Canada – the Alien Next Door – Day 3 – The Jasper tourist loop
Day 3 is fully scheduled. We are given an itinerary review at our
8AM breakfast and STRONGLY CAUTIONED not to be the last on the bus. We managed despite accidentally locking ourselves out of the room safe with all our desirables inside – security has its price. After breakfast, a
9AM lecture by our Canadian co-leaderBarry on Canadian people and politics build on the theme of successive immigration. I had somehow never thought about what was going on in Canada next door while the US was experiencing its two hundred years of history. I hope I will never take Canada as lightly again. At
10AM, the group clears its collective head from all that back-room political talk with a ranger-led nature walk around the periphery of the lake. I would have liked to go the whole route, but we were due back at the lodge by
11AM to purchase “lunch on our own.” That’s codespeak for “we’d have no hope of getting you all out on time if we tried to organize lunch for you.” We munched and crunched sandwiches from the downstairs deli so that by
12 noon we were all on the bus to Maligne Lake.
12:30 – more sheep at a road turnout. More photos.
1:30 – on a boat tour of Maligne Lake. This interglacial gem was put onthe Canadian maps by a woman who had lost her 20-years – older husband and both parents, within a short space, wanted to get away from her life, came to Jasper and married her 20-years-younger tour guide, a “Meti” (half Indian, half Anglo) who led her to Maligne Lake. (“She was a cougar!” says tour guide Mark). We take a boat tour out to the Photo Opportunity which makes all the post cards – a little island with a small grove of pine trees just off the shore. (See the Opportunity above).
3:30: Bus back to Jasper lodge.
4:45: we blow off a lecture on Rocky Mountain wildlife adaptation strategies and go swimming. The Lodge includes a lovely 88 degree pool with lots of sun, not too many children… very QUIET – no one lecturing or asking questions, blessed peace.
5:45: We leave the swimming pool,return to our little cabin/haven to dress leisurely for dinner. Dinner is outside on the deck with a 180-degree lake and mountan view, fresh air and all the outdoors to dissipate the chatter of conversation.
9PM: The deck is the place to be, with the lake still glimmering, the late summer sun still loaning a glow to the sky, and a storm visibly gathering, with clouds billowing grandly as if to belittle the mountains’ puny pretensions. The wind picks up; the mosquitoes are gone, the stars are playing hide and seek beyond the clouds.
I have to keep reminding myself: It’s probably not this perfect in February. But for now – Wow!
Allyson Johnson 