Nairn Falls and the strange place known as Whistler

Sad as we were to leave Juniper Beach, we knew that there was a ferry booked and on the way, a couple of nights in another interesting camping site - Nairn Falls. It was a longer trip there than most of our runs but again, through some great scenery and on pretty quiet roads too. We made the compulsory coffee and cake stop in Lilooet where we also topped up the truck so it didn't feel left out. We get carrot cake, it gets unleaded gas. Not quite as exciting. For info, petrol (gas) prices were around 35 cents per litre more in the remote areas than around Calgary. That is around a 25% hike. We've seen way worse % hikes in the Outer Hebrides where they can kind of justify the costs of shipping the stuff in and something close to that in Britain's grim / expensive motorway service areas.

The "Artisan Bakery" in Lilooet was as good as the reviews left about it on various social media. For once, the hype matched the reality and the queue when we arrived proved the point too. For a flavour of the place have a look at this Facebook page link. An elderly lady in a wheelchair was pushed into the queue by what we strongly suspect was her daughter, who then proceeded to buy her the biggest pastry in the place. Normal ones were huge but this was obscene. Poor mum attempted to eat some if it, then the daughter, with quite a glint in her eye, said that she would wrap it up, take it home and have it later on. We fear that this game has been played out many times before - mum's purse was used to pay too.

Walking back to the truck and Airstream along the main road we had to admire the colour choice of this B and B owner, which was reflected in the name of the establishment:

It really did not enhance his oldtimer car though:

All in all not quite to our taste but it showed serious focus and determination:

The rest of the trip went well until the crew squealed just as we were at a junction outside Pemberton. The captain momentarily wondered what was wrong. No oncoming traffic, we had only just started to move across the adjoining road.  The Airstream was following us, no funny noises from the truck. Then from watching her outstretched finger and deciphering the squeaks she was making, he saw a bear just ambling across the road towards the town. The crew had seen so may little rivers and stream on the way, checked them for bears fishing for salmon and never seen one. Then, heading into a little town where we guess that food scraps could be found, we spot one. Such is life.

Narin Falls campsite was very quiet indeed. Few folks there (the season was coming to an end) and lots of free pitches. They were all well spaced and secluded anyway so it felt as though we were in our own bit of forest. At the camp entrance there was a nice sign saying that there had been bear activity in the area that week and from the notes it sounded very "normal". So, we followed the caution notices on the picnic tables:

and dug out the spray just in case.

It was a great spot and of course, with no audience, we backed the trailer into our space with no trouble. Typical:

Very peaceful spot indeed and we slept well after the now regular BBQ dinner.

We'd booked 2 nights there so we could drive into Whistler and explore it for a day. There was good and bad in that it turned out. First of all we found the local waste disposal site in town which also had a sanitation dump facility for RV's and trailers. We would need that the following day as there was no facility at the camp site. Pit toilets and nothing more. Close by was a good local hardware store where the captain bought some stuff to fix the things we'd broken on the Airstream. Actually broken is a bit unfair. We found that a domed nut had come off one of the bolts securing the awning frame and when we checked another one was loose too. So, a new nut / bolt combo and some threadlocker was purchased together with some BBQ cleaner to spruce it up after our final meal and prepare to hand it back to Martin and Inge.

Then we wandered into one of the best bakeries just across the street:

Too much choice. Way too much. We ended up buying a couple of raspberry and white chocolate scones that we consumed back at  the campsite later. They were very very good indeed. Up to the standard of the Olive Tree café in Bangor, Northern Ireland and that is quite an accolade.

We then drove into the "Village" of Whistler stopped in an expensive car park and were suitably unimpressed with the place. It was kind of a big outlet shopping village with hotels around it and a Disneyworld feel:

The gondola trips up the mountain were not operating - we were in the dead season between summer holiday folks and the arrival of the ski tourists. Shame but so be it and that made the place quieter. We had to take the typical touristy picture of the Olympic rings:

Sorry about that. Whistler was one of the venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics and trades on that rather well. After a good walk around we decided that Whistler was not like the rest of the places we'd visited and not in a good way either. Kind of a make-believe place after the reality of the Rockies and other national park areas. Glad we saw it, not sad to leave it though.

We were a bit sad that evening though. Firstly it rained a lot so no BBQ (meaning we didn't give it a proper final tidy up) and it was going to be our last night sleeping in the Airstream. As you can see from the table, we consoled ourselves with a large bottle of water. #lifeontheedge:

It was a rather inviting place to be and it had enabled us to see all sorts of wonderful places:.

in rather a lot of comfort. We were going to miss this lifestyle.

Juniper Beach and puppy time

You know how sometimes things work out way better than you imagined they could? Well, three nights in Juniper Beach was pretty much like that for us. We'd booked ourselves in as Martin and Inge said it was nice, just beware of the trains passing by. It had power and water so that was good too. Location - beach might be a bit misleading as it is by a river not the sea but hey, on the maps it looked good. It was also close enough to places called Cache Creek and Ashcroft that had food stores too. 

So, we duly arrived mid afternoon after another lovely drive.  After Mr Google telling us that highway #1 was closed, we were quite blasé about the reported diversion on this route. Only Mr Google was right this time. The detour involved driving around the south of Mara Lake:

which proved to be a real bonus. Pretty stopping spots to make tea and admire the views:

and to check out the strange to us lake houseboat things that look ugly and seem pointless as they are on a very restricted area of water and have very few real landing places:

As you can see, some private owners bring their own AstroTurf with them, the rental folks make do with just a gangplank:.

The setting was idyllic though and it looked like a pretty sedentary lifestyle with minimal fuel consumption for the outboard motors hanging on the stern of the things as there is not far to travel. Not a style of boating that we "get" or understand but clearly it works for some folks.

As we approached Juniper Beach the scenery changed once more. The country is full of surprises. This is the view back up the hill from the site:

and this is looking back at the river from up on high as it snakes through the valley:

The artistic composition of this image appealed to the captain - a reflection of the landscape and the crew in the almost clean paintwork of the tow truck:

No idea why it appeals really. Kind of a petrolhead thing probably.

Arriving in the camp we found it way busier then many had been and with way less separation between the pitches. Naturally this was the one where the captain made a mess of reversing the Airstream into our spot (poor instructions to the crew on arrival, all his fault) but a kindly neighbour directed things to get us into the right place. Typically nobody witnessed the previous night at Blanket Creek when it all went rather well. So much like berthing a boat it is untrue.

We arrived just as it was all kicking off there. The normally peaceful location had witnessed an assault by one "interesting" camper on an elderly guy who had a heart condition. The aggressive person was in a scruffy old converted ambulance that looked and smelled pretty disgusting. The police arrived and after some persuasion took the man away to spend a night in the cells. Not quite the quiet gentle campsite that we had become so used to.

Things improved rapidly though. The kindly neighbours (we will call them Mike and Kathie, just as everyone else does) were very friendly and helpful with local information and advice. They also had the cutest puppy called Willow who was a joy:

Her antics and cuddles were just wonderful to watch and experience.

Ashcroft was visited to raid the local bakery and the crew managed to book a hairdresser appointment there too. The bakery had a good choice of bad things to enjoy - see some on their Facebook page weblink . They also hosted the two fattest paramedics we'd ever seen, who were busy getting their lunch to take-away. How they would manage to attend to anyone on the floor and then get vertical again was beyond us. We tried to stay healthy whilst in the area. Still all the folks were very friendly and the supermarket had all we needed. 

We returned to the campsite and walked around the river watching the salmon running upstream to spawn. Quite a sight indeed as there were loads of them. When we lived in Scotland we used to visit the fish ladder at Pitlochry in the vain hope of seeing a salmon or two head upriver. We never managed that and the fish counter installed there didn't record very high numbers. Here, the fish were a bit like cars on the M25 motorway. Sadly many never quite make it as this poor image shows:

This picture of the river running past our camping pitch also shows you how close the train track is:

and how long the freight trains are. We said "the train track" but this was one of two - the other ran on the other side of the site so we were a train sandwich. Not too noisy in the night though as here they didn't seem to need to blow the mournful horns that often - fewer wildlife on the tracks perhaps? We became very used to them very quickly.

We returned to Ashcroft for the crew to have her locks tidied up (hardly an issue for the less than hirsute captain of course)  and then went to the Desert Hills Ranch Taco Stand for lunch. Why such a random thing?  Well, Willow's owners recommended it and they were dead right again. Quite an amazing place with more sauces and dressing and accompaniments then we'd ever seen before on offer.

It is a bit of a local institution it seems and justifiably so:

Here is a small part of the "extras" help yourself area:

After suitably filling tacos / burritos we wandered out to the truck then realised they had ice cream. Had to be done so we headed back and ordered one that sounded interesting. Only as the guy was serving it did we realise that it was this alarming colour:

It tasted fine but probably had more E numbers in it than the average tube of blue Smarties. We didn't feel too "high" that evening though and we rounded off our time in Juniper beach beautifully, joining our most hospitable neighbours and the gorgeous puppy Willow for a farewell dram sitting around their outdoor fire. All in all not too shabby a time.

Lake Louise & Blanket Creek

After the "metropolis" of Banff, we headed to another pretty well known settlement, Lake Louise. On the way we stopped off several times to admire / gawp at views like this:

and this:

The camping site at Lake Louise was carefully noted as for "hard sided units only". Roughly translates as bear proof. There was an area for tents / soft sided that was surrounded by an electric fence. Mmmm.

Yet another peaceful location with well separated pitches. We were getting so used to the quality of the locations and the relative isolation they offered too. After setting up the trailer, we headed into the small town for a look see and some fuel for the truck. Although fuel prices were higher than in the Calgary area, they were still rather lower than in the UK. Rather is an understatement of course.

The best coffee shop in town was tiny and  disappointing, Carrot cake slices pre cut and wrapped in cling film, served just like that and you had to ask for a fork to eat it with. OK coffee, but no more than OK. Service was probably the least engaged we experienced in Canada. Clearly they didn't have to try hard with plenty of tourists around:

Disappointing but the local liquor store made up for it by stocking some nice wine that we needed to take back to accompany dinner al fresco.

We'd seen many CanaDream and Cruise Canada rental motorhomes (RVs) on our travels. Just how strange some of the rental folks were really struck us in Lake Louise. A rental RV arrived as we were going to bed, it was pitch dark outside. They "set-up" and then left before we got up in the morning. It seemed to be typical behaviour too. Kind of  an "I've only got a week and need to see everything in that time" approach. Not quite our idea of enjoying the beautiful country. There again, we were so fortunate to be borrowing, not renting our accommodation and transport.

For our full day there, we walked into town and visited the museum where we came face to face with a bear. One that had been stuffed but still looked impressive:

with quite a history too. Sorry for the poor quality of the image but the story of this "homing bear" is well worth reading:

The campsite continued the bear theme. Everywhere we stayed had reminders that no food or food preparation articles like BBQs, cooking tongs,  plates etc should be left outside so as to avoid attracting bears. Lake Louise camping had this reminder:

and underneath was a timely reminder of the strength of a bear and how sharp their claws are::

We decided that it was probably best not to mess with them and carried the bear spray around just in case, whilst walking along the river that borders the camping area:

Dinner was once more on the monster BBQ:

and no, we didn't eat it all between us. We didn't share it with any wildlife either - the Airstream has a nice big fridge that looked after the uneaten cooked food for us. The setting was perfect:

Dinner and wine too. 

We were thinking that we were in the very nicest trailer in the park after a walk around when this happened. A monster Airstream arrived (way longer than the biggest available in Europe) and set up shop. We espied that huge awning and were looking forward to see how the owners deployed it and fitted the struts in place. No amusement at all ensued - it was an all electric affair: 

Quite a piece of kit.

Our plan was to head to Blanket Creek the next day,  which was quite a long drive compared to some of our other trips - around 260 Km. We asked Google maps how long that would take and were a bit horrified to see that they said over 8.5 hours as Highway #1 was closed. 

Er? Luckily, it wasn't, there were roadworks and SALT (single alternate lane traffic) but it was far from shut. A bit bumpy and muddy but not shut. So, we managed the drive in way less time but were sad when after we'd backed the trailer into our spot, it started raining. Actually it started just as we were preparing to back in. The crew was outside directing operations and so she was very focussed on getting us into position nice and quickly. We were NOT used to rain at all as you can see from the earlier pictures. The rain was a pity as we didn't explore the area very much thanks to the downpour. It was a beautiful secluded spot too. Another time....

Banff

After a night in "proper" isolation, we had booked a couple of nights in a campsite near Banff. The town was one of those "had to go and see" places and Martin and Inge had told us that the Whyte museum of the Rockies was a must see. There was an exhibition of First Nations art that was highly recommended.

So, we travelled happily down the highway to the Tunnel Mountain trailer court, enjoying views like this on the way:

with the odd bit of glacier and lake to admire as well:

Yes, it was pretty awe-inspiring really, luckily the road was pretty empty as you can see so the whole trip was very relaxed:

We checked in to the trailer court - a way bigger place than we'd seen before but still very private / secluded pitches with plenty of trees to screen you from other visitors. This was a "full service" spot, electrical hook up, mains water and waste disposal so we took advantage of all three. Mid-afternoon, we drove into town and found a parking spot near the train station - despite all the warnings of how few spots there are and how many visitors, it was fine. The usual thing of people not being prepared to walk any distance into town happens there too. 

True to form our first stop was for coffee and cake. We'd read about the Wild Flour bakery (see Weblink ) and tried hard to find it but Mr Google maps combined with the GPS on our phone got very confused. Luckily a local man helped although he said that he would not go there as the drip coffee in the supermarket at the end of the street was way cheaper. With our minds in flat white mode we ignored his advice but followed his pointed finger to the bakery. We were very glad that we did - another excellent carrot cake moment followed. 

As you can see, the town is pretty touristy:

and we wandered around spotting the locals (way fewer than tourists) and generally soaking up the atmosphere. As our native coffee guide had explained to us earlier, Banff seems pretty recession proof - Rockies visitors in the summer, ski folks in the winter.  The place certainly was busy enough for the "end of the tourist season" lull before the ski mob arrive. Would not want to be there in high summer. Our timing was good. There were still plenty of suicidal visitors who wanted to walk under the (rather large) wheels of the truck and cyclists who wanted to die as well. Driving through the town was not relaxing.

Back at the camp we had some chores to do:

The Airstream awning helped make a great washing line as you can see. We were careful not to put much weight on it though despite the rather rugged aluminium supports. #notourvanandverynew was at the front of our minds all the time! The Airstream made us instantly popular with other Airstream owners who came to chat. We always 'fessed up that we were not the owners, just rather fortunate folks who had borrowed it from some amazingly trusting (misguided?) people. Despite that, the other owners were still chatty and prepared to share their experiences. It felt a lot like the Nordhavn community in a way.

After a fortifying BBQ dinner we retired fairly early to be woken up by some interesting animal noises - Elk wandering around the campsite at night. Less scary than bears of course.

Our plan for the following day was to visit the museum that had been highly recommended. We are so glad that we did. Have a look at their website - Weblink.  There was an exhibition called "The ancestors are talking" of paintings by "The indigenous Seven" - a group of 7 first nation artists. You have to look at this Instagram link for a flavour of the artwork. Some of the styles like this from Norval Morriseau needed some explanation for our philistine brains:

but we were lucky enough to get an almost personal tour of the artwork by one of the staff, which really brought it to life. We learned a little about the history of the individual artists and were so impressed. Sadly the exhibition is now over so no point in you rushing to the museum. We also learned a lot about the history of the Rockies and how they were developed by the arrival of the railway. All in all, a great day. So good that we had to retire to the bakery once more for sustenance before a last wander around town:

and a chance to admire the surroundings on our way back to Tunnel Mountain and the waiting Airstream:

Such a different day to one spent in the middle of nowhere at Silverhorn Creek, but still massively enjoyable. The mix of scenery / wildlife / get away from it all / town / history / culture was working so wonderfully well.

Silverhorn Creek - Rockies time

After the ice-cream overload of Dinosaur Park, we planned to head west, towards Vancouver Island our final destination. We had a plan for later nights but the first one was very "open". Being a bit adverse to the concept of first come first served on some of the (pretty busy) campsites run by the Park Authorities, we made a decision to simply retrace our steps. We arranged a spot back at the Bow Riversedge campsite so that we could raid the supermarkets there before we headed into the National Park proper where provisions and fuel are less widely available. So, we overnighted there, once again amazed at how empty the National Highway no 1 was. We raided the Canadian supermarkets (sorry Walmart),topped up with good price fuel ($1.34 Canadian per litre, around the same price in dollars as pounds in the UK. At the time of our visit a Dollar was worth around 55p so you can work out how much cheaper!) We enjoyed a peaceful night there before venturing into the National Park proper.

You can get the idea of how the topography changes on the trip from this satellite image of our route from Cochrane to Silverhorn Creek:

Yes, as we drove west so it got more and more spectacular. This view from the truck kind of hinted at what was to come:

and as we got closer so it became more and more tempting:

We stopped at the National Park entrance kiosks to buy our park passes, and the crew had great delight in telling the lady that we needed "one adult and one senior" pass. The captain managed the humiliation happily though as his pass was way cheaper. Then he remembered that we have a joint bank account. Must be an age thing. Stopping off on the roadside for a break and to make tea, this kind of view was pretty typical:

and as you can see, the weather was kind and the little rest areas were hardly full (until the truck and Airstream arrived of course):

Note that there were still no nasty dents in the Airstream (on both sides actually, just don't want to bore you with too many "Silver bullet" pictures)

We made it to Silverhorn Creek campsite in perfect time and had a nice quiet spot to settle into. A late lunch involved digging out the Wurlitzer organ like gas BBQ and carefully cremating some meat, veg and corn cobs:

That was the standard method of cooking every day and very good indeed. Each campsite had an outdoor dining table ready for use too. Perfect.

Some folks were enjoying the great outdoors, but not in the same level of style or comfort that the Airstream offered us:

Watching the owners hitch that to an antique rusty truck and strap stuff to the roof the next morning was interesting. Looking at their attire, we kept our distance as we feared that the odours would have been quite pungent,

The view from our dining table was not too shabby really:

and we decided that we rather liked the Rockies and exploring by Airstream. Even better there was no mobile phone reception there so it was a most peaceful stay.