shock I’m still reeling from – my old friend Amy‘s recent admission to knitting a cunning hat and NOT sending it to me *sniff* – I’ve been planning this for a while and, of course, enlisted the shiney make it pretty skills of Luna from over at LunaStone Designs. The grand plan is that I’ll rotate back and forth between my old look and this new one based on how cranky I am on any particular day.

Like my recent blogroll cleanup it’s time to clean out the plug-in closet. After all, when you’re trying on a new outfit it only takes a few extra minutes in front of the mirror to check out the fit of a few new plug-ins. There were many losers but the one that will likely be sticking around for a while is pageear. Not only did Darcey introduce me to pageear he also happily handed over two if his graphics so I could also advertize a few good causes. Unlike Darcey I lazily used the plug-in option instead of the manual code so I don’t have the option to automatically rotate the graphics and links when you change pages. Instead, I’ll just randomly rotate the charities/fundraisers as I see fit.

For the time being I’d like to call your attention to the Royal Canadian Legion’s Troop Morale Fund.

Now that I’ve spent all this time dressing up my blog can you guess what I was supposed to be doing today? In a few hours we’ll be heading off into the great white west for an awesome mini-break in Jasper. This is the first time I’ve been to Jasper without the RV and dogs and I’m looking forward to days of leisure. As always, I have reading and assigments due for classes (this week the psych class) by midnight Friday. Perhaps I’ll even finish early this week.

UPDATE: The pageear plug-in works beautifully when the old design is loaded but I’m still working out how to get it to function properly with the new design…

UPPERDATE: I’ve worked out special arrangements with Amy. I’ll soon be the owner of a cunning hat. Shiny!