JASPER-FALL 2006-

SEPT 5- 2006 COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS CAMPGROUND

Well camp is sret for the night #2 in these spectacular mountains. The only 3 sounds I can hear at the moment is the constant sound of the waterfall just behind my camp, the random crackle of my neighbours fire, and the sliminess/ squishiness of my pasta noodles when I take a bite. I would say all in all its quite peacefull.
Tonight unlike last night I am out in the stix. The only civilization around here would be the Columbia icefield center which is more like a tourist info building which probably has normal daytime hours. At the camp there isn’t even a check in booth. You do it yourself. Fill out your envelope, deposit your money and drop it inside a little drop box. Pretty neat.

So I arrived in Edmonton yesterday in the early afternoon. The flights went smoothly as did my arrival. I landed, went to pick up the rental car and heading into Edmonton for a quick stop to meet up with my bud Eli. I have been to Edmonton plenty of times as a child but never really hung out there as an adult. I headed to White Ave which you would call the little hip street of Edmonton with coffee shops, record stores, and some bookstores. I met up with Eli on this street for a quick hang session and then off to the west. The Canadian Rockies.
This part of the rockies is quite different then their southern parts. Since they are farther up north there’s awhole different ecosystem which means different plant life, animals and even climate. My opinon. They are more grand and definitely a lot more green.
So it took me until about sunset to reach jasper. The drive up was amazing. Had a rental car so I just cruised, blared the music and had all windows down as well as the sun roof. I definitely thought I would arrive in the dark but due to my heavy foot at the time I made it with just a little light left. I drove through jasper just to get situated and then headed to my campsite which was right outside of town which meant in the morning I could wake up and get all the provisions I still didn’t have and needed. Due to this campsite being close to town I had running water, showers, and nice bathrooms all of which I didn use at all but did pay for. Oh well.
I set up my tent and then headed back into town for some dinner at jasper pizza place. The peach juice there was unreal. I have no clue what it was but all I know as a child I have had plenty of glasses of this stuff and its always been in Canada. I don’t think it’s a “Canadian” thing (maybe it is?) but it’s the only place I have had it thus far. After dinner I went to the grocery store to get some things for breakfast in the morning and a couple other random items.

So today I woke upm broke down camp and went back into town to grab a few more essentials (socks, food, stove, gas). My plan for today was after this was all done I would head down south on the icefields parkway which would bring me to the Columbia icefields where I was going to a more remote place to camp for the net couple days. The drive from jasper to the icefields is about 103 km (70 miles or so) and I had all day to do it so I pulled over almost everywhere I could to check out the views, lakes, rivers and if there was wildlife to check them out as well.
the first lake I came across-name unknown- was tucked back a little ways from the highway so I followed the trail. The lake wasn’t a huge lake of any sorts but was super super clear and because of that you couldn’t even imagine how deep it was. No end in sight. And seeing how we were in the middle of nowhere and the lake very untouched the surface had not a ripple on it. completely glassy. I hung out here for a little bit hoping from cliff to cliff watching the fish below. Then back to the car and off again.
My next stop would bring me to the athabasca falls. These falls were monstrous. Not extremely high (ive seen higher) but just the amount of water coming of them is unreal. Then the falls have made there own canyon which was cool to see all the erosion and how smooth the rock was below. I hiked down below to where the falls actually mellow out and the river begins again and walked along its bank for ways. I was wlkaing and came across this little pool upon a bank. Upon further inspection I would see what was sanded in the little pool being push around by a current. Now again this was a pool of water with no water that I could see coming into the pool but there was water running out. Weird. So I stuck my hand in the pool to see what was going on with the sand. It turns out that the water was coming from somewhere underground and that’s why the sand was being swirled around. To my right was the river so it was coming from there and to my left was the forest. It was coming from one of the mountains in an underground passage.
I then headed back to the car and continued my trip farther down south. Its so crazy. In my youth I have traveled in these parts many many times and one of the main things I remember was wildlife being everywhere. Moose, elk, caribou and bears. It seemed like everytime we would drive through these parts we would see a couple of these animals on our trips. This was all in the mid 80s. well thus far I haven’t seen anything and ive been looking in every nook and cranny for something. Actually I did see 2 caribou yesterday on the main street in jasper. Ha ha ha. Not in the forest but cruising the main street of jasper. Weird.
My next stop was the sunwapta falls which weren’t as massive as the athabasca falls but never the less still had their fury. I again crossed on the other side of the barriers (guard rail) and went hiking down below on my quest for as much eye candy as possible.
The scenery in these parts is like no other. No other.
It was now time to head to the Columbia icefields. From what I remember I had been there at least once as a child and again this would have been in the mid 80s. so when your driving up to the fields you can see the surrounding mountains with nothing but snow/ ice on them running off into the middle of a valley. You come up to the road you are supposed to turn off of to go view the athabasca glacier. The first thing you see when you pull off on this road is a sign reading “the glacier was here in 1888”. This first sign is right when you pull off the highway but your still nowhere near the glacier. You can see it but your still a very good distance from it. then as you are sstill ways away but getting closer you see signs along the road “1905/1925/1933/1948/1967/1985”. Unfucking real. Mind blowing. When you come across the 1992 marker you are actually on your feet at this time walking up to the glacier but you still look ahead and you have some major hiking to do. Scary scary scary!! When I actually came up to the glacier I realized that when I saw this sucker as a child it was by far so much more then it is now. I mean its still currently huge due to it being a massive glacier but its so incredible to actually see the difference. You can actually walk right up to the toe of the glacier and theres even a little roped off “safe section” which is actually on the ice that you can walk on. Glaciers can have undetected major crevices that if you fall in most likely you wont be coming out. Walking on it is just how it seems. You walking on a huge huge slick ice cube. Very very slippery and there is actually a certain kind of glacier algae which grows upon glacier which add to the slipperiness. This thing is unreal due to their not being many glaciers around these days and there wont be any at all in the days to come. You can actually see major amounts of water running off of the glacier/ icefields which actually have caused a river underneath the glacier and exits at its toe. Its definitely a fast paced big stream/ river. Moving very very fast so it sucks because seeing it move so fast you know all the waters coming from the ice. Its only a matter of time.
Alright the sun is down and the tempurature is dropping quickly. Must stop writing and start a fire.


SEPT 6, 2006- 2400 METERS ABOVE SEA LEVEL DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM THE COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS/ ATHABASCA GLACIER.

This is the highest I have ever been without being inside of an airplane.
So today I hiked my little ass off. Big Time. By far the longest, most tiring (the altitude), most rugged, and by far the high hike I have ever done. Theres a trail right behind my camp next to the waterfall which takes you up to the first ridge. Once reaching the first ridge I had to thin some layers, drink some water, and take a breather. Pooped. Then off to the next ridge directly above. From there I turned left following the water and came across 3 big horn sheep. I actually managed to get quite close to one of them but then upon getting the stare down I decided to back off. So off to the next ridge right above this position. Seeing how you can only see the next ridge above you do think that this must be it but in typical fashion theres always another ridge that lies on the other side.
This hiking was definitely a first so I went full steam ahead. How many times do you get to hike in these parts, and this high up. Im not passing the opportunity up. So I climbed, climbed, climbed. I was the only person on this side of the water. In the far distance I could see a couple people here and there hiking but they were on the other side of the water.
Well I reached the highest part of the trail and still had another ridge above me. due to no trail I just picked out a route and off I went. The ground texture was so amazing. Very tundra / moss like and every step felt like walking on sponge and made a nice peaceful sound. This last ridge was blocking my view of the glacier/ icefield so I needed to get up to it and was hoping that it was the last ridge in my journey. About 20 mins later the view that lay in front of my eyes at around 2400 meters was the Columbia icefield/ athabasca glacier from above, looking down at the glacier and directly across from the field. Definitely different then yesterdays. Now im looking straight across at it instead of straight up at the sucker. YEAH. IM ON TOP OF THE WORLD!!!! Ha ha ha. I sat here for a good hour or so just taking it all in. the only sound that was made was from the strong breeze of the wind. The wind definitely picks up when your on a mountain. Other then that it was one of the the most peaceful places ive been. Definitely the first time seeing the tops of mountains, the bottom of valley’s in all their glory. After taking a couple 360 degree view pictures I decided to head to another ridge behind me where I would start my descent. This last ridge I was on had a huge valley on its opposite side with a lake in the middle of it which actually fed the waterine I followed and eventually the waterfalls near camp. Again a couple thousand meters up. I followed the water back down the steep terrain which a good hour or so later eventually brought me back to camp.
Turns out the hike I did was actually used by the first nations peoples 100’s of years ago because they couldn’t pass the sunwapta pass.
Getting to camp was a relief seeing how I was pooped and pretty sore- we will see how the legs feel tomorrow-. i chilled for a second or t2 then hoped in the car to head down south towards Banff before daylight was gone. Banff was a ways from where I was and I didn’t plan on driving the whole way. Just a little cruise. About 30 mins into driving I pulled over on this little dead end road and climbed down to the river. The river was right next to the parkway and then at this point just drops into some huge rocks/ boulders and disappears about 200 feet below into this underground canyon/ cliff structure. It was so deep, jagged that you couldn’t even see the bottom. You could hear the water and feel the mist but that was pretty much it. So after a couple minutes of exploring I decided this would be a neat place to chill and play thee ole guitar so this is exactly what I did. Sat on the ledge of this werid canyon/ gorge with nothing below but rocks and jammed out for a good hour or so. After the rocking was done I headed back to the car and drove a little more ways down south before turning around and heading back to camp for the night where I cooked a meal of pasta and chilled.

SEPT 7TH. COLUMBIA ICEFIELDS CENTER

On my way back north to jasper where I will meet up with my family in the next couple days. Before actually leaving I stopped off at the icefield center to check out the exhibit and record some facts.
COLUMBIA ICEFIELD FACTS:
-Icecap is about 325km squared and some 30 stories deep in certain parts.
-athabasca glacier in its center is about 100 stories deep and is about 70 stories deeper then the icecap due to a depression in the mountain in which the glacier sits on.
- the icefield sits on top of the continental divide and actually feeds the arctic ocean (thru the athbasca river), the pacific ocean (thru the Columbia river), and the atlantic ocean (thru the north Saskatchewan river).
- the icefield sits atop at 3460 meters
-today the athbasca glacier has retreated almost 1.5 kms (.9 miles)
-inside the glacier is blue due to the ice have no air bubbles trapped inside.
-in 1870 the athbasca glacier contained an estimated 1013 million cubic meters of ice. By 1995 it had shrunk to 600 million cubic meters. A loss of 40% in 125 years
-if every person in north America (285 million people) was given their own square meter to stand on you could fit the whole population with room for a couple more people
- in 1995 samples were collected from the ice and have been collected since 1932. Since then they show a definite increase of auto exhaust & ddt.

On my way to jasper I stopped off at a place named parker ridge which was another hike. I pulled over and hiked about 40 mins to the top of the first ridge to check out the view. Below in the deep canyon lay a river which was being fed from another glacier which was in full view from this point. This glacier was in another valley completely opposite the athbasca glacier where I was yesterday. I chilled here for a bit until I had a slight headache and was still sore from yesterdays hike so I turned around and headed back down.