Week 13: Cold Comfort

Week 13, July 28-Aug 2

Cold Comfort

I spent the last week at a music festival, and on the final day picked up a nasty head cold! Now I head up to Alberta to meet my good friend Erin in a few days.

She's joining me on visit to Banff, Jasper, and Yoho national parks in the great white north.

Monday, July 28. Day 85

That’s just regular bacon

Salmo, BC, Canada

Final day in Salmo, BC. Leaving the music festival and heading to Banff National Park.

I now know that with only solar charging and normal use that my van’s power can last about 6 days. 

Woke up this morning and the power was dead. But with a little sunlight it has limped back to life. Kinda like me this morning. 

Opted to treat myself to a breakfast sandwich at one of the festival food vendors; a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. But even though I’m in Canada, it was just regular bacon. 

Trying to leave the festival was just as frustrating as trying to enter a week ago. Maybe more so because I have no idea what’s happening or how long it will take. 

It ended up taking several hours, most of which I spent sitting in the van watching 'Andor' on my iPhone.

When I did finally get out, it was a relatively short drive to where I was stopping for the night. 

I’d picked a random town that was roughly halfway to Banff, one that had a pharmacy, laundry, library, and movie theater. 

I have big plans for tomorrow! 

Daily listen: “80’s rock essentials” playlist on apple music. 

Good: While waiting to leave I caught up on journaling and watched some streaming shows on my phone.  

Bad: The road on the way out was so bumpy that a cabinet shook open and a mason jar fell out and shattered. 

Unexpected: I came down with a cold last night, very suddenly and severely. Today I think I have a fever. I’d like to get to a pharmacy for some meds.

Tuesday, July 29. Day 86

One Mocha, boring style

Cranbrook, BC. Canada

Today was supposed to be a ‘get shit done’ kinda day. Parked overnight at a grocery store that was conveniently near a coffee shop and the town library. 

Got a blueberry muffin and a mocha.

“Do you want whipped cream on that mocha?” “No thank you.” With a smirk she calls over to the other barista; “One mocha, boring style!”

Afterwards I went to the library for their internet, to finally post my blog from 3 weeks ago! But the library internet was slow and kept dropping. I took some time to process my bear photos. A woman nearby saw the photos over my shoulder and commented on them; “I'm sorry to eavesdrop, but I can’t help but notice those photos, did you take them? They’re amazing!”

Always a sucker for a compliment, I flipped through them to show her a few. 

As far as being productive, the day was a bust. With bad wifi and not able to do laundry, the only thing left on my to-do list was go to the movies. 

Daily Listen Watch: Superman

I liked it, very comic-booky, lots of fun. Kind of exactly what I wanted out of the movie, and what I wanted for a little escape today.

After the movie I went out to photograph the sunset on the mountains.

Good: The barista’s smile this morning. 

Bad: It’s a great night for astrophotography, and I’m in a perfect dark sky place for it, plus there are two meteor showers converging! But around sunset my fever roared back and I felt deathly ill. It took every ounce of energy I had just to drive back to the grocery store to park. Staying up taking photos was out of the question.

Unexpected: Went to the laundromat only to realize I don’t have any Canadian money! I should have expected that, but didn’t think it through. 

Wednesday, July 30. Day 87

Driving me crazy

Cranbrook, BC -> Calgary -> Golden, BC 

My fever broke overnight and I woke up feeling better, though still congested. I’ve also reached that point of a cold where my ribs hurt from coughing and my nose is sore.

The plan today was to drive to Banff and pick up my friend Erin. But I woke up to voicemails and texts saying her flight was delayed and she will miss the shuttle from Calgary to Banff. I drove to Calgary to pick her up. 

The drive to Calgary was one of the most beautiful drives of the trip so far - and that’s saying a lot. That helped lessen the sting of the extra long drive.

Along the way I googled for RV Parks on my route, and popped into one that wasn’t too far out of the way. The van’s wastewater tanks are full after a week at the festival, and I’d prefer to dump sooner than later. Some RV Parks will charge a nominal fee to dump, others look at me like I asked to sacrifice their dog. This was the former, a cheap $10 fee (Canadian!) and the place was pretty nice, too.

Randomly, it was also a launch site for parasailing and hang-gliding! 

…next time. 

Daily listen: having spent almost 10 hours driving today I listened to quite a bit! Some notables are:

Rival Consoles, “In reverse”

Portishead, “Dummy”

Against All Logic “2012–2017”

On the way back from Calgary Erin played a few things. 

Miles Davis, “Kinda Blue”

Lucius, “Borderline”

Tunde Adebimpe, “Thee Black Boltz”

Discovered that some of my music is not available because I’m in Canada and international music rights.

That is the issue with renting your music library. I discovered this in the extreme when I visited Nepal last year. I downloaded a ton of music to listen to while trekking, but 75% of what I downloaded was “not available in this region”

I was also excited to use the Wi-Fi to download some shows to HBO Max, but that's also not available in Canada.  

Good: Picked up my friend Erin at the Calgary airport. We are going to explore Banff together this week! 

Bad: Have you ever had those moments where traffic is completely conspiring against you? The GPS navigating me out of town in the morning; First it tells me to turn the wrong way up a one-way. Then wants me to go straight, but the street is closed for construction. Then it wants me to do a U-turn, but at that point construction has closed the road entirely. When I finally circle back around, I’m further back than where I started. This whole comedy of errors only took 20 minutes, but it was a very frustrating 20 minutes. In my head I’m yelling “just let me out of this town!” 

Unexpected: Parked overnight at a Safeway grocery store, I had a weird dream that I was still at the music festival. Then I woke up and the music from my dream is still going! And I’m really confused. After a moment I look out the window and see a lone person about 100 feet away with a giant speaker playing dance music loudly! It’s 3am. I put in earplugs that are still conveniently nearby and went back to sleep.

Thursday, July 31. Day 88

Winging it doesn’t always work

Golden, British Columbia / Banff NP

Slept in a little, took our time with coffee and breakfast. Then headed to Banff for an easy hike. 

Getting to Lake Louise parking lot we were turned away and practically laughed at for thinking we’d just drive up and park! 

Instead we wandered the Lake Louise Village tourist center for a bit and then wearily headed back to the airbnb.

On the way back we stopped at a “Point of Interest” called The Spiral Tunnels. It was a very intriguing name, so we wanted to check it out!

Turns out it’s a series of railroad tunnels in the mountain, with two spiral turns inside the rock. It’s an engineering feat, to be sure, but not a whole lot to look at! For the rest of the trip we drove by it every time on the way out and back, and we’d joke “hey, ‘Spiral Tunnels’ sounds cool, want to go see what that is?”

Back where we’re staying, we had dinner in Golden and then crashed as soon as we got to the house. 

Good: We were heading back up part of the magnificent drive I did to Calgary last night and I was excited to show that to Erin.

Bad: Going to bed at 3am last night

Unexpected: Denied! We wanted to hike at Lake Louise but there’s practically no parking, and you have to reserve a spot on the shuttle far in advance. Neither of us did any planning for this trip and this is what we get!

 * We ended doing the intended hike on Saturday, and it’s just as well we didn’t do it today. We were both exhausted and the hike was more challenging than expected. 

Friday, August 1. Day 89

My ‘Magnificent Meter’ has been pinned at ’10’ all day

The Icefields Parkway (Highway 93 from Banff to Jasper)

Since yesterday was a bit of a bust, today we went all out.

The plan was to drive the Icefields Parkway, which is described as one of the most beautiful drives in the world! They're not wrong.

As we were getting ready to leave the neighbor came over to chat with us. He asked about my van, chatted with Erin about the best spots for mountain biking, then offered us a bowl of fresh raspberries he just picked from his yard! We snacked on them all day and they were delicious.

We finally got rolling, starting with another beautiful drive through Yoho National Park up to Lake Louise, then north up the Icefields Parkway.

The parkway reminded me of Going-To-The-Sun Road in Glacier. But 10x longer and less treacherous.

I don’t think my brain can quite process just how magnificently beautiful this area is.

Erin said something similar, about how her ability to absorb all of it was maxed out, I asked if her Magnificent Meter is pinned at ’10’, which she of course replied “It goes to 11!” 

The plan had been to go all the way to the town of Jasper. Having gotten a late start I was skeptical. Figuring we’d see how far we got before having to turn around.

Along the way we stopped at a few places to take pictures and gawk at the majesty of it all.

Pieces of the earth’s crust jut up into the sky. You can see the striations in the rock curve upward where the tectonic forces pushed millions of tons of rock thousands of feet high. At the top are the remains of ancient glaciers that carved out the valley over eons. Every bend in the road brings new breathtaking vistas. You expect at some point you’ll become at least a little numb to it, but it never happens. “Oooh!”s and “aahhhh!”s sneak out uncontrollably. As we go around a bend or over a hill I point out amazing new things to Erin, who seems caught up in her own reverie. Her brain overclocked and unable to process anything more.

She mentions how this must be ‘common’ to me by now, but it’s all new to her.

Doesn’t matter, I say, it’s never anything other than magnificent.

A few hours into the drive, after several stops and a couple of short hikes, we get to the Crosspoint Village. I’m ready to turn around, but Erin wants to press on. Someone at the restaurant tells me it’s “50 minutes or an hour to Jasper” (the end of the Parkway). I agree to continue for another hour.

45 minutes further, fatigue is starting to catch up with me, and I'm worried there’s still a very long drive back. Erin asks to go just a little bit farther. We do.

And we come upon the Columbia Ice Field and the Athabasca Glacier. It was a good thing we pressed onward!

We attempted to hike down to the base of the glacier, but ended up at the glacier lake instead and couldn’t go any further. For a fee you can take a bus tour from Jasper to way up near the top of the glacier and walk around.

I was really happy we made it there, and Erin was thrilled. 

On the way back we stopped for dinner at Crosspoint and the timing was great, we sat through most of a heavy downpour. Taking our time driving back (but not stopping for pictures) we managed to get back to the house a little after sunset (which is still pretty late, 9:30 way up here in Canada!) Also, word to the wise, driving directly into the setting sun for an hour is not recommended. 

Daily Listen: 

My curated Covers playlist

“Orbus Terrarum” by The Orb 

Sylvan Esso hits (Erin)

Good: Getting to the Athabasca Glacier, hiking down and being able to see it pretty close up.

Bad: An 11 hour day, much of it driving. Magnificent, but exhausting.

Unexpected: A big bowl of delicious raspberries from the neighbor of our airbnb!

Saturday, August 2. Day 90

It really is that color

Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

Having learned about the Lake Louise Shuttle, we booked a ride with one of the third-party services. A few bucks more, but not overly so. Plus we’re still enjoying the 30% “discount” thanks to the exchange rate. I’m really going to miss that when I get back to the States!

The drive to Lake Louise continues to astound. Every day it’s different; the light, the cloud cover, the time of day.  

Arriving at the lake, we took a bunch of requisite Lake Louise photos, among thousands of other tourists all tripping over each other to get their pictures.

We headed up the trail to the Lake Agnes Tea House. The hike was nice, though it was more difficult than it should have been. Even accounting for being steep and at elevation, I struggled. Pretty sure it’s this chest cold I’m still working through. 

At the tea house we sat down and had lunch. It was a lovely space and the food was great! We had been worrying because the internet told us they only took cash, but neither of us managed to get any Canadian currency. Turns out they did take credit card and our worries were for naught. Damn you internet, giving me incorrect information!! I trusted you! 

After the hike we sat along the Lake Louise shore and soaked our tired feet in the water. Since the lake is fed by glacier melt, the water is literally ice cold! It felt wonderful.

Good: Lunch at the tea house was delicious. They bake their bread fresh every day and it shows. I also got tea biscuits and jam that was equally delicious.

Bad: Throngs of oblivious tourists.

Unexpected: I’m still sick, a week after suddenly coming down with this cold. It’s moved to my chest and I’m coughing all day. The hike is not much different than what I’ve been doing for months and should be acclimated, but I was struggling the whole way. I hope this cough resolves soon.

Science!

Yes, the water really is that brilliant shade of teal-blue!

The color comes from minerals in the glacier. As the ice scrapes its way down the mountain over millennia, it grinds up the rock underneath until it becomes a mineral powder. That powder is so fine that it suspends in the water, not settling to the bottom. The powder reflects that color of teal-blue. The brighter the day and the more overhead the sunlight, the more blue the water looks. That's also why the water can appear different colors in different photos.