The Bald Hills and Moose Lake
Radio contact is alive and well. After hastily drafting yesterday's entry I established that whilst there's no WiFi here, the washrooms have power points and there's a good phone signal. So I bought some data. I regretted that when I looked at the cricket scores. And the news.
The railway engine pictured yesterday is part of the heritage trail around Jasper, which has a history of two competing railway companies that overstretched themselves and went bust, to be replaced by Canadian National Railways. Jasper's origins are linked to the development of Canadian railways.
We had planned to be in a queue outside Jasper's Information Centre for road permits to the Edith Cavell area by 8am. Waking at 7.30 made that a slight challenge. This benefited us, as having missed breakfast we had every excuse to visit The Bears Paw Bakery for a takeaway fresh brewed coffee and the biggest cinnamon buns you've ever seen. That was our reward for queueing for a good half hour on a cool morning chatting to a couple from Chicago.
Result. We got the permit we needed for tomorrow morning.
As we'd been waiting the sun had risen, not over the relatively close mountains (Jasper is situated in a wide bowl with most of the surrounding mountains a little way off) but over the thick haze of smoke that seemed to have blown in overnight and has remained all day.
Back to camp to get sorted, then a 50 km drive to the roadhead at Maligne Lake. On the way we passed Medicine Lake, which fills with water during the summer as the snows melt into it. The water drains through small plug holes during the winter, emerging about 17km down the valley. Various attempts have been made to block the plug holes, but the old mattresses and the bundles of magazines that were used didn't pass muster! What must be a remarkable underground cave system has yet to be explored as no suitable access point has been found.
Medicine Lake is the site of a massive fire that took place in 2015 as a result of a lightning strike. Today's first two pictures show our smoke blighted view down the lake, and the burnt trees in a picture taken from the same place. It was probably the smoke from the 2015 fire that affected Robert, Lyn and Louise's views as they passed through this area.
Having parked at Maligne we donned our boots and marched for 5 km up a gravel track lined with chirruping squirrels and chaffinch like birds, emerging at a fine lunch spot with (on a normal day) a great view across Maligne Lake. Today's view is shown in the third picture.
An English couple joined us on this first Bald Hill summit. The two couples vied to attract a resident ground squirrel without actually giving it any food (that's illegal). See 4th picture. Ground squirrels are similar to chipmunks but their heads aren't striped.
After lunch we continued on to the second and third Bald Hill summits, past willowherb flowers (5th picture) and clumps of saxifrage and moss campion. Earlier we had noted various clovers, willow, mountain avens, Indian paintbrush, heather, fringed grass of Parnassus, buttercups, fleabanes and long stalks of lousewort, to name but a few. There would be far more flowers earlier in the season - you can sense the turn towards autumn here.
Our third summit was at 2325 metres according to my GPS. Our highest point on the trip to date. The sixth picture was taken from here. We decided not to venture to a further summit, from where the smoke laden but otherwise wonderful views would have been very similar. Instead we chose a circuitous descent, on which Sue is pictured on the path, seventh down.
Arriving at a path junction after an easy descent, mainly avoiding the steep gravel up which we had ascended, we turned through pleasant woodland to visit Moose Lake (8th picture). There were now more people around as this is close to the car park. The Moose Lake loop path then emerges at Maligne Lake (9th picture), before emerging at the car park.
This was an excellent outing, albeit the would be wonderful views were blighted by the smoke haze.
We pootled back to Jasper at the statutory 60kph and called in to Papa George's Restaurant for fish and chips and large beers before heading back to camp, where the chatter of the Explore group has been replaced by the groan of a campervan's generator.
15 km with 700 metres ascent, in 5 hours. 120 km for Charlie.
15 km with 700 metres ascent, in 5 hours. 120 km for Charlie.
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