DLTK's Alaska Road Trip
Day 20: Grande Cache to Jasper
Moose near Jasper
Everyone was excited as we set out this morning because mom had reserved a trail ride for dad and the girls. When we arrived, dad read on the chalkboard that they’d cancelled us. They said that they were double booked but we figured that someone came along with a more expensive ride and so they chose to bump us.
The girls ended up crying and mom had to calm dad down – it seems he gets really mad when someone makes his little girls cry. Boyfriends of the future BEWARE.
Mom had noticed a canoe rental place in W.A. Switzer Provincial Park, So we crossed our fingers and headed there. Everything worked out just fine! We rented two canoes at the Adventure Lodge along with paddles and life vests and headed over to Blue Lake to start our big adventure.
Despite the fact that we’d decided earlier to put dad and Kaitlyn together in a canoe and mom and Tasha together in the second canoe, we were so accustomed to pairing up the more adventurous dad and Tasha and the less adventurous mom and Kaitlyn that we did it again on the canoes.
It took a bit of practice but mom and Kaitlyn got their technique down and we were off. We took a lap around the lake and then headed down Jarvis Creek. Right at the mouth of the creek we saw a beaver lodge and a mom moose with her calf. We stared at them and they stared at us and we all decided to leave each other alone.
The creek was challenging with lots of twists and turns and narrow parts. We all ran aground a couple of times and Kaitlyn became an expert at pushing off with her paddle to get us back in the water. Tasha learned how to steer and became quite good at paddling on whichever side she needed to in order to avoid the obstacles.
Our only misadventure was when mom got a baby dragonfly in her nose and struggled to get it back out again. Yuck! There’s nothing worse than having something flap around inside of your nostril. After about 3 hours we headed back to our RV, happy but exhausted.
We continued on to Jasper and stayed at Whistler’s campground. We rode the crowded tram up Whistler’s Mountain for supper on the summit.
Wildlife viewing was good again today. We saw squirrels, big horned sheep, elk and deer. Mom snapped lots of shots including a pretty good one of a crow.