The Long Trek to the Rockies

Did we mention on our previous post that the mountain biking competition/exhibition known as Crankworx was in its final day while we were in Whistler? This event is one of the largest in North America that was started in Whistler a number of years ago, and it draws a substantial crowd over its 9 days. Suffice it to say that some of our fellow Mountaineers went for a stroll in the South Village (the main drag of Whistler) and could barely move for the crowds.  That's part of the reason we didn't take any pictures this time.

So on to the two full days of our Rainforest to Gold Rush route from Whistler to Jasper, with an overnight stop in Quesnel.

We had been impressed with the amazing crew, service and food on our first half day; the 14 hours from Whistler to Quesnel just solidified our impression. Even with a one-hour stop on a siding in a rather unexciting spot waiting for a southbound freight train.

We found out that, even though the Rocky Mountaineer usually has precedence over freights, it fairly often has to 'pull over' onto a siding to make way for freight trains. This is because the Mountaineer usually travels with only 7 or 8 rail cars in total and will actually fit on all of the sidings, whereas freight trains can now be up to 3 MILES, or almost 400 cars, long and definitely would not.

Rather than try to explain much about the trip, we'll just post some photos and video with appropriate captions.

Going along the Fraser River:

Number 10 Downing Street - of course, there's a story for this one. It seems that in the mid-1800s, one long-time settler of the remote area around McGillvray was chosen by the British to perform a census of the local population. England was not too popular at the time, and to show this poor fellow that they didn't appreciate him working on its behalf, somebody scratched the words 'No. 10 Downing St.' over the door to his shack. Obviously England's Prime Minister wasn't too popular either. The words have been repainted a few times, but it is apparently the original little shack.

Onboard the Rocky Mountaineer. Some people might say that the experience is indescribable...so we'll put up a few more photos instead.

Eggs Benedict

Ahi Tuna for lunch

Chicken Breast

Viewing from the Observation level

The dining room

Larry on the open observation deck.

These next three are all at Anderson Lake:

Back to the Fraser River:

The First Nations in the area have relied on fishing from the Fraser River for as long as they have lived here. It is the only river in BC where all four of the major kinds of salmon run each year - Chinook, Coho, Sockeye and Pink - and it still provides a livelihood to many fishermen. In the photo above, you can see the drying racks that the local First Nations fishermen use as well as the fish ladder, that concrete structure by the canyon wall, that allows the fish to get past the extreme current in the whitewater area to move farther upstream.

With the one-hour delay around 4:00, our arrival into Quesnel was pushed back a bit, but not much as we had made good time when the track was free and clear. When it seemed we were not going to get there early enough to go for dinner, the culinary crew got to work and created a small meal of chicken breast in a delicious sauce over rice, and baked oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert. It is truly amazing what a team of 3 can create in the small galley they have to work with!

This is the 'snack' we were served before
getting into Jasper since that was
also a late arrival. It was all we needed after
all the other great food we'd had during the day.

We didn't see much of Quesnel. It was dark when we got there and the fog came almost down to the ground when we left. It seems like a nice little town where most people are dependent on forestry, logging or wood processing for their livelihoods. And it doesn't take itself too seriously. We didn't have any opportunity to look for them during the day, but the town has painted all of the fire hydrants as little people - the one in front of the train station is an engineer, for example. Our transfer bus driver told us that it is a fun walking tour to follow the brochure and find them all.

It was another long day, with a few short stops, and we started to move into the Rocky Mountains in the last 3 or so hours. Our first big sighting was Mount Robson, highest in the Canadian Rockies at around 13,000 feet.

The Fraser River - again - near Prince George

An Osprey guarding its nest. It was getting dangerous for the birds
to make their nests on top of live hydro poles, so BC Hydro
put up 'fake' ones with platforms on top just for the Osprey.

We even managed to see a nice rainbow over the Fraser River.

Mount Robson

Hope you enjoyed these photos. On the agenda for Wednesday is a half-day tour of Jasper National Park in the area of the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge where we are staying, with some free time in the afternoon (to catch up on blog posting!!!). Actually, anyone who has checked Monica's Instagram today will have already seen some of the pictures. But we'll put more of that in the next post.

First Day on the Train - Vancouver to Whistler

This morning was an early start to get us to the train for an early departure. Being Sunday morning there was very little traffic so our trip to the train station in West Vancouver was quick and easy.

The train is very comfortable and the staff are all very pleasant, knowledgeable and witty. We will post some photos of the train tomorrow as we will be on board from about 7:15 A.M. until the evening, when we reach our next stop at Quesnel (that's Que-Nel if you want to get the pronunciation right).

A brief overview of the observation level. This is only in
the Gold Leaf service. The Red Leaf service is a single-
level car with no outdoor observation area.

The Gold Leaf service is in the double decker car at the end of the train. The observation level is on top, with windows that also cover much of the roof to give expansive views of the mountains. The seats are very comfy leather and there's more leg room than your average business class airplane seat. This car also has an outside observation area at the end on the lower level. The rest of that level is taken up with a dining room that seats one-half of the car's passengers at once, and the galley. This means that meal service is split - when the first group goes down for breakfast, the other gets coffee, tea, and scones to tide everyone over. So far, we've only had breakfast, since we arrived in Whistler right around noon, but it was different from the ordinary and quite delicious. We're looking forward to tomorrow's lunch already!

We've already seen quite a bit, but the train has been climbing from sea level up into Whistler's elevation of 2,215 feet. Lots of trees so far, and our train hosts who give us commentary as we go (and point out the best photo ops!) have said that things will start looking different tomorrow. Here are some photos of what we've seen this morning.

Looking back on the Lion's Gate Bridge as we leave Vancouver

Howe Sound - that little house on the point, a real fixer-upper, is
for sale for $18 million, but it comes with quite a bit
of land and that glorious view!

Porteau Cove

The Cheakamus River

The train's engine is just about to enter that tunnel ahead

We had decided that, since we had already done the Peak2Peak Gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, we would take another seaplane tour instead and get a view of the mountains from another angle. The day was looking quite nice until Monica started composing this blog post. It got windy and the clouds darkened down. Just as the phone rang with the news that our flight would not be going, the first raindrops fell and the first thunder rang out. Oh, well...good thing we had made reservations for dinner at Sidecut, the hotel's restaurant, and wouldn't have to go out in the rain to get anywhere.

Our hotel room for the night. There's even a gas
fireplace in the corner for the winter season.

So this turned out to be a bit of a lazy afternoon before we get into the really interesting sightseeing tomorrow.

A Day and a bit in Vancouver...

The last time we were here we visited our friend Lance, and covered quite a bit of ground...Stanley Park, Capilano, and even Whistler.  But we also had our share of rain. This time Lance is out of town on vacation so we've had to make our own fun - not that we had any trouble doing that.

We arrived yesterday, Friday, and got settled in at the Hotel Vancouver. Then we went for a bit of a walk down to Canada Place and along the Seawall Walk as far as Coal Harbour. One thing we both noted was that Vancouver reminded us of Sydney, Australia but on a somewhat smaller scale. Stanley Park vs. the Botanical Garden, the 9 O'Clock Gun vs. Mrs. Maquarrie's Chair, Canada Place vs. the Sydney Opera House, but the same orientation to the water and dependence on it to get around. The Alaska cruise season hasn't quite finished yet, so of course we had to have a photo of a ship...yes, a cruise ship is leaving port WITHOUT us on board!!

We booked a seaplane flightseeing trip for Saturday afternoon while we were out, and had dinner at one of the locations of the Cactus Club Cafe, a Vancouver restaurant chain started by noted local chef Rob Feenie. After that it was back to the hotel and an early night.

This morning, having awakened around 6:00 since we're still not acclimatized to the 3 hour time difference, we decided to make an early start. We had complimentary tickets to the Vancouver Lookout, the city's answer to the CN Tower, but only about one third as high at 553 feet. We got there so early that there were only about a dozen other people with us, making for a relaxed wander around.

After that, we thought we would work off breakfast by taking a longer walk around the Seawall Walk. The walk actually goes all the way around Stanley Park, under the Lion's Gate Bridge, around English Bay and farther...we only had a couple of hours before our seaplane tour so we walked almost as far as the 9 O'Clock Gun so we could get some nice photos of the Vancouver skyline, and then back again. We made our 10,000 step count before 11:30 in the morning!!

There are a few houseboats in the Coal Harbour Marina; we liked these.
Probably cheaper than the condos that overlook it.

Looking back from Stanley Park

The Vancouver Rowing Club - you can take
lessons too!

A water park along the Seawall Walk. Quite popular in the
hot weather.

Our seaplane tour was only about 20 minutes long, but gave us an idea of just how big Greater Vancouver is and how close the 'mountains' are to the city. We were in a small deHavilland Beaver carrying 5 passengers plus the pilot - Larry was in the co-pilot's seat and found it a little tough to get into, but nice for the kind of tour we were doing. Here are some photos and video of the sightseeing.

Our plane and pilot

The Lion's Gate Bridge coming out of Stanley Park

Once we walked back to the hotel we were pooped, to say the least, and spent a nice hour at the hotel's pool area. We had dinner at Coast, a seafood restaurant about a 5-minute walk from the hotel.

We had a second floor table overlooking the bar/seafood bar.

Larry's Lobster Pot Pie...Lobster Mac'n'cheese, eat your heart out!!

It was so good that we're thinking of going again when we get back to Vancouver after the train tour. Well, it will be an early start tomorrow - see you on the train!

Did You Miss Us? Finally off again...

It's been a long time coming, but we're finally settled in to the new house and ready - REALLY ready - for a vacation. Renovations are done, old house is sold and we're down to a handful of boxes that need to be unpacked. This has been the longest stretch without going away that we've had in quite a number of years.

This trip will start in Canada, with an adventure on the Rocky Mountaineer Railway, round trip Vancouver. There's very little actual downtime here, so we're tacking on a few days in California since we're on the 'Left Coast' anyway, spending our time in the Napa Valley.

We've wanted to experience the Rocky Mountaineer for a long time, so we're really looking forward to the 10 days of the tour. We hope that you'll enjoy following along on the blog, although it will probably be more pictures than words this time.

Of course, no blog can start without Franklin's sign of approval. In this case he's checking out the backyard instead of the suitcases....

Be back to you in a few days!