In the Mosquito Creek hostal we did our own thing, coffee in bed, then breakfast, made sandwiches, packed and left all without seeing, or hearing the family. It certainly made it easy as there wasn't seats or bowls for six.
Revelstoke was our destination, 2 hrs 45 minutes. I wonder how long it will take? First stop a relatively long detour up a road that just seemed to go to Takakkaw falls. A couple of 'exciting' hairpins, wouldn't fancy that in the truck camper! I know we've done lots of falls, but these were good ones.
I wanted to post a short video showing a train traversing the upper spiral loop but, for some reason, it won't post here, it's at the very end of this post, so scroll down to see it then come back here.
Brian was then fretting about getting to Emerald Lake, but we had to stop at the meeting of the waters where the Yoho River joins the Kicking Horse River, just a brief stop followed by one of the two spiral tunnel viewpoints. We were really lucky, we only had to wait a couple of minutes and a train came along. We watched it go one way, round the mountain and then out of a tunnel in the mountain seemingly going in the opposite direction. All this to reduce the gradient from over 4% to a more reasonable 2.2%. there was a guy there talking to some other people, I eavesdropped on some of his information, two trains at the front, one in the middle and one at the end, with the total length being just over a mile.
Emerald Lake, in the rain, was our next stop. Brian was being terribly negative about parking, and there were lots of vehicles parked up down the road, but we drove into the carpark and got a space almost as close as was possible. The loop around the lake was 5.2km with half of it shown as good path and half shown as being a bit muddy. It was a little muddy, but not bad, and it certainly weeded out a lot of people.
Natural Bridge was the next stop which was really impressive. Lots of water definitely helps! Lunch also helped stave off the rain.
We had been worried about getting to Revelstoke too early, check in at the Airbnb was not until 16.00, but that's British Columbia time, and we are still in Alberta, so to us it's 17.00. Perhaps we needn't have worried, we've still got 200km to go! We stopped at a rest area at Kicking Horse on the TransCanada Highway. It only had toilets, but never have I been so excited to see a flushing loo and water coming out of a tap! Three days, two nights without feels like a really long time!
A cup of tea in Golden, to finally get a message from our hostess that we can get in when we like, but we are not going to be early. Stop at Visitor information to plan our itinerary for the next three days. Hurrah we actually have 4 nights in the same, lovely, place.
In, meet Helen our hostess, and pretty much straight out. After the shower that we had been craving!
To Rumpus, one of the local breweries. We would like to sit outside, but it's looking full. The bar tender suggested that the couple over there are very nice, and we could probably join them. We gatecrashed their night out and talked to Lucie and Chuck for the next two hours, exchanging details as they left. How lovely.
Day 47 Saturday Revelstoke
We've decided to stay on Alberta time for our 4 nights here, so we are early to bed and early to rise. We were up and at the farmers market just after it opened at 08.30, a good look at it and the town.
I thought we might make the 10.30 tour at the dam, but by the time we got back to the house, with snacks from two different Indian stalls, to discover it was nearly half an hour away, that wasn't going to happen. Into the car and Brian's Organic Maps that we have been using as sat nav for the whole trip finally let us down, taking us the wrong side of the river to the visitor centre! Not to worry, we can work it out.
We still arrived in time for the 11.30. We were sold our tickets by Helen, our hostess, though she wasn't leading our tour. A very interesting hour on the building and operation of the dam. There are 14 dams on the Columbia river, three of which are in Canada. This one is 175 m high, has 5 of 6 possible turbines constructed and supplies electricity to the locality and into the USA. 95% of British Columbia's electricity is hydro generated. This all sounds like a triumph and it really is very good.
The only sticking point is that when the Grand Coulee dam (the largest producer of hydroelectricity in the US) was built in the '50's, with the agreement of the Canadian government, it was decided that it was too difficult to put in a fish ladder for the salmon. They didn't seem to consider that salmon was 60% of the diet of the Canadian First Nations people along the river!
The plan had then been to go to the railway museum, but the weather is better than expected, so we'll head up Mount Revelstoke. The Meadows in the Sky parkway is 26 km going 1400m straight up. We knew it was only open to km16 but that's probably enough.
We drove up to there took some pictures and chatted to the ranger. Down a little bit to the Broken Bridge walk, 2km return and 40m elevation change. We dispute this, as do the two sets of hikers we met on our way out asking if they were nearly there yet! It was a nice walk though, but we did tell the couple out for their wedding photos that this was not a good trail for her to do in her wedding dress and shoes!
Next stop was the top of Nels Knickers, which was Canada's first ski jump, set up by Nels Nelsen. Thoroughly enjoyed this interpretive trail, though we didn't do the steep bit in the middle, just the beginning and the end.
Back to the house for a cup of tea before walking into town, via Lucie and Chuck's house as we were going to the other brewery with them for the evening. As we left the house Helen pulled up asking if we enjoyed our dam tour. Obviously we had. The look on her face when I told her we were on our way to meet Lucie and Chuck was a picture. We've only been here 24 hours, how can we be going out with people? We had another lovely evening, though I think the two pints of just under 5% beer may have made us a little more verbose than the two pints of 2.5% beer we had last night. Great to meet and spend time with new people.
Day 48 Sunday Revelstoke
We are determined to relax a little today, so a slow start before going for a 6km walk around the Illecillewaet Greenbelt.
A few mosquito and a few double backs where the path had fallen into the river, but a good walk. We finished at a cafe for an early lunch and a coffee which was very civilised, before heading over to the Train museum. I think we would be expelled from town if we didn't visit the train museum, Helen's son works there, Lucie works there (hence how we knew they know each other) and Chuck used to be an engineer and conductor on the railway. He had told Brian all sorts of things about the trains last night, most impressive of which was that some of the trains are actually 2 miles in length!
The museum was really interesting. It felt quite small when we went in, but my goodness it wasn't. Rolling stock outside and two levels in the central hall with rooms on either side. My head did get a bit full it has to be said. Just as we were about to leave we caught a glimpse of the Rocky Mountaineer going past, though there is no photograph as the sun screen on the windows upset the camera! This is the only passenger train on the railway as financially freight pays much more and doesn't need a timetable, they just run when they are ready. The problem with the 2mile long trains though is they have to know that they are able to stop in the places they need to or wait until they can because if they stop in the middle they don't fit in the sidings and can potentially block roads for a long time! The Rocky Mountaineer probably pays its way as two day packages in April start at $2289 Canadian going up to $15200 for the top multi day packages!
We popped into the supermarket on our way home to pick up something for dinner and are planning a relaxing evening, though we are so behind with the blog he's published one, but still has three days to go
Day 49 Monday Revelstoke
We had a tiny bit of rain yesterday, and nothing today, in fact it hit 32° at one point. Back towards Calgary however, there is lots of rain, there are still evacuation alerts in Canmore, just outside Banff and Kananaskis Park that Richelle was planning on taking us hiking in is mostly closed due to mudslides across the road. Apparently people are being helicoptered out. We don't have to drive back that way fortunately. There was another accident on the TransCanada yesterday, just outside Lake Louise, going west, like the last one. Hopefully our eastbound journey tomorrow will be all ok.
Today was a trip into Rogers Pass which we drove in through and will drive out through tomorrow, but with a 4.5 hour journey we wouldn't have time for all the stops. We were very sensible, doing all the stops on the eastbound side as we drove out and the westbound ones on the way back.
We started at the skunk cabbage boardwalk which I really liked though we were intertwined with a family of 5 who were a bit irritating, fortunately we didn't see them again.
Next stop was Loop Brook, only the entrance to the loop where we parked was closed. We went the opposite way, and managed to get to the stone trestles of the railway bridge that used to carry the trains before they looped them through the mountains, reducing the steepness they had to deal with. We got to the midway point to find the problem, an avalanche in the winter has completely obscured the trail. Fortunately we could cut out through the campsite so that was ok.
A little further on was another stop to go and look at the ruins of Glacier House, a very posh hotel that had been built on the railway, but when the railway went, so did the hotel. You can just see some foundations on the ground. There was a Parks employee here so we had a chat, learning about the two tagged Grizzly bears in the vicinity. They are hoping the two year old son will remain with it's mother a little longer, to try and learn some road sense.
As we drove further up the road there was a Parks Canada truck with flashing lights, and a slow sign, to warn us of what appeared to be a tagged Grizzly. I'm guessing he was the son, and yes, he could do with learning some road sense!
The Rogers Pass visitor centre is being rebuilt but there was still an information point and toilets etc. This is the furthest we are planning on going before turning round and doing all the stops on the other side of the road. The first of these was the high point of Rogers Pass. Rogers Pass is named after A B Rogers who was paid $5000 dollars to find a way through the Selkirk Mountains for the Railway. It is now the second highest point on the Trans Canada Highway.
Rock Garden was next, why is there a huge pile of boulders for no apparent reason? I can't find out the answer, but it did make for an interesting little outing.
Our next stop was Hemlock Grove, a short loop through the only inland hemlock/cedar rainforest in the world. We liked this one, but perhaps that's because we hit it at a quiet point.
The last stop was the Giant Cedar loop, though again only half of it is open, due to a tree falling across it. It was very reminiscent of the big tree trails we did all that time ago on Vancouver Island. At least this time I didn't have my foot in the protective boot!
We actually finished quite early, but the heat, and possibly the altitude seemed to have knocked us both out a bit, so we didn't mind returning to our cool basement apartment. Though it's now 16.00 and he's got days of blog posting yet to do!
I can't remember where, but we also saw a black bear, on our way back, sitting on its bottom in a ditch by the side of the road, looking a little bit hot and bothered. I think we all know how he feels
Here's the video of the train traversing the spiral tunnels. The upper carriages moving right to left is the same train as the one 15m below moving left to right, after it has been through the spiral tunnel. An engineering marvel created in 1909 to allow trains to climb the steep mountainside whilst keeping the track incline at 2.2%. Prior to this the gradient was over 4% and runaway trains, unable to ascend were a constant hazzard
