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We were asked to be ready to board our buses by 7:30am and simply leave our luggage in our rooms for later pickup by the staff who will transport them to our next hotel in Jasper. Everyone was on time and they checked to see if we were all accounted for on our bus. With 8 buses picking up people at multiple hotels, it is a fairly complex logistic issue. As we approached the rail yard where the train was parked they even juggled the order of the  buses to make sure they were in proper order to drop their passengers close to their assigned train coach. We were aboard and in our seats by 8:05.  It is supposed to be 94 degrees here in Kamloops today so it is good we are heading to the higher elevation of Jasper (3380 ft). Because we are climbing in elevation we were told yesterday that we would have 3 engines (two pulling, one as backup) on our train today. Once we were boarded today, Tyler said they had changed their mind and there would be the same two engines we had yesterday. Since each engine sports 3500 hp it was felt we would not have a problem. Since we had backed into the train siding last night it was simple joining the main line at 8:16 AM as our journey continued.

Today our group will be first for both breakfast and lunch and we were quickly called to go to the dining room as soon as the train entered the main line. The menu is the same as yesterday so we were able to select the entree we missed yesterday! By 9:20 we were already back in our seats watching the world go by. We did get to see a deer swimming across the North Thompson River which we are following today as well as a fox with two babies walking across a farm field. Unfortunately, the train was moving too fast and my camera was moving too slow to record the events to share with you.

By 10 AM Yvonne was peacefully napping and I was watching the world go by. The scenery has changed once again ; we are back in heavily forested hillsides with occasional farm fields in the adjoining valley. Snacks and drinks were offered as we progressed northward. Yvonne commented that this is how she enjoys “hiking” through the forest!

I have noticed how quiet and smooth  the train ride was; there was no clickty-clack as the train moved along the tracks. I assume this is because  we are on seamless track.

At 11:45 we pulled off to a siding and came to a complete stop  to allow a freight train to pass by. The trains here seem to be very long; I counted 160 cars on the one that passed us by.

History lesson of the day. Canada was known for its beaver population and beaver garments and hats became very fashionable in the 17th century in Europe. This fad prompted the start of the Hudson’s Bay Company that began in 1670. During that time frame over 100,000 beaver pelts were shipped from Canada to Europe each year. It eventually almost destroyed the beaver population in Canada. Another sad piece of information related to beavers is that the processing of the pelts for hats was done using a mercury based compounded and workers usually ended up with mercury poisoning and madness, giving rise to the term: “mad as a hatter”. End of lesson.

Lunch was served promptly at noon; same menu but a different shared appetizer plate today. We each tried a new entree today. Then it was back to watching the world go by, another nap and hearing occasional new dialogues from the crew about what we were seeing outside the marvelous (and clean) windows.

The afternoon was spent simply watching the world go by. The scenery changed as we continued our journey north and hills, then mountains appeared on the horizon.

There was a time zone change (one hour ahead) as we neared Jasper (we had left British Columbia and were now in Alberta) and because we had to stop several more times to allow freight trains to pass by we did not arrive in Jasper until about 7 PM local time. We were guided to one of 8 buses which then took us to our respective hotels, in our case the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, located a few miles outside of Jasper in a lovely “park like” setting on the lake with marvelous blue-colored water.  I was surprised to see that it was not a normal high rise hotel; it was a series of cabins located on the expansive, well manicured landscape. The temperature was surprisingly warm- low 80s when we arrived. We were told that some of the cabins, because of age, would not be air conditioned, but leaving windows open during the cool nights (we are at 3,800 feet elevation) would be sufficient. Luckily as we walked to our waterfront cabin we found that our cabin had air conditioning which was on. And in our room was a lovely welcome gift of goodies, including a baguette, fruit, cheeses, crackers, and candy (thank you, travel agent, Patricia) which ended up serving as our dinner as we were still full from the food we consumed on the train. We were happy campers!

 

Sunset comes very late here so we ended up having a cocktail at the main lodge while seating out on the veranda overlooking the placid lake before us. It was still very light at 10PM and I had hoped to use the isolated location to see the night time stars but found it was still fairly light even after 11PM so I gave up and we went to bed.

Our train ride is over. Tomorrow we have a free day to explore the Jasper area on our own. Then we will be bused the rest of the trip as we work our way to our final destination, Calgary, Alberta.