Going on a LONG trail ride!!!

 We started the day early, because we were being picked up at 7am for our 2 days train journey back to Vancouver on the Rocky Mountaineer.  The train is exclusively a sightseeing train - it really does not serve as a passager train to go from point A to point B, as it is very slow on purpose.   What it provides is a luxurious and relaxed way to see a lot of great scenery and possibly wild life, while drinking fancy cocktails and eating gourmet meals.  I have put a lot of scenery pictures at the end of the blog, because of course there are a million of them, but this is just a taste.

We did see quite a few black bears along the rails, but it’s hard to take pictures from a moving train.  Here are the two best ones I manage to take.  

We went (again) from Banff to Lake Louise, and then continued West toward Kamloop, where we will spend the night.  

One fascinating feature of the rail just west of Lake Louise is the spiral tunnel.  When the railway was first developed in the late 1800’s, one major problem was the 4.5% slope between Lake Louise and the small town of Fields.  Train kept derailing, and since they were such an important part of the West development, a solution had to be found.  For a while, they would just unload passagers in lake Louise, put them on horse drawn carriages to field, while the train would barrel downhill and take its chances….  After several death and major equipment destruction, it was decided that the spiral tunnel would be built:  these already existed in Switzerland, and engineers were brought from there.  As the name indicates, the spiral tunnels literally make spirals down the mountain, the first one turning 290 degrees while dropping 50 feet, the second one turning 230 degrees and dropping 56 feet.  Here is a freight train (see from above where we are coming from) both entering and exiting the tunnels - the freight trains are very long, so you can see both ends at the same time).  These were built in 1907, starting at both ends at the same time, meeting in the middle - they came within 2 inches of each other, which, given the technology of the time is a remarkable achievements.  Anyway- this made it possible to drop the grade to 2% and at last made passager train safe.

This is a picture of cathedral mountain, which is one of the mountain the tunnels go through.  We had to wait a bit at the entrance of the tunnel because of the freight train are very (there is only one track through).

We passed the little town of Fields - where we had our very late lunch yesterday, and waved at them fondly.  

We continued on along the Kicking Horse gorge- the river was kicking today!, weaving in an out of tunnels through the mountain.  

A lot of the tracks, and of Route 1, which parallel each other, are in dangerous avalanche areas.  So there are several places that are covered, both to avoid the known avalanche tracks, and to provide shelter in case there is one, and the train or cars need to wait for a long time.  

We then started following the Columbia river, one of the most important river in North America:  It has multiple dams that are capable of providing 1/3 of the electricity in the US.  It starts here in the Rockies and ends in Oregon.  

We went through a brief storm, and then the sun came back, just in time for our ride along the very large lake Shuswap - it has little communities and summer cottages all along it, and it is the tradition for everyone to stop when the train passes by and wave - and I mean everyone!  We did not see a single person who was not waving.  It was lovely!

We passed the historically important site of Craigchaile (sp?), where the last tie of the railroad was set, finishing the full crossing of Canadian railway.   It always finally united all of Canada, as British Columbia put having the end to end railroad as a condition to formally join Canada.  

As we continued toward Kamploops, the mountains were replaced by dried hills (Kapmloops is in the only desert if region of canada), and the plains become agricultural, with corn fields and cattle.  Kamploops, which we saw on the way in, is still ugly, but interesting.  But I’ll talk about that tomorrow, because now I’m tired…..

We are doomed to not fully enjoy the Banff area….

    

 The day started well:  bright and crisp, sunshine, and plans to see as much of the Banff and Yoho national parks as possible in one day. We had booked a tour because several areas are closed to cars and on we went.  We retraced our trip back to Lake Louise, which was fine because you see other features and with the tour, they point interesting things to you. For instance, this well named Castle Mount (which to me looks strickingly like Edinburg Castle). 

  We had a quick stop at lake Louise, which made me feel good about staying at the Fairmont yesterday, because it’s a much nicer experience- also the reflection were better yesterday (this is a collage of both - yesterday is on top)

 

After that, we went to Moraine lake, which is one of the areas that is closed to private cars.  It is still really busy…. Moraine lake is a misnomer:  It was first thought to have been formed by the terminal moraine of a glacier.  But Moraine have very small, gravel-like rocks.  So now it is thought that this rock pile was formed by an avalanche that blocked the channel, forming the lake. 

 

It is even prettier than lake Louise in my opinion. And you can climb to the top of the rock pile for a nice view.  It is a busy climb however….(once you get to the top there are enough viewing areas that it’s not too crowded). 

This is a panoramic view of the lake, showing the 10 peaks of the “10 peaks valley”.

 As we went on, the driver pointed out several areas where there were recent big avalantes, and although the snow is gone, the damage is not!

 So far, so good.  But then, route 1 was completely stopped because of a big accident. We were on the scene literally a couple of minutes after it happened, so foolishly though it would not be too long.  It was 4hours!!!!!!!! 

People got how of their cars, walked up and down the highway, set up picnic tables…..  I have to say people stayed remarkably calm….  Toward the end, I saw one guy yelling at a ranger…..  but that’s about it…..

 The first 1 1/2 hour was spent waiting for a helicopter (I guess the person who was evacuated had it worse than us….) and then 2 1/2 hours figuring out how to move the traffic while doing the accident investigation - eventually, people behind us were turned around, they made highway 1 a 2 way highway on one side and we were able to move forward. 

 But that time, it was 3:40pm and we were hungry enough to eat each other….  But obviously, our planned lunch at Emerald lake had long passed (so was the visit to the lake).  We skipped the stop at the Spiral Tunnels- a marvel of engineering to make trains go through the mountain- but we will go through it on the train tomorrow.  We skipped a couple more stops but did manage to grab a late lunch- which was either very good wraps or we were so hungry that anything would have been good.  Also, it was almost 5:00pm by then, so we had some rosé…

   I’m really glad that we made our last scheduled stop, at Takakkaw falls, because they are truly spectacular!  1300 feet high, and roaring down a beautiful valley. 

 The drive out to the falls was quite the adventure by itself, particularly in a bus:  The driver had to back out of some of the hair pins, both on the way up and down - the woman in front of me could not even watch and buried her head in her hands……

Having had such a late lunch, we did not bother with diner, and will go to bed early, because tomorrow, we have to be up early to get on the train not Vancouver!

Here is a pretty magpie, because there are many of them around …..