Day 16 – 06-Oct-2007
I slept in until 8:30am which is a first for me in a long time considering I was sleeping in my tent. It was definitely warmer in Jasper than the previous night at the Columbia Icefields. I met my camping neighbours Rene from Quesnel, BC and Gail from Prince George, BC.
My only goal for picture taking today was Mount Robson. This mountain has its own weather pattern and it is kind of hit and miss for taking pictures as it tends to be clouded in most of the time.
I headed back west and crossed back into British Columbia. The one way trip of 85km ended up taking me two hours as I stopped a few times along the way. I managed to get a few shots of the mountain about half covered in clouds. I decided to wait it out for the afternoon as I had no other pressing engagements. I hauled out the stove and made some soup and noodles for lunch. During lunch I was talking to a couple from Edmonton who used to live in Windsor. I spoke to Dave and Marcie for quite a while as they were waiting for the mountain to come into better view as well.
The mountain was still covered. I decided to do a small hike up the trail by the Robson River where I ended up taking quite a few shots of some really small white mushrooms. I then headed back to the field where I took the previous pictures of the mountain. Things were starting to clear up. I ended up lying down in the field for an hour waiting for the clouds to move and the finally did. I met a couple from Germany who lived near Soest. I told them I lived in Germany as a military brat living outside of Lahr and on a pig farm in Soest.
I also met a professional photographer from Calgary named Anna. We talked about photography for a few minutes while waiting for some of the clouds to shift. I managed to get a few shots with barely any cloud cover. I was very happy and stroked another site to see off my list.
On the way back to Jasper I stopped to take some pictures of a moving train and the Moose and Fraser Rivers. I finally made it back to Jasper and decided to find a wireless connection to check my emails. I headed down to the residential area. I then decided to eat in town at the local Chinese restaurant as the Asian cliental ratio was quite high. The food was excellent.
There were lots of Elk in the town of Jasper itself. It is currently rutting season. A male elm will easily have 20 – 30 females following him around like a harem (lucky guy). The males are very protective. They have been known to go after people or cars that come close to them during mating season.
I went for a walk in the park and ended up at Dave and Marcie’s trailer. We ended up playing a dice game called Rummikub. We had hot apple cider and strawberry rhubarb pie for a late snack. It was very dark out by the time we finished and Dave figured I would run into the wrong four legged creature and drove me back to my campsite.
Link to pictures
