Ha, well not later that night, but a new day and I'm now in Vancouver! :) Zooming back in time to last monday I'll recap a bit about what I got up to in Jasper.

As said before the route through the national park to get there was spectacular, as the open spaces turn into white capped mountains. The road has plenty of pull offs where you can stop and enjoy the view, and these often have signs naming the mountains in that area and a plaque with some historical information. My hotel in Jasper was the Amethyst Lodge, which was pretty good, only spoiled by the load of rowdy British snowboarding teenagers who were staying there.
The biggest plus for me though, was that the fact that my hotel room had a view of the trains passing through town, and I spent the first evening I was there just watching the activity and listening in to the radio traffic from the trains on my scanner.

On Tuesday I decided to take advantage of the excellent weather to walk up a small mountain near the town. To someone fat, unfit and used to living at sea level it was hard work but I made it to the top in the end, as I was rewarded with fantastic views over the town and the nearby lakes. Of course while I was slowly working my way up, the locals were literally running by me! Sadly I didn't see the Bighorn sheep that had been at the top earlier as a family walking ahead of me with a dog had frightened them away, but I did see a Grey Wolf as he trotted across the car park just after I arrived. As is the was such things the camera was locked in the boot at the time so I couldn't get a photo. In the afternoon I took a walk along a trail through town that parallels the railway line. I was rewarded with plenty of good photos while I walked including one of the Canadian as it made its way from Winnipeg to Vancouver.

Wednesday I spent a day driving around the local lakes. I first went to Patricia lake where they built the prototype ice ship in 1943. This was to test the feasibility of the Habbakuk concept, which is of interest to me as I built a model of this ship in 1/3000 some years ago. After this I went onto Pyramid lake, where I was able to get good photos of Pyramid Mountain, and a chance to walk around an island in the middle of a frozen lake. After this I crossed over the highway and headed to Maligne gorge. The snow here was quite conpacted and slippery so I didn't venture far - I saw the tour guides with crampons! I did get a chance to photograph a frozen waterfall so it wasn't a wasted trip. Next stop on the road was Medicine lake which was again completely frozen. there was a story on the historical plaque about how locals had tried to stop the natural drainage of the lake by thowing mattress and bundles of old magazine into the sink holes! since the road only went on to Maligne lake, thats where I had to go, but it wasn't very good as none of the trails here were walkable. The snow was melting but was still a foot deep, and my being heavy meant I went up to my knees every other step, so I didn't get much further than the carpark.

Thursday was the trip to Kamloops, which took about 4 hours and since I wasn't feeling too well completely drained me. The motel there was ok, not great not terrible, since I was only there one night, not a problem. On Friday morning I went for a walk into town and managed to catch a train at the CP depot. Sadly photos weren't great due to obstructions and the sun which was very bright and pointing directly against the camera. The trip to Vancouver in the afternoon was also 4 hours and uneventful, but again I was exhausted and could only manage a short walk in the local area in the evening. I was still suffering from the effects of whatever bug I'd picked up.