Canada - Part 1

Letter No. 243

Dear all,

As you may know we went to Western Canada for three weeks over Christmas. This was an amazing trip which we highly recommend. Here is the account.

Day 1 – Brisbane to Los Angeles. We left Brisbane on16^th December. Due to the fact our flight was crossing the International Dateline, we arrived in LA on the same day, earlier than we had left Brisbane after a 12-hour flight! It was actually my birthday so I got to have my birthday all over again. On the flight Katie gave me a card with tickets to an Ice Hockey game on Sunday night as an extra birthday present. We are seeing Vancouver versus Calgary - apparently a real grudge match so that should be fun.

Day 2 – Los Angeles to Vancouver. In Los Angeles we had to exit through customs and collect our bags, which was a real pain. The queues were stupidly long and snaked back and forth for six turns of at least 150m. It took nearly three hours to go through customs, pick up our bags, check them in again and then go through customs again. The flight to Vancouver was relatively short and the customs experience was completely different and very pleasant compared to the US. In Canada people talk to you as if they are trying to be helpful, whereas in America they are definitely ordering you around.

We had a light lunch at the airport and then caught a taxi to our fantastic duplex studio apartment in downtown Vancouver which Katie had booked on Airbnb. After showers, we all started to feel almost human again and went out to celebrate my birthday, as it was still the 16 December. We walked around the city in the light sleet looking at all the Christmas lights and shops and the ice skating rink in Robson Square near our apartment.

We passed what we thought was a Christmas market but, much to our surprise, it turned out to be about twelve market stalls selling nothing but marijuana, dope cookies and bongs. Everyone was smoking weed at each stall. We were so surprised we went and talked to some of the guys selling. Apparently marijuana is illegal in Canada but police never enforce the law. They told us there is talk of legalising marijuana, as long as it is purchased from a company where the major shareholder is Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister. All of the guys selling dope at the stall were very unhappy about this. Jessie and I had to leave politely as they were starting to force free samples on us.

Finally we went to Zefferellis, a lovely Italian restaurant for my birthday dinner. We had a fantastic meal which was a great end to the longest birthday in history (42 hours) celebrated with breakfast in Brisbane, lunch in LA and dinner in Vancouver.

Day 3 – Vancouver. We had a great morning at the Grenville Markets on Grenville Island. The markets were beautiful. They were in a refurbished lumber mill on the wharf and there were loads of lovely arts and crafts stalls, Christmassy gifts and flowers and lots of yummy food. We had lunch there and then caught a taxi to the Vancouver Museum as it was still sleeting quite heavily.

The museum was small but interesting and kept us out of the foul weather. It told the history of the original inhabitants of Canada and the history of Vancouver. We went back to the apartment for a rest, then walked down to Rogers Arena for the ice hockey game – Calgary Flames v Vancouver Canucks. I decided to support Calgary while the rest of the family went for Vancouver. Sadly the home team didn’t play too well, but I was pleased that Calgary won 6:1. The stadium was amazing and the crowd electric so we had a great evening of entertainment. Finally my last birthday celebration!

Day 4 – Vancouver. Today we hired bikes and went for a ride around Vancouver. We were a bit nervous about cycling in the city on the wrong side of the road but we discovered a great bikeway which ran all around the city. We went down to Canada Place where the convention centre is located. It is often compared to the Sydney Opera House (this must be by Canadians who have never been to Australia). It was interesting but not really up to the Opera House.

Jessica had a horrific bike accident shortly afterwards. She was turning a corner and decided to adjust her ear-rings at the same time. She ended up face planting but was uninjured. This accident was quite amusing for the rest of the family as we had just finished reminding her about the time she had a bike accident in Bulgaria. This was a similar accident, turning a corner while trying to eat a pretzel.

We cycled on to Stanley Park which is a 404-hectare park. We went to a site of around 15 huge totem poles made by the First Nations people. They were pretty impressive. We then did the 9km cycle around the Seawall. There were fantastic views of the harbour, Lions Gate Suspension bridge, red wood forest, lakes and squirrels, but it was quite cold and windy. We stopped to warm up in a tea house most of the way around the lake. After lunch we cycled into the forest to look at the redwoods, around the lake again and back to our apartment about 4:00pm for warm baths and an early dinner.

Day 5 – Vancouver. When we woke up this morning it was lightly snowing. We had planned to rent a small car and drive into the mountains behind Vancouver for the day. I was walking to pick the car rental place when the light snow turned into very much heavier snow that was settling on the ground and not melting. I was already a bit nervous about driving in heavy traffic on the wrong side of the road so ended up upgrading to a bigger car with snow tires and full insurance. Our 30-minute drive to Grouse Mountain took an hour as there were cars sliding all over the road, getting stuck and not making it up hills due to the snow and ice. Nevertheless we made it without incident.

There was a cable car that took us from 300m elevation to 1100m elevation. The views of Vancouver are said to be spectacular but all we could see was snow and cloud! At the peak it was really deep snow (it is a ski resort). We had a nice morning going on a tractor sleigh ride thru the forest, visiting Santa in his hut, looking at reindeer and going on a short walk through the forest with lots of lovely lights in the trees. We had coffee and hot chocolates and saw a huge gingerbread town display which was good (but not a patch on my sister and nieces’ award-winning cakes).

We went down the cable car again (still no view) and drove down the mountain. The Capilano Suspension Bridge Park was closed due to the heavy snow which was falling off the trees in huge clumps and was quite dangerous, so we went back into town and parked at Gastown. This is the old historic part of Vancouver, which was very beautiful with cobbled streets, original vintage street lighting and the famous steam clock, which plays a lovely little tune through the five steam whistles on its top. It was all very pretty in the twilight with the heavy snow.

Matthew and I dropped Katie and Jess at the central train station with the luggage and returned the rental car. Matt navigated perfectly to the rental place, but we kept getting tripped up by no right/left turn signs, so we ended up taking a long detour and a few illegal turns. We then headed back to the Train Station for our overnight train journey up to the Rocky Mountains on The Canadian.

We were very impressed with the train. It is the original silver airstream-style train, which was very long with about 26 carriages, and a couple of raised dome cars with viewing windows. We dumped our bags in the adjoining cabins and went to the bar for complimentary champagne and canapés. The champagne flowed for quite a while and we stayed in the dome car watching the lights of Vancouver as we left the city. By the time we got back to our cabin our seats had been converted to individual curtained beds and they were very warm, comfortable and private. We all slept well on the train.

Day 6 – The Canadian.  We had a comfy night on the train and had to be in the breakfast car by 8:30am the next morning.  We were still a little jet lagged so it was a big effort to get out of our snug beds. Breakfast was huge, but luckily we had a late lunch sitting at 2pm. We had a nice wine with lunch and it was a very pleasant day on the train just watching the scenery go by – small towns, snowy fields, partially frozen rivers and snowy mountains. The mountains got higher and higher all day until we reached Mt Robson, the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies. It was apparently very rare to see the top as it was an unusually clear day. We also passed a huge frozen waterfall, the Simpson’s Falls, which was very impressive.

There were a few delays on the way and the train was three hours late getting to Jasper. Coupled with the one hour time difference, it was 7:30pm by the time we detrained. Lots of the doors were frozen shut as it was -16 degrees. It took ages to get our bags but was only a short walk to our hotel.  We were still very cold by the time we got there! We had a quick bite to eat and went to bed. A lovely relaxing day watching the world go by.

Day 7 – Jasper. We decided to have a day seeing the sights of Jasper which is in the northern Rocky Mountains. We put on all our ski gear to walk around the town as it was still minus 14 degrees. Other tourists were dressed similarly but the locals seemed to mostly wear jeans and coats!

We walked around the shops and the historic fire station, town hall, train station and museum, which gave a history of the first explorers in the region and the development of the railway and town. It must have been very grim in the freezing cold winters living in log huts with no electricity! It gave us all a real appreciation of how easy our life is now and how benign our coastal climate is in Australia. We spent a long time at the museum as it was warm.

We had a late lunch and went back to the hotel. Matthew went to the gym while we warmed up. We ate dinner and then went to the movies. There were only two choices so we saw the new Star Wars movie. It was quite good but the story line was pretty much the same as the previous seven movies. The theatre was a reasonable size and very busy but we reckoned that there is not much else to do in Jasper!

Day 8 – Jasper. I thought we had booked an ice walk in the Maligne canyon for this day; however, Matthew had secretly booked for me to go ice climbing with him. He was shouting me for the full day experience, which was very generous because it was quite expensive! He told me as we were walking to the pickup point. Katie and Jessica weren’t climbing but were coming along for the hike.

We went to the store and got fitted out with crampons, helmets and harnesses. Our guide was Daryl who told us he was the youngest Canadian to summit Mt Everest in 2002 at age 25. He was really nice and told us heaps about mountaineering in the Rockies. We drove to the Maligne Canyon about 20 minutes away and went for a 2km hike down to see the canyon. It was very spectacular with a narrow deep canyon with ice shelves and a raging glacial stream. At the bottom we hopped off the path and started walking back up the stream. We were walking on ice with running water underneath. It was quite fun and exciting.

We came to a spot where Daryl couldn’t get through and he spent a little time testing various routes. Eventually he took two long strides on to the rocks in flowing water then stepped onto the ice shelf which was about 100mm thick. The ice promptly gave way and he plunged waist deep into the freezing water! We helped pull him out and then had to trek back up the hill to his car. He decided that he would need to change his clothes to avert frostbite so we were not going to get to that particular ice cliff.

After a quick detour back to town we set off again, this time with a 30-minute drive to the Marmot Basin ski area. We walked a short distance into the forest to an enormous ice cliff with spectacular views all over the valley, which Daryl called the Edge of the World. I was the first one to abseil over the cliff edge. I haven’t done abseiling since Grade 11 at school and was actually terrified. All the bulky clothes, harness, crampons and unfamiliar ice cliff made it very intimidating. Matthew followed me down and then the guide, Daryl. There was no way to get out without climbing back up the 20-metre ice wall.

We had some lessons on how to toe your crampons into the ice and how to get your ice picks to stick into the ice. Matthew made the first practice ascent and made it to the top and back down. I only got three quarters of the way up and was so exhausted and my hands were so cold that I had to come down again. Sometimes you have your whole body weight supported by the crampon in the toe of one foot. Lying on the ice also makes you cold – very very cold! It was also minus 18 degrees!

We did a few more small climbs to try to improve our technique.  Daryl then climbed up to the top easily and then Matt and I had to do our actual final ascent by ourselves. Matt made it to the top but needed a little assistance for the last metre over a large ice hump. The guide got Jessie and Katie, who were watching from the top, to belay the ropes and haul him up. I was very apprehensive about my final climb. I made it half way, but again was so exhausted and cold I couldn’t go on. Jessie was calling encouragement but in the end I had to admit defeat. I told the guide I couldn’t make it and was actually very scared. The guide was totally calm and said don’t worry. It took the combined efforts of Daryl, Katie, Matt and Jessie to pull me about five metres with several pulleys attached to the harness. It was very hard holding two ice picks and the rope and trying to walk up the ice. They got me to the top with very battered knees, shins and fingers. We were all totally frozen by the time we got back to our room.

Our guide said ice climbing was Type 2 Fun - good to look back on when you have stopped but not always fun at the time. I had to agree. I am glad I have done it but won’t do it again!

That night we went to a nice warm cosy pub for dinner, but we hadn’t realised that accompanied minors are not allowed in pubs in Canada. We had just ordered a drink when Jessica was asked for ID. Apparently pubs can be fined $10,000 if minors are found on the premises, but restaurants are not. The restaurant next door was very nice though, also with a roaring fire.

Day 9 – Jasper. We went on a wildlife tour of Jasper National Park. It was very entertaining but sadly we didn’t see a lot of wildlife. Caribou are generally only found further north, and there were no signs of moose, wolves or coyotes, although they are definitely all in the area. Grizzly bears and black bears are very common in the summer months and often come in to town looking for food and need to be relocated. The local golf course has a resident grizzly bear who lives on the fairway. You have to sign a waiver against bear attacks before you can play! Bears are omnivores and eat 90% plants so he just goes around tearing up and eating plants and then moves onto the next hole! The gardeners then come and replace all the plants for him to eat next time he goes round. Golfers just skip the hole he is on when they come through.

All the bears were hibernating, so we didn’t see any; however we saw heaps of elk with huge antlers and lots of big-horned sheep. They also hang around the town as they are safer from wolves and coyotes if they are closer to people. We also saw some beaver dams and were amazed at the size of the trees the beavers would fell to build the dams with - up to 40cm in diameter!

It was minus 20 degrees at this point and the forecast was for the temperature to drop further over the next few days. We had a quiet night as we were setting off early the next morning, heading to Lake Louise for Christmas.

Cheers,

Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie & Molly

At the Ice hockey.

Steam clock.

Vancouver Train Station.

View from the train.

Matthew Ice climbing.