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Jasper AB to Emerald Lake BC - 9,955 kms

Jul 25, 2014

Thumbnail is a shot shortly after we set out this morning and yes there was more snow overnight on the peaks and the day today was grey and misty and cold but we were nice and comfortable. God bless grip heaters, merino long johns, padded oil skin pants and the usual bike clobber. 

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I passed up a shot of a family of deer / caribou / ? laying down but this was too good to pass up. If I hadn't diligently thrown unnecessary paper in the bin last night I could have identified them.

Not surprisingly Norm got a bit ahead of me while I took the previous shot and I was a couple of cars behind him when I noticed his stop light come on and then something black bound over the guard rail and when I checked with him at the next stop I discovered he had experienced a close encounter of the bear kind, a black bear to be precise. While I assumed he was slowing down he was in fact in the process of an emergency stop as a big black bear had climbed over the guardrail and toppled a bit as it went over and as it landed in the road in front of Norm they both had time to look at each other and register an 'oh shit' moment and Norm figuring at best even with an emergency stop he would just hit the bear which would likely upset him a bit he applied the brakes and was delighted how well the bike performed, as for the bear he spun around and bounded back over the rail into the forest. Phew, good outcome for all concerned. No thought of taking any photos there!

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The Athabasca Falls. What an awesome demonstration of how the force of incredible amounts of water plus sand particles can carve through limestone rock like a diamond drill. Wow, loved it. 

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And soon after, Sunwapta Falls, yet another example of the same process.

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And a shot as we were heading for the Columbia Ice field.

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And this is the Athabasca Glacier. Where I took the photo from was where the glacier extended to in 1844 so it has retreated bit. The peak to the left is called Snowdome and has a summit of 3,456m and the one to the right is Andromeda with a summit of 3,450m.

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Shortly after the last spot the GPS said we were crossing Rousseau Creek but I guess with compliments of the snow this is what we found.

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And Crowfoot Glacier shortly after.

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We lunched and fuelled up at the Saskatchewan River Crossing.

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We passed through incredible rocky canyons like moving from one cathedral to another intercepted by rocks pushing upwards like great long plinths reminicent of stonhenge, gothic cathedrals and fort battlements. One of the outcrops.

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We headed to Bow Summit and would probably have been looking across at it from the view point but it was covered in cloud. This is a shot across Bow Lake. There was also a sign to Observation Peak which was 10,214m, needless to say we didn't see this one either.

 

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And a shot of the disintegration of the hillside beside the crowfoot glacier. We have ridden through many avalanche areas where not only snow sweeps down but also the rock underneath and this is an example of what happens as the ice expands under stone then melts and washes down the hillside. Many dramatic examples today.

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And lastly the view onto Emerald Lake from our room tonight.

Last two Night's Accommodation:

Chateau Jasper, 96 Geikie Street, Jasper, AB, T0E 1E0

Good sized room and bathroom combo. Plenty of wardrobes/ Free wifi and parking. On-site gym, pool, hot tub and restaurant where we celebrated Danny's 44th birthday to the lovely sounds of piano music which somehow seemed fitting given that Tania is a pianist. Older building than some but maintained well. Reasonable value. Easy walking distance to where there is more activity in the town if that's what you want. Staff very helpful and friendly, laundry available in neighbouring building so all our laundry sorted for $4.00 so heaps better than hand washing in the room and every available surface being used as hanging space. (So far we have only had 1 room with a clothes line and that was a night I didn't wash).

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